ABSTRACT
Historically, research on North–South non-governmental organization (NGO) partnerships has depicted financially secure Northern partners as wielding power over their financially dependent Southern partners. In practice, however, North–South NGO partnerships are complex, involving the exchange of a variety of financial and non-financial resources, as well as introducing institutional structures (i.e. rules, norms, and practices) that decentralize authority and leadership, including by empowering Southern partners to lead. This chapter draws on information about a Tanzanian–US NGO network to investigate mutual dependence through a lens of non-financial resource exchanges, with an eye towards the network’s structure. Social exchange theory provides a framework for examining network structure, resource exchanges, and mutual dependence. The findings identify three primary themes within the Tanzanian NGO network: (1) non-financial resources are the most important resources exchanged within the network; (2) resource exchanges are both mutual and multidirectional, resulting in mutual dependence between partners; and (3) the network’s use of democratic principles allows partners to have individual agency and work towards a shared governance model.
