ABSTRACT
After visiting twenty European NGOs in 1993 to survey their policies on Central America, I was left with the impression that Northern NGOs (NNGOs) are experiencing an (often productive) crisis of identity. Mission statements are being reviewed, policies and priorities redefined, management reorganised and legitimacy questioned. Although some NNGOs have been temporarily paralysed by this internal reassessment, it is a positive sign that profound rethinking is going on, which may give a new impulse to the debate on reshaping (nongovernmental) development co-operation at the dawn of a new millennium. 1
