Money,power, and donor–NGO partnerships

The term ‘partnership’ can be considered something of a Trojan Horse, disguising the reality of the complex relationships in imbalances of power and inequality, often expressed through the control of one ‘partner’ over the other. With particular reference to the experience of a small, UK-based NGO working in Uganda (Hives Save Lives – Africa), this article highlights how power is manifest within donor–NGO partnerships through the control and flow of money; and illustrates that NGOs pursuing funding from donors face many challenges that reinforce this imbalance of power.     

日本居家护理服务的发展与启示

日本自20世纪70年代进入人口老龄化社会,老人的养老护理成为社会问题,为应对人口老龄化的挑战,日本建立护理保险制度,护理保险由居家护理服务和设施护理服务两部分组成,主要为居家护理服务。日本的居家护理服务很好地解决了日本养老服务问题,呈现出自己的鲜明特点,对我国养老服务提供了有益的借鉴。     

民事诉讼审前准备程序问题之思考

在大多数国家的民事诉讼制度中都有关于审前准备程序的规定,无论是英美法系国家还是大陆法系国家。我国在这一问题上的立法和司法实践都有待改进和完善。要改变我国民事诉讼中绝对以庭审为中心的认识,发挥审前程序的作用,在立法上赋予其程序上的独立地位。     

Analysing social-change practice in the Peruvian Amazon through a feminist reading of participatory communication research

This article analyses the social-change practices of Minga Perú, an NGO in the Peruvian Amazon which promotes gender equality and reproductive health through radio broadcasts and community-based interventions. This analysis, grounded in participatory research methods, reveals a feminist and gender-equitable approach, allowing participants to take the role of leader rather than of passive research subject. Such participatory research methods helped to empower both individuals and their communities in the Peruvian Amazon, encouraging the development of more productive group dynamics and leadership.     

Facilitators of development or Kapos for capital: the primrose path to GATS

This article arose from work undertaken on behalf of a UK-based NGO developing a policy response to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It looks at GATS as a key to locating development NGOs (NGDOs) within the broader field of development aims and practices, examining the long-term implications of GATS with respect to the idea of a ‘fourth position’ for such NGOs. It is argued that this theoretical position fails to take into account changing imbalances of power between NGDOs and their Southern counterparts that began under structural adjustment, as a consequence of which many NGDOs now occupy a position from which effective mediation between civil society, the state, and the market would be difficult if not impossible. In addition, GATS represents a step-change along the evolutionary path towards a market-oriented ideology whose verticalist worldview represents a profound contradiction to the avowedly progressive aims of most NGDOs.     

Diary of a participatory advocacy film project: transforming communication initiatives into living campaigns

In August 2007, the government of Tanzania made a commitment to doubling the number of training places for skilled midwives, following a five-year campaign by the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood in Tanzania (WRATZ), which culminated in the first television screening of a participatory film, ‘Play Your Part’. With contributions from a range of health professionals, communities, a pop singer, and the Minister of Health, the message was that everyone at every level has a part to play in saving mothers' lives. WRATZ was successful because it was able to promote its message in a way that provides a model for advocacy, combining the reactive creativity of journalism and the methodological rigour of participatory video to bring about a tangible impact.     

Structures,values, and interaction in field-level partnerships: the case of UNHCR and NGOs

This article discusses the process of transforming partnership from a conceptual framework into a practical, operational framework for field-level interaction among humanitarian organisations. The authors approach this transformation from the perspective of the core values of the partnership concept and the ability of field workers to behave in ways that are consistent with these core values, illustrated by an empirical study of the relationships between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and NGOs in a refugee-assistance programme in northern Uganda. The authors connect inter-organisational structures with the role of people charged with making partnership work, concluding that the structures and context in which individuals operate make it impossible for them to ‘act out’ the core values of partnership. By identifying the major challenges to creating field-level, operational partnerships, the authors offer lessons for current and future partnership-building initiatives, such as the Global Humanitarian Platform.     

‘Situating’ active citizenship: historical and contemporary perspectives of women's organising in the Pacific

This article examines a 40-year history of women's organising in Fiji, in order to show how the political goals pursued by active citizens can be shaped by an interplay of domestic and international political contingencies. This approach challenges the common and somewhat idealised definitions of active citizenship that focus upon actors' capacity to mobilise collectively behind political goals independent of those that motivate the state or the market. Rather, active citizenship is viewed as a realm of political activity constituted in ways that both reflect and contest contingent factors prevailing globally and locally.     

拾得遗失物归属原则的中国法制史考察——由“道不拾遗”谈起

自西周以降,至近世民国,拾得遗失物归属原则的发展经历了三个阶段。在这一过程中,暗含着根植于本民族内部的自然变迁和来源于模仿西方的近代立法实践两条主线。通过对各朝拾得遗失物归属原则进行梳理分析,寻找一些可资于新中国民法典制定的有益参照,不失为一种好的尝试。     

对农村公共服务的回顾与反思

本文旨在通过对建国以来农村公共服务事业发展状况的回顾,以汲取农业以及农村在发展问题上的经验与教训。