The Increased Size and Influence of INGOs

65
CHAPTER 4
Factors Driving the Increased Size and
Influence of INGOs
Introduction
There are many forces behind the increased size and influence of aid and
development INGOs discussed in Chapter 3. Certainly, the increased financial resources that the sector now has at its disposal are one factor. However,
it would be simplistic to see this as the underlying cause. More fundamentally, it is such things as changing views about the nature of development
which have favored a growing role for INGOs; new forms of communications and transport that have dramatically lowered the costs for these
transnational actors; increasing political freedoms for civil society; the
apparent inability of states to act in a collective way to address global problems such as poverty, climate change, ethnic and religious tension, and
ongoing population growth; and the gradual emergence of a more cosmopolitan mind-set in some countries. However, whether or not these factors
will continue to drive the growth of INGOs’ size and influence is uncertain.
Some will certainly continue to support this trend; other factors, however,
appear to be waning. Furthermore, the impact of a dramatic slowing in
global economic growth on these issues needs to be considered, at least in
the short run. This Chapter will therefore identify and examine the main
drivers for the historical growth in the size and influence of INGOs and
consider the extent to which this growth is likely to continue.
Changing Understanding of Development
and Policy Priorities
In the immediate postcolonial period following World War II, there was a
strong emphasis on nation building, and “development” was defined almost
exclusively in material terms and measured by growth in per capita gross
domestic product. This approach can be contrasted with the more recent
and much broader understanding of development that emphasizes people’s
capabilities and freedoms, not simply their material poverty. Drawing on the
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
work of Amartya Sen, the UNDP has championed this broader view of
development in its annual Human Development Reports and its Human
Development Index. According to the UNDP their approach is “guided by
the belief that development is ultimately a process of enlarging people’s
choices, not just raising national incomes” (see www.UNDP.org). Similarly,
Kingsbury (2007, 16) describes this broader approach to development as
one that focuses on creating an environment in which people can develop
their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their
needs and interests. As such, it has been characterized as a people-centered
approach rather than a growth-centered one. Since participation and
empowerment are central to this approach, it is seen to be more aligned
with the work undertaken by NGOs that favor participative development at
the local level and seek to redistribute power and transform institutions.
Related to this change in our understanding of development, there has
also been a growing policy emphasis on good governance and promoting
political development. This includes programs that strengthen civil society,
improve the legal and institutional underpinnings of the rule of law,
strengthen the role of the media and other sources of independent
66 The Change Imperative
A large number of factors have been driving the increasing size and influence of
INGOs. They include
• changing views about what development is and how it occurs
• increased political openness to civil society in many parts of the world
• increased awareness and concern about transnational problems like global poverty
and climate change
• a growing confidence gap between citizens and governments. High-profile scandals, financial collapses, and other problems have also led to a loss of public trust
in corporations
• a rise in cosmopolitan values, a preference for democratic forms of governance, an
appreciation for cultural diversity, and increased interest in global issues in developed countries
• increased outsourcing and privatization by many governments
• improvements in and the reduced costs of information, communication, and
transport technologies
It is less clear that global economic growth is a long-term determinant of the size and
influence of INGOs. While the current global economic slowdown may dampen
INGO growth rates in the short term, it is probably unlikely to be a significant longterm impediment.
Overall, most of the external factors that have driven INGO growth over the last
decade appear to remain largely positive. As a result, if INGOs can address the external and organizational challenges they face, the underlying environment for their
ongoing growth in size and influence remains strong.
KEY POINTS:
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
information, increase human rights education, promote grass-roots demand
for good governance, and fight corruption (see Chapter 5). Once again,
these changing policy priorities have played to the perceived strengths of
NGOs, although whether NGO activities actually promote increased political participation varies depending on the extent to which a social mobilization paradigm is adopted as opposed to a service delivery one (see Rahman
2006). More recently, the growing role of INGOs in global governance and
the growing awareness of the relationship between poverty and international peace and security in a globalized world, discussed in Chapter 2, have
both continued to support the growth in size and influence of INGOs.
Views about how best to facilitate development have also shifted.
Development is no longer understood as a linear process to which topdown planning can be applied. Instead, the development process is seen
as nonlinear and far more complex and multifaceted. These policy
changes and new approaches have all been supported by the perceived
ineffectiveness of bilateral aid and encouraged by INGOs themselves.
Using their increasing public profile and influence, INGOs have successfully lobbied bilateral agencies for a greater role in the development
process and a greater share of ODA.
NGOs also came to be seen as one of the primary sources of development
alternatives in terms of both ideas and practices. While Lewis (2007, 40) suggests that this may still be the case, the emergence of new aid and development actors, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are certainly
challenging this view now. Like the Rockefeller Foundation before it, the
Gates Foundation has stimulated new thinking in the development sector,
and it is having an impact on practice well beyond its considerable size. The
Gates Foundation has also set aside nearly $500 million for the Grand
Challenges in Global Health Initiative, which supports a range of innovative
research projects. There is also a plethora of other aid and development
actors that bring a “remarkable variety of voices and ideas, combined with a
mixture of expertise [and] naiveté” (Bishop 2008, 43). As a result, while aid
and development NGOs will undoubtedly remain important sources of new
thinking, whether they will continue to be the principal source of development alternatives is, at best, uncertain. As Chapters 5 and 6 will detail, particularly in relation to the largest aid and development INGOs, they do not
