Abstract

How do government regulations affect the work and survival of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? In a world where NGOs often champion human rights, democracy, and gender equality, their activism can challenge political elites and disrupt the status quo. Many NGOs in the Global South depend heavily on international aid and foreign funding, which makes them both vulnerable to state control and disconnected from local communities. This reliance has also encouraged the rise of “briefcase NGOs” — organizations that exist largely on paper to capture external funds. Governments seeking to curb inconvenient activism now frame foreign-funded NGOs as agents of external influence. Across the globe, states are passing restrictive laws to limit NGO access to foreign funding. This article examines Ethiopia’s sweeping regulations, which ban foreign-funded NGOs from working on politically sensitive issues such as democracy promotion or human rights. The results are stark: most local rights groups and briefcase NGOs disappeared, while survivors either rebranded or shifted toward less controversial areas of work. Our findings highlight how government regulation reshapes the NGO sector, changing the “population ecology” of civil society itself. Because NGOs claim legitimacy through grassroots support, dependence on external donors leaves them politically exposed. Any serious analysis of the NGO sector, international development, or human rights advocacy must therefore consider the central role of governments in shaping NGOs’ institutional environment.