The new geography of global civil society: NGOs in the world city network

Recent research on the geography of NGOs in Global Civil Society yearbooks has emphasized a north-west European bias. This has been taken to imply that global civil society is but a pale geographical shadow of the power concentrations in global economy and governance. Using an interlocking network model and data on 74 global NGOs with offices across 178 cities, NGO connectivity values for cities show that there is a ‘global South’, especially sub-Saharan African, geographical bias. Nairobi is the most connected world city with respect to NGO activities. This marked contrast to recent received wisdom implies a diffuse network power relationship. To the extent that global NGOs reveal the new geography of global civil society in a space of flows, these results support a positive interpretation for NGOs contributing to an emancipatory global agenda.     

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.

     

The politics of NGO development in China

Since the beginning of reform in the late 1970s, the non-governmental sector in China has burgeoned. This paper analyses its development. It begins by examining competing theories regarding the political impact of the NGO sector. Political scientists employing pluralist or civil society approaches suggest that the development of NGOs is an important force in creating pressures for democratisation. In contrast, those employing a corporatist framework seek to illuminate the mechanisms which the state can use to limit and control the political impact of NGOs. The paper also examines the advantages and disadvantages of close state involvement for the impact of NGOs on socio-economic development. It explicates the legal and regulatory framework for NGOs in China in order to illustrate the ways in which the state seeks to preempt and coopt the formation of autonomous organisations, lending support to the corporatist interpretation. The paper includes case studies of NGOs based on interviews with representatives of NGOs and regulatory organs, published documents and press reports. It places China's contemporary experience with non-governmental organisations in context by comparing it with associational life in traditional China, in developing countries in general, and in communist countries in particular. Finally, the paper analyses the significance of the economic reforms and the impending political succession for NGO development.The author is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. This article was first drafted while she was an intern with the Ford Foundation in Beijing. Peter Geithner, Michel Oksenberg, Craig O'Neill and an anonymous reviewer made helpful comments on earlier drafts. The views expressed in the article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of the Ford Foundation.     

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.     

Transnational Information Politics and the “Child Migration Crisis”: Guatemalan NGOs Respond to Youth Migration

Sharp increases in “child migrants” from Central America detained at the US border in 2014 brought unprecedented levels of attention to long extant social and political issues perceived as causing youth migration. While governments on both sides of the US border faced criticism over responses to the migration “crisis,” the presumed causes of this migration presented in US media discourses went largely unquestioned. This article presents data collected in June 2015 from in-depth interviews with Guatemalan and transnational non-governmental organization (NGO) staff, scholars, lawyers, and activists in order to understand the complex interpretations of child migration by NGO actors in Guatemala. Findings illustrate how NGOs may selectively draw on the power of prevailing media narratives to buttress ideological and programmatic goals while simultaneously contesting how the same media depictions obscure the lived realities of migrants. We consider the transnational information politics of representations of “child migration” across government, media, and civil society sectors and the critical role of NGOs in articulating the complex realities faced by populations vulnerable to migration.     

Contemporary NGO–Journalist Relations: Reviewing and Evaluating an Emergent Area of Research

Long recognized as key players in international politics, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) increasingly assume important roles in the provision of news. By hiring photographers, staffing online departments and funding reporting trips, NGOs act in ways that overlap with the actions of professional journalists. This article reviews and evaluates an emerging area of research – the study of NGO–journalist relations – that analyzes these developments. It proceeds in four parts: First, it overviews changes in the NGO and journalism sectors that drive growing scholarly interest in the topic. Second, it summarizes the findings of the available research. Third, it suggests some of the ways in which this research connects with concerns in the sociology of media and communication. Fourth, it evaluates the findings in light of various normative frameworks of public discourse. It concludes by suggesting that NGO–journalism scholarship can benefit from further attention by sociologists working in the areas of media and communication.     

Wie viel Verwaltungsaufwand ist notwendig, um Transparenz und Wirksamkeit zu gewährleisten?

“Each Euro of my donation shall reach directly to the poor without any deduction!” This demand is often heard by development organisations. This article reflects the necessary administration to ensure transparency and effectiveness of NGOs. The author works for the NGO Indienhilfe e. V. Herrsching, an organisation pushing ahead the battle against poverty in India and working in the field of development education in Germany, and describes in this article the administrative part of her work which ensures the transparency of decisions, the quality of the project partnership and the monitoring of the projects.     

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.     

‘Going Out’ or Staying In? The Expansion of Chinese NGOs in Africa

This article examines the overseas behaviour of Chinese non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) in two African nations, Ethiopia and Malawi, with varying political regime types. Our findings suggest that, irrespective of regime type, Chinese NGOs have yet to make a substantial impact in either nation. We argue that, despite the strength of the Chinese state and high levels of international development assistance given, domestic politics and regulatory frameworks in host nations still matter a great deal. Our study suggests that the Chinese model of international development will continue to be one in which temporary one‐off projects are favoured; and, insofar as social organisations will play a role, they will be in the domain of government‐organised NGOs rather than grassroots NGOs.     

