Samenvatting

After years of development cooperation focused on service delivery and technical assistance, several years ago the Netherlands put the political role of civil society organisations in the South centre stage with the programme ‘Dialogue and Dissent’ (2016-2020). The aim was to strengthen the voice of marginalised groups in order to achieve more structural solutions to issues of poverty, inequality and exclusion. Compared to previous programmes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this new approach represented a fundamental shift in thinking, a paradigm shift.
This article describes two archetypal approaches to development cooperation: the technical management approach and the social transformative approach. It then describes how ‘Dialogue and Dissent’ makes the shift from one to the other through a stronger focus on the political role of CSOs, establishing partnership relations, and on flexible and more qualitative forms of monitoring and evaluation. It addresses tensions, growing pains and dilemmas that arise during implementation. It provides tools for policymakers, politicians and researchers to question the paradigms we find ourselves in, and relate the choices we make to them.