Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:24:22.261Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Foreign donor assistance and environmental capacity building: evidence from Serbia and Bosnia–Herzegovina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2011

Adam Fagan  and
Indraneel Sircar
Adam Fagan*
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, UK
*
* E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Early analyses of the impact of donor assistance for NGOs across post-socialist Eurasia documented the extent to which the ubiquitous new NGOs were disconnected from indigenous networks, lacked sustainable resources and capacity, and were accountable to donors rather than citizens and governments. Although this article does not entirely contest such conclusions, it examines the role of NGOs from a different normative perspective based on their role as conduits of change rather than as emblems of democratic participation or liberal representation. However, in its critique, the research does contend that there are three fundamental problems with the earlier, somewhat negative analysis: (i) too much was being expected of NGOs and donor assistance; (ii) scholars were attempting to judge the impact of the intervention far too quickly; and (iii) the focus on democracy and civil society obscured the critical ‘governance’ impact that certain NGOs were having in terms of transforming decision-making and state power ‘behind the scenes’. From the empirical perspective of environmental NGOs in post-conflict Bosnia and Serbia, the paper uses a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods in order to ascertain better the impact of external assistance in terms of particular development skills and strategies employed by recipients. The conclusion reached is that donor funding seems to be exerting a positive longer-term impact on the transactional capacities of a small core of environmental NGOs in both locations. Organizations with the most developed transactional capacities, and the few organizations now able to engage transnationally, have obtained a succession of grants over a number of years and have had their transactional activities have been funded specifically by international donors via block grants. Although this does not necessarily prove a positive relationship between donor funding and transactional capacity, it nevertheless challenges more negative assessments in the existing literature.

Keywords

environmental NGOstransactional capacitydonor assistanceBosnia–HerzegovinaSerbia
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 2011 , pp. 301 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anastakis, O. (2008), ‘The EU's political conditionality in the Western Balkans: towards a more pragmatic approach’, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 8: 365–377.Google Scholar
Baker, G. (1999), ‘The taming of the idea of civil society’, Democratization 6(3): 43–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börzel, T.A. (2009), ‘New modes of governance and enlargement. The paradox of double weakness’, in T.A. Börzel (ed.), New Modes of Governance and Enlargement, London: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Börzel, T. Buzogány, A. (2010), ‘Environmental organizations and the Europeanization of public policy in Central and Eastern Europe: the case of biodiversity governance’, Environmental Politics 19(5): 708–735.Google Scholar
Bruszt, L., Vedres, B. (2009), ‘Fostering developmental agency from without’, Paper prepared for the EUSA Eleventh Biennial International Conference Los Angeles, California, April 23–25.Google Scholar
Carmin, J. (2008), ‘Building capacity for environmental governance in Central and Eastern Europe: lessons for EU enlargement’. NEWGOV Cross-Cluster Workshop on “Civil Society, New Modes of Governance and Enlargement”, Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
Cellarius, B.A. Staddon, C. (2002), ‘Environmental nongovernmental organizations, civil society, and democratization in Bulgaria’, East European Politics and Societies 16: 182–222.Google Scholar
Fagan, A. (2005), ‘Taking stock of civil-society development in post-communist Europe: evidence from the Czech Republic’, Democratization 12: 528–547.Google Scholar
Fagan, A. (2008), ‘Global-local linkage in the western Balkans: the politics of environmental capacity building in Bosnia-Herzegovina’, Political Studies 56: 629–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fagan, A. (2010), Europe's Balkan Dilemma: Paths to Civil Society or State Building. London: Tauris.Google Scholar
Fagan, A. Jehlicka, P. (2003), ‘Contours of the Czech environmental movement: a comparative analysis of Hnuti duha (Rainbow movement) and Jihoceske matky (South Bohemian mothers)’, Environmental Politics 12: 49–70.Google Scholar
Gibson, J.L. (2001), ‘Social networks, civil society, and the prospects for consolidating Russia's democratic transition’, American Journal of Political Science 45: 51–68.Google Scholar
Goetz, K.H. (2008), ‘Governance as a path to government’, West European Politics 31: 258–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heritier, A. Lehmkuhl, D. (2008), ‘The shadow of hierarchy and new modes of governance’, Journal of Public Policy 28: 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, M.M. (2003), The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-communist Europe, Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, P.C. (2001), ‘Building civil societies in East Central Europe: the effect of American non-governmental organizations on women's groups’, Democratization 8: 45–68.Google Scholar
Mandel, R. (2002), ‘Seeding civil society’, in C.M. Hann (ed.), Postsocialisms: Ideals, Ideologies and Practices in Eurasia, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mendelson, S.E. Glenn, J.K. (eds) (2002), The Power and Limits of NGOs: A Critical Look at Building Democracy in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, New York: Columbia.Google Scholar
Obradovic, D. Pleines, H. (2007), The Capacity of Central and East European Interest Groups to Participate in EU Governance, Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag.Google Scholar
Petrova, T. Tarrow, S. (2007), ‘Transactional and participatory activism in the emerging European polity the puzzle of East-Central Europe’, Comparative Political Studies 40: 74–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quigley, K.F.F. (2000), ‘Lofty goals, modest results: assisting civil society in Eastern Europe’, in M. Ottaway and T. Carothers (eds), Funding Virtue: Civil Society Aid and Democracy Promotion, Washington, DC; Great Britain: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
REC (2006), NGO Directory of South Eastern Europe: A Directory and Survey Findings of West Balkan Environmental Civil Society organizations, Szentendre: Regional Environmental Center.Google Scholar
Rose, R. (2001), ‘How people view democracy: a diverging Europe’, Journal of Democracy 12: 93–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sampson, S. (2002), ‘Beyond transition: rethinking elite configurations in the Balkans’, in C.M. Hann (ed.), Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Practices in Eurasia, London; New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sissenich, B. (2007), Building States without Society: European Union Enlargement and the Transfer of EU Social Policy to Poland and Hungary, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Vogel, D. Kagan, R.A. (2004), Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies, London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wedel, J. (2001), Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe, 1989–1998, New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Weinthal, E. (2002), State Making and Environmental Cooperation: Linking Domestic and International Politics in Central Asia, Cambridge, Mass; London: MIT.Google Scholar