Development agencies of the future: The limits of adaptation

The analysis of the future of development agencies commonly adopts a view that the adaptability of agencies to a set of external challenges in the global development landscape determines their fitness for the future. This article offers alternative entry points for reflections on the future role of development agencies in managing global challenges. It argues that recent analysis focusing on agency adaptation has two key limitations. First, it does not adequately account for the existing diversity of organizational forms and the differences in the functions that development agencies assume. Second, it does not acknowledge that agency adaptation can reflect organizational dynamics involving the pursuit of sustained legitimacy rather than a rational response to external challenges. As a consequence, agencies encouraged to change in order to maintain relevance may extend their engagement to areas where they lack expertise, implying a tradeoff between organizational adaptation and effectiveness. The article concludes that further analysis of possible trajectories for development agencies should emphasize the place of organizations within a domestic and international division of labor and the varied strengths of current organizational alternatives to orient future decisions on how to invest in the infrastructure for global cooperation.