Gender relations, "Hindu" nationalism,and NGO responses in India

This article explores the strategies employed by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to challenge the right wing nationalism that dominates Indian politics. The opposition of the NGOs to the current political climate has evolved a variety of strategies, depending on their links with northern NGOs or international organizations such as the UN, and their reliance on foreign funding. The organizations that have links with international NGO community primarily express their opposition through consciousness raising and networking strategies. Because NGOs activities at the national level have the potential to attract the attention and anger of nationalist actors, many choose to operate at local level for fear of harassment. Some get involved in initiatives such as direct-action campaigns which spring up when violence breaks out in a locality, or immediately afterwards. Another strategy being set up by NGOs is cooperative and cross-community initiatives to encourage as well as build on historic relationships of socioeconomic and political interdependence between Hindus and Muslims. These strategies seek to strengthen people's awareness of the distinction between personal spiritual beliefs, the true character of India's composite culture, and of the religious rhetoric being disseminated by nationalist for the purpose of securing political power. Although much effort has been exerted by these organizations, these strategies have limitations, which are discussed in this paper.     

NGOs’ transnational advocacy networks: from ‘legitimacy’ to ‘political responsibility’?

NGOs that operate as part of transnational advocacy networks face a number of ‘legitimacy challenges’ concerning their rights to participate in the shaping of global governance. Outlining the legitimacy claims that development NGOs make, the article argues that ‘legitimacy’ is a socially constructed quality that may be ascribed to an NGO by actors and stakeholders with different viewpoints. NGOs operating transnationally link disparate communities and conceptions of legitimacy, and undermine the discourse and practice of sovereignty. Therefore such NGOs will find it difficult to be universally regarded as legitimate, especially by states that hold a sovereignty‐based conception of legitimacy. However, relationships are the building blocks of networks, and efforts to improve them should not be abandoned simply because ‘legitimacy’ is too closely connected with sovereignty. In particular, NGOs ought to improve their relationships with the poor and marginalized communities whose interests they claim to promote. To this end, the concept of ‘political responsibility’ is suggested as a pragmatic approach to understanding power relations as they arise in transnational advocacy networks and campaigns.     

The strategies that bind: NGO coalitions and their influence

Abstract This article examines NGOs as strategic organizations that form coalitions in order to influence other actors, particularly international financial institutions. It has three primary aims: to examine NGOs as strategic organizations; to look at a particular type of NGO network, the coalition, which unlike a network involves more value and commitment; and to assess the factors that contribute to their strategies such as changes to the NGO environment. To do this, the resource dependency perspective is utilized to evaluate the influence of various resources (funding, legitimacy and information) on NGOs’ organizational strategy. Oxfam International, the NGO Working Group on the World Bank, and the Bretton Woods Project are three NGO coalitions examined. I conclude that there are differences between NGO networks and coalitions and that the coalitions strategically act and react to changing resources in their environments.     

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.     

NGOs, ‘Straddler’ Organisations and the Possibilities of ‘Channelling’ in Indonesia: New Possibilities for State–NGO Collaboration?

The Badan Keswadayaan Masyarakat (BKM—Board for Community Self-reliance) are organisations established by the state as implementing agents of a community-driven development programme in Medan, Indonesia. Members are elected from the local population, but they continue to be supported by, and associated with the state. They are therefore ‘straddler’ organisations: organisations that span the state–civil society divide. This paper seeks to answer two questions. First, can BKMs’ positioning between the state and civil society facilitate new forms of state/non-government organisations (NGO) collaboration, and if so, what is the nature of partnerships established through such collaborations? We find that straddle organisations offer a way for NGOs to collaborate with the state in the achievement of development objectives. Second what is the possibility and desirability of arrangements in which NGOs ‘channel’ funds to BKMs as a means to ensure the sustainability of the latter? We argue that while there is considerable promise in such arrangements, these should be designed around a model of ‘working together’ rather than merely ‘channelling’.     

Surreptitious Symbiosis: Engagement Between Activists and NGOs

Based on research conducted in Athens, Cairo, London and Yerevan, the article analyzes the relationship between activists engaged in street protests or direct action since 2011 and NGOs. It examines how activists relate to NGOs and whether it is possible to do sustained activism to bring about social change without becoming part of a ‘civil society industry.’ The article argues that while at first glance NGOs seem disconnected from recent street activism, and activists distance themselves from NGOs, the situation is more complicated than meets the eye. It contends that the boundaries between the formal NGOs and informal groups of activists are blurred and there is much cross-over and collaboration. The article demonstrates and seeks to explain this phenomenon, which we call surreptitious symbiosis, from the micro- perspective of individual activists and NGO staff. Finally, we discuss whether this surreptitious symbiosis can be sustained and sketch three scenarios for the future.

     

The Regulation of International NGOS: Assessing the Effectiveness of the INGO Accountability Charter

The INGO Accountability Charter is the only global, cross-sectoral regulatory initiative for international NGOs