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Abstract
Civil society is seen increasingly as a necessary element of sustainable human development. Some Northern NGOs hope to contribute to the development of civil society by partnering with Southern NGOs. However, recent scholarship shows that such partnerships are frequently dominated by the Northern NGO, thus inhibiting the establishment of vibrant, locally owned and locally managed civil society organisations. This paper explores some of the practical reasons for this imbalance and suggests strategies for working within what Alan Fowler calls ‘authentic partnerships’. Such partnerships prevent the domination of Northern NGOs and thus help foster a climate more amenable to the growth of civil society. Suggested strategies for promoting authentic partnerships address funding, working relationships, phase-out, advocacy, and evaluation of the partnership itself. The paper draws on a case study of the partnership work of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), a North American faith-based NGO.
Roland Hoksbergen is Professor of Economics and International Development at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.
Notes
Roland Hoksbergen is Professor of Economics and International Development at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.
During 2001/02, I was privileged to do a study of CRWRC's partnerships while on sabbatical. I visited eight countries where CRWRC has been working for some 20–30 years, and conducted open-ended one-and-a-half- to two-hour interviews with over 40 CRWRC staff and 40 partner representatives. Naturally, CRWRC is not responsible for my interpretations of their work, nor is it necessarily in support of the views put forth in this paper.
This list draws on Penrose (Citation2000:243), Mancuso Brehm (Citation2001:24), and the CRWRC case study.
Gino Lofredo (Citation2000) writes a sarcastic but entirely believable article about how one road to riches in the South is to set up a false front ‘EN-GE-OH’, and then to ‘partner’ with a Northern donor to defraud it of its money.
There is no intent here to set CRWRC up as an organisation that has figured out all the practicalities of working in authentic partnership. The organisation values partnership highly and has been working at improving its partnerships work for many years, but it continues to reflect on its experiences and to learn.