Forum Discussion Paper 2015 Balancing Donor Priorities and the Civil Society Function - A Challenge for Modern IVCOs

This paper examines ways that modern donor practices may challenge IVCOs’ alignment with the interests of civil society in partner countries—particularly in circumstances where a strong focus on service delivery and poverty eradication limit support for grassroots movements aimed at transformational structural and social change. This thesis is presented within a wider context of IVCOs’ historic development beginning in the late 1950s. Discussion and recommendations focus on how modern IVCOs can balance donor priorities while maintaining alignment with the sometimes oppositional role of civil society as a transformational driver of social change.