Aid Programmes

The author had an experience in a market in Islamabad where he saw a shopkeepers' association electing its leadership. This event made him think about the gap between what donors fund and what actually exists in civil society. The author has 25 years of experience working in the development sector.

Civil Society

Civil society fills the vacuum between the state and the market. It is where people with shared interests organise to do what neither government nor commerce will do. The shopkeepers' association the author witnessed was an example of this, with people pooling resources to elect leadership and resolve problems the government would not and the market could not.

Donor Funding

Donors created a parallel universe of professional NGOs, accountable to their donors in Washington or London, but to no one on the ground. These NGOs had more in common with contractors than with civil society. They had no deep commitment to any specific cause and were accountable not to their members but to their funders.

Accountability Gap

There is an accountability gap in the way donors scrutinise government expenditures and NGO expenditures. Donors are more lenient with NGOs, despite evidence that problems like corruption and misuse of funds exist equally in the NGO sector. This leniency is partly ideological and partly practical, as holding NGOs to the same standard would disrupt the disbursement machinery.

A Better Approach

A better approach would be for donors to invest in understanding what civil society actually exists before deciding what to fund. They should develop mechanisms to reach organisations that cannot write proposals in English but are genuinely rooted in communities. They should apply the same accountability standards to NGOs that they apply to governments.

Key points

• The author has 25 years of experience working in the development sector and managing millions of dollars in civil society funding.
• A visit to a market in Islamabad taught the author about the gap between what donors fund and what actually exists in civil society.
• Donors created a parallel universe of professional NGOs, accountable to their donors but not to their members.
• There is an accountability gap in the way donors scrutinise government expenditures and NGO expenditures.
• A better approach would be for donors to invest in understanding what civil society actually exists before deciding what to fund.
• Donors should develop mechanisms to reach organisations that cannot write proposals in English but are genuinely rooted in communities.