To Align or Misalign?: Interpreting INGO-State Partnership in Cambodia

Abstract This article uses ethnographic and interview methods to compare two international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) implementing public health programs in Cambodia. Both INGOs formally adopt the same policy, developing state partnership, but implement this policy very differently. One INGO successfully aligns the policy with on-the-ground practice, while the other organization is unable and unwilling to successfully cooperate with local state officials. I argue that previous research on international development organizations, policy convergence, and divergence in implementation needs to be expanded to analytically specify the process of policy alignment and misalignment. Drawing on the inhabited institutions perspective, I illustrate how global policies are made meaningful in intra- and inter-organizational interactions through a two-step process: (1) operationalization in which the broad policy is translated into specific programming and (2) implementation in which local actors do or do not align the policy with actual practice in Cambodia. This article offers a method for systematically theorizing policy alignment or misalignment with practice in international organizations.