The international development sector is in crisis and much of it is its own making.
The recent safeguarding scandal is symptomatic of a sector that is becoming overly
hierarchical, brand conscious and disconnected from its base. It is also now facing a
global pandemic that will push an additional 176 million into poverty and further
derail an already failing Global Goals agenda (Alston, 2020).
This book argues that many of the development challenges faced by international
non-governmental organisations (INGOs) have been created by neoliberalism. The
pro-growth neoliberal model of ‘development’ has been characterised by extreme
levels of inequality, failing public services and the idea that ‘competition is the only
legitimate organising principle for human activity’ (Metcalf, 2017; Oxfam, 2020).
INGOs have been slow to respond in a coherent and meaningful way to the impact
of neoliberalism on vulnerable, marginalised communities in the global North and
South (McCloskey, 2019). This book suggests that the policy goals of most development organisations are dominated by overseas aid and the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) – described here as ‘fairy tales of development’ – rather than directly
addressing the economic failings of neoliberalism (McCloskey, 2019). It argues that
INGOs should re-embrace radical development education (DE) practice, which
they largely sustained from the 1970s to the late 1990s. DE supported critical
understanding of the root causes of global issues and long-term public engagement
based on solidarity rather than charity (Bourn, 2014: 10). Re-engaging with DE
practice can help build the capacity of INGOs to challenge the extreme levels of
inequality which have characterised the era of neoliberalism.