The civil society and market research cluster at ISS explores this changing relationship. NGOs are being run more like businesses, while companies now have extensive policies on corporate social responsibility. And a new breed of organization has evolved, part NGO, part commerical enterprise. These hybrids compete with established NGOs for funding and for success in achieving development goals. The private sector itself is also changing, with a growing informal sector, more people being self-employed, and a widening gap between transnational corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The cluster examines the implications of these issues by focusing on three questions: how can development organizations achieve income poverty reduction in an environment dominated by markets? What are the consequences of NGOs and businesses moving into each other’s domain? And do NGOs embedded in markets have an advantage over ‘disembedded’ actors in markets?

The members of the cluster are economists, sociologists, political scientists and a social psychologist, and have experience in both civil society and the private sector. This enables the group to approach its research from both perspectives.