Humanitarian INGO governance arrangements and forms of coordination

As international humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) continue to adapt their global governance arrangements in response to changes in the external environment, these changes are creating new challenges for internal coordination. However, we know little about the relationship between these governance arrangements and the forms of internal coordination INGOs adopt. This paper provides a comparative analysis of 40 INGO families with diverse backgrounds and approaches to humanitarian and development work. It examines the relationship between their global governance arrangements in terms of decision-making, integration, and membership; and the forms of internal coordination they adopt. The finding is that different forms of coordination are associated with membership size and resource disparity, combined with the varying needs for group-level capacity that comes with different forms of decision-making and integration.

Automated summary

The study shows that different forms of coordination within INGOs are closely related to membership size, resource disparity, and the varying needs for group-level capacity that come with different forms of decision-making and integration. This indicates that adjustments in global governance arrangements may affect internal coordination and operational mechanisms within INGOs.