Shaping the future of mid-range Northern NGDO: ten challenges, ten proposals

Abstract

In recent years the financial crisis in traditional donor countries, the aid effectiveness debate and the approaching end of the Millennium Development Goals agenda have opened the door to new goals, instruments and actors in development. This is shaping a new and more complex global aid system. As a consequence, traditional actors like mid-range Northern NGDOs (NNGDOS), born and raised in an ODA-based development system, face a challenging scenario. This paper has two aims. First, it aims to summarise the 10 most important challenges NNGDOs face today. As will be shown, such a complex landscape calls for adaptation, especially if NNGDOs want to keep playing a key role in the development aid system. The second aim therefore is to present 10 proposals which could help NNGDOs to overcome these threats, shaping the future this relevant actor could play in the new global aid system.