The analysis of the future of development agencies commonly adopts a view that the adaptability of agencies to a set of external challenges in the global development landscape determines their fitness for the future. This article offers alternative entry points for reflections on the future role of development agencies in managing global challenges. It argues that recent analysis focusing on agency adaptation has two key limitations. First, it does not adequately account for the existing diversity of organizational forms and the differences in the functions that development agencies assume. Second, it does not acknowledge that agency adaptation can reflect organizational dynamics involving the pursuit of sustained legitimacy rather than a rational response to external challenges. As a consequence, agencies encouraged to change in order to maintain relevance may extend their engagement to areas where they lack expertise, implying a tradeoff between organizational adaptation and effectiveness. The article concludes that further analysis of possible trajectories for development agencies should emphasize the place of organizations within a domestic and international division of labor and the varied strengths of current organizational alternatives to orient future decisions on how to invest in the infrastructure for global cooperation.

中文翻译：

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未来的发展机构：适应的局限性

对发展机构的未来的分析通常采用这样一种观点，即机构对全球发展格局中一系列外部挑战的适应性决定了它们对未来的适应性。本文提供了替代的切入点，以反思发展机构在应对全球挑战中的未来作用。它认为最近针对代理适应性的分析有两个关键局限性。首先，它没有充分考虑组织形式的现有多样性以及发展机构承担的职能差异。其次，它不承认代理机构的适应能力可以反映组织动力，包括追求持续合法性，而不是对外部挑战的理性反应。作为结果，鼓励改变以保持相关性的机构可能会将其参与范围扩大到他们缺乏专业知识的领域，这意味着在组织适应性和有效性之间进行权衡。本文的结论是，对发展机构的可能轨迹的进一步分析应强调组织在国内和国际劳动分工中的地位，以及当前组织替代方案的各种优势，以指导未来如何投资于全球合作基础设施的决定。