Participation of CSOs/NGOs in Bangladeshi climate change policy formulation: co-operation or co-optation?

The Bangladesh government formulated the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategies and Action Plans (BCCSAP) in 2008 through a participatory process involving several CSOs/NGOs and others. This article discusses the participation of CSOs/NGOs in climate change policy-making, focusing on mapping their level of participation in policy-making. It demonstrates that state laws allow CSOs/NGOs to implement several projects voluntarily, but largely prohibit their participation in political decision-making processes. The state invites a few CSOs/NGOs as a condition to receive aid, but displays arbitrary and co-opting attitudes towards CSOs/NGOs that rarely ensure joint decisions in creating policy.     

The rise and fall of donor funding for advocacy NGOs: understanding the impact

NGOs in Asian countries often experience fluctuations in funding because of the constantly shifting priorities of their international donors. Without domestic sources, Asian NGOs are forced to re-align their priorities with donor interests in order to compete for funding. In the case of advocacy NGOs, the resulting asymmetry in donor–grantee relations often leads to a crisis of legitimacy and deteriorating effectiveness for the NGO. Because of the political nature of advocacy work, these NGOs must maintain a reputation for independence and legitimacy if they are to be influential in the political process. This article analyses the impact of fluctuating international donor assistance to advocacy NGOs in Cambodia, the Philippines, and Thailand, and offers recommendations for donors. While donors have spent significant resources on building the capacity of advocacy NGOs in South-East Asia, funding trends usually undermine the effectiveness of their grantees long before funding is ended.     

The securitisation of NGOs post-9/11

This article argues that the securitisation of an issue can involve not only negative, exclusionary and repressive extraordinary measures but also more positive, inclusionary and productive strategies of engagement. It also argues that such bifurcated strategies of security can evoke a spectrum of responses that sets limits on the process of securitisation. It examines these two arguments through the lens of the securitisation of development NGOs post-9/11. Development NGOs have become associated as a potential ‘second-order’ security issue related to the macro-securitisation of the War on Terror. After the launch of President Bush's War on Terror, US and allied governments shifted their approach to development NGOs from one of enthusiastically courting them as co-producers of development and security to an approach that cast greater suspicion on their activities. Aware that development NGOs still had a positive role to play in development and security, Western governments adopted a bifurcated strategy of containment and engagement towards development NGOs. State attempts to restrict development NGOs have evoked a spectrum of responses, ranging from ready compliance to outright resistance that has led to only partial success in securitising development NGOs.     

Trade unions and women's NGOs: diverse civil society organisations in Iran

A comparison of trade unions and NGOs in Iran demonstrates the diverse nature of their activities. Over the last 90 years, trade unions have played important roles in changing the political system in that country. However, unions are largely male‐dominated organisations, which explains why some women have begun to organise women's trade unions. This article focuses, however, on the activities of women's NGOs, which are engaged in improving the socio‐economic conditions of the most marginalised sectors of society. Their activities are limited and they are not engaged in structural change. However, they are challenging gender‐specific access and influence over institutional power, matters that are crucial to the process of democratisation. It is argued that, since many trade unions and NGOs in Iran are strengthening community‐based institutions in different ways, their collaboration would have a mutually transformational impact which would turn these organisations into more powerful forces in the process of democratisation.     

Transition in El Salvador: A multi-layered process

This paper reflects on the obstacles facing Salvadoran NGOs in the transition from war to peace. Firstly, on the difficulties inherent in the peace process itself: insufficient structural change; the trap of electoral politics; a transition process that was too narrowly defined; and the impossibility of reconciliation without addressing the need for collective memory, public responsibility, or justice. Secondly, on the difficulties peculiar to NGOs and popular organisations in El Salvador: the difference between the skills and resources they had developed in war and those needed in peace; the problems in establishing their role in the national reconstruction plan; and the fact that they were themselves made up of people who were still suffering the psychological wounds of war.     

Riding high or nosediving: Development NGOs in the new millennium

This paper attempts to draw some lessons from the experience of development NGOs throughout the world over the last five decades. It starts by describing the meaning of the alternative development paradigm as practised by NGOs. It then examines some of the major socio-political changes that have occurred in recent years, and their impact on development NGOs. Finally, it outlines some key dilemmas facing development NGOs, and their potential implications for their future roles and contributions at the start of the new millennium.     

