In 1987, World Development published a supplement entitled “Development Alternatives:
the Challenge of NGOs.” Although this challenge now seems far more complicated, this
paper suggests one way of giving meaning (and possibility) back to the juxtaposition of
“development alternative” and NGOs. NGOs might benefit from rethinking the notion of
development alternatives in terms of the politics and political economy of social change, of
adopting a Gramscian reading of civil society and their role therein, and from reflecting that …

NGOs exist as alternatives. In being “not governmental” they constitute vehicles for people to
participate in development and social change in ways that would not be possible through
government programmes. In being “not governmental” they constitute a “space” in which it is
possible to think about development and social change in ways that would not be likely
through government programmes. In being “nongovernments”(in Fisher's terms, 1998) they
constitute instruments for turning these alternative thoughts, and alternative forms of …