The main strategy of Bangladeshi NGOs for development has gradually changed from the so called “Shamity Approach”, which was based on raising consciousness of the rural poor and their unity in 1980s, to the Micro Credit (MC) and/or the Micro Finance (MF), which provides small non-collateral credits to the rural poor, initiated by Grameen Bank in the 1990s. The author has critically looked at this change among NGOs as they have become mere loan sharks. This paper is examining how this change took place in Narsindi District, which is not so far from the capital, Dhaka. Among the 5 largest local NGOs in the District, 2 were established in the 80s, adopting the Shamity Approach, while the others were established in the 90s with MC/MF from the beginning. Recently they have gained some freedom to utilize the profit of MF for social development. More observation is needed in the future to witness the local NGOs in Bangladesh.

On July 6, 2021, the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) adopted the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society on Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance. The DAC’s Community of Practice on Civil Society and the OECD Secretariat are currently working on toolkits to implement the Recommendation. The first toolkit is on supporting local civil society organisations (CSOs) in partner countries. While drafting this toolkit, CSOs called for the “localisation” of official aid agencies’ support for CSOs and “decolonisation.” This paper focuses on the discussions around the “localisation” and “decolonisation” of the aid system. This paper analyses two CSO publications that influenced the toolkit process; “Strengthening Leadership of Civil Society in Partner Countries” by the DAC-CSO Reference Group’s Working Group on the DAC Recommendation (2022) and “Time to Decolonise Aid” by Peace Direct (2021). Both publications address the power imbalance between donors, including the international NGOs (INGOs) and the CSOs in the Global South. The Peace Direct report strongly addresses the “structural racism” in the current aid system. The recommendations in the two reports include changes in attitudes of the official donors and INGOs, transformation to the southern-led leadership in partnerships and establishment of funding mechanisms such as core and programme support for Southern CSOs. The paper concludes with the implications of the “localisation” and “decolonising” discussions for the Japanese CSO community.

This research note explores possible measures to address structural challenges facing Japan's international cooperation NGOs, based on a survey conducted for the “NGO Data Book 2021” and discussion at a Round Table at the 23rd Spring Conference of the Japan Society for International Development. In Chapter 1, looking back on the history of NGOs over the past 60 years and reviewing their current activities, we attempt to identify the future direction of NGOs that have entered a period of maturity and are enhancing their activities, while facing self-questioning about their own raison d'etre. In Chapter 2, we analyze the financial structure of NGOs, pointing out that the top 12 NGOs account for about three-quarters of the total amount of incomes, and that the expansion of NGOs' financial scale depends largely on grants and subsidies in addition to NGOs' own efforts. This paper was co-authored, with Chapter 1 written by Hasegawa and Chapter 2 by Tate.

This report summarizes the present knowledge about the current status of civil space. In the past few years, a number of studies and surveys on the shrinking civic space have been published. Accordingly, more knowledge about civic space has been accumulated, and the discussions have been enriched during the period. First, this report briefly reviews the early discussions on civic space and, second, picks up key academic articles and research papers on several different topics. It includes the following topics: 1) the geographical spread of shrinking civic space, 2) factors contributing to the shrinking civic space, 3) funding flow to NGOs, 4) the relationship between civic space and development, 5) conservatization of civil society, and 6) civil society under the COVID pandemic. Lastly, this report points out that there is still no unanimous view on the background and causes of the shrinking civic space, while there are areas where a certain degree of consensus is emerging amidst the many studies and reports issued. In order to effectively respond to the shrinking civic space, it is necessary to clarify the background and causes. This remains an issue that researchers and practitioners need to tackle.