NGOs & international development: ongoing trends and new architectures (from the International Encyclopedia of Education, Fourth Edition)

The essay reviews important trends and issues in the scholarship on NGOs and discusses transformations in the NGO sector that need further research and analysis. The focus of the essay is on critical scholarship in NGO Studies that theorizes the impact of neoliberalism on the NGO sector, the NGOization of development and the neoliberal strategy of public-private partnerships in education and development. We analyze the growth of philanthrocapitalism, particularly in education and its implications for NGOs. The essay highlights two key political developments that impact NGOs: the rise of authoritarian states and the repression of NGOs and rise of anti-racist movements that call for NGOs to “decolonize” development.