have a good track record of capturing and disseminating good practice and
continue to lag other actors in terms of investment in policy expertise.
Increased Political Openness
Another factor that has driven INGO growth is increased political openness. Since 1945, the globalization of political structures, international
institutions, and the spread of Western liberal democratic values have
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 67
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
created an environment “highly conducive to NGO growth” (Reinmann
2006, 46). Reinmann argues that in some instances, this political openness has extended to tacit encouragement by states and IGOs of a “new
pro-NGO international norm” that has placed pressure on other states to
“support and include NGOs in both international and national politics.”
The result has been that the increase in the number of democratic governments during the 1970s and 1980s was accompanied by expanded
civil rights, which allowed Northern-based INGOs to enter countries
where they previously could not work.1
This trend continued throughout the 1990s, with the fall of the Berlin
Wall and the dissolution of the USSR, the redemocratization of Latin
America, and greater government tolerance in Japan, South Korea, and
South Africa, all significantly increasing opportunities for INGOs (Kaldor
et al. 2003, 19). Of course, there were also examples of reducing political
openness in places like the Balkans, the Middle East, and in Central Asia,
but in general “the world was on a course for greater political openness
that welcomed citizen participation and involvement to an extent
unknown in the past” (Kaldor et al. 2003, 19). This trend, however, now
appears to have come to an end, at least for the foreseeable future.
Freedom House’s 2009 survey suggests that from 2006 to 2008, global
political rights and civil liberties declined (Puddington 2009). In just 2007,
one-fifth of the world’s countries experienced a decline (Puddington
2008). This includes countries where previous significant progress had
been achieved, such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Lebanon,
Palestine, Nigeria, and Kenya. In 2008, although the pace of erosion
seemed less severe than in previous years, “most regions experienced stagnation, with sub-Saharan Africa and the non-Baltic former Soviet Union
experiencing the most acute deterioration” (Puddington 2009, 1). There
has also been a marked increased in the politicization of aid (see Chapter 5),
growing religious fundamentalism in some countries and added bureaucratic burden and restrictions imposed as a result of new global security and
counter terrorist measures (Fowler 2008). It is therefore unlikely that political liberalization will continue to significantly support growth of aid and
development INGOs, at least in the short term.
Increased Awareness and Concern about
Transnational Problems
The second factor that has driven INGO growth is increased awareness and
concern about transnational problems. There have been, for example, a
plethora of UN reports on transnational threats, including the 2006 report,
Meeting Global Challenges: International Cooperation in the National Interest, by
68 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
the Task Force on Global Public Goods; the February 2004 report by the
World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization, A Fair
Globalization; the 2004 report by the Secretary General’s High-Level Panel
on Threats, Challenges, and Change, A More Secure World; and Kofi Annan’s
own report, In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights
for All. All of these reports identified similar problems including poverty,
infectious disease, and environmental degradation; nuclear, radiological,
chemical, and biological weapons; terrorism; and transnational organized
crime. There has also been a range of popular books that have highlighted
the issue. In 2002, Jean-Francois Richard wrote a book titled High Noon: 20
Global Problems and 20 Years to Solve Them in which he identified three types
of issues requiring a globally coordinated response: issues involving the
global commons, like global warming and water deficits; issues whose size
and urgency requires a global commitment, like the fight against poverty or
conflict prevention; and issues needing a global regulatory approach, such
as global financial flows or rules for e-commerce. More recently, both the
economist Jeffrey Sachs (2008) and New York Times columnist, Thomas
Friedman (2008), have written popular books highlighting the need for a
coordinated response to global transnational problems. In fact, according
to Sachs (2008, 3) the “defining challenge of the twenty-first century will be
to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded
planet.” This common fate will require new forms of global cooperation
yet, despite the magnitude and nature of the threats, states appear increasingly unable to act in a collective way to address them. Furthermore, with
intergovernmental organizations subject to the national interests of states
making decisive and responsive action difficult, there remains a significant
institutional deficit at the global level. As a result, there is increased
demand for non-state, transnational, public good orientated actors. Aid
and development INGOs are one such type of actor.
Interestingly, Ulrich Beck suggests that even more fundamental changes
in international relations are occurring. He argues that the nation-state
was established to protect and insure citizens against risk such as natural
calamities, poor health, unemployment, and those posed by foreign enemies (Glasius et al. 2005, 1).2 However, since many key risks impacting
people’s lives have been largely de-bounded from the nation-state in spatial, temporal and social terms, the underlying value of the nation-state
as an institution is being questioned. Not only is the point of origin of a
risk often unrelated to its place of impact, there is often unequal power
between those exposed to the risk and those creating the risk, not only
between countries but also within them (Beck 1999, 143). In fact, Karns
and Mingst (2004, 23) argue that the “disjuncture between states’ persistence as central structures of the international system and an eroding
loyalty and confidence of individuals in the institutions of the state has
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 69
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
contributed to the resurgence of ethnic and religious identities, ethnic
conflicts, and further weakening, if not failure of some states.”
There are a number of potential responses to Beck’s unbounded risk.
One response is for nation-states to seek to reassert control through
increased immigration controls and through trade or physical barriers
such as the Israeli separation wall. While this can be a popular response,
most analysis would appear to question its long-term effectiveness.
Another is to seek to establish global markets for transnational goods and
externalities. For example, Ruggie (2004, 499) sees transnational actors
