Facilitators of development or Kapos for capital: the primrose path to GATS

This article arose from work undertaken on behalf of a UK-based NGO developing a policy response to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It looks at GATS as a key to locating development NGOs (NGDOs) within the broader field of development aims and practices, examining the long-term im...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Development in practice 2009-09, Vol.19 (7), p.849-858
Main Author: Cloke, Jon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aid
Capital
Civil Society
Communities
Economic development
Economic policy
Economic regulation
GATS
General agreement on trade in services
Globalisation
Globalization
Governance
Governance and Public Policy
International agreements
International trade
Liberalization
Markets
National government
NGOs
Non-governmental organizations
Nongovernmental organizations
Structural adjustment
Trade in services
United Kingdom
World Bank
Worldview
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Summary:This article arose from work undertaken on behalf of a UK-based NGO developing a policy response to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It looks at GATS as a key to locating development NGOs (NGDOs) within the broader field of development aims and practices, examining the long-term implications of GATS with respect to the idea of a 'fourth position' for such NGOs. It is argued that this theoretical position fails to take into account changing imbalances of power between NGDOs and their Southern counterparts that began under structural adjustment, as a consequence of which many NGDOs now occupy a position from which effective mediation between civil society, the state, and the market would be difficult if not impossible. In addition, GATS represents a step-change along the evolutionary path towards a market-oriented ideology whose verticalist worldview represents a profound contradiction to the avowedly progressive aims of most NGDOs.
ISSN:0961-4524
1364-9213
DOI:10.1080/09614520903122162