NGDOs as a moment in history: Beyond aid to social entrepreneurship or civic innovation?

Abstract

NGDOs are the product of an era that is rapidly passing. Yet the common goals they strive towards remain relevant and are far from being realised. Poverty, inequity, insecurity and injustice were stubborn features of the old world order and are abiding features of the new. A brief history of NGDOs and of the radical shifts in the context where international development takes place shows that the goals NGDOs typically aspire to cannot be reached by simply relying on the framework employed by the official aid system. One important reason is that a growing reliance on tax-based funding is shifting NGDO morality, legitimacy and function from the civic to the public domain. Consequently, a new paradigm is required not just for NGDO development practice, but for the very nature of NGDOs themselves. This paper explores the extent to which social entrepreneurship and civic innovation could provide a new framework for NGDOs and development beyond aid. While both merit further attention, civic innovation is shown the better to fulfil the twin requirements of civic financial embedding allied to principles of co-operation and non-exploitation.