such as INGOs as part of a system of states that is becoming “embedded
in a broader, albeit still thin and partial, institutionalized arena concerned with the production of global public goods.” A third route is to
establish global regulation (e.g., WTO or Kyoto Protocol). The inability
of states to cooperate despite the obvious transnational nature of the
problems is one of the reasons for increased support for INGOs.
Even in the United States, where donors have traditionally taken a
somewhat skeptical view of foreign aid, in the latter half of the 1990s the
proportion of total private giving for international purposes doubled
from 1 to 2 percent (Lindeburg and Bryant 2001, 11). Since the forces of
globalization will continue to amplify the unbounded nature of key risks
but their unequal burden makes reaching agreement on international
agreements politically difficult domestically—as evidenced by the failure
of the Doha trade round and the difficulty in negotiating a successor to
the Kyoto Protocol—we can expect that this factor will support continued
growth of INGOs.
Growing Confidence Gap Between Citizens
and Governments
The failure of states—and, in some cases, their inability—to deal with
transnational problems combined with examples of corruption, concern
about self-interest, and questions of competence has led to the third factor
that has driven INGO growth: an increasing confidence gap between citizens and governments (Glasius et al., 2005, 3). Clark (2003, 70) points to
worldwide “falling voter turnout, declining membership of political parties, reduced confidence in politicians and governments, increasing citizens’ actions against corporations, widespread hostility toward IGOs, and
the rapid growth of the global protest movement” as evidence of the waning of public confidence in democratic processes. In the United Kingdom,
research by the London School of Economics suggests “people are more
cynical about politics than anything else” and this cynicism is growing
(Davies 2008). Paul Skidmore (2008) argues that the British public’s trust
70 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
in government has almost halved since the 1970s, and this has no doubt
been made worse by the MPs’ expenses scandal that led to the resignation
of the Speaker of the House of Commons in May 2009. However,
Skidmore argues that this trend is not restricted to Britain but can be identified across a broad number of different societies and political systems.
Research by the University of Southampton shows that the public’s cynicism extends to the international development arena—the public tends to
doubt that the government is genuinely interested in addressing global
poverty or that it will deliver effective results (Atkinson and Eastwood
2007). The state of cynicism in the United States can perhaps best be measured by the fact that a US comedian, Jon Stewart, is now ranked alongside the
New York Times as a key opinion former.3 Barak Obama’s 2008 Presidential
campaign certainly harnessed perceptions that politics used to be a nobler
and more ambitious enterprise than it is today to encourage American voters to support a call for political change.
Public trust in corporations is also declining. High-profile scandals,
financial collapses, environmental vandalism, labor and supply-chain
issues, and human rights abuse have all led to a loss of public trust in corporations. For example, Gibelman and Gelman (2004, 358), argue that
“the downfall of Enron, ImClone, WorldCom, Tyco, and other large conglomerates created a general state of suspiciousness and mistrust toward
corporate America.” This has been further exacerbated by the recent economic crisis that has been blamed by some analysts on corporate greed,
particularly in the financial industry. Increased transparency brought on
by new communication methods such as the Internet has arguably also
had the effect of decreasing rather than increasing public trust in regulators and industry (Glasius et al. 2005, 2). Any dissonance between a company’s marketing messages in one country and its actual practice in
another are now quickly revealed.
INGOs are benefiting from this confidence gap between citizens, governments, and corporations. “[T]he new social movements, and the NGOs
they spawned, provide the institutional connection between the drop in
confidence in conventional, nation-state institutions and the growth of
global civil society” (Glasius et al. 2005, 3). The same University of
Southampton research referred to previously, found that, in contrast to
the UK government, the public engagement activities of credible NGOs
was seen to build public support for aid. A 2003 Gallup Poll found that
NGOs ranked second out of 17 institutions as the most trusted social and
political institutions, well ahead of both government and business (Ahmed
and Potter 2006, 244). However, as will be argued in Chapter 5, the same
factors that are leading to a loss in confidence in government and business
could impact on INGOs without significant attention to their own accountability and effectiveness.
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 71
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
Value Shift in OECD Countries
The fifth, and perhaps most-contested, factor behind the rise of INGOs is
the purported value shift in OECD countries that is claimed to have given
rise to cosmopolitan values, a preference for democratic forms of governance, an appreciation for cultural diversity, and increased interest in the
types of global issues that many INGOs are involved in, such as global
poverty. Kaldor et al. (2003, 16) cite the work of a large number of social
scientists to support this hypothesis. Further evidence for such a values
shift can arguably be seen in the global response to the Asian tsunami in
December 2004 and the rise of third-way politics in places like Britain
under Tony Blair and in Germany under Chancellor Schröder. According
to Anthony Giddens (1998, 78), “the fostering of an active civil society is
a basic part of the politics of the third way.” While many factors influenced the outcome, the election of Barak Obama can also be seen as a
rejection of the unilateralism of George Bush. Obama’s multicultural
background certainly suggests a growing willingness on the part of the
American voting public to embrace diversity. In Australia, the election of
Kevin Rudd may be interpreted as a reaction against some of the regressive globalization of the Howard government, such as its treatment of asylum seekers, and a return to the values that allowed Australia to welcome
large numbers of Vietnamese boat people in the 1970s and to undertake
significant proglobalization economic reform in the 1980s.4 Certainly,
Rudd’s support for increased foreign aid played a part in some marginal
seats in the 2007 election.5
The support for increased foreign aid can be seen in many developed
countries and is reflected in the agenda of a number of recent international meetings. For example, in 2005 there were three events that all
sought to highlight the issue: the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in July,6 the UN
