Constructing an NGO sector in transitional contexts: the reach of NGO-donor 'partnerships' in post-soviet Georgia

摘要

This article explores the nature of the 'partnership' between NGOs and donors in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Here, as in much of the post-socialist world, NGOs are a recent phenomenon. They have grown in number extremely rapidly thanks toforeign donors' vigorous efforts to generate and support them. Because of this, the relationship between donors and NGOs is both particularly strong and unusually pervasive. In this sense, Georgia's is an extreme case: however, it can also be read as anextension of relationships that exist between donors and NGOs generally and thus more broadly applicable. In particular the newness and distinctiveness of NGOs within the Georgian context makes clear a number of impacts of the donor-NGO relationship, which in more embedded settings may be obscured by intervening factors. The analysis therefore looks 'beyond partnership' to elucidate some of the ways in which the donor-NGO interaction constructs behaviours and mediates relationships so that they directly impact on the fulfilment of donors' goals in developing an NGO sector.