ABSTRACT
What are the possible futures for NGOs? Are they to become ‘little more than’ the organisational mechanism for an international welfare system, as Fowler (1994) fears? Is the level of co-option into state agendas through funding and joint initiatives as advanced and problematic as Farrington et al (1993) have intimated? Are they doomed to become the new ‘lords of poverty’ despite Hancock’s (1989) plea to the contrary? What will be the leading edge of local, national and international ‘third sector’ organisations as we move into the 21st century? Will NGOs have the flexibility and efficiency that they claim to underpin their effectiveness, and the vision they claim as their ‘speciality’ (Clark 1991; Edwards and Hulme 1992)? Most important of all, will NGOs have the legitimacy to represent those they claim as their constituents and the forms of accountability which ensure effectiveness in relation to their needs?