Millennium +5 Summit in September in New York, and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) meeting in December in Hong Kong. It is notable
that a coalition of INGOs and other civil society groups campaigned under
the Make Poverty History banner around all of them. Kaldor et al. (2003,
28) has also argued that the broad based support for anti war demonstrations held in February 2003 support the potential of a “new cosmopolitan
approach, which integrated immigrant and developing-country communities into the global political process for the first time.”
A number of reasons have been promulgated for this shift. One reason
is that growing material affluence from economic growth has created a
middle class whose values increasingly moved from an emphasis on economic well-being to “concerns about democracy, participation, and
meaning, and involved, among other things, a formation toward cosmopolitan values such as tolerance and respect for human rights, social
72 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
equity, and quality of life” (Kaldor et al. 2003, 29; see also Abramson and
Inglehart 1995). If this is a major factor, it will be interesting to see
whether countries become more domestically focused or inward looking
as a result of the 2008 global economic crisis.
Another reason for this values shift is that communication technology
and more frequent international travel mean that the public in OECD
countries has much greater knowledge of and empathy with people living
in developing countries (undoubtedly a factor in the public response to
the Asian tsunami). Certainly, Keck and Sikkink (1998, 43) believe that
“technological and institutional change can alter the ‘moral’ universe in
which action takes place by changing how people think about responsibility and guilt.” Increased education also plays a part. For example, in countries that incorporate global education into their curricula, such as
Scandinavia, support for significant levels of ODA remains high. INGOs
themselves have played a role here. By undertaking and supporting global
education activities aimed at supporters, schools, and religious groups
and through advocating for global education to be formally incorporated
into school curriculums, INGOs have contributed to increased awareness
and understanding in many countries.
Nonetheless, the extent—and perhaps even the existence—of such a
values shift remains highly contested. For example, German political scientist Ernst Hillibrand (2008) argues that Europe is seeing the end of a
political-ideological cycle and that the third way in Britain and neue mitte
in Germany have reached their political expiry date. He argues that one
of the reasons for this is that “globalization and Europeanization have
affected European workers’ relative economic situation for the worse.
The wage share . . . has fallen in the European Union during the past
25 years, from 72.1 percent to 68.4 percent. The Gini Index of income
inequality has risen in most Western European countries since the 1980s.”
Nationalism’s ongoing strength is evidenced by the numerous demands
of peoples around the world for secession or for greater autonomy within
states or in protests about migration or free trade. Some commentators
are also arguing that there is a “marked trend toward greater tribalization
with groups who feel that globalization is destroying their identity and
who long for more traditional, less-inclusive notions and beliefs in an
effort to find a sense of personal belonging” (Schwab 2007, 344). One
reaction has been the “regressive globalization” described here. This phenomenon is evident in the success of populist right movements in Europe
that have taken a hard line against continued immigration and is difficult
to reconcile with the globalization friendly and pro-European discourse
of the center-left establishment that until recently dominated European
politics.7 It is also evident in the way that the term “cosmopolitan” was
used by Republicans in the 2008 US presidential election as a means of
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 73
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
slurring Barak Obama (Cohen 2008).8 As a result, it is very difficult to
determine whether or not this value shift is real and whether it will continue or recede.
Outsourcing and Privatization
The sixth factor that has driven INGO growth, particularly financial
growth from the 1980s onward, is the neoliberal outsourcing and privatization agenda and the new roles it gave INGOs (Bebbington et. al. 2008,
13). Large INGOs “benefited enormously from the increasing tendency
of government and intergovernment organizations to channel aid and
development funds through INGOs rather than to national or local governments” (Florini and Simmons 2000, 8). As concerns about the efficiency and effectiveness of bilateral aid grew, INGOs were increasingly
turned to as an alternative model for deploying ODA (Lewis 2007, 39).
Thus INGOs also benefited from the broader perceptions that NGOs
were “more efficient, more flexible, and more innovative than state agencies” (Anheier 2005, 340) and the preference, especially among conservative politicians and proponents of third-way politics, to transfer traditional
state social welfare functions to civil society (Sassen, 1999). This phenomenon was not limited to Western Europe, North America, Japan, and
Australia but extended to former communist countries of Eastern Europe
and to some least developed countries as well (Mathews 1997; Ahmed and
Potter 2006, 24).
Increased government “outsourcing” to INGOs raises significant issues
for INGOs themselves. For example, there are concerns that it can lead
to INGOs becoming captured by state actors, and there is certainly clear
evidence that a high proportion of INGO funding from government
sources can potentially “distort accountability upwards and overemphasize
linear approaches to performance measurement with damaging effects
on the ability of INGOs to be effective catalysts of social change” (Edwards
and Hulme 1995b, 219). Recognizing the potential downsides of significant government funding, many INGOs have policies in place governing
the proportion of government funding they are prepared to accept. This
is an issue that MSF is particularly cognizant of and one of the reasons
that in 2008, 89.9 percent of their total global income was from nongovernment sources.
However, it is likely that the past zeal for privatization and outsourcing
is abating somewhat. As the Spence Report (World Bank 2008) demonstrates,
and as reinforced by government reaction to the 2008 global financial crisis, there has been a significant shift in economic thinking away from the
policy prescriptions of the Washington consensus. Instead, there is increasing
74 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
recognition for policy to be sensitive to contextual differences between
countries and for policy experimentation. Economic orthodoxy is much
more likely now to recognize a legitimate role for government, thereby
reducing government privatization and deregulation. While still favoring
free trade, the Spence Report even recognizes that there are risks and dislocations from opening up an economy too quickly.
On the other hand, if official aid budgets continue to rise in line with
