Responding to change : private voluntarism and international development, 1990 report

voluntary development assistance? To examine this question, this report by the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid looks at the emerging international trends and their implications for the future content and direction of private volunteerism. Five themes are cited as particularly important: (1) the advent of the global marketplace; (2) new concepts of national security -- from an "East vs. West" perspective to one that considers such issues as trade, pollution, natural resources, and food scarcity; (3) the disappearance of the North- South dichotomy and the growing complexity of U.S. relationships with developing countries; (4) the growth and maturation of the international PVO community; and (5) an uncertain private and public funding base for U.S. PVO"s. As a result of these trends, U.S. PVO"s during the 1990"s will: encounter an ever widening array of choices and opportunities for assistance; change their roles and methods of assistance, e.g., by shifting emphasis from direct project implementation to advocacy, public education, and facilitating of indigenous efforts; form cooperative institutional alliances with host country PVO"s, other U.S. PVO"s, and businesses; face new challenges to secure a resource base; and be required to deal proactively with these tumultuous changes. The report concludes that the fundamental conditions that have shaped and supported the U.S. foreign assistance program have changed so dramatically that the program must be recast to reflect these new conditions. In a new foreign aid structure, PVO"s can and should play a much more integral role than is currently the case.