Fifteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

In 2016, international organizations, states and donors gathered to the World Humanitarian Summit to pledge for the ‘Grand Bargain’ which pushed for the ‘local’ to be placed at the center of aid interventions, namely local NGOs. In the context of continuous criticisms over the effectiveness of aid actors and the development sector, the push for a ‘localization of aid’ is based on the argument that “in-country responders are better placed to design and implement effective programs than their international counterparts”. In the development sector, the ‘usual suspect’, the ‘go-to’ actor at the country level is the non-governmental organization (NGO) which is – rightfully or not – favored over states for being perceived as more cost-efficient, less corrupted, and more connected with the targeted population. On the one hand, local NGOs are key actors without which development assistance could not take place, but on the other hand, they consistently evolve in an unstable fashion. Local NGOs rely heavily on foreign funds to operate and such funding imply a series of accountability mechanisms donors impose to control the funds are spent according to their policies and standards. Several studies have shown how these control mechanisms impact the daily work of the local NGOs. By looking at daily practices of two local NGOs through an ethnographic approach in Jordan, this research mobilizes sociology of organizations’ conceptual approaches to shed light on the dynamics among actors through financing systems and artefacts, questioning the preconceived subordination of local NGOs to international organizations and donors.