Briefing Paper 6. Autonomy or Dependence? North–South NGO Partnerships

This Briefing Paper presents a summary of INTRAC’s research on North–South NGO partnerships and draws out the implications for NGOs and other practitioners.

Partnership is a contested concept. Within international development, partnership has been the subject of intense debate: an ideal which promises so much and yet fails to meet expectations in practice. Is it time to move on from the notion of partnership, relegating it to the category of yet another development fad? Or is understanding the nature and dynamics of these changing relationships in fact critical to understanding the international aid chain itself: where it has come from and where it is heading?