Home » Ausgaben » Civil Society, Cooperation and Development » Caught in the Funding Game: The Challenges of NGO Research within Development Aid

Caught in the Funding Game: The Challenges of NGO Research within Development Aid

Autor*innen: Sirpa Rovaniemi
https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-31-1-100
Volume XXXI • Issue 1 • 2015
Seiten 100-116

Abstract

This article describes the methodological challenges I encountered during my ethnographic case study on the cooperation between two NGOs. My experiences show how the NGO actors strove to influence my data collection and analyses. This struggle for representation provides important insights into what kind of environment development aid creates for Southern NGOs, tying them to a fierce funding game which includes competition for funding and the need to demonstrate success. My research became subject to the structural pressure within development aid to demonstrate success, and my study became a battleground for divergent interests and logics. It is common for students and scholars to enter the field of development aid through NGOs or projects, and this often results in complications in the reconciliation of different interests and logics related to the production of knowledge. This should also be acknowledged in teaching and supervision.

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