commitments in many developed countries (despite the global financial
crisis), the ongoing reluctance to expand the staff employed by bilateral
agencies means that such agencies will continue to seek mechanisms that
allow them to expend large sums in a way that meets public sector goals
around accountability. This trend is therefore likely to continue to provide opportunities for large aid and development INGOs to grow,
although they will need to compete with multilateral institutions and the
new collaborative organizations, discussed in Chapter 2, for a share of
these funds. That in turn will require them to address the issues explored
further in Chapters 5 and 6.
Technology
The seventh factor that has driven INGO growth has been improvements
in and the reduced costs of information, communication, and transport
technologies. Since television advertising allowed the largest aid and
development INGOs to become household names in the early 1980s,
modern communication technologies have facilitated increased fundraising and allowed INGOs to mobilize supporters in greater and greater
numbers. In addition, new technology has facilitated the geographic
spread of INGOs by lowering internal communication costs. In fact, in 1986,
Greenpeace was one of the first organizations of any type to use a computer
network to link its thirty offices together (Clark 2003, 98). New communication technologies have also allowed for much more cost-effective networking between organizations. For example, the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines (ICBL) used modern communications forms to allow
members to share information, political strategies, and to jointly plan
activities without a secretariat (Williams and Goose 1998, 22; Bruhl and
Rittberger 2002, 8). Bruhl and Rittberger (9) conclude that “without the
technological revolution, these INGOs could never have worked so
closely together.” Modern communication technology had a similar
impact in the campaign for the ICC and the anti-MAI campaign.
The increased speed of communications via the Internet and other
technology has helped INGOs partially address one of the limitations of
their influence: the slow pace at which they are able to reflect public
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 75
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
support for their views to politicians and international statesmen. E-mail
based campaigns are fast, cheap, and require less effort from supporters
than letter writing, increasing response rates. Mobile phones can be
even more powerful. They allow for large numbers of people to be
mobilized quickly for campaigning purposes, and they are far more
ubiquitous than the Internet. Mobile phones are now regularly used by
activists to create instant street protests, can be used to disseminate
information, including pictures, to counter government propaganda,
and increasingly as a fundraising tool. For example, mobile phones
were used by activists to organize street protests in the 2001overthrow of
Joseph Estrada in the Philippines. Of course, they have a dark side too.
Mobile phones were used as detonators in the Madrid train bombings
in 2004 and can just as easily spread disinformation and rumors.
Opportunities for civil society to harness new technologies continue to
emerge. For example, the use of Twitter during the 2009 presidential
election in Iran—a technology that did not even exist at the time of the
last Iranian election—facilitated information sharing between activists
around the world and may have tempered the government’s response to
street protests. This election was the first time that Twitter had been used
to support a large-scale social movement. Twitter’s attractiveness to these
types of situations is not surprising. As Lev Grossman (2009) argues,
Twitter is “ideal for a mass protest movement, both very easy for the average citizen to use and very hard for any central authority to control . . .
It’s free, highly mobile, very personal, and very quick. It’s also built to
spread, and fast.” It is “promiscuous by nature: tweets go out over two networks, the Internet and SMS, the network that cell phones use for text
messages, and they can be received and read on practically anything with
a screen and a network connection” (Grossman 2009). Of course, it also
has real limitations. As the more traditional Economist (2009b) argued, the
site gave a very one-sided view of events and, like YouTube, was hobbled
as a news source by its clumsy search engine. Still, even President Obama
was using technology like YouTube to bypass conventional media and
speak directly to large numbers of people on critical issues of foreign policy. In March 2009, the Obama administration developed a YouTube
video that was intended to influence young Iranians.9 In addition to
Twitter and YouTube, a range of web 2.0 applications, new high-definition
video, such as CISCO’s TelePresence or Hewlett-Packard’s Halo, and
other technologies are likely to continue to make the job of managing a
large, geographically dispersed global organization easier and more cost
effective (see Chapter 7).
New technologies have the potential to enhance the effectiveness of
aid and development programs. For example, Sachs (2008, 307) describes
mobile phones as “perhaps the greatest development tool of our age.”
76 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
While the introduction of mobile phones in developed countries was an
incremental change, complementing existing fixed-line telephony, in
much of the developing world the change is revolutionary. Mobile
phones help to make markets more efficient, reduce transaction costs,
provide direct and indirect business opportunities, and improve productivity. It is therefore not surprising that a number of studies have shown
that an extra 10 mobile phones per 100 people can add 0.6 to 0.8 percent
to a developing country’s GDP (for example, see Waverman, Meschi, and
Fuss 2005). As such mobile devices continue to increase in computing
power—the Apple iPhone already has more processing power than the
entire North American Defense Command did in 1965—and as networks
in developing countries are upgraded from second generation to third
generation technology, the ways in which they can be used to facilitate
economic and social development will continue to increase.
New Technologies can also help INGOs respond to stakeholder demands
for increased transparency and provide donors with a more realistic understanding of the complexities of aid and development work. A good example of this potential in relation to donors is a joint venture between the
African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF) and the Guardian newspaper. Guardian readers have been jointly funding a three-year integrated
development project in Katine, Uganda, with most information (budgets,
plans, and progress reports) available online. The Katine web site contains
video, allowing comments and questions to be posted for the country
director. A Ugandan reporter also visits the project area two weeks each
month (see www.guardian.co.uk/katine). Perhaps even more significant is
the potential for community members to use new technologies to keep
