M. Edwards et G. Sen, NGOs, social change and the transformation of human relationships: a 21st-century civic agenda, THIRD WORLD, 21(4), 2000, pp. 605-616
Globalisation shifts the balance of power from public to private interests,
including NGOs. However, sustainable development requires a change in powe
r relations that runs much deeper than this: a shift from using power over
others to advance our selfish interests, to using power to facilitate the s
elf-development of all. This demands constant attention to personal change,
and a series of reversals in attitudes and behaviour. In this paper we arg
ue that NGOs-as explicitly values-based organisations-have a crucial role t
o play in supporting these changes through their programme activities, cons
tituency-building work and organisational praxis. The decline of paternalis
tic foreign aid and the rise of more genuine international co-operation pro
vide an excellent opportunity to advance this agenda. The paper provides a
detailed rationale for these claims and a set of examples that show how pow
er relations could be transformed by civic-led approaches in economics, pol
itics and the structures of social power.