Northern NGO advocacy: Perceptions,reality, and the challenge

This article reports the results of and conclusions from a survey of Northern NGOs conducted during 1998 and 1999 for the purposes of testing generalised criticisms of Northern NGO advocacy and providing benchmarks for further research on the policy impact of the Washington Advocacy office of Oxfam International. Based on the survey findings, the author challenges Northern NGOs to evaluate more thoroughly their advocacy so that they may effectively demonstrate their advocacy achievements and, by so doing, confidently invest a greater proportion of resources into advocacy programmes which effectively contribute to their goals of reducing poverty.     

Perceptions and practices of farmer empowerment in Tanzania

The purpose of this article is to review the implementation of various empowerment interventions in Tanzania. Data for the review are based on field visits to programmes/projects/organisations involved in implementing empowerment interventions in various regions of the country. These visits involved key-informant interviews, sample surveys, and focus-group discussions with farmers. The review highlights the perceptions of empowerment at the levels of project staff and practitioners/beneficiaries, as well as the approaches used by various organisations and projects in implementing empowerment activities. In addition the article discusses the factors perceived to lead to empowerment, as well as its consequences.     

NGO monitoring and the legitimacy of international cooperation: A strategic analysis

States often invite NGOs to monitor international cooperation. Under what circumstances are states likely to take this step? We argue that NGO monitoring allows states to provide domestic publics with credible evidence regarding successful cooperation, but that this credibility carries a cost: if states fail to cooperate, a participating NGO will expose this failure and thus delegitimize the cooperation effort. Our formal analysis indicates that states obtain a dual benefit from NGO participation: in addition to enhanced legitimacy, NGO scrutiny helps states credibly commit to high cooperation levels vis-á-vis each other. The increased costs of failure, however, may deter state use of NGO monitoring. Surprisingly, we find that NGO monitoring is the most useful for states when the cooperation cost is relatively low. We explore the empirical relevance of our theoretical argument in NGO monitoring of World Bank development projects and compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. We also explain why NGO monitoring has been disallowed in the Global Environment Facility. Our analysis provides a firm strategic foundation for the idea that NGO participation sometimes confers benefits to states, and our theory has several empirically falsifiable implications.     

Mitigating impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural livelihoods: NGO experiences in sub-Saharan Africa

HIV/AIDS is having profound impacts on livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. These include the deaths of working-age adults, the diversion of resources to caring, and the rupture of traditional chains of knowledge transmission. NGOs are responding by providing assistance to communities affected by the epidemic in the fields of agriculture, skills training, and microfinance, as well as by offering home care and support. A key feature of such initiatives is the focus on previously neglected groups such as women, school dropouts, and orphans. Factors of success include the use of participatory processes to identify target groups, and the involvement of local political leaders and adults trusted by young people in project activities. Challenges include improving monitoring systems, effectively disseminating lessons learned, and persuading donors, whose responses to the epidemic are currently focused on preventive and curative health services, to support livelihoods interventions as a matter of urgency.     

Latest News of Member Organizations of China NGO Network for International Exchanges in International Exchanges

As China's largest network of non-governmental organizations involved in foreign affairs, China NGO Network for International Exchanges has now 265 member organizations. In order to share the latest news of member organizations in foreign exchanges, and promote mutual learning of all organizations in terms of international exchanges, from this issue on, we will collect and publish important work of member organizations in each quarter. Given the constraints in terms of time and people, our job is far from perfect. We expect your contribution to this column to share your good practice in foreign exchanges.     

CAFIU Has a Great Role to Play in NGO International Exchanges

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of CAFIU.Since its establishment,CAFIU has always stayed committed to the Independent Foreign Policy of Peace and reached out widely to promote international understanding and friendship and to safeguard world peace.Ten year ago when I was still Secretary-General of CAFIU,it published a photo album in commemoration of     

国际社会对21世纪海上丝绸之路的认知——以印度和东盟为例

建设21世纪海上丝绸之路是中国在新形势下进一步深化国内改革、谋求外部和平发展的大战略,迅速引起了国际社会特别是印度和东盟的深切关注。对此,印度小心谨慎终未加入,东盟在支持之下亦存担忧。在美国"亚太再平衡"战略压力下,印度和东盟对21世纪海上丝绸之路的认知显得尤为重要。积极处理好中国与印度、东盟各国的关系,增强互信,是推进21世纪海上丝绸之路建设顺利实施的重要保证。     

Conclusion Remarks by Mme. Zhao Wenzhi,Vice-President of China NGO Network for International Exchanges at the Second Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network Forum

正Respected representatives,Ladies and gentlemen,Good afternoon!It is my honor and pleasure to meet you at the Second Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network Forum and deliver a summary report on behalf of China NGO Network for International Exchanges.President Xi Jinping fully acknowledges fruitful results achieved by the Belt and Road Initiative at the opening ceremony of the Second Belt and     

Women and NGO professionalisation: a case study of Jordan

This article examines the impact of NGO professionalisation on the recruitment of NGO staff. Based on an in-depth survey of employees in 20 advocacy NGOs in Jordan, it demonstrates the gendered impact of professionalisation. The majority of NGO employees are highly educated women, often Western-educated, who work in NGOs primarily for career opportunities and because they are attracted by the NGO's goals. In contrast to existing literature, this article argues that gender considerations, such as job flexibility to accommodate household duties, play less of a role in determining the reasons why women seek work in NGOs and their degree of job satisfaction.     