INGOs more accountable or to even communicate directly with donors.
For example, World Vision–sponsored children sometimes use Facebook
to find and communicate directly with their sponsors. As Internet access in
poor communities expands, such interactions are likely to significantly
increase.
While activists, small NGOs, and civil society more broadly have
remained relatively good at adapting new technologies to their purposes,
the large INGOs have not shown the same level of innovation. Their websites are generally basic and they have not innovated in the way that, for
example, Get Up (see www.getup.org.au) has in campaigning or the
Obama presidential campaign did in fundraising. While exceptions exist,
their forays into social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace are
nascent at best, and they have largely failed to date to use sites like
YouTube, despite their enormous potential for viral marketing. The view
that large INGOs have become very poor at utilizing new technology is
reinforced by a survey of press relations conducted by Steven Ross (2008),
which found that “the potential of Internet technologies has barely begun
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 77
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
to be exploited” by INGOs. One of the reasons for this is that, overall,
INGOs invest too little in technology. While their financial systems have
been improved to meet donor requirements, they have failed to employ
information management technologies despite them being seen as critical to improved effectiveness. Large INGOs also appear generally
unaware of the way new technologies could disrupt, either positively or
adversely, their field activities (Geldof 2005).
These technology failures will need to be addressed if the large INGOs
wish to remain relevant in the twenty-first century as the information revolution continues to gather pace. While phone calls over copper wire
could carry one page of information per second in the 1980s, it is claimed
that the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone company of Japan is now testing a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber, equivalent to 2,660 CDs or 210 million phone calls
every second. In Africa, for example, the mobile phone market is increasing by close to 50 percent per annum, one of the fastest growth rates in
the world (Garreau 2008). This growth in mobile phone penetration is
likely to be replicated in Africa by Internet penetration, currently only
around 5 percent, as undersea fiber-optic cable is laid in the Indian
Ocean, linking East Africa to the inland broadband networks of Asia. This
may cut bandwidth costs for some African countries by up to 90 percent
and massively expand penetration. Globally, Internet penetration is still
only around 23 percent, suggesting that we are only at the beginning of
the revolution that it will bring (see www.Internetworldstats.com). If the
large INGOs fail to identify the opportunities for their organizations
and for their customers from the increased availability of these types of
technology, other organizations will emerge who are better able to use
technology to achieve their mission. As a result, while it is clear that
new technologies have been crucial to the past growth in size and influence of the largest INGOs and that new technologies have enormous
potential to support the work of INGOs, there is some doubt over the
ability of the large INGOs to grasp these opportunities and continue to
grow and prosper in the twenty-first century.
Global Economic Conditions
The final factor to be considered is the impact of global economic growth
on the size and influence of INGOs. Global economic growth can impact
INGOs in a number of interrelated ways. Slowing or negative economic
growth may reduce the ability of INGOs to raise financial resources. Since
private philanthropic giving is highly discretionary, it becomes one of the
first items to be reduced as economic conditions become less certain and
78 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
household budgets constrained. Hence, philanthropic giving is highly
sensitive to, and a lead indicator of, unemployment. In 2009, for example,
UK-based INGOs experienced reductions in private giving of up to 10
percent as a result of deteriorating economic conditions in that country.
Such falls in private giving can be exacerbated by other factors. For example, constrained economic conditions can combine with donor fatigue,
public concerns about INGO effectiveness, and competing domestic
issues to lead to significantly reduced support for INGOs. Since slowing
economic growth will also reduce corporate earnings, it is likely to reduce
distributions by trusts and foundations, leading to further falls in INGO
incomes. For example, around 6 percent of disbursements by US-based
foundations went to international development and related activities,
either through US- or overseas-based NGOs (Anheier 2005, 340).
One may also expect reduced economic growth to lower government tax receipts and increase competing demands on a government’s
budget, leading to a decrease in ODA. In addition, since OECD governments are likely to come under increasing pressure in the next few years
to reduce the debt they incurred to stimulate their economies in 2009
and 2010, there will be increasing pressure to find budgetary savings by
deferring increases or reducing ODA. This is the view of the ODI that
believes that ODA could fall by up to a fifth (Economist, 2009a). The
ODI’s view is supported by the experience of the global economic
recession in the early 1990s where large fiscal deficits led to deep cuts
in ODA.
On the other hand, total global ODA did not fall during the economic
downturn after 2000, demonstrating that the relationship between GDP and
ODA is not straightforward. Despite the deteriorating economic conditions
in many developed countries and significant increases in government borrowings, many OECD countries have so far retained their commitments to
increasing ODA. For example, Australia’s foreign minister reiterated the
Australian government’s commitment to increasing Australia’s ODA to 0.5
percent by 2015 in the 2009 Budget (see www.foreignminister.gov.au), both
sides of politics in the United Kingdom remain committed to increasing the
United Kingdom’s ODA to 0.7 percent of GDP by 2013, and the Obama
administration in the United States appears committed to its pledge of doubling US aid to Africa by the end of his first term.10 The DAC believes that
based on current commitments, ODA will continue to rise from US$120 billion in 2007/8 to US$145 billion in 2010, an increase of 21 percent (in 2008
dollars, see OECD 2009, Table Four). While this increase is at least US$10
billion short of the promises made by the G8 at its 2005 Gleneagles meeting, it does suggest that they will achieve their US$50 billion target for
Africa—at Gleneagles, the G8 committed to lift total aid from US$80 billion to US$130 billion by 2010 and to increase aid to Africa to US$50 billion
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 79
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
