NGDOs as a moment in history: beyond aid to social entrepreneurship or civic innovation?

NGDOs are the product of an era that is rapidly passing. Yet the common goa ls they strive towards remain relevant and are far from being realised. Pov erty, inequity, insecurity and injustice were stubborn features of the old world order and are abiding features of the new. A brief history of NGDOs a nd of the radical shifts in the context where international development tak es place shows that the goals NGDOs typically aspire to cannot be reached b y simply relying on the framework employed by the official aid system. One important reason is that a growing reliance on tax-based funding is shiftin g NGDO morality, legitimacy and function from the civic to the public domai n. Consequently, a new paradigm is required not just for NGDO development p ractice, but for the very nature of NGDOs themselves. This paper explores t he extent to which social entrepreneurship and civic innovation could provi de a new framework for NGDOs and development beyond aid. While both merit f urther attention, civic innovation is shown the better to fulfil the twin r equirements of civic financial embedding allied to principles of co-operati on and non-exploitation.