Measuring the success of HIV/AIDS NGOs among Nairobi's youth

NGOs receive praise and criticism for their international development efforts, but more work is needed to measure their contributions. This article lays out the contributions of local NGOs to HIV-prevention efforts. It draws on data from a survey of young people's experiences with NGOs to demonstrate the reach of several local HIV-prevention NGOs in Nairobi, Kenya. It argues that even small NGOs are capable of making measurable contributions to development in their fields. It also shows how factors such as education levels, religiosity, and discussions about HIV/AIDS can support NGO efforts by encouraging youth to participate in HIV-prevention programming.     

Non-neutral humanitarianism: Ngos and the Rwanda crisis

NGOs play an increasingly important role in humanitarian work, and the impact of their activities is often non-neutral in relation to the conflicts which underlie crises. This was the case in the Rwanda crisis, during which some NGOs lent support to the forces of the genocidal Rwandan regime through their choice of where to work; the type and organisation of support offered; and some of the public statements made by NGO representatives. This article documents how this process occurred, and concludes with recommendations for avoiding such problems in the future.     

Paradoxes of institutionalisation: The depoliticisation of Bangladeshi NGOs

Through an analysis of how Bangladeshi NGOs have become institutionalised, the author examines patterns of bureaucratisation and professionalisation to argue that NGOs are part of a process of incorporation that mediates opposition to gender and other structural inequalities. Two important tendencies--the growing partnership between NGOs, the state, and donor agencies, and the discursive shift from social welfare and redistribution to individualism, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance--exemplify these processes. The paper shows how institutionalisation, accompanied by the conflation of civil society and NGOs, masks the loss of member-citizens' voices, channelling opposition through NGOs in ways that often compromise their interests.     

NGOs: Fragmented dreams

Development NGOs are in crisis. They are losing their capacity to engage in critical analysis and propose global solutions; to react to or seize the political initiative; or to situate themselves on the cutting edge of those social and political processes in which new approaches and potential solutions might be found. While some NGOs have sought to accommodate themselves around donors' policies and projects that focus on reducing the negative effects of structural adjustment, the raison d'être of NGOs is to have the autonomy, initiative, and flexibility that non-governmental status confers upon them. A growing split between NGOs' capacity to lobby and do research and their grassroots work reflects a deeper division that exists-- both practical and theoretical --between the concept and process of development and the concept and process of democratisation. The author argues that human development and participatory and representative democracy are both mutually reinforcing and indivisible and that the challenge the NGOs face is to link--theoretically and practically--democracy with development.     

Capacity building: who builds whose capacity?

This article focuses on the role that development NGOs play in capacity building, arguing that many conventional NGO practices are ultimately about retaining power, rather than empowering their partners. This leads to tunnel vision and to upward rather than downward or horizontal accountability, based on the assumption that the transfer of resources is a one-way process. At worst, this undermines rather than strengthens the capacities of the organisations that NGOs are attempting to assist. Sharing responsibilities and risks, mutual accountability, and committing to the long term rather than to short-term projects are more likely to create partnerships that can withstand vicissitudes and contribute to lasting change.     

‘Listening to the rice grow’: the local–expat interface in Lao-based international NGOs

Generally speaking, NGO studies have focused their attention on the organisational unit and its role in shaping development outcomes. With few exceptions, the analysis of development partnerships, in which NGOs play a crucial role, has largely been confined to examination of ‘donors’ and ‘receivers’ and not the dynamics within organisational settings. This article is concerned with the interface between local and international staff operating within Lao-based international NGOs. The research relied on interviews with local and international staff and sought to examine how staff themselves interpreted the process of ‘localisation’ in the context of their own professional experience.     

NGOs and income-generation projects: Lessons from the Joint Funding Scheme

A visit to a number of small enterprise and income-generation projects supported under the ODA's Joint Funding Scheme in Zimbabwe and Kenya has raised a series of key points which have wider implications for practitioners and donors. The article discusses each point and makes nine ‘recommendations?s for NGOs and donors who support them. While the general benefits of NGOs — such as their relatively low cost, ability to reach the poor, and innovativeness — are affirmed, the article argues that the challenge facing NGOs is to progress further from this base. In particular, it argues that NGOs need to develop more business-like operations, focusing on the most practicable forms of enterprise structure, but without losing their priority of seeking to benefit the poor and other disadvantaged groups. Technology-oriented projects need to ensure that they concentrate on the application of technology in a market context, rather than developing it for its own sake. NGOs with donors need also to strive for a realistic definition of sustainability, to work towards a more credible project-planning process, and to be aware of the dangers of very visible and expensive investment in project transport undermining NGOs' efficiency.     

