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Wanted: Equal partners
Due to its relatively young period of existence, local non-profit actors still struggle to manage their own organizations and implement programs professionally.
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Cooperation in development cooperation refers to collective efforts among the parties committed to the relationship. (Shutterstock/File)
D
evelopment cooperation involves not only the tangible element of development funding from donor agencies, but also the intangible element of knowledge transfer to local implementing partners.
In order to achieve the collective development objectives and further ensure the sustainable impacts of development cooperation, both development agencies as grantors and their local implementing partners as grantees should rethink these elements and reformat the traditional concept of development cooperation into a more progressive concept of equal partnership.
Development cooperation is aimed at narrowing the gap between first- and third world countries to enable them to participate actively in the provision of international public goods and interests. In Indonesia, development cooperation has mushroomed as a result of political transformation ensuing from the 1998 reform era.
In social and political cooperation, the government is considered one of the elements to be transformed, thus leaving nonprofit and private actors as viable local implementing partners, with the latter being increasingly favored.
This shifting selection of local partners was first pointed out at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) of 2011 in Busan, South Korea.
As the post-2015 development agenda pushes development agencies to find the most appropriate local implementing partners to advance global priorities, there is growing concern that non-profit actors have not fulfilled general expectations, despite shared values or ideologies. The traditional relationship between development agencies and non-profit actors has often faced shortcomings in terms of alignment with set standards such as professional implementation management and accountable evaluation.
Due to its relatively young period of existence, local non-profit actors still struggle to manage their own organizations and implement programs professionally.
