Traits of Leaders of Rural Non-governmental Organisations as Predictors of Collaboration Between NGOs and Rural Gmina Offices: Voices from Central Poland

Collaboration between non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and public institutions, in accordance with the new public governance model, may contribute to actions by such organisations on behalf of both the co-production and co-construction of social services. The aim of this article is to assess the role of selected traits of NGO leaders in determining the chances of collaboration between NGOs and rural gmina offices in central, post-socialist Poland. The authors present the results of studies on selected subjective determinants of such collaboration, in which 104 leaders of NGOs from 29 rural gminas participated. Five independent research tools were implemented. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the role of selected traits of NGO leaders in determining the potential for collaboration between NGOs and rural gmina offices. The final model indicates that the potential for collaboration between an NGO and a rural gmina office increases alongside higher levels of education, social competences and locus of control and decreased control ideology among NGO leaders. On this basis, the authors formulate practical conclusions concerning the education of leaders of rural NGOs in post-socialist Poland.

     

Assessment of multidimensional poverty and effectiveness of microfinance-driven government and NGO projects in the rural Bangladesh

This paper has developed a multidimensional model usable in assessing economic, social, political and cultural dimensions of poverty by utilizing primary data collected from 78 villages in Bangladesh using a participatory approach. Employing the developed model, a comparative analysis has been performed between microfinance-driven government (GO) and NGO (non-government organization) projects to explore their relative effectiveness in enhancing wellbeing of the poor in rural Bangladesh. It is observed that GO agencies are more effective in enhancing ‘economic wellbeing’ of the poor, whereas NGOs are contributing more in the ‘social’ aspects of wellbeing. Findings also revealed that, as whole, GO agencies perform 42% better than NGOs in improving living standards of the rural poor which contradicts with the existing literature of poverty reduction projects in developing countries.     

Understanding Mexican NGOs: Goals,Strategies, and the Local Context

Research on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) largely focuses on the actions taken towards contributing to social change in communities and has characterized them into a typology of resisters or cooperators. Using extensive qualitative data, I use this case study to illustrate that NGOs use multiple repertoires of strategies that range from low to high risk. In this article, I show how and why NGO leaders in Monterrey, Mexico, choose their strategies based on their interpretation of the local sociopolitical environment and their assessment of how politically challenging a goal is within that context. By setting aside the dichotomy of NGOs as cooperators or resisters, I demonstrate the connection between strategies, goals, and the local sociopolitical context that is largely missing in our theorizing of NGOs (and other forms of collective action). These findings have implications for understanding how NGOs, as social actors, participate in an increasingly complex and interconnected global space.     

Assessing NGO Empowerment in Housing Development Frameworks: Discourse and Practice in the Philippines

Amid the rise of democratization movements since the 1980s, many governments in developing countries have proactively introduced the ideas of decentralization and devolution into the policy arena. In the pursuit of democratic planning processes where civil society is encouraged to be a part of the formal decision-making system, articles advocating the empowerment of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been included into a series of legislations. This shift was soon reflected in housing development frameworks for the poor, leading to the formulation of a new approach called "enablement." The Philippines' experience for the last two decades follows this line of development. Filipino NGOs are now prescribed as a catalyst to add further dynamism to the improvement of substandard living environments. Empirical findings of this study exemplify that NGO empowerment has been increasingly accelerated by the combination of NGOs' self-endeavors and governments' initiatives. By utilizing the paradigm shift under the enablement approach, NGOs are engaged in the attempt of alliance-formation and network-building to expand their influence. Contrary to ideals, however, NGO empowerment may reveal some adverse effects such as excessive dependency on NGOs and distorted representation by NGOs. Moreover, the professionalization of NGOs is an additional factor which generates hierarchization at the grass-roots level. This study suggests that further research analyze the depth and width to which NGO empowerment has been penetrated in order to precisely capture the processes and consequences resulting in disempowerment.     

Anxiety and Ambivalence: NGO–Activist Partnership in China’s Environmental Protests, 2007–2016

This article examines how partnership between social organizations and popular protests is affected by the state in the field of environmental activism. Drawing upon content analysis and in-depth interviews, we study non-governmental organization (NGO) engagement with 22 grassroots environmental protests in China, 2007–2016. We find that NGOs and grassroots protesters were mostly distant from each other to avoid state repression and retribution, but NGOs occasionally collaborated with protesters in an ambivalent manner because state control was contradictory, fragmented, and varying. NGOs either used institutional means to support the protesters or were informally and invisibly involved in those protests. Our research contributes to studies of the triangular relationship between the state, NGOs, and social movements. Specifically, we find that when NGOs lack the institutional access to policy making but are not fully controlled by the state, they have both incentives and spaces to make joint actions with grassroots activists.

     

NGO Networks,the Diffusion and Adaptation of NGO Managerialism,and NGO Legitimacy in Latin America

Nongovernmental organization (NGO) networks have become key instruments used by NGOs in Latin America. Because these networks have important roles to play in advocating for the sector, earning public support, and improving the provision of public goods and services, understanding these networks is important to understanding the NGO sector more broadly. The article examines how NGO networks use collective texts to diffuse and adapt managerial practices. NGO networks use elements of managerialism and their adaptations to signal quality, secure recognition in social development, identify strengths and weaknesses of the sector, and define civil society in order to garner sector legitimacy. While looking at managerialism from a critical perspective, the article finds that understanding NGOs networks and the diffusion and adaption of NGO practices can further pinpoint effective sources of sector legitimacy and help to strengthen the sector’s role in social development.     

Why some greens are more powerful than others: on destabilisation,power shifts and the democratic potential of NGOs

This article studies how the collective empowerment of NGOs that is embodied in the destabilisation of world politics is distributed among individual organisations in the NGO community. The article focuses on non-governmental power in three global environmental conventions. It seeks to explain power differences between individual organisations in terms of possession of resources such as income, expertise, prominence and independence. In contrast to previous NGO research, this article applies an extensive and statistical approach. The main finding is that there is a global green elite of well-equipped NGOs that is allotted most power. This result is discussed in the light of recent debates on the democratic potential of an expanded role for NGOs in global politics.     

Transformational Leadership, Organizational Culture, Organizational Effectiveness, and Programme Outcomes in Non-Governmental Organizations

This study examines whether transformational leadership influences organizational culture that furthers NGOs?? effectiveness. It also examines whether transformational leadership at the top directly influences NGOs?? effectiveness. Further, it tests whether NGO effectiveness improves the programme outcomes in terms of health, income, education, and happiness of villagers. Data were collected from 312 NGOs in Jharkhand state (India). Transformational leadership, organizational culture, and NGO effectiveness were assessed from NGO personnel using standard instruments, and programme outcomes on health, income, education, and happiness were evaluated from villagers using wooden cubes. Findings reveal that transformational leadership builds organizational culture that furthers NGO effectiveness. Transformational leadership does not influence directly NGO effectiveness but it enhances NGO effectiveness promoting organizational culture. Furthermore, NGO effectiveness improves the outcomes of programmes undertaken by NGOs in terms of better health, income, education, and happiness of beneficiaries.     

The team as a secure base: Promoting resilience and competence in child and family social work

This paper outlines research findings on the relevance of the Secure Base model (Schofield & Beek, 2014) for developing supportive teams in child and family social work. When the social work team functions as a secure base, this can help workers cope with the emotional demands of the role. The concept of the secure base comes from attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) in which our relationships with significant others, who are available, sensitive to our needs and reliable, provide us with a secure base to return to when life is stressful and provide us with comforting internal mental models when we are physically away from them. This ‘secure base for exploration’ reduces anxiety and enables us to engage with the world, consider the internal world of others (empathy) and remain resilient when life is stressful. Using data from 52 phone interviews with child and family social workers across eight local authorities in the UK, we show how the Secure Base model has relevance for emotion regulation and resilience for child and family social workers. Data were analysed using Theoretical Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In the context of the emotional demands of social work, our data indicate that the supervisors and teams provide a work related secure base across five dimensions by behaving in ways which instil these beliefs: Availability -‘People are there for me’; Sensitivity - ‘My feelings are manageable’; Acceptance - I don't always have to be strong’; Cooperation - ‘I can work with others to find a solution’; Team belonging - ‘I am valued and I belong’. Implications for practice are proposed to help supervisors and team members reflect on beliefs and behaviours which can help provide a secure base for their teams.     

“So They’ll Have Somewhere to Go”: Establishing Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) for Children with Autism in the People’s Republic of China

Despite policy calling for compulsory education in China, many children with autism are not in school. This article examines the establishment of autism-related non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China to meet needs not being met by the state. We focus on the background and motivation in founding and running these NGOs, after first considering the broader context of state decentralization and NGOs roles in supplementing welfare needs in reforming societies, and the educational policy context of China. This study used mixed methods, including questionnaires with open-ended and limited choice questions, and follow-up discussion email. The goals of NGO leaders—more than 50% of whom are parents of children with autism—are to make up for where government implementation of educational policy is insufficient; help others and advocate for inclusion in society; and do meaningful work. Implications from these findings are discussed.

     

Transplanting institutional innovation: comparing the success of NGOs and missionary Protestantism in sub-Saharan Africa

Viewing missionary Protestantism and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as carriers of transnational institutional innovation, this article compares their successes and failures at creating self-sustaining institutions in distant societies. Missionary Protestantism and NGOs are similar in that they attempt to establish formal organizations outside kinship, lineage, and ethnic forms of solidarity. Focusing on institutions as ways to create collective capacities that organize social life, we trace the route whereby Protestant missionaries established congregational religion in Africa and identify social practices that made this enterprise successful but are comparatively absent in current NGO attempts to transform organizational life. Largely ignored by sociologists interested in institutional transformation, the history of congregational religion offers valuable sociological lessons about the conditions for radical institutional innovation. Its success was rooted first, in colonial missionaries’ ability to enforce new ways of life on small exemplary communities; second, in local adaptations (African prophetic movements, Pentecostalism) that deepened and widened the social reach of congregational principles; and third in the incentives Protestantism created for propagating the congregational form.

     

Between Rhetoric and Action: Do NGOs Go Where They Are Needed?

This research analyzes the factors that determine the placement of development NGOs in Nepal through the examination of the placement data of 39,606 NGOs. Using multivariate ordinary least squares, this investigation demonstrates that the location of an NGO is determined by: level of community needs, resource availability, and the level of political engagement. NGOs are in fact active where their support services are in high demand. However, the other two determinants: ‘resource dependency’ and ‘political engagement’ suggest that development outcomes may be limited due to placement concentration in areas of high human resource availability and high political activity.

     

Comparing NGO Resilience and ‘Structures of Opportunity’ in South Africa and Zimbabwe (2010–2013)

African non-governmental organisations undergo various shifts in order to cope with diverse challenges. This article takes a longitudinal case study approach to analyse the identities and resilience of a small sample of NGOs in South Africa and Zimbabwe between 2009 and 2013. This article will rely on time period and the nature of the state in each site as independent variables. The nuances brought on by the different time periods and each organisation’s profile, and the two countries where the NGOs are set, are significant for contributing to the literature on the fluid and adaptive nature of African NGOs in their bid for survival. Through exploring these four diverse NGOs in the two states and time period where new challenges and opportunities are presented, the article will also highlight the variety of challenges and strategies each NGO engaged with when confronting crises specific to their settings and the identities each NGO adopted when developing and shifting their agendas.     

Climate Change Policies in the Transitional Economies of Europe and Eurasia: The Role of NGOs

This article examines ratification of the Kyoto Protocol across 26 transitional economies of Europe and Eurasia for the period of 1998–2009; the period between the Kyoto Protocol and the 2009 Copenhagen meeting. The dependent variable measures whether or not the country has ratified the Kyoto Protocol in a given year. The key variable of interest is the strength of domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs). To account for the nascent stage of the NGO sector, I measure NGO strength as a “stock” and as a “flow” variable. Using an event-history model, I examine the impact of the NGO strength while controlling for other domestic-based and international drivers of treaty ratification. All time-variant independent variables are lagged by a year. My analysis suggests that the stock of domestic NGO strength is a significant predictor of the timing of ratification. Further, EU accession pressures, ratification levels in contiguous countries, and domestic economic cycle impact the timing of ratification of the treaty.     

NGOS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN BULGARIA AND THE USA

This study examines the development of civil society and its ability to facilitate stronger democratic practices in Bulgaria using the USA as a comparison. Using data gathered from surveys of NGOs in 2006, we examine three sets of questions. First, what is the level of NGO organizational capacity? Second, to what degree are NGOs performing their mediating roles? Third, how do NGOs perceive their effectiveness in working with the state and its citizens. Our findings suggest that Bulgarian NGOs face a number of challenges when compared with US NGOs, which affect their ability to engage in civil society activities such as establishing horizontal ties with citizens and other groups.     

Civil Society Capacity Building for Democratic Reform: Experience and Lessons from Indonesia

This article examines civil society strengthening experience in Indonesia to illuminate issues, challenges, and lessons for non-governmental organization (NGO) capacity building and international donor-supported democratic reform. The authors conceive of capacity as a function of contextual factors, and internal factors associated with an individual NGO or a network of NGOs. Contextual factors that need to be taken into account in Indonesia include weak reform implementation, state distrust of NGOs, and backsliding on some basic freedoms. Among the important internal features of NGOs in democracy promotion are overreliance on confrontational advocacy strategies, shallow organizational capacity, inability to cooperate to leverage impact, limited outreach to indigenous constituencies and sustainability problems. Indonesia’s democracy-promotion NGO coalitions have largely operated as instruments of donor-supported reforms. As they seek to become socially embedded actors pursuing indigenous agendas, they face the need to confront the various expectations of their stakeholders regarding their roles and legitimacy, develop flexibility to respond to new engagements with government and with citizens, and address their internal capacity gaps. Three cases are presented that illustrate both the problems and the encouraging progress with government–NGO collaborations in democratic governance.     

Tragic Choices in Humanitarian Aid: A Framework of Organizational Determinants of NGO Decision Making

Humanitarian NGOs face difficult choices about whom to help and whom not on a daily basis. The research question in this article is how humanitarian NGOs make these difficult decisions and why in a particular way. March’s study on consequential and appropriate decision-making processes is used to analyze the nature and course of NGO decision making. Since March’s two models are often explicitly or implicitly linked to certain types of organizational settings—as reflected in an organization’s formal structure, compliance and coordination mechanisms—this article particularly zooms in on the relationship between NGO decision-making processes and these settings. The theoretical framework is illustrated and discussed by means of an exploratory comparative case study of two international humanitarian NGOs: Médecins Sans Frontières Holland (MSF Holland) and Acting with Churches Netherlands (ACT Netherlands).     

Improving and measuring transparency in NGOs: A disclosure index for activities and projects

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are established not with the aim of making profits but rather to provide social values by implementing different projects and activities. Transmitting complete information about these projects to society is a key element of transparency, as they operate within an atmosphere of public trust. Although there is a large body of literature on transparency in NGOs from a global perspective, very little research has been conducted on transparency within the area of projects and activities. This study takes a deeper look at this line and contributes to the literature on transparency in NGOs by proposing an index to measure the information transparency of the projects implemented by these organizations. The index captures three dimensions of the information about the projects (technical, financial, and scope) and makes it possible to: analyze the level of transparency of the portfolio of projects, detect the specific aspects that could be improved in each organization, and carry out comparisons among organizations.     

Paths of Local Development: Culture, Context, Power, and the Role of Nongovernmental Organizations

This article challenges the perception that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are immune from attributes commonly associated with political parties, such as clientelism. Through a case study of an NGO and a political party in semi-urban Argentina, this article demonstrates that despite associational differences with local political party network, these two associational networks produced similar social outcomes??such as, dependency, exclusivity, and paternalism??a phenomenon traced to the NGO??s and political parties?? similar structures and tactics. Contrary to the prevailing positive view of the NGO, held by scholars, the media, and development practitioners, it was guided by financial interests and a continual focus on locating external funding sources to facilitate its goals. Not surprisingly, the political party was dominated by politically oriented interests and an ever-present focus on obtaining votes. However, these seemingly different associations had a similar objective, i.e., the continual effort to obtain sources of support thus demonstrating how powerful structures can still dominate poor communities even when forms change.     

Saving the Moral Capital of NGOs: Identifying One-Sided and Many-Sided Social Dilemmas in NGO Accountability

The literature on nonprofit management has embraced the concept of “accountability” to target urgent challenges related to NGO probity and integrity, and there have been attempts in the literature to use rational-choice-based governance approaches to solve them. Although the existing principal–agent frameworks provide important insights, they are limited to the analysis of financial relationships between NGOs and donors. We contribute to the literature in developing a comprehensive rational-choice-based governance approach to analyze all stakeholder relationships of NGOs. Applying the research program of ordonomics, we unpack two fundamental interaction problems: (a) the “stakeholder dilemma” between the NGO and a single accountability holder as a one-sided social dilemma and (b) the “competition dilemma” among rival NGOs as a many-sided social dilemma. We show that improving NGO accountability in relation to intended beneficiaries, peer organizations, and the general public also requires identifying the underlying governance problem as a competition dilemma focusing on collective self-regulation as a solution.