Learning leaders: The key to learning organisations

Learning and knowledge management are crucial capacities for many NGOs. This article attempts to answer such questions as: why is learning seen as so important for NGOs? How do successful NGOs actually learn? And what role do key individuals or leaders play in this process? The article draws heavily on the findings of a study of South Asian NGOs, which suggests that an NGO's ability to learn is dependent on its organisational culture and in particular the development of an internal culture of learning. The case studies from South Asia reveal that the creation of this 'learning culture' derives primarily from the attitude of the leadership towards learning: at the heart of a learning organisation is a 'learning leader'.     

Indicators of identity: Ngos and the strategic imperative of assessing core values

The author argues that the distinctive values common to many NGOs give them a particular advantage over other types of organisation. This perspective should be seen in the context of donors' increasing willingness to fund non-traditional development actors, including the military, parastatals, quangos, private service contractors, and consultancy firms. To distinguish themselves from other recipients of aid funding, NGOs need to identify, articulate, and nurture their core values and identity. The paper identifies some of the key indicators that best reflect values and organisational capacities that distinguish NGOs from other agencies. The concern is that if NGOs lose their core values they lose their role.     

Learning to Learn and Building Communities of Practice: Non-governmental Organisations and Examples from Mine Action in Southeast Asia

How do non-governmental organisations (NGOs) interact with one another in specific geographical locations or over specific issue areas? This article evaluates the social learning capacities that may facilitate the development of new communities of practice among NGOs. It focuses on the structures in which NGOs have to work, the nature of the processes of interaction in which they participate, and their motivations for wanting to coordinate with one another in the first place. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2005 and 2006 in Southeast Asia, this paper focuses on the mechanisms for social learning among mine action NGOs in Southeast Asia and the ways in which what might be called a “community” of mine action in the region is starting to develop. At the same time, it raises a number of important questions regarding the coordination of NGO activities in all fields of activity and in any geographical situation.     

Corporate social responsibility: A challenge for the donor community

As corporate social Responsibility (CSR) increases in large corporate organisations, a genuine approach to sustainable development is often best achieved through the supply chain. This is directly applicable to North–South supply-chain interactions (private-sector organisations, NGOs, and donors). CSR has adopted techniques from their ‘development’ usage, yet a reverse flow is not observed back to the ‘development’ sector. This is unfortunate. Private-sector organisations and NGOs (especially the larger ones) are well placed to take advantage of the increase in CSR relating to developing countries. More importantly, donors of all types would have increased influence if they took up CSR principles. Opportunity costs are not high and the advocacy potential is huge. This paper reviews CSR techniques and argues for donors to accept the challenge of incorporating them into their operations to influence more efficiently the process they seek to change.     

马来西亚妇女非政府组织的发展

本文首先回顾了马来西亚妇女非政府组织的发展历程,然后对独立后马来西亚主要的妇女非政府组织及其活动进行介绍,最后对马来西亚妇女非政府组织与马来西亚政府的关系进行评估和分析。     

Perspectives on Managing Intractable Conflict

The author, a Swedish diplomat with extensive experience in peace-keeping initiatives of the United Nations, focuses on two questions that are prominent in the management of intractable international conflict: (1) the interplay between short-term and long-term interventions; and (2) the growing "tools" that are available to mediators and other peacemakers, and how to judge their effectiveness. This brief essay is an adaptation of the author's informal remarks at the March, 2002 Hewlett Centers meeting in New York City.     

Memory,suffering, survival tactics,and healing among Jopadhola women in post-war Uganda

This ethnographic case study addresses the question of how women in Jopadhola patriarchal society in Eastern Uganda remember three decades of civil war and violence and survived its aftermath. When the war ended, little changed for these women, who are still exposed to a continuum of gender-based violence and continue to use the same tactics that, during the war, enabled them somehow to live with their suffering. Local NGOs, with the support of the government, have started to assist Jopadhola women to improve the quality of their present-day lives. By rebuilding their human and social capital, these NGOs are also creating the space for women to heal their war memories.