Helping ​NGOs to sustain resilience in complex times and places
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​Click to read: 
Presentation - Political Risk Management and NGOs, 2023 (opens as PDF) 


​Click to read:
Pro Bono Engagement Policy, 2024 (opens as PDF) 

​See below for NGO-specific insight papers

Political risk as a concept was born in the corporate space, and mainstream characterisations still position it as principally a concern for international companies when they operate in challenging places or across jurisdictions. However, with appropriate contextualisation, the concept is just as relevant, if not more so, to NGOs, both I-NGOs and national ones based in complex environments.

Companies go to challenging places in spite of the risks. In some ways NGOs go, or commence operations, because of the risks. Development, social justice and humanitarian needs tend to be more acute in contexts of weak governance, instability, social rivalries and conflict. NGOs are more exposed to political risk simply because risk is higher where their missions are more relevant.

Second, unlike companies, whose main goal is legitimate profit, NGOs often need to challenge a socio-political status quo to be effective. A status quo that results in poverty, insecurity and injustice usually benefits certain powerful groups in a given socio-political system, and they have a vested interest in thwarting change and change actors. Thus, NGOs can face considerable resistance and even threats when trying to fulfil their missions.

Finally, increasingly since the mid-2000s, governments with weak legitimacy have feared the potential political effects of civic mobilisation. There has been a global trend of clamping down on civil society space, including constraining or tightly controlling NGO formation, funding and operations. This has narrowed NGOs’ freedom to manoeuvre and has led to an increase in official interference, disinformation and even direct intimidation.

Political risk, then, is highly relevant to NGOs. Harmattan Risk has worked with NGOs in the past and we hope to do so more. All of our services can be tailored to an NGO context. We understand that NGOs are non-profit organisations and hence are cost conscious. We take this into account in our fees for NGOs, and in addition we are open to discussing pro bono engagements.

The two attachments to the left are a top-level overview of NGOs and political risk, and Harmattan’s policy with respect to pro bono engagements. Beneath this introduction are NGO-specific insight papers, to which we will be adding over time. 

NGO-specific insight papers

Click to read: 
Harmattan Insight - Lessons from Lebanon: Political Risk Management and NGOs, 2024 (opens as PDF)

Click to read:
Harmattan Insight - Political Risk Considerations for International NGOs, 2019 (opens as PDF) 
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Click to read: 
Harmattan Insight - NGOs and the Challenge to Civil Society Space, 2019 (opens as PDF) 

​Click to read: 
Harmattan Insight - Political Risk Management: What NGOs and Businesses Can Learn from Each Other, 2019 (opens as PDF) ​