NGOs, Partnership and Accountability – A Case Study of ActionAid and its Local NGO Partners in Nigeria

The NGO sector has been widely criticised for their failure to demonstrate the ideals of partnership in practice, especially between INGOs and their local NGOs in developing countries. Previous literature asserts that conventional partnership often fails to demonstrate its ideals in practice because INGO donors wield enormous power and influence over their local NGO partners because of their control over funds. Using face-to-face interview, focus group discussion, participant observation and documents analysis, firstly, this paper investigates whether ActionAid Nigeria and its local NGO partners share a common understanding of the ideals of partnership? Secondly, it investigates whether these partnership ideals are actually demonstrated in practice. Empirical observations have shown that there is a common understanding of the key principles and values of partnership between the INGO donor and their local partners in Nigeria. In addition, the findings suggests ActionAid Nigeria and its local NGO partners are striving to demonstrate these ideals in practice. Also, the study suggests that the INGO donor and its local NGO partners are willing to promote mutual accountability in their partnership engagements to promote concrete changes in the lives of the beneficiaries of their work.