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Foreign funding of non-governmental organizations
Foreign funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is a controversial issue in some countries. In the late Cold War and afterward, foreign aid tended to be increasingly directed through NGOs, leading to an explosion of NGOs in the Global South reliant on international funding. Some critics of foreign funding of NGOs contend that foreign funding orients recipients toward donor priorities, making them less responsive to the communities they work in.
In 2013, a study published in Journal of Democracy surveyed 98 countries and found that "51 either prohibit (12) or restrict (39) foreign funding of civil society". The United Nations considers foreign funding of NGOs to be a right of freedom of association; however, critics argue that restrictions are justified in order to protect national sovereignty from corrosive foreign influence.
In the late Cold War and afterward, foreign aid tended to be increasingly directed through NGOs, leading to an explosion of NGOs in the Global South reliant on international funding. Between 1994 and 2015, many countries passed laws limiting foreign funding of NGOs, which were usually justified by rhetoric of national sovereignty and the desire to ward off foreign influence. According to a 2019 study in Social Forces, "new funding laws are part of a growing backlash against the liberal international order", especially by illiberal and/or anti-Western governments. In 2006, Thomas Carothers termed this phenomenon "the backlash against democracy promotion", which he dates to Chinese and Russian restrictions in the early 2000s. In 2013, a study published in Journal of Democracy surveyed 98 countries and found that "51 either prohibit (12) or restrict (39) foreign funding of civil society".
A 2002 law restricted the activities of NGOs which received foreign funding, prohibiting them to engage in any political or policy related work. Egypt–United States relations were seriously disrupted by raids on NGOs which occurred in July 2011, several months after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. Civil society organizations had criticized the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' handling of the power transfer. In 2013, 42 employees of various NGOs including Freedom House and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation were convicted of "operating an organization without a license and receiving illegal foreign funding".
Ethiopia introduced restrictive anti-foreign NGO legislation, the Charities and Societies Proclamation, in 2009, but substantially relaxed it in 2019.
In 2013, a Kenyan law which would have imposed a cap on foreign funding was rejected by the legislature. However, in 2014 President Uhuru Kenyatta stated that he would not allow "organizations advancing foreign interests to destabilize the government".
Foreign funding of NGOs, including newspapers, also occurs in Nigeria. Nigeria adopted a law restricting foreign funding in 2017, closely modeled on a similar law adopted by Sierra Leone in 2016. Freedom House stated that the law could lead to "improper state control of NGO programs, if not outright co-optation of NGOs".
Zimbabwe prohibits foreign NGOs from engaging in any work related to governance and limits the activities of local NGOs which accept foreign funding. In 2004, ZANU-PF passed a bill which would have banned foreign NGOs, which was not signed by the president. Zimbabwe also cracked down on foreign NGOs prior to the 2008 and 2013 elections, claiming they were too involved in politics. Jeanne Elone wrote that Zimbabwe's constitutional guarantee of freedom of association is "obstructed by prohibitions against unregistered groups, complex registration procedures, vague grounds for denial, re-registration requirements, and barriers for international organizations".
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Foreign funding of non-governmental organizations
Foreign funding of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is a controversial issue in some countries. In the late Cold War and afterward, foreign aid tended to be increasingly directed through NGOs, leading to an explosion of NGOs in the Global South reliant on international funding. Some critics of foreign funding of NGOs contend that foreign funding orients recipients toward donor priorities, making them less responsive to the communities they work in.
In 2013, a study published in Journal of Democracy surveyed 98 countries and found that "51 either prohibit (12) or restrict (39) foreign funding of civil society". The United Nations considers foreign funding of NGOs to be a right of freedom of association; however, critics argue that restrictions are justified in order to protect national sovereignty from corrosive foreign influence.
In the late Cold War and afterward, foreign aid tended to be increasingly directed through NGOs, leading to an explosion of NGOs in the Global South reliant on international funding. Between 1994 and 2015, many countries passed laws limiting foreign funding of NGOs, which were usually justified by rhetoric of national sovereignty and the desire to ward off foreign influence. According to a 2019 study in Social Forces, "new funding laws are part of a growing backlash against the liberal international order", especially by illiberal and/or anti-Western governments. In 2006, Thomas Carothers termed this phenomenon "the backlash against democracy promotion", which he dates to Chinese and Russian restrictions in the early 2000s. In 2013, a study published in Journal of Democracy surveyed 98 countries and found that "51 either prohibit (12) or restrict (39) foreign funding of civil society".
A 2002 law restricted the activities of NGOs which received foreign funding, prohibiting them to engage in any political or policy related work. Egypt–United States relations were seriously disrupted by raids on NGOs which occurred in July 2011, several months after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. Civil society organizations had criticized the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' handling of the power transfer. In 2013, 42 employees of various NGOs including Freedom House and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation were convicted of "operating an organization without a license and receiving illegal foreign funding".
Ethiopia introduced restrictive anti-foreign NGO legislation, the Charities and Societies Proclamation, in 2009, but substantially relaxed it in 2019.
In 2013, a Kenyan law which would have imposed a cap on foreign funding was rejected by the legislature. However, in 2014 President Uhuru Kenyatta stated that he would not allow "organizations advancing foreign interests to destabilize the government".
Foreign funding of NGOs, including newspapers, also occurs in Nigeria. Nigeria adopted a law restricting foreign funding in 2017, closely modeled on a similar law adopted by Sierra Leone in 2016. Freedom House stated that the law could lead to "improper state control of NGO programs, if not outright co-optation of NGOs".
Zimbabwe prohibits foreign NGOs from engaging in any work related to governance and limits the activities of local NGOs which accept foreign funding. In 2004, ZANU-PF passed a bill which would have banned foreign NGOs, which was not signed by the president. Zimbabwe also cracked down on foreign NGOs prior to the 2008 and 2013 elections, claiming they were too involved in politics. Jeanne Elone wrote that Zimbabwe's constitutional guarantee of freedom of association is "obstructed by prohibitions against unregistered groups, complex registration procedures, vague grounds for denial, re-registration requirements, and barriers for international organizations".