in 2004 dollars. In any event, should the DAC projections be met, it will provide the basis for solid government revenue growth for the largest INGOs,
despite the economic downturn.
Slowing or declining economic growth will also increase poverty in
developing countries. The global economic crisis caused capital inflows to
poor nations to fall by around 85 percent. Remittances are also likely to
have fallen in 2009, despite their greater resilience relative to many other
categories of resource flows to developing countries.11 According to
Martin Ravallion, Director of the Development Research Group at the
World Bank, 65 million people will fall below the $2-a-day poverty line in
2009 due to the impact of the global financial crisis. Some 53 million will
fall below the level of absolute poverty, which is $1.25 a day (World Bank
2009). To put this into perspective, this equates to between 200,000 and
400,000 more children, mostly female, dying every year between 2009 and
2015 than would have perished without the crisis (World Bank 2009). Not
only do these statistics suggest that there will be increased demand for
INGO services, these statistics will also be a powerful advocacy tool for
ensuring that OECD governments honor their ODA commitments.
Overall, then, it is difficult to predict the effect that economic growth
has on the size and influence of INGOs. However, even if the current
global economic slowdown does dampen INGO growth rates in the short
term, it is unlikely to have a significant long-term impact.
Conclusion
A large number of factors have been driving the increasing size and
influence of INGOs. They include changing views about what development is and how it occurs; increased political openness to civil society in
many parts of the world; increased awareness and concern about
transnational problems like global poverty and climate change; a growing confidence gap between citizens and governments; a rise in cosmopolitan values, a preference for democratic forms of governance, an
appreciation for cultural diversity and increased interest in global issues
in developed countries; increased outsourcing and privatization by many
governments; and improvements in and the reduced costs of information, communication, and transport technologies. It is less clear that
global economic growth is a long-term determinant of the size and influence of INGOs.
However, whether the growth rates enjoyed by INGOs over the past
decade will continue into the next one appears uncertain. Factors such as
political openness, the privatization and outsourcing push, and the value
shift in OECD countries all appear to be unlikely to drive ongoing growth.
80 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
On the other hand, ongoing concern over transnational problems, which
citizens do not believe governments have the capacity to effectively
address, and especially ongoing technological development appear to
remain supportive of ongoing growth. Although potentially more fragile
than in the past, policy changes that reinforce the role of INGOs in the
development process and even in global governance also appear likely to
sustain ongoing growth in both size and influence. Finally, while the current global economic slowdown will probably dampen INGO growth rates
in the short term, it is unlikely to be a significant long-term factor. On balance, then, the overall environment appears largely supportive of the continued growth in size and influence. However, whether or not individual
INGOs are able to take advantage of this environment will depend on
how they respond to the myriad of challenges that face them. These challenges and the organizational changes needed to adequately respond to
them are the subject of the next three chapters.
Notes
1. Between 1973 and 1989, the number of governments classified as
democratic in the developing world increased from 17 to 38 (Lindeburg
and Bryant 2001).
2. Bruhl and Rittberger (2002, 6) have identified three, slightly
different, key functions of the state. They are: “to ensure a population’s
physical security; to sustainably manage the environment; and to
[promote] the production and distribution of goods and services
necessary to a population’s livelihood.” Other functions that people
may look to governance to provide include promoting the rule of law,
mechanisms for people to participate on issues that affect them, and
addressing market failure, including, at least, severe income inequality.
3. Demonstrating its power, Jon Stewart’s program, The Daily Show,
was used by Barak Obama as his last TV appearance before the critical
Pennsylvania primary. The show is “perfectly attuned to an era in which
cogitative dissonance has become a national epidemic”, Smith, D
(2008), “How a Satirist Became America’s Most Influential TV
Personality” The Observer, Sept. 14, p. 32.
4. Kaldor et al. (2003) define regressive globalization as those “individuals, groups, firms, or even governments that favor globalization
when it is in their particular interest and irrespective of any negative
consequences for others. Regressive globalizers see the world as a zerosum game, in which they seek to maximize the benefit of the few, which
they represent, at the expense of the welfare of the many, about which
they are indifferent at best.”
Factors Driving the Increased Size and Influence of INGOs 81
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.
5. Based on information about internal party polling obtained by WVA
and public comments by Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for
International Development Assistance, Mr. Bob McMullan.
6. Make Poverty History attracted more than 225,000 people to the
Edinburgh demonstration on July 2, four days before the G8 meeting.
See Glasius et al. (2005, 10).
7. In Austria’s 2008 election, far right parties won 29 percent of the
vote. The far right Swiss People’s Party is the largest in Switzerland;
Denmark’s government relies on the support of the anti-immigration
People’s Party; and the explicitly xenophobic Northern League in Italy
is part of the ruling right-wing coalition. “The European Far Right: Dark
Tales from the Vienna Woods,” The Economist, October 4, 2008.
8. Ironic since Stalin also used the term kosmopolity (cosmopolitans)
to undermine opponents.
9. See “Obama’s Norouz Message to Iran,” developed by Voice of
America and distributed via www.youtube.com.
10. Recent research by World Vision Australia found that, notwithstanding the economic crisis, support for ODA had increased from
83 percent in 2007 to 86 percent in June 2009. Most importantly, the
share that strongly supported government aid increased from 31 percent
to 43 percent of total respondents. World Vision Australia (2009).
11. According to Ratha et al. (2008) remittances are normally a
stable or even countercyclical source of funds during an economic
downturn in the recipient economy, and resilient in the face of a
slowdown in the source country.
82 The Change Imperative
Ronalds, Paul David. The Change Imperative : Creating the Next Generation NGO, Lynne Rienner Publishers,
2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3328923.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2020-03-14 17:06:09. Copyright © 2010. Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved.

