NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort?

Banks, Hulme, and Edwards critically examine NGOs' capacity to achieve long-term transformative development and social justice goals. They argue that NGOs are often constrained by weak civil society roots and technocratic donor models, which limit their influence on structural drivers of inequality. Despite these challenges, the authors suggest NGOs can leverage their traditional strengths to bridge grassroots organizations with national-level structures, strengthening empowerment and social transformation.