Thesis (M.S.)--School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, 2008. / "June 2008." Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-98). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.A. (Political and International Studies))--Rhodes University, 2005. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts.

Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) play an increasingly important role in the world and receive a growing amount of outsourced development work. Funding enables them to do the work necessary to provide aid. NGO work is influenced by the dependence on their donors and many NGOs increasingly take donations from private donors as a way to try to mitigate donor dependence and maintain neutrality in their work. However there is little research analysing this shift and the potential positive and negative effects. This study looks at dependence and efficiency in an NGO - private donor relationship. The objective is to contribute to the discussion about NGO dependency on donors by evaluating the positive and negative impacts of primarily private donorship on NGOs’ work efficiency. Little research has been done on the private donor relationship and this study is contributing to filling that gap. The study is a qualitative case study, with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) due to their private donor base’s recent increase. The data were obtained through interviews with MSF Sweden staff, other MSF primary source documents and secondary sources written by scholars on the topic of NGO dependency on their donors. The results of this study concluded that MSF works more efficiently with a primarily private donor base, due primarily to their increase in independence and control of their own operations. Since the shift from EU-funding, MSF can spend fewer resources on reporting and more on allocating the money to the field. A primarily private donor base has a positive impact on MSF and it is safe to say that other NGOs will likely follow suit. Further research should look into other NGOs to see whether a primarily private donor base benefits them too or if MSF is a one case exception.

This thesis engages in and contributes to the current debate of marketization on the potential consequences of the seemingly increasing marketization of non-governmental organizations and the emerge of for-profit actors in humanitarian work, focusing on one of the biggest actors in humanitarian aid; Médecines Sans Frontières (MSF). By interviewing three highly positioned representatives from the organization, examining a report on the matter as well as MSF website several aspects of marketization identified in the literature were searched for, such as: market language/concepts, commercialization, private sector funding and professionalization. The study shows that all these aspects of marketization can be traced in the work of MSF. Moreover, the study reveals that marketization appears to shape how MSF view and relate to other actors working with humanitarian aid, non-profit as well as for-profit actors. A fundamental difference that can be seen is that while MSF view for-profit actors in a very positive way and as partners of collaboration, non-profit actors (similar to themselves) are portrayed and seen as competition. Hence, the study suggest that the increasing marketization appears to foster increased competition between non-profit actors – potentially undermining coordination – while at the same time potentially increasing the potential for coordination between for-profit and non-profit actors. This study also suggests that more research should be conducted, analyzing other NGOs in a similar way as well as analyzing to what extent this competitive view affects a well functioning coordination in humanitarian actions on the ground.