Foreign aid and NGO-state relations in South Africa : post-1994 developments

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:This study investigates the impact of foreign aid on the relations between Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the state in South Africa since 1994. Thereare three different ways in which NGOs can interact with the state and public policy:viz. they can support and help to implement policies, attempt to reform policies, oroppose them. During apartheid, the nature of NGO-state relations was characterisedby political confrontation and distrust. NGOs primarily served as organisations ofopposition to the state's exclusivist and dehumanising policies. Many NGOs,however, also provided developmental and social services to communities who wereneglected by the apartheid state.After the first democratic election in 1994, the role of NGOs underwent a significantprocess of change. Various factors contributed to this change. This study, however,primarily focuses on the role of foreign aid and its effect on NGO activities in SouthAfrica, post-1994. This study relied on secondary data sources (both qualitative andquantitative) available in the area of NGO state relations. The study also focused ontwo major donor agencies in South Africa: European Union (EU) and United StatesAgency for International Development (USAID).Analysis of data reveals that, since 1994 much of the funding that was previouslydirectly channeled to civil society now goes to the state, which distributes it totargetted NGOs. As a result many NOOs have collapsed because of a shortage offinancial resources to sustain their work.Secondly, since 1994 the rationale and purpose behind international donor policieshas been to advance the New Policy Agenda (NPA), which is aimed at promoting freemarket-orientated reforms and the consolidation of liberal democracy. As a result,foreign aid donors have endorsed the liberal economic policies, which are set out inthe government's macroeconomic strategy, viz. Growth, Employment, andRedistribution (GEAR). Thus, both government and donors have prioritised NGOswho are involved in service delivery rather than those that are likely to challenge andoppose liberal market policies. They have also shown preference to NGOs that aremore concerned with the norms and practices of procedural democracy as opposed tothose that are concerned with issues of participatory and social democracy. This hasresulted in constraining the overtly political and advocacy role, which characterisedNGOs during the apartheid era.International donors, via government disbursement institutions such as the NationalDevelopment Agency (NDA), have also constrained the work of NGOs by insistingon numerous managerial related requirements that have been made conditional for thereceiving of financial support. Many small, informal, rural community basedorganisation that lack the required administrative capacity have, as a result, beenfacing serious financial crises.Subsequently, NGO-state relations, since 1994, have become less adversarial andconfrontational. Most NGOs, complement and support the state's social servicesdelivery programmes and also serve as organisations which help shape the norms andpractices of procedural democracy. The study concludes, that the persistentinequality, poverty and unemployment which is associated with the GEARmacroeconomic policy and endorsed by international donor agencies, will lead to theresurgence of advocacy NGOs. Furthermore, in order to resuscitate their role and toensure their vitality as organisations, which promote participatory democracy, it isessential to focus on strategies, which can effectively challenge the current fundingenvironment to NGOs. These include, building the administrative capacity of both theNDA and NGOs, ensuring NDA independence, and ensuring recognition by fundinginstitutions of the importance of advocacy NGOs in the consolidation of economicdemocracy.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University