For a long time, we’ve been hearing that the nonprofit sector is supposed to work itself out of business. The irony is that if we look at the world’s biggest INGOs, most of them are the same as they were 20 years ago. Meanwhile, the biggest companies from that period — that were supposed to stay in business — have largely vanished or been superseded.
But in the United Kingdom at least, the sector seems to be growing simultaneously more serious about the idea of working itself out of business — and more gloomy about its ability to survive, even if it did want to.
At least, that’s the tone of a “solidarity statement” issued earlier this week by Bond, the network for U.K. organizations working in international development, and signed by the leaders of 43 U.K. INGOs, including high-profile names such as Oxfam, Christian Aid, and Islamic Relief.