On Aid Effectiveness & Foreign Assistance Reform
Organizational Development & Fundraising for Community-Based Organizations
Documentaries on Global Issues
On Aid Effectiveness & Foreign Assistance Reform
Local Aid Reform Initiatives:
- Myanmar: “Statement on Peace and Development in Burma” containing recommendations for international donors by 36 Burmese community-based organizations
- Palestine: “An Appeal by Palestinian Civil Society to the International Community to Respect Our Right to Self Determination in the Aid System” Advocacy initiative by the Dalia Association
Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP)
Affiliated Network for Social Accountability-Africa – a project of IDASA
Africa Platform for Development Effectiveness
Aid Data – tracking development finance
AidFlows uses visualization to track the sources and uses of aid funding.
aidinfo – better information, better aid
Aid Watch – just asking that aid benefit the poor
Beyond Good Intentions – A ten-part film series (and movement) investigating the effectiveness of international aid
The Big Push Forward – Making Space for Fair Assessment for a Fairer World
Change.org’s posts on humanitarian relief
CIVICUS’ Legitimacy, Transparency and Accountability (LTA) Resource Centre
Civil Society Voices for Better Aid
Coady International Institute Asset-Based Community Development
Community Development Resource Association – South African centre for organisational innovation and developmental practice.
Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa from U.C. Irvine Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies
DARA - an independent organisation committed to improving aid for vulnerable populations suffering from conflict, disasters, and climate change.
Dochas, The Irish Association of Non-Governmental Development Organizations’ page on Development Effectiveness and Useful Resources from their New Voices in Development Conference
elrha, enhancing learning & research for humanitarian assistance
European Network on Debt & Development (Eurodad)
Exit Poverty Social (Kenya)
Global Humanitarian Assistance – here to try and help you find out about humanitarian financing. Where does the money come from? Where does it go? How does it get there? And what is the overall response to need?
Good Intentions Are Not Enough – An honest conversation about the impact of aid
Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP)
Independent Commission for Aid Impact
INGO Accountability Charter – International NGOs Commitment to Accountability
Institute of Development Studies’ Reimaging Development
InterAction’s pages on Aid Effectiveness and Foreign Assistance Reform
International Aid Transparency Initiative
International Budget Project’s Open Budgets Blog – working with with civil society around the world to analyze and influence public budgets in order to reduce poverty
International Development Research Centre (IDRC, CRDI)
Listen First – Practical ways of improving accountability for NGOs
The Listening Project – An exploration of the ideas and insights of people who live in societies that have been on the recipient side of international assistance
Local First, Development for the twenty-first century
Managing for Development Results
Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network
NGO “Another Way” – A model for self-financing, ecological, sustainable, local integrated development, with creative, practical solutions to poverty reduction. (Here you can access a full year e-learning course at post-master’s level for a Diploma in Integrated Development.)
NGOs and Humanitarian Reform Project, of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies
OpenAid – public online monitoring for better development aid
Overseas Development Institute
Oxfam America and Oxfam International’s pages on aid reform & effectiveness
The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and the Accra Agenda for Action (2008)
The Power of How – The UNDP and SNV Capacity Development Initiative
Principles of Accountability for International Philanthropy by the European Foundation Centre and the U.S. Council on Foundations
Publish What You Fund – The Global Campaign for Aid Transparency
The Reality of Aid Network – A pre-eminent Southern-led North/South Network on reforming aid policies and practices
South-South Opportunity’s page on SSC and Aid Effectiveness
The Sphere Project – Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
Tall Orders – Exploring what works in international development
Zunia’s group on Aid Effectiveness
Organizational Development & Fundraising for Community-Based Organizations
Organizational Development Resources for Community-Based Organizations
The Barefoot Guide to Working with Organizations and Social Change – The Barefoot Collective
Bond’s Guidance Notes Series
Building the Capacity of Local Groups – Tearfund
Capacity Building for Local NGOs: Guidance Manual for Good Practice - Catholic Institute for International Relations and International Cooperation for Development
Changing Minds: A Guide to Facilitated Participatory Planning by Cole P. Dodge and Gavin Bennett
Community Mobilisation Handbook – Pact Tanzania
Community Organizers Handbook: A Resource For Netsquared Local (wiki)
Community Organisers Toolbox – Education & Training Unit for Democracy and Development, South Africa
The Constellation ”Connecting Local Responses Around the World” – SALT Methodology and Blended Learning Online Course on unleashing local ownership and strengths
Firelight Foundation Newsflash – Resources for Community Organizations
Frank Julie’s “The Art of Leadership and Management on the Ground” (A practical guide for leaders and managers to build sustainable organisations to promote social change)
GlobalGiving’s Tools & Training blog
Idasa Handbook Series for Community-Based Organisations (Some chapters in the series are better than others.)
Mango’s Practical Financial Management for NGOs Training Manual
The NGO Café, the virtual library on non-governmental organizations
NGO Manager: Knowledge, Skills and Strategies for Non-profit Professionals
Strengthening Your Organisation – HelpAge International (No longer available on their website, but if you email me, I can share it.)
Partnership Matters: A Reflective Guide
Straight to the Point Capacity Building Tools - Pathfinder International
Tips for Strengthening Organizational Capacity – World Bank Small Grants Program
Train-the-Trainer Handbook: Participation, Civic Education, and Community Mobilization – Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa
Training for Transformation: A Handbook for Community Workers, Books 1-3. Zimbabwe: Mambo Press. (Not available online but can be ordered from Amazon.)
