Collaborator or quasi–grant maker? Revealing the dissonance in international development charities’ partnership representations

This paper explores partnership representations in the Trustees’ Annual Reports & Accounts (TARA) of English and Welsh international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). INGOs are prominent global actors, whose TARA serve important accountability purposes, while also acting as key fundraising communications. The study uses thematic analysis to examine 83 TARA published between 2014 and 2018 by 29 INGOs. Findings show that in these TARAs’ narrative sections, partnership relationships are largely described using the language of collaboration, yet accord the INGO the primary role. In the subsequent managerial and financial sections, however, these relationships are presented as a hierarchy, focusing on upwards accountability from project partners to the INGO. These presentations suggest that INGOs continue to embed power inequalities in their partnership relationships. Furthermore, drawing on stakeholder theory, this exploratory study argues that the contradiction found demonstrates that INGO reporting prioritises legitimation rather than authenticity, and obfuscates understanding of international development partnership relationships.