IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v112y2018icp136-149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

NGOs and international development: A review of thirty-five years of scholarship

Author

Listed:
  • Brass, Jennifer N.
  • Longhofer, Wesley
  • Robinson, Rachel S.
  • Schnable, Allison

Abstract

Since 1980, the number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries has exploded. Published research on NGOs has paralleled this growth, yet there exists scant synthesis of the literature. This article presents a synthesis, while also introducing a collaborative research platform, the NGO Knowledge Collective. We ask four questions: first, who studies NGOs, and how do they study them? Second, what issues, sectors and places are studied when NGOs are the focus? Third, what effect do NGO activities have on specific development outcomes? And fourth, what path should the NGO research agenda take? To answer these questions, we conduct a mixed-method systematic review of social science publications on NGOs, which includes computer-assisted content analysis of 3336 English-language journal articles (1980–2014), alongside a close, qualitative analysis of 300 randomly selected articles. We find, first, that interdisciplinary journals dominate NGO publishing, that research on NGOs is more qualitative than quantitative, and that practitioners publish, but Northern academics create most published knowledge. Second, we find the literature is framed around six overarching questions regarding: the nature of NGOs; their emergence and development; how they conduct their work; their impacts; how they relate to other actors; and how they contribute to the (re)production of cultural dynamics. Articles also focus disproportionately on the most populated and/or politically salient countries, and on the governance and health sectors. Third, we find that scholars generally report favorable effects of NGOs on health and governance outcomes. Fourth, we propose a research agenda calling for scholars to: address neglected sectors, geographies, and contextual conditions; increase author representativeness; improve research designs to include counterfactuals or comparison groups; and better share data and findings, including results from additional, focused NGO-related systematic reviews. Implementing this agenda will help reduce bias in decisions by donors, governments, and other development actors, which should improve development outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Brass, Jennifer N. & Longhofer, Wesley & Robinson, Rachel S. & Schnable, Allison, 2018. "NGOs and international development: A review of thirty-five years of scholarship," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 136-149.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:112:y:2018:i:c:p:136-149
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.07.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X18302456
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.07.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan Fowler, 1991. "The Role of NGOs in Changing State‐Society Relations: Perspectives from Eastern and Southern Africa," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 9(1), pages 53-84, March.
    2. Dupuy, Kendra & Ron, James & Prakash, Aseem, 2016. "Hands Off My Regime! Governments’ Restrictions on Foreign Aid to Non-Governmental Organizations in Poor and Middle-Income Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 299-311.
    3. Barnes, Nielan, 2008. "Paradoxes and asymmetries of transnational networks: A comparative case study of Mexico's community-based AIDS organizations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 933-944, February.
    4. Sigelman, Lee, 2006. "The Coevolution of American Political Science and the American Political Science Review," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 100(4), pages 463-478, November.
    5. Morfit, N. Simon, 2011. ""AIDS is Money": How Donor Preferences Reconfigure Local Realities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 64-76, January.
    6. Pfeiffer, James, 2003. "International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 725-738, February.
    7. Richard Batley & Claire Mcloughlin, 2011. "Factors Affecting State–Non‐Governmental Organisation Relations In Service Provision: Key Themes From The Literature," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 31(4), pages 240-251, October.
    8. Brass, Jennifer N., 2012. "Why Do NGOs Go Where They Go? Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 387-401.
    9. Gerard Clarke, 1998. "Non‐Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Politics in the Developing World," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 46(1), pages 36-52, March.
    10. Gauri, Varun & Galef, Julia, 2005. "NGOs in Bangladesh: Activities, resources, and governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2045-2065, December.
    11. Bratton, Michael, 1989. "The politics of government-NGO relations in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 569-587, April.
    12. Le Loup, G. & De Assis, A. & Costa-Couto, M.-H. & Thoenig, J.-C. & Fleury, S. & De Camargo Jr., K. & Larouzé, B., 2009. "A public policy approach to local models of HIV/AIDS control in Brazil," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(6), pages 1108-1115.
    13. Edwards, Michael & Hulme, David, 1996. "Too close for comfort? the impact of official aid on nongovernmental organizations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 961-973, June.
    14. repec:dau:papers:123456789/289 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Banks, Nicola & Hulme, David & Edwards, Michael, 2015. "NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 707-718.
    16. Syed Khurram Azmat & Babar Tasneem Shaikh & Waqas Hameed & Ghulam Mustafa & Wajahat Hussain & Jamshaid Asghar & Muhammad Ishaque & Aftab Ahmed & Mohsina Bilgrami, 2013. "Impact of Social Franchising on Contraceptive Use When Complemented by Vouchers: A Quasi-Experimental Study in Rural Pakistan," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-1, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rachel S. Robinson & Jennifer N. Brass & Andrew Shermeyer & Nichole Grossman, 2024. "Reported effects of non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in health and education service provision: The role of NGO –government relations and other factors," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(1), January.
    2. Camille Boudot‐Reddy & Anita Mukherjee, 2021. "Improving the adoption of household health products: A sales experiment with chlorine tablets," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 623-641, March.
    3. Calvo, Thomas & Razafindrakoto, Mireille & Roubaud, François, 2019. "Fear of the state in governance surveys? Empirical evidence from African countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Geoffrey M. Kistruck & Patrick Shulist, 2021. "Linking Management Theory with Poverty Alleviation Efforts Through Market Orchestration," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 423-446, October.
    5. Fałkowski, Jan & Kurek, Przemysław J., 2024. "Religious symbols in the public sphere and development of the third sector: Some evidence from rural Poland," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 495-508.
    6. Ziff, Alix, 2023. "Aid accessibility: Equity & education in Kenya," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Virginia Navajas-Romero & Lorena Caridad y López del Río & Nuria Ceular-Villamandos, 2020. "Analysis of Wellbeing in Nongovernmental Organizations’ Workplace in a Developed Area Context," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Anthony J. DeMattee & Alasdair C. Rutherford, 2021. "Biases in low‐information environments: Understanding for‐profit and non‐profit salary differentials in Haiti," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(7), pages 1141-1165, October.
    9. DeMattee Anthony J., 2018. "Toward a Coherent Framework: A Typology and Conceptualization of CSO Regulatory Regimes," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 9(4), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Brendan Whitty & Jessica Sklair & Paul Robert Gilbert & Emma Mawdsley & Jo‐Anna Russon & Olivia Taylor, 2023. "Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For‐profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 892-917, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Banks, Nicola & Hulme, David & Edwards, Michael, 2015. "NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 707-718.
    2. Aeshna Badruzzaman, 2023. "Repositioning urban bias: Non‐state providers' use of spatialised networks in Bangladesh," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(1), pages 49-59, February.
    3. Brass, Jennifer N., 2012. "Why Do NGOs Go Where They Go? Evidence from Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 387-401.
    4. Alisa Moldavanova & Tamaki Onishi & Stefan Toepler, 2023. "Civil society and democratization: The role of service‐providing organizations amid closing civic spaces," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(1), pages 3-13, February.
    5. White, Robert & Eicher, Carl K., 1999. "Ngo'S And The African Farmer: A Skeptical Perspective," Staff Paper Series 11532, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    6. Nicola Banks & David Hulme, 2012. "The role of NGOs and civil society in development and poverty reduction," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 17112, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    7. Dipendra, K.C., 2020. "Which aid targets poor at the sub-national level?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    8. Leonard, David K. & Bloom, Gerald & Hanson, Kara & O’Farrell, Juan & Spicer, Neil, 2013. "Institutional Solutions to the Asymmetric Information Problem in Health and Development Services for the Poor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 71-87.
    9. Edwards, Michael & Hulme, David, 1996. "Too close for comfort? the impact of official aid on nongovernmental organizations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 961-973, June.
    10. Atack, Iain, 1999. "Four Criteria of Development NGO Legitimacy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 855-864, May.
    11. Khan, Md Faisal Abedin & Uddin, Md Sazib & Giessen, Lukas, 2021. "Microcredit expansion and informal donor interests: Experiences from local NGOs in the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, Bangladesh," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    12. Dasandi, Niheer & Erez, Lior, 2023. "The flag and the stick: Aid suspensions, human rights, and the problem of the complicit public," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    13. Catherine E. Herrold & Khaldoun AbouAssi, 2023. "Can service providing NGOs build democracy? Five contingent features," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(1), pages 80-91, February.
    14. Dewi, Miranti Kartika & Manochin, Melina & Belal, Ataur, 2021. "Towards a conceptual framework of beneficiary accountability by NGOs: An Indonesian case study," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Torpey-Saboe, Nichole, 2015. "Does NGO Presence Decrease Government Spending? A Look at Municipal Spending on Social Services in Brazil," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 479-488.
    16. John‐Michael Davis & Liam Swiss, 2020. "Need, Merit, Self‐Interest or Convenience? Exploring Aid Allocation Motives of Grassroots International NGOs," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(8), pages 1324-1345, November.
    17. Nunnenkamp, Peter & Öhler, Hannes, 2011. "Aid Allocation through Various Official and Private Channels: Need, Merit, and Self-Interest as Motives of German Donors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 308-323, March.
    18. Michael W. Kpessa, 2011. "The Politics of Public Policy in Ghana," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 27(1), pages 29-56, March.
    19. Morales, Joaquin & Serfilippi, Elena, 2017. "When NGOs fail: A model of advocacy and services provision in weak democracies," MPRA Paper 91506, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Duval, Anne-Marie & Gendron, Yves & Roux-Dufort, Christophe, 2015. "Exhibiting nongovernmental organizations: Reifying the performance discourse through framing power," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 31-53.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:112:y:2018:i:c:p:136-149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.