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This paper, a work-in-progress, makes a contribution to the discussions on the appropriate modalities for incorporating the African diaspora in the African integration project. It argues that the most appropriate entry points for incorporating the African diaspora into the integration project might not, necessarily, be in the formal political structures, although this is important. To the contrary, the most effective and sustainable might be within civil society---that is the links between the peoples and organizations of Africa and the diaspora. Using the case of the African academy-- as an institution of civil society--- the paper outlines a conceptual framework for incorporating the diaspora into the African integration project. This paper, a work-in-progress, makes a contribution to the discussions on the appropriate modalities for incorporating the African diaspora in the African integration project. It argues that the most appropriate entry points for incorporating the African diaspora into the integration project might not, necessarily, be in the formal political structures, although this is important. To the contrary, the most effective and sustainable might be within civil society---that is the links between the peoples and organizations of Africa and the diaspora. Using the case of the African academy-- as an institution of civil society--- the paper outlines a conceptual framework for incorporating the diaspora into the African integration project.

This paper sates out an argument for moving forwrd research on non-governmental organisations (NGOs)within development studies. The body of research on NGOs that emerged from the late 1980s onwards focused primarily on NGO roles as development actors and their organisational attributes, but pais less attention to theory and context. While such research had many positive strenghts, it was also criticised for its normative focus, and for its vulnerability to changing development fashions and donor preoccupations. Today, attitudes to NGOs have grown more complex and ambiguous, and the institutional landscape in which NGOs are embedded is undergoing rapid change. A new wave of NGO-related reserach is underway which gives particular emphasis to theory, agency, method and context. Such approaches have the potential to consolidate the field of NGO research within development studies as a more stable and theoretically-grounded subject area. Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Twenty years after NGOs first emerged as objects of development research, much of the research on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and development to date has been of a variable quality. While much useful work has been done, yhe development NGO research field is nonetheless charactarised by a combination of an over-identification with NGOs, an excessive emphasis on technical/organisational issues and a lack of theoretical-contextual analysis. The result has been work that often bows to policy rhetoric and uncritically and unhelpful serves to sustain a set of myths about NGOs and their performance - of both a positive and a negative kind.This volume seeks to present less well-rehearsed perspectives. Its thirteen chapters are each written by authoritative reserachers in the field. The book has two main objectives: to describe on interpret key aspects of NGOs' changing roles in development, an to present new analythical approaches. A key priority is to present work that is rooted in stronger theoretical-frameworks than has previously been the case, while still maintaining a relevance to policy and practice. The authors presented here are critical of many of the theories and concepts that frame the discourse on development NGOs and many of them propose alternative analytical approaches. In particular they seek to analytically integrate the international aid system in theoretical schemas that seek to explain NGOs and their roles in development.The overall aim of the book is to move forward the critical research agenda on NGOs and development by challeging its normative biases, using appraoches drawn from a range of disiplinary perspectives including historical ethnography, organisational studies, political science, critical theory, and anthropology.