planning and production through public enterprise, is an important advance. Much of the current concern with privatization," for example, can be understood as an effort to separate the functions of the commercial and the govermmental sectors so that each sector may perform those tundions for which it is best suited. But the development task is not limited simply to increasing the value of economic transactions, which is what GNP measures. Development has failed unless thv society has increased its capacity to transform available resources into justly distributed improvements in human well-being. The commercial sector has evident advantages in pursuit of market induced innovations that increase the value of economic transactions. However, the innovations that insure that these increases in value are translate' into justly distributed improvements in well-being must normally come either from government or from the voluntary set ir. Between the two, VOs have important advant&,s over goverrnent organizations as catalysts of the types of social and institutienal innovation required. Governments depend for their function on a broadly based political consensus fashioned through negotiation and compromise among numerous existing power holders and interest groups. Their ability to innovate is constrained by the n.:cessity of * first achieving a reasonably broad consensus, at least among key power holders who may have a substantial commitment tomaintaining existing inequitien. The constituencies of VOs are generally much smaler tan those of governments and are built around a more coherent values consensus. Consequently, in comparison with government, the VO is able to define positions more clearly, to press for innovative solutions, and to experiment in ways that governments find difficult. This gives VOs a disdnctive role as catalysts of system change in dcfning, articulaing, and advocating positions that are outside the established political mainstream and therefore not supported by existing publihc policy. t or Driven by values rather than by the quest for economic or political power, it is also natural that many VOs focus their attention on the needs of the poor and disenfranchised more naturally than do governments. In countries with a mature voluntary sctdor, VOs are constantly callng attention to and acting on perceived opportunities for improving the well-being of the society's members. The voluntary sector role in socilI innovation is far more varied and pervasive than its commonly recognized role in implementing pilot piroject for replication by governments and donors For example, Vos have had a leading role in creating the cil rights movement, the environmental movement, the women's movement, and the focus of world attention on population. These efforts have changed global pereeptions and policies on fundamental social issues.

In a world dominated by the government and commercial sectors, VOs thcmselves may lose sight of the centrality of values to their cistence. In their quest to strengthen their funding base through proving their professionalism many VOs have been inclined to deny their voluntarism, which some have come to view as an embarrassment - though it is in fact their distinctive asset. If VOs are to rcalize their full potential as a distinctive developmer force it is importan **t** hat they become morc self-co's regarding the contrality of values and voluntL so their distinctive na:ure and role.

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