The politics of performance evaluation: Independent evaluation at the International Monetary Fund

How has the Fund institutionalized independent evaluation as a means of assessing its performance? This paper process-traces the contentious creation of the Fund’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). I use primary interviews conducted at the Fund headquarters in 2008–2010 and Fund archive documents dating back to the beginning of the debate over independent evaluation in 1992 to analyze the interaction of internal and external actors and interests that led finally to the creation of the IEO in 2001. I then comment on the ‘performance of the performance evaluator.’ I draw from a recent external evaluation of the IEO (Lissakers et al. 2006), as well as interviews and secondary sources, to identify enduring contestation over the IEO’s function and scope of authority and to discern how this has affected the ability of the IEO to inform and shape the Fund’s process and outcome performance. To this end, I discuss four issues currently facing the IEO: the need to establish both actual and perceived independence, the problems of ambiguous or non-existent metrics for assessing Fund performance, difficulties in balancing candor of evaluation reports with credibility in the eyes of multiple constituencies, and the challenges of fostering a culture of learning in the Fund.     

The power of participatory monitoring and evaluation: insights from south-west China

This article examines the capacity-building experiences of two research teams in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces in south-west China who used participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) to strengthen their development research, particularly in the area of natural-resource management (NRM). The authors describe their efforts to incorporate PM&E practices in their work. The process proved challenging, despite political and economic changes in China that aim to allow more space for local voice and decision-making power in the management of natural resources and other village affairs. Institutionalising PM&E has still a long way to go and will require more field practice, greater integration in the processes of organisational development, and stronger connections with agendas of political change.     

Sweating it out: NGO campaigns and trade union empowerment

In the context of globalisation, transnational social regulation is increasingly the product of NGOs intervening in the sphere of global trade. Drawing on empirical research in SE Asia, the author contends that what matters as much as codes of conduct are spillover effects whose force extends beyond building walls into the broader society of the host country. The basis for effective labour law lies within states, and activism must focus on improving legal, political, and social conditions for workers in the host countries, rather than on trying to affect corporate behaviour through consumer pressure.     

Sustainability in NGO relief and development work: Further thoughts from Mozambique

Mozambique during the 1980s and 1990s has provided a challenging context for non-governmental organisations seeking to collaborate with its government in national development. One British NGO, Save the Children Fund, has set out to work in partnership with the government on a range of programmes at central level and in Zambezia province. Longer-term and emergency inputs form part of a conscious strategy aimed at securing sustainability. Institutional and practical constraints, however, make the achievement of this goal difficult, particularly in relief and rehabilitation projects. Changes in donor policies and in the Mozambican government's own evolving political priorities make it imperative to review this strategy on a regular basis. Lessons are drawn from Save the Children Fund's practical experience of development in Mozambique during the last eight years.     

日本NGO的发展及其对我国的启示

本文主要从政府与NGO之间的关系角度,介绍了NGO在日本的发展历程,通过"绿色和平组织"对福岛核辐射地区的调查,总结NGO对促进公民社会发展所起的重要作用。结合NGO与日本公民社会的现状,联系NGO在我国改革开放进程中扮演的角色,提出在资金、政策以及沟通渠道等方面促进我国NGO发展的具体改进方案。     

The Main Activities and Features of NGO in 2003

In2003熏activitiesofnon-governmentalorganiza鄄tions穴NGO雪wereincreasing.Theinternationalcom鄄munitypaidmoreandmoreattentiontotheroleplayedbyNGO.ThecooperationamongNGOwasstrengthening.Governmentsofallcountriessupport鄄edtheactivitiesofNGOconditionallyandatthesametime熏tookadvantageoftheactivitiesheldbyNGOtoservetheirforeignpolicies.MainNGOactivitiesin20031.WorldSocialForum.FromJanuary23to28熏the3rdWorldSocialForumwasheldinthePortoAlegre熏Brazil.Over20熏000registeredrepresenta鄄tive…     

An international NGO representative in Colombia: reflections from practice

Certain contexts render particularly challenging the disjunctures and discontinuities between international NGO (INGO) headquarters and in-country operations, as this Christian Aid case demonstrates. Torn loyalties result when seeking to discern how best to work with partners in a human-rights crisis in a middle-income country. Navigating these challenges requires a critical interrogation and radical practice of partnership. With many INGOs partially or wholly decentralising operations, and in anomalous and complex INGO programme contexts like this, it is vital to analyse the disjunctures and to support in-country staff to respond creatively to them, to do justice to programme potential and partnership principles.     

The effectiveness of NGO campaigning: lessons from practice

This article looks at the lessons learned in reviewing two long-running international campaigns, one to promote breast-feeding in Ghana, and the other against the use of child labor in the carpet industry in India. In particular, it focuses on understanding the nature of campaigns and what makes them effective. It asserts that campaigns are not linear or mechanistic, but need to be understood as passing through various stages and requiring different kinds of action at different levels and at different times. The variety of work and skills thus required makes it vital that the various organizations involved collaborate with each other. In particular, grassroots mobilization has a role that is often forgotten in bringing about sustained policy change.     

Relief and rehabilitation work in Mozambique: Institutional capacity and NGO executional strategies

The nature of the Mozambique ‘emergency?s and its institutional context pose a significant challenge to NGO aid strategies, as these organisations seek to reconcile objectives of short-term effectiveness and accountability with goals of long-term capacity-building and sustainability. The increasing emphasis on the former within the Zambezia Province Emergency Programme may be prejudicing the government's capacity to stimulate economic and social rehabilitation once the Emergency Programme aid declines. Many NGOs working within the Province have shifted from a strategy of executing relief and rehabilitation programmes through existing institutional channels to one which relies heavily on the development of their own parallel structures. The shift has been motivated by the perceived weak executional capacity of the government institutions; however, it is unclear whether the modest gains in aid effectiveness and efficiency offset the lost opportunities for institutional change and learning necessary for programme sustainability and for the longer-term rehabilitation of the economic and social infrastructure in the province.