RINGO Book: The INGO Problem: Power, Privilege and Renewal

“This book is a time­ly reminder that we have wait­ed long enough for the trans­for­ma­tive changes we need in how inter­na­tion­al aid and devel­op­ment are designed and coor­di­nat­ed.” Lysa John, Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of CIVICUS

RINGO’s co-con­venor and chief trou­ble­mak­er Deb­o­rah Doane’s book The INGO Prob­lem: Pow­er, Priv­i­lege and Renew­al draws on key learn­ings from the RINGO process, and pro­vides valu­able insights from her per­son­al expe­ri­ence of work­ing in civ­il soci­ety for over 30 years. With a fore­word from Nana Afadz­inu (WACSI), the book is rich with sto­ries from lead­ers across all sec­tors of the ecosys­tem.

Inter­na­tion­al non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions (INGOs) have emerged over the past few decades as the dom­i­nant insti­tu­tion in the civ­il soci­ety ecosys­tem, gar­ner­ing a dis­pro­por­tion­ate amount of both resources and pow­er in the inter­na­tion­al are­na. Local actors con­tin­ue to be mar­gin­alised and large­ly exclud­ed from deci­sion-mak­ing. Many often act as lit­tle more than sub-con­trac­tors to the INGO sec­tor or face direct com­pe­ti­tion as INGOs have sought to set up their own ‘local’ organ­i­sa­tions.

But this dom­i­nant posi­tion is under threat. INGOs are now on the precipice of decline, hav­ing to face up to a series of chal­lenges in recent years: from sex­u­al exploita­tion scan­dals, to accu­sa­tions of white-sav­iourism, result­ing in ever-loud­er demands to ‘decol­o­nize’ and shift pow­er and resources more direct­ly to local actors. In some cas­es, fun­ders are now heed­ing these demands, turn­ing away from INGOs alto­geth­er.

“If INGOs want to trav­el the path of rad­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion for reimag­in­ing their future, they would need to earnest­ly engage with the tough con­ver­sa­tions raised in this book.” Amitabh Behar, ED of Oxfam Inter­na­tion­al

The INGO Prob­lem explores dif­fi­cult issues around race and pow­er, and pos­es ideas for new sys­tems of account­abil­i­ty, risk, fund­ing, gov­er­nance and more. A must-read for any­one inter­est­ed in how we can gen­uine­ly shift pow­er.

“Deb­o­rah draws upon her decades of expe­ri­ence to share a crit­i­cal look at the glob­al INGO land­scape and offers an ambi­tious vision to over­come many of the struc­tur­al inequities hard­wired into the sys­tem.” Dar­ren Walk­er, OBE, Pres­i­dent of the Ford Foun­da­tion

Click here to buy the book online.

The INGO Prob­lem: Pow­er, Priv­i­lege and Renew­al is stim­u­lat­ing con­ver­sa­tions across civ­il soci­ety. If you would like to run an event to explore the issues raised, please get in touch: ringo@rightscolab.org