---

Get Professional Assignment Help Cheaply

Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?

Whichever your reason is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.

Why Choose Our Academic Writing Service?

• Plagiarism free papers
• Timely delivery
• Any deadline
• Skilled, Experienced Native English Writers
• Subject-relevant academic writer
• Adherence to paper instructions
• Ability to tackle bulk assignments
• Reasonable prices
• 24/7 Customer Support
• Get superb grades consistently

Online Academic Help With Different Subjects

Literature

Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.

Finance

Do you struggle with finance? No need to torture yourself if finance is not your cup of tea. You can order your finance paper from our academic writing service and get 100% original work from competent finance experts.

Computer science

Computer science is a tough subject. Fortunately, our computer science experts are up to the match. No need to stress and have sleepless nights. Our academic writers will tackle all your computer science assignments and deliver them on time. Let us handle all your python, java, ruby, JavaScript, php , C+ assignments!

Psychology

While psychology may be an interesting subject, you may lack sufficient time to handle your assignments. Don’t despair; by using our academic writing service, you can be assured of perfect grades. Moreover, your grades will be consistent.

Engineering

Engineering is quite a demanding subject. Students face a lot of pressure and barely have enough time to do what they love to do. Our academic writing service got you covered! Our engineering specialists follow the paper instructions and ensure timely delivery of the paper.

Nursing

In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments. Our nursing assignment writers will offer you professional nursing paper help at low prices.

Sociology

Truth be told, sociology papers can be quite exhausting. Our academic writing service relieves you of fatigue, pressure, and stress. You can relax and have peace of mind as our academic writers handle your sociology assignment.

Business

We take pride in having some of the best business writers in the industry. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty!

Statistics

We boast of having some of the most experienced statistics experts in the industry. Our statistics experts have diverse skills, expertise, and knowledge to handle any kind of assignment. They have access to all kinds of software to get your assignment done.

Law

Writing a law essay may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle, especially when you need to know the peculiarities of the legislative framework. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction.

What discipline/subjects do you deal in?

We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.

Are your writers competent enough to handle my paper?

Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.

What if I don’t like the paper?

There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.

Reasons being:

• When assigning your order, we match the paper’s discipline with the writer’s field/specialization. Since all our writers are graduates, we match the paper’s subject with the field the writer studied. For instance, if it’s a nursing paper, only a nursing graduate and writer will handle it. Furthermore, all our writers have academic writing experience and top-notch research skills.
• We have a quality assurance that reviews the paper before it gets to you. As such, we ensure that you get a paper that meets the required standard and will most definitely make the grade.

In the event that you don’t like your paper:

• The writer will revise the paper up to your pleasing. You have unlimited revisions. You simply need to highlight what specifically you don’t like about the paper, and the writer will make the amendments. The paper will be revised until you are satisfied. Revisions are free of charge
• We will have a different writer write the paper from scratch.
• Last resort, if the above does not work, we will refund your money.

Will the professor find out I didn’t write the paper myself?

Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.

What if the paper is plagiarized?

We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.

When will I get my paper?

You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.

Will anyone find out that I used your services?

We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.

How our Assignment Help Service Works

1. Place an order

You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.

2. Pay for the order

Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.

3. Track the progress

You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.

4. Download the paper

The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.

GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!

---