INSTITUTIONAL INTERDEPENDENCE: CAPACITY-ENHANCING ASSISTANCE FOR INTERMEDIARY NGOS IN SIERRA LEONE AND THE GAMBIA

Capacity building assistance generally has addressed weaknesses in the internal organizational and operational structures of NGOs. As a result, the most critical determinant of NGO's capacity, their relationships with actors in the external environment, has been overlooked. This paper presents an original conceptual framework for assessing Southern NGOs' relationships with Northern NGOs. The framework is applied to four NGOs in Sierra Leone and The Gambia to demonstrate how Northern NGOs' assistance to Southern NGOs impacts Southern NGOs' capacity. Recommendations are provided for restructuring capacity building assistance.© 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.