In today’s climate of shrinking budgets and dwindling international aid, development professionals around the globe are working to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of NGO-Local Government Collaboration. To achieve those goals, an increasing number of nongovernmental organizations have forged collaborative relations with local governments in developing countries. While many donors have been actively encouraging — and even requiring — these relations, our recent research in Lebanon, a country heavily dependent on international aid, particularly with the influx of Syrian refugees, warns of significant challenges for both sides.

The first challenge is in the way collaboration is understood and approached by both NGOs and local governments. Our research demonstrates that the definition of collaboration, as a process of engaging with other groups to solve problems or address issues that cannot be handled by one of the entities alone, is largely lost in translation among both Lebanese local governments and NGOs. They are focused more on their individual goals than on achieving synergies or savings.

Read the source article at Devex International Development