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Exploring the role of Western NGOs in creating and strengthening local NGOs in Albania

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Abstract

This article explores the role of Western Non-Governmental Organizations (WNGOs) in creating and/or strengthening Local Non-Governmental Organizations (LNGOs) that influence the process of social change at the grassroots level. By critically examining the case of Albania, it explores the emergence, meaning and effectiveness of the West’s civil society promotion agenda in Western Balkans. The article revolves around the following two interrelated questions: (i) How effective are the top-down models applied by WNGOs in establishing LNGOs that seek to provide alternative social and political spaces for their constituencies? (ii) To what extent do WNGOs allow LNGOs to define and redefine their role in the development process by giving voice to the fundamental concerns of the local people? It suggests that the practices of WNGOs seldom help LNGOs to present a new development model firmly rooted in the realities of the local community that they represent.

Abstract

Cet article s'intéresse au rôle des Organisations Non Gouvernementales Occidentales (ONGOs) dans la création et/ou le renforcement d’ONG locales (ONGLs) pouvant influencer le processus d’évolution social au niveau local. En proposant une analyse critique du cas de l’Albanie, il examine l’élaboration par les pays occidentaux d’un programme de développement de la société civile dans les Balkans occidentaux, ainsi que sa signification et efficacité. L’article s’articule autour de deux questions interdépendantes: (i) Quelle est l’efficacité des modèles du haut vers le bas appliqués par les ONGOs pour établir des ONGLs proposant à leurs zones cibles de nouveaux espaces sociaux et politiques? (ii) Dans quelle mesure les ONGOs permettent elles aux ONGLs de définir et redéfinir leur place dans le processus de développement en exprimant les préoccupations fondamentales des populations locales? Il suggère que les pratiques adoptées par les ONGOs permettent rarement aux ONGLs de proposer un nouveau modèle de développement solidement ancré dans la réalité des communautés locales qu’ils représentent.

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Notes

  1. Local NGOs are often born out of a voluntary tradition where individuals and professionals took the initiative of forming a grassroots organization to address a local concern. By contrast, LNGOs refer to those NGOs that are created and supported by WNGOs primarily to implement donor-designed and -funded projects.

  2. Despite some changes in donor priorities in recent years, most bilateral and multilateral institutions, including the European Commission, have continued to support the civil society promotion agenda. See, Kubicek, 2003; Fagan, 2011 and Lada, 2011.

  3. This article acknowledges the fact that, despite the popularity of the term ‘civil society’, it still remains a contested concept. For the purpose of clarity, however, we define civil society as an arena where different non-state actors, including NGOs, exist and operate to allow ordinary citizens to participate in decision making.

  4. Widespread corruption, dysfunctional structures of governance and the rise of semi-authoritarianism made it difficult for the donors to rely on public institutions to promote greater socio-political change in much of Eastern Europe in the 1990s. See Raik (2006, p. 9).

  5. For a detailed description of EU-sponsored programme called ‘Active Civil Society in Europe’, visit the following web site: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/citizenship/programme/action2_en.php.

  6. Albania provides a fascinating context for understanding the challenges of building civil society from above. Aid flowed into the country in the 1990s contributed to the rapid growth of NGOs that seemingly showed some interest in playing an important role in broadening popular participation in the country’s transition. However, many of these newly created NGOs through external support, as discussed in the section ‘Creation of LNGOs from above: Different practices and the legacies that WNGOs left behind’, became defunct as donor funds began to dry up.

  7. OECD statistics indicates that in 1991 aid to Albania had a percentage increase of close to 3000 per cent compared with 1990. Aid disbursed between 1991and 1993 was larger than those in 1994–1998. During the Kosovo crisis in 1999, Albania experienced another surge of aid – close to $500 million disbursed, a figure that surpassed the aid disbursed in any given year in the past 20 years. The last decade has been characterized by a constant flow of aid at about $ 300 million annually.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Soros Open Society Foundation Albania. The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and valuable suggestions on earlier drafts of this article. They are also grateful to various LNGOs for their participation in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University, 4700 Keele Street, 230 York Lanes, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Ontario, Canada

    Fahimul Quadir

  2. York University – Center for Refugee Studies, 8th Floor, York Research Tower, Toronto, M3J 1P3, Ontario, Canada

    Aida Orgocka

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  1. Fahimul Quadir
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Correspondence to Fahimul Quadir.

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Quadir, F., Orgocka, A. Exploring the role of Western NGOs in creating and strengthening local NGOs in Albania. Eur J Dev Res 26, 557–573 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2013.31

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