Navigating the post-donor arena in Uganda’s Gulu district

This article investigates the strategies that members of a post-donor society devised to deal with the donor exit. The post-donor phenomenon describes complex and multiple dynamics that result from a dramatic reduction in the presence and funding of international donors or aid agencies. This phenomenon creates losers and winners in the face of changed opportunities, power, and authority. Gulu in northern Uganda provides an excellent example of this phenomenon. Once thronged by international humanitarian agencies, there was a mass exit of the same in the decade starting in 2013. I argue that to navigate the post-donor arena successfully, society needs significant levels of agency, both individual and collective (including) institutional agency. The lack of clear exit strategies and a sustainability plan on the side of this industry, as well as the incapacity and unwillingness of the government to fill the gap, determined how the post-donor period has played out. Established actors have had to devise new ways to access scarce donor funding, turn to the private sector, or face severe hardship. Simultaneously, the sudden departure of many international organizations and their funding freed space for new entrants, such as multilateral organizations and private companies, to exploit available resources. The article reveals the challenges in the successful navigation of the post-donor arena by individuals, organizations, and agencies, and how agency leads to an uneven mix of losers and winners.