Coalitions need NGO partners to shape up

Non-governmental organizations have been urged to alter the way they operate so they can work better in cross-sector partnerships.

A new study from the global management consultancy Accenture says NGOs need ‘wholesale change’ if they are to contribute more constructively to coalitions with businesses that deal with environmental and social problems.

The report, Development collaboration: none of our business?, suggests many civil society groups fail to act as equal partners in coalitions because their internal organization is weak. In particular NGOs have suffered from a ‘relentless focus’ on cutting overheads that has left many of them without resources, expertise or staff levels to serve partnerships properly.

Gib Bulloch, executive director of Accenture Development Partnerships, a non-profit Accenture unit that promotes developing world public-private partnerships, said: ‘NGOs will have to go through a transformative change process if they are to operate effectively with... the private sector in a new breed of development coalitions.’