How must organizational development change to facilitate country ownership

Background: Country ownership has become a key element of many donors' funding strategies in recent years, with the clearly articulated goals of improving the sustainability of development assistance; targeting more funds to people in need; and reducing the dependence on external agencies. We wanted to determine how effective capacity building of local organizations is in the context of country ownership

Methods: We conducted a small pilot program in India with three organizations and developed a tool capable of measuring organizational development. The tool was then modified to the Ethiopian context and applied to 44 NGOs comprising 61 different sites around the country. Measurements were made in 11 organizational domains

Results: There was considerable variation in organizational strength across the domains, with most organizations showing strength in the domains of mission and values, financial management, and human resource management. Most organizations showed significant weakness in strategic planning, financial security, and linkages to the community and other organizations.

Discussion: The similarity in patterns of organizational development suggests that there are significant isomorphic forces at work. The question remains as to whether these forces are positive or negative for organizational development. There is a lot to suggest that many of the forces for organizational development are somewhat coercive, related to project implementation, and leading organizations to conform to donor needs for accountability rather than organizational needs for capacity to fulfill their mission.

Conclusions: We question whether the current model of project-oriented capacity building of NGOs is compatible with a olicy of country ownership.