The changing landscape of development cooperation in Finland following the development aid budget : environmental NGO partnerships, strategies and work

Abstract

This thesis studies the changing landscape of NGO strategies in Finland after the development aid budget. The research studies the strategies NGOs utilize after budget cuts and tries to link it to Firm and Non- governmental organization collaborations as a strategy to compensate for the budget deficit. Diversifying on funding sources from previous studies shows is the most common strategy utilized by NGOs after budget cuts especially by government.

The research addresses the most common problem which most NGOs are experiencing in this century due to economic crisis which is funding shortage. The study uses thematic analysis to analyze both the secondary data and primary data from the interviews. The budget cuts affects all the NGOs getting funding from the government but the smaller NGOs are affected more. Though the budget cut forces NGOs to change their strategies, collaboration with firms to get funding and help firms with environmental issues is not part of the strategy. This has been attributed to lack of interest by firms to work with NGOs or the lack of knowledge on what NGOs can offer the firms.

To adapt to the budget cuts NGOs have used the strategy of fundraising from the Finnish citizen to cater for budget deficit. The reluctance by NGOs to get funds from the firms is attributed to NGOs strategy to remain independent from firm influence.