Non-governmental organizations and official development assistance: A theoretical approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61347/psa.v4i1.153Keywords:
Civil society, effectiveness, international cooperation, NGOs, ODAAbstract
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have emerged as strategic actors within the international development cooperation landscape, channeling significant flows of Official Development Assistance (ODA) toward vulnerable communities in developing countries. This article aimed to analyze, from a theoretical perspective, the relationship between NGOs and ODA by examining the main conceptual frameworks guiding their interaction, the existing financing mechanisms, and the academic debates concerning their effectiveness and legitimacy. To achieve this, a systematic literature review methodology was adopted, analyzing scientific publications produced between 2000 and 2024 and selecting 78 primary sources from specialized databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and JSTOR, following the PRISMA guidelines. The findings revealed that NGOs play a complementary and, in certain contexts, substitutive role to state action in the provision of global public goods. However, their effectiveness is conditioned by factors such as institutional autonomy, transparency and accountability practices, technical capacity, and alignment with the development priorities of recipient countries. The study concludes that maximizing the impact of ODA channeled through NGOs requires robust regulatory frameworks, participatory evaluation mechanisms, and stronger articulation with national sustainable development policies, thereby contributing to the theoretical debate on the contemporary architecture of international development cooperation.
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