The Relationship Between State And Ngos: "Save The Children" In The United States Of America And New Zealand

This research paper aims to investigate the differences between the governments of New Zealand and the United States of America, two countries with a very similar history but different methods of management and provision of welfare, regarding their cooperation with NGOs for welfare provision. When delivering and providing welfare services, the best method is often said to be delegating and contracting NGOs as it is more cost effective and could be more efficient. After conducting a literature review, it is evident that there is a large difference between how different states cooperate with NGOs, as it greatly depends on the matter they cooperate on. Furthermore, a research gap was identified concerning a direct comparison between two countries, specifically in the Global North, and how cooperation with NGOs happens in this case. After conducting a case study including the welfare programs of New Zealand and the U.S, as well as their respective Save the Children member country offices, the differences between the two countries were very apparent. This paper found that New Zealand follows a corporatist system while swaying between restrictive and permissive attitudes towards NGOs implementing their own projects. This means that there is a high level of government welfare service provision coupled with a big non-profit sector as well, which establishes a large amount of coordination and regulation of the NGOs’ activities. Save the Children NZ’s work domestically currently involves advocating for better circumstances for children. On the other hand, this paper found that the U.S. follows a liberal/pluralist system which is very permissive in nature. NGOs in the U.S. are given the liberty to conduct development projects as long as they fall within their competences and succeed at providing reports back to the government. Save the Children U.S. provides extensive services in the country which cover education, protection, emergency, as well as advocacy. After analysing the findings from the case study using the Welfare Systems Theory, the Social Origins Theory, and the Bureaucratization theory, this paper concluded that relationship between state and NGO regarding welfare provision varies considerably between these two countries, and that is due to their different political attitudes towards welfare and governmental work, as well as their different propensities toward change in policy.