2007 Annual Report
transforming aid
Inter Pares has often chosen to work within broad coalitions of organizations who share our commitment to international cooperation and social justice. Through these coalitions we unite our efforts with others for greater impact. We also seek to influence the conditions under which international cooperation takes place and bring about greater equity and mutual respect in North-South relations.
In Africa, we have worked through the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD), and in Latin America, through the Project Counselling Service (PCS). These coalitions of development NGOs came together in the late 1970s in order to pool financial resources, share learning, and implement programs. They sought to work in places where local organizations either did not exist or were in need of sustained, coordinated external support due to situations of geographic isolation, war and conflict, and widespread human rights violations.
Inter Pares participated actively in the governance structures of ACORD and PCS, and provided financial, political and technical support to their programs in many countries across Africa and Latin America. Over time, both organizations built reputations for effective and courageous action addressing the needs and aspirations of some of the most marginalized and disadvantaged members of the societies in which they worked.
By the end of the 1990s it became clear, however, that "working for change" would require changing the way we work. Recognizing the evolution of local organizations and the need for greater autonomy, both ACORD and PCS began processes of organizational transformation to devolve responsibility to the South, in order to become more relevant and effective in the changing environment of development cooperation.
Inter Pares staff engaged actively in both institutional change processes, sharing lessons and addressing challenges as we sought to re-create organizations that could build on the achievements of the past, while having the resources and political support to move into the future with confidence and independence. Both ACORD and PCS now have management and decision-making structures that rely on and strengthen local knowledge and leadership.
| Reviewed April 30, 2008 |  |
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