Local NGOs’ added value and the unintended consequences of the aid localisation agenda in Ghana

Abstract

This article examines the added value of local non-governmental organisations (LNGOs) and how constraining international aid practices affect their promotion of the localisation agenda. Using resource dependency theory and added value as the theoretical lens and drawing on 36 interviews with LNGOs, international NGOs, and key informants in Ghana, we find that while LNGOs have social (i.e. frontrunners of locally led developmentmm initiatives), emotional (i.e. legitimacy and credibility enhancers) and functional added value (i.e. local knowledge producers and brokers), the localisation agenda produces unintended consequences for district and regional level NGOs by shifting power to local intermediaries in the aid chain who control resources which reinforces existing power imbalances, which the localisation agenda aims to address. The article also demonstrates how restrictive funding and accountability requirements, and the lack of recognition for local expertise, affect the added value of LNGOs and the localisation agenda in general.

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