INGOs in a changed world order
Peter Konijn
The future of international NGOs depends on what the post-western world will look like in ten years from now. The nature of the post-western world...
How are the game changers spending their time?
Jennifer Lentfer
Can INGOs harness the energy currently focused on demonstrating “results” to instead focus on the priorities of those their mission ultimately serv...
The future is calling
Ellen Lammers
The Broker is hosting a new debate titled ‘Future Calling’ and we warmly invite you – also on behalf of Hivos - to contribute.Our world is changing...
Development
INGOs
Retirement, replacement or rejuvenation?
Michael Edwards
What is the right thing to do when you reach sixty? This is a question that many NGOs, which were founded in the burst of internationalism that fol...
INGOs: weak at influencing power shifts
Chiku Malunga
My contribution to the future role of international NGOs will be based on my experience as an African development practitioner. The key causes of p...
Future Calling
How INGOs can help transform societies: thick solutions for thick problems. Join us!
read more
The future is calling!
Our world is changing quickly and profoundly. Rich and poor – regardless of where they live – are faced with increasingly ‘thick’ problems and social change is more politicized and contested than ever before. And yet, most international development NGOs keep offering ‘thin’ solutions to these problems. Solutions geared to measurable material success. Solutions that are aimed at increasing participation in unsustainable economies and polities.
The Broker is hosting a debate to discuss the future of INGOs in a changing global world. This debate takes place in the context of the Hivos knowledge initiative Future Calling.
The kick-off of this debate is given by Michael Edwards, who argues that INGOs should challenge themselves to leave behind the trodden path and contribute to a fundamental change of economies and societies. In his think piece titled ‘Development INGOs – retirement, replacement or rejuvenation?’ he poses the questions that inform our debate:
- Is it time for INGOs to leave behind the task of strengthening their leverage within a conventional development frame? How can they broaden their perspective to respond to the thick problems of our time?
- How can INGOs rejuvenate themselves and seize the opportunities for being the much-needed agents of transformation?
- Or is it perhaps time for INGOs to retire? Should they be replaced by other institutions or movements that better fit the messy political challenges of our day?
You are warmly invited to join the debate! We welcome your personal and critical reflections on the future of INGOs, phrased in 500 words (max. 1000) and with a short bio and picture for your author profile.
You can send your contributions to [email protected].
Join us and join Hivos in this exploration of the future.
Special Report: Future Calling
Special Report: The future calling
March 09, 2025
read moreEditorial: Rooting INGOs in home soil
Frans Bieckmann | March 09, 2025
I recently chaired a forum that discussed whether a new paradigm has emerged in the field of development cooperation, and if so, what does it consist of?
read moreRetirement, replacement or rejuvenation?
Michael Edwards | March 13, 2025
The NGO community agrees that the foreign aid frame is no longer a viable option, even if that means that NGOs have to evolve into something else.
read moreThe road not taken
Ellen Lammers | March 09, 2025
INGOs are at a crossroads. Caught up in a tide of technocracy, they have become increasingly managerialist – ‘outsider’ experts disconnected from the real struggle.
read moreShedding the charity cloak
Evert-jan Quak | March 09, 2025
INGOs need to intensify their support to, or even become part of, global social movements if they want to introduce structural change.
read moreContributors to The Broker’s blog ‘Future Calling’
March 13, 2025
Contributors to The Broker’s blog ‘Future Calling’.
read moreCivic action
Reinventing citizen action
Frans Bieckmann | May 16, 2025
‘The biggest failure of civil society organizations is their complete lack of political imagination,’ says Rakesh Rajani. ‘NGOs are bankrupt.
The art of framing
Gisela Dütting, David Sogge | July 01, 2025
NGOs have been joining forces to increase their effectiveness. They need to form alliances with social movements as well, however, to avoid working in isolation from broader social currents.
New economics
From GDPism to genuine equity
Praful Bidwai | June 30, 2025
Praful Bidwai examines articles and blog posts by The Broker to discuss the disconnect between gross domestic product and social progress.
When growth is empty
Nicky Pouw | June 10, 2025
The pursuit of endless growth and the ensuing global financial crisis have eroded public trust in economic policy. As a result, an increasing number of economists...
Democracy & complexity
Winning hearts, changing mindsets
Jeroen de Lange | February 03, 2025
International development, humanitarian and military interventions aim to bring about change, but with mixed results. The fields of change management and complexity...
Special Report: Changing the rules of the game
Frauke de Weijer | October 10, 2024
Implementing institutional change without a deeper understanding of the rules systems at its core is likely to fail. Policy makers need to acknowledge the...
Debate
Future Calling blog
How can international development NGOs reshape themselves to contribute solutions to the thick problems of the future - which are knocking on our door right...
Blog posts
Back to globalism, starting at home
Willemijn Verkoren | 06 February 2012
The criticism and questions facing INGOs are major. Michael Edwards’ description of the gap between today’s ‘thick’ problems and INGOs’ increasingly ‘thin’ solutions is spot on. read more
It’s the future calling…
Josine Stremmelaar Remko Berkhout | 02 February 2012
What do you do when the phone rings? You pick up, or let people leave a message on your voicemail and check it soon after. The phone has been ringing for a long... read moreINGOs must make tough choices
Willem Elbers | 18 January 2012
To meet growing calls for tangible results INGOs have been forced to adopt managerialist practices. Managerialism, however, is incompatible with the principles of INGOs. read moreBureaucracy kills democracy
Reinier van Hoffen | 18 January 2012
"As long as states represent the highest form of political authority, it will be impossible to channel human self-interest toward common solutions. read moreDemanding justice
Farah Karimi | 16 January 2012
It sounds almost as a cliché, but our present world is changing rapidly – and so is the role of NGOs. The emergence of new economic powers, speedy globalization,... read moreLet’s not look for the Holy Grail
René Grotenhuis | 13 January 2012
Yes, the crisis affecting international NGOs working on development is real. Having had a clear role and function for 50 years, the midlife crisis, as Michael Edwards describes it, has arrived. read moreThe midlife crisis of NGOs
Ria Brouwers | 11 January 2012
It’s a midlife crisis. This conclusion about the current condition of the NGOs strikes my mind after reading the think-piece by Michael Edwards for the debate on the future role of NGOs. read moreHow are the game changers spending their time?
Jennifer Lentfer | 11 January 2012
Can INGOs harness the energy currently focused on demonstrating “results” to instead focus on the priorities of those their mission ultimately serves? read moreCommunities - agents of change
Olga Golichenko | 11 January 2012
The big advantage of international NGOs (INGOs) I believe is their ability to facilitate, multiply and sustain positive change for communities who are marginalised in society. read moreThe thick end of social entrepreneurship’s thin means
Grant Rhodes | 11 January 2012
Health care is a human right, a ‘global public good’ to fight ‘global public bads’. This does not mean that health care is free. read moreDownload Special Report
The future calling
Our world is changing quickly and profoundly. Rich and poor – regardless of where they live – are faced with increasingly ‘thick’ problems and social change is more politicized and contested than ever before. And yet, most international development NGOs (INGOs) keep offering ‘thin’ solutions to these problems. Solutions geared to measurable material success. Solutions that are aimed at increasing participation in unsustainable economies and polities.
downloadThink Piece
Development INGOs
Michael Edwards | December 05, 2024
What is the right thing to do when you reach sixty? This is a question that many NGOs, which were founded in the burst of internationalism that followed the end...
Inspiration from elsewhere
Ellen Lammers | December 12, 2024
Quite a lot of thinking, deliberating and visioning about the future of NGOs, INGOs and civil society is happening by different organizations and at different fora.