Crossing Boundaries
There are an increasing number of NGO staff leaving the voluntary sector to work in government and vice versa. David Lewis outlines research being undertaken at LSE to find out more about this 'cross over' phenomenon.
The movement of NGO staff into government, and government staff into NGOs, is on the increase in many countries. Yet despite this growing phenomenon, little analytical attention to date has been focused on this boundary between the governmental and the non-governmental worlds, or the people who cross over it during their careers.
This 'cross-over' is particularly interesting because unusually, it is a feature of both Northern and Southern countries. However, the reasons for cross-over are likely to be unique to particular countries and situations.
North - In the UK, changes in development policy due to the 1997 White Paper, and the creation of DFID, attracted some individuals, who had previously been more comfortable with the values of the NGO sector, to move into government posts in the expectation that new opportunities for larger-scale change might exist within this changing institutional and policy environment. Some NGO staff have found working in an official agency has given them more power and greater scope to operate, while others quickly became alienated by a completely different working culture. Others care little about whether they work in the NGO sector or the government as long as they can do interesting work, and simply find that shifting organisations gives them greater perspective. As UK aid levels increase towards UN targets, new recruitment by DFID seems likely to draw in more people from the NGO sector during the coming years, particularly as specialised knowledge on issues such as conflict and emergency work is increasingly required.
South - In the Philippines, the fall of the authoritarian Marcos regime in 1986 led to a generation of agrarian reform activists moving from the NGO sector directly into high-level government posts within successive democratic governments. Looking back, some of these individuals can point to important achievements in pushing through elements of land reform 'from within' government that arguably would not have been possible had they remained as NGO leaders seeking to pressure government from the outside. It may be that such boundary-crossing is an inherently powerful act, one which opens up new opportunities both for individual learning and unlocking new thinking for public action. By contrast, other informants suggest that they had been a little naïve, and had had only an incomplete understanding of what was actually possible within a highly politicised government bureaucracy. Feeling co-opted or even powerless, they returned to the NGO sector where they felt more comfortable. There is a new NGO think-tank on governance reform recently established in the Philippines by NGO staff who have worked within government, that is aimed at learning from the experience of 'cross-over' and finding new ways of using the inside knowledge gained to better hold government accountable.
The UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) within its Non-Governmental Public Action Programme is currently funding a research project in order to learn more about this 'cross-over' phenomenon. Detailed 'life-work history interviews' are being undertaken with 'cross-over' staff in the UK, Bangladesh, Philippines and Mexico. Individuals are being invited to reflect on their motivations and experiences of boundary crossing during their careers. The interview data is intended to offer insights into:
- The effectiveness of 'boundary crossing' as a strategy within the policy process.
- The changing broader contexts of public action in each of these four countries which may influence the nature and extent of boundary crossing.
The research is motivated by several concerns and interests, including:
- What motivates innovative individuals interested in social transformation (people now sometimes termed 'social entrepreneurs') to choose where they do their work?
- The so-called three sector model (i.e. government, civil society, business) often offered up by academics and policy makers, but which offers little insight into the blurred boundaries and inter-relationships between the sectors which often exist in the real world. For example, there are often individuals and networks that span the world of government and the NGO sector, but which may remain hidden in policy discussions and prescriptions.
- The realities (and perceptions) of whether there exists - as is often believed - different 'ways of working' within the two sectors. In doing this, the hope is to offer some new insights into such practical issues as improving communication and partnership between NGOs and governments, the role of NGOs as informal training grounds for public servants, and the value of structured staff exchanges between NGOs and government in the form of secondments.
By learning from people's experiences of working in different kinds of organisations, it is hoped to generate better knowledge about contrasting working environments, and perhaps give new insights into the 'policy process'. We also hope to better understand the less visible, informal relationships that exist between the State and NGO sector, and develop better theory about the three sectors that takes more account and better reflects real people's views and experiences.
Comments and suggestions on the project are welcome. Please forward to David Lewis.
Email: d.lewis@lse.ac.uk
David Lewis, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics (LSE), is the principal researcher for the project.
www.lse.ac.uk/ngpa