Fundraising Resources for Community-Based Organizations
Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs/Civil Society in the Developing World, from Coyote Communications
Core Costs Funding Strategies, from BOND’s Guidance Notes Series
Developing a Financing Strategy, from CIVICUS
A Few Good Online Tools for Friend-to-Friend Fundraising
Find Partners is a helpful organization supporting local community-based organizations in resource mobilization in Uganda and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
Funding 101: the art of giving and receiving grants, discussion on Guardian UK Global Development Professionals Network
Fundraising, from the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT)
Fundraising Guide, from Tearfund’s ROOTS series (Chapter 4 on characteristics of different funding sources is really useful.)
Fundraising Guide for Women’s Community-Based Organizations, from Women Thrive Worldwide
Fundraising Handbook, from Global Fund for Women
Fundraising & Proposal Writing, from IDASA’s Handbook Series for Community-Based Organizations
fundsforngos.org is an online initiative, working for the sustainability of NGOs by increasing their access to donors, resources and skills.
Globalgiving.org or Globalgiving.co.uk
Guide to Key Resources for Funding Peace and Conflict Workfrom the Peace & Collaborative Development Network. See also this article from Craig Zelizer, “12 Key Steps to Obtaining Funding for On the Ground Work“
How To Guides from the The Resource Alliance, Building Fundraising Capacity Worldwide
The NGO Café Fundraising Strategies
Raising Funds and Mobilising Resources for HIV/AIDS: A Toolkit to Support NGOs/CBOs, from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance
The Resource Alliance, a global network for building fundraising capacity and inspiring philanthropy worldwide
The SOFII Collection, the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation & Inspiration, “aims to be the most comprehensive, best organised, and most inspiring collection of fundraising related content from around the world.”
Tips on Local Resource Mobilization, from the World Bank’s Small Grants Program
Wikifund, from the International Fundraising Consultancy.
Recommended Reading
The Barefoot Collective. (2009). The Barefoot Guide to Working with Organizations and Social Change. Cape Town: Community Development Resource Association. Retrieved March 18, 2009, from www.barefootguide.org
Bearman, J. (2008). Drowning in Paperwork, Distracted from Purpose: Challenges and Opportunities in Grant Application and Reporting. Retrieved April 29, 2008 from Project Streamline Web Site.
Birdsall, K. and K. Kelly, et al. (2007). Pioneers, Partners, Providers: The Dynamics of Civil Society and AIDS Funding in Southern Africa. Braamfontein, South Africa: OSISA and CADRE.
Community Development Resource Association. (2007). Dreaming reality: The future in retrospect. Cape Town: CDRA.
Donohue, J. & Mwewa, L. (2006). Community action and the test of time: Learning from community experiences and perceptions (Case studies of mobilization and capacity building to benefit vulnerable children in Malawi and Zambia). Washington, DC: USAID Displaced Children and Orphans Fund.
Eade, D. (1997). Capacity Building: An Approach to People-Centered Development. U.K.: Oxfam.
Foster, G. (2005). Bottlenecks and drip-feeds: Channelling resources to communities responding to orphans and vulnerable children in southern Africa. London: Save the Children.
Gubbels, P. and C. Koss. (2000). From the Roots Up: Strengthening Organizational Capacity through Guided Self-Assessment. Oklahoma City: World Neighbors.
Hawken. P. (2007). Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. New York: Viking Press.
Hope, A. and S. Timmel (1984). Training for Transformation: A Handbook for Community Workers, Books 1-3. Zimbabwe: Mambo Press.
Kaplan, A. (1996). The Development Practitioners Handbook. Cape Town: Pluto Press.
Keystone. (2006). Survey results: Downward accountability to ‘beneficiaries’: NGO and donor perspectives. Retrieved May 28, 2008, from Keystone Web Site.
Keystone. (2011). The INGO Partner Survey 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2011, from Keystone Web Site. (A survey of over 1,000 local overseas partners on behalf of 25 international NGOs. The key finding was that local organisations do not want to be treated as sub-contractors of international agencies. They want help to become independent and influential organisations in their own right.)
Kretzmann, J. and J. McKnight. (1993). Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. Chicago: ACTA Publications.
Manji, F. and A. Naidoo. (2005). Community based organizations: The emerging force within the third sector – strengthening the human rights capacity of CBOs: A survey of 9 southern African countries. Durban: Fahamu.
Palmer, P. (2004). A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Towards an Undivided Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wesley, F., B. Zimmerman, and M. Q. Patton. (2006). Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed. Random House Canada.
Wilkinson-Maposa, S. & Fowler, A. (2009). The poor philanthropist I-IV: How and why the poor help each other. Cape Town: Southern Africa-United States Center for Leadership and Public Values.
Yachkaschi, S. (2008). Towards the development of an appropriate organisational development approach for optimising the capacity building of community-based organisations (CBOs): A case study of three CBOs in the Western Cape. Doctoral dissertation, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Documentaries on Global Issues
Beyond Good Intentions – A ten-part film series (and movement) investigating the effectiveness of international aid
PBS’ Good Fortune – A provocative exploration of how massive international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit.
LinkTV – Television Without Borders
Organizations & Networks
African Women’s Development Fund
The Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation
CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Community Development Resource Association – South African centre for organisational innovation and developmental practice.
Development Practitioners Forum
Fahamu Networks for Social Justice
Global Fund for Community Foundations
The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard – Humanitarian & Development NGOs Domain
Partos Plaza – Netwerken Voor Internationale Samenwerking (in Dutch)
Practical Initiatives Network – Stop reinventing the wheel. A “means for organisations to directly share information with one another.”
Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement
WiserEarth – The Social Network for Sustainability
