Advantages and Value of Funding NGOs in the Global South

Abstract

This rapid literature review examines the advantages or added value of providing donor funding directly to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) or Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) based in the global south, rather than channelling such funding through International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs). The literature reveals that United Nations (UN) agencies and INGOs receive the bulk of donor funding and operate as intermediaries between donors and NGOs located in developing countries (Walton et al, 2016; Ali et al, 2018). Donors prefer to operate through intermediaries in order to reduce the administrative burden of managing multiple contracts and relationships, as well as to transfer the risk of managing local partners to the intermediaries (Tomlinson, 2013; Majid et al., 2018). However, case study evidence from South Sudan and Somalia indicates that direct funding to NGOs in the south is increasing (Majid et al., 2018; Ali Al, 2018). The evidence on the advantages or added value of direct funding to NGOs in the south is extremely limited (Moilwa, 2015). The literature is located mainly in policy documents on partnerships between INGOs and local NGOs in developing countries or new trends in funding for CSOs. It discusses the anticipated advantages of supporting NGOs and CSOs in the south, but offers little evidence to support these claims. In addition, the Humanitarian Policy Network produced two case studies of direct funding to NGOs in South Sudan and Somalia.