Happy ever after in the marketplace: non‐government organisations and uncivil society

Abstract

This following declaration, about NGOs and civil society, is typical of the hallowed tones used to discuss both. This article sets out to examine what I have called the ‘NGO phenomenon’ which has arisen in the last decade. It is not a critique of NGOs per se,but a critique of the way in which development policy has focused on NGOs, to the extent that expectations of NGO performance are unrealistically high and exclude other options for development.