New Challenges for the 21st Century: Do NGOs in the Global South have a future?

As the “third sector of development,” alongside government and business, NGOs have contributed positively to the lives of millions of people in the Global South. During their first development in the 1940s, NGOs acted solely as “stop-gap” institutions that only helped society occasionally. However, after the implementation of neoliberal policies by Western-influenced countries in the 1970s, NGOs rose in prominence as the prime institutions working against poverty, inequality, corruption, ecological debacle, and other challenges facing Global South societies.

This brief pulls from a longer report and outlines the history of NGOs, particularly of Global South-based or Global South-working organizations, and their impact on the lives of millions of people. After discussing noteworthy examples of successful NGOs, this brief also discusses the most pressing challenges affecting NGOs, from issues in logistical planning to succession issues and the lack of funding in the current neoliberal landscape.

Taking their background and their current challenges into account, the authors present a series of informed recommendations, including:

• NGOs should diversify their funding mechanisms, possibly through social enterprises.
• NGOs should build strong lessons-learned mechanisms based on evidence and proven strategies.
• Regardless of their main mission or sphere of influence, NGOs should incorporate responses to climate change,
• Despite often taxing relationships with other sectors, NGOs should cultivate productive relations with states and for-profit businesses.