Watch: Why the role of international NGOs will continue to grow

International NGOs will keep growing, despite a drive for more funds to go to locally led organizations in the global south, according to Sam Worthington, the CEO of InterAction, an alliance of U.S. NGOs. In an interview for last week’s Devex World conference, he highlighted the strength of INGOs’ brands when raising money from the public. The balance of power within partnerships must shift, he said, but there will always be a tension between the desire for localization and the need to raise money. Worthington warned that while many people want donors to hand more control of funds to locally led organizations, big donors in the global north are unlikely to change their approach and “simply give away resources without restrictions.” Amid growing inequality and a funding crunch, “NGOs will find themselves more at the whims of philanthropists,” he said. “This provides a tension, in my view, countering localization. Where are you focused? Are you focused on the reality of local power and needs, and how do you maintain that focus while … a large donor is pushing you in a different direction?” There is also a tension between increasing local capacity and offering urgent assistance, he argued. “There will always be areas where there is a country without … local resources, where there’s a crisis that is overwhelming both the nation state and local society and civil society,” Worthington said. “The challenge is how to bring those resources in a way that does not damage that local capacity [and] that increases it significantly.”