To Comply or Deny – or are there other Options? A study of how Ethiopian development NGOs handle demands from their donors

Abstract

This thesis looks at development NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) in the Global South and their relationship to their external environment, here limited to their foreign donors. These NGOs face many uncertainties, and a complex and unstable donor-environment is one of them. They depend on the support they get from their donors, but with the support, they also must deal with demands and expectations from these donors. There are many demands, and they can be different and sometimes also inconsistent. Organisations in this study are Ethiopian development NGOs. To handle donors’ requirements, the NGOs employ different strategies. Compliance is the most common strategy, but not the only one. The response varies according to what the demands are about and what area of an organisation’s work it touches (content), who are making them (constituent), and the context of the organisation. The analysis builds on resource dependence theory and institutional theory.