civil society organization – To Archeio https://toarcheio.org To Archeio project site Mon, 20 Apr 2020 13:46:36 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1 Crisis and transition of NGOs in Europe: The case of Greece https://toarcheio.org/items/crisis-and-transition-of-ngos-in-europe-the-case-of-greece/ Tue, 16 Apr 2019 22:25:36 +0000 http://arc.local/items/crisis-and-transition-of-ngos-in-europe-the-case-of-greece/ Continued]]> The ongoing financial crisis has globally impacted nearly every national economy in the world. Although its initial effects were concentrated purely in the financial sector, increased economic turbulence has gradually diffused into most sectors of society—including civil society and NGOs. One basic consequence has been the transformation of development assistance due to a decrease in available funding from the usual “suspects”, known as “old donors,” and a subsequent increase from so called “new donors” such as China and Brazil. Moreover, many of these “new donors” are negatively predisposed to working with NGOs and thus available funding to NGOs in the international level seems to be decreasing. A focus on the national level also reveals a similar case: countries that were greatly impacted by the aftermath of the crisis, such as Greece, have sharply decreased available public funding to NGOs.

This paper explores the effects of these developments. Its initial findings suggest that the “western model” of NGOs expansion is less viable than before. NGOs are being accused of losing their fundamental values and working mostly as ‘walking sticks’—covering states’ inefficiencies in specific sectors—thus their function as an unofficial public sector is being challenged. In practice, NGOs are transforming into dedicated contractors of national and international public agencies with limited to no real interconnection with society. This transformation is being rendered incompatible with the new environment, as available contracts are becoming less lucrative. As a result, many NGOs are rediscovering their idealistic past while new, less formal civil society actors are arising to cover the multiple needs created by the crisis. Focusing mainly on the Greek case study, this paper presents a seldom-studied effect of the financial crisis—the transformation of the NGO sector, culminating in informal networks overlapping with “old school” NGOs which find it difficult to adjust to the new economic situation. Evidence suggests that a dual trend currently exists where a small segment of existing “professionalized” NGOs are able to gain public funding through the usual public procurement procedures. Thus, they are able to survive and further expand in conjunction with the rise of small, grassroots organizations whose main strengths derive from their devotion to the practice of philanthropy, altruism, and voluntarism, in addition to their widespread acceptance from the general public.

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