Significant proportions of aid already flow through the non-governmental sector, but questions are increasingly being asked about the role of NGOs and whether they can deliver on their ambitious claims. This study examines conditionality and mutual commitment between international aid donors and recipient NGOs, North and South.

Fieldwork and case study material from Uganda and South Africa are used to support the authors' contention that the fast changing aid sector has--in the context of a dynamic policy environment--encouraged the mainstreaming of a managerial approach that does...