[Anthropgrad] Wednesday seminar, October 17, by Patrick Kilby

[Alan Rumsey]

Anthropology seminar for Wednesday, October 17:

Patrick Kilby, MAAPD Program, ANU

The Growth of NGOs as Advocates: the Australian Council for Overseas Aid 
- the early years

The relationship between development NGOs and their host governments has 
been an important issue in both the civil society and public policy 
discourse for the past three decades.  The general view is that 
development NGOs are dependent on Government for support and approval in 
a number of key areas including: regulation, funding, and as a source of 
public legitimacy; and so engage with Government in a generally 
cooperative manner and are constrained in their advocacy. This paper 
uses as a case study the early years of the Australian Council for 
Overseas Aid as case study of a support organisation, which became a 
strong advocate on aid issues, leading to tensions both with its 
membership and with the Government of the day. The paper concludes that 
the dependency model of NGO relations with government is fairly weak in 
the Australian context, with the driver of the development of support 
organisations being more from Government, than from the NGOs wishing to 
strengthen relationships with government.  This can result, however, in 
a 'biting of the hand that feeds'.

Coombs Seminar Room A, 9:30-11:15am

Inquiries to Alan Rumsey
alan.rumsey at anu.edu.au
6125-2365