Patronage, dominance, or collaboration? Thailand’s NGOs and the Thai health promotion foundation

Abstract

“We are independent from both state and capital” is a slogan often invoked by Thai nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and people's organizations (POs) to give legitimacy to acting as a check and balance on powerful social actors. However, at present, this autonomy is coming under question as a number of Thai NGOs and POs receive financial and other support from the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (THPF), “an autonomous state agency outside the formal structure of government.” Yet, it is premature to conclude that Thai NGOs and POs are under the patronage or dominated by THPF, or the state as the THPF is not seen as the state or as part of capitalism by some NGOs and POs. Thus, many of them willingly and actively cooperate with THPF and other government agencies and business groups. This chapter envisions this relationship as “collaboration” not just because the two parties benefit from and contribute to each other but also because they share something in common, especially the vision, the concepts, and the approaches that they apply in development. This collaboration between NGOs and state agencies, although each claiming to be independent of each other and working to promote alternative development, is ultimately a technology of power.