Challenges for Western and Eastern European Ngos

Introduction While the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 allowed East to meet West, the 2000s will see parts of the East joining the West through the process of accession to the European Union (EU). In such a dynamic environment, Eastern and Western institutions, including NGDOs (non-governmental development organisations), will have to learn not only to cohabit but to coordinate and adapt to common policies such as the EU Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) policy. While this new marriage brings great opportunity for both sides, it will also pose significant challenges. How will such diverse Civil Societies, each with its unique history and outlook, relate to EU institutional culture and policy? Moreover, how will the relationship of Eastern NGDOs with their national governments change? And will the increase in development funding bring competition or cooperation between NGDOs? The purpose of this article is to address these questions and assess the implications of the prospective EU enlargement in terms of development policy and its effects on current EU NGDOs and those in Accession Country (AC), as well as the relations between them. The article then highlights the challenges and opportunities facing EU and AC NGDOs and suggest ways forward. NGDOs, as products of Civil Society, are to a large extent defined by their socioeconomic environment. As Europe was divided for more than 40 years, the historical contexts of the mostly Western EU and the mostly Eastern AC NGDOs are understandably different. While EU NGDOs have well over fifty years experience of democratic, capitalist systems wherein Civil Society and Government were to a greater or lesser extent separate, the modern history of Eastern AC NGDOs only began in the twilight of the USSR as previously the centralised socialist system had effectively stifled the activity of an autonomous Civil Society. Governments on both sides of the Iron Curtain to a greater or lesser extent utilised development policy as an extension of their respective foreign policies. 1 However, Western governments used NGDOs as instruments of that development while in the East the role of NGDOs was almost non-existent, with state institutions dominating development. With over fifty years experience, EU NGOs have gone through many changes to their institutional culture and development strategies. In the postWar optimism, EU NGDOs initially embarked on relief-based aid in order to alleviate poverty while many, mostly in newly 1 For the link between development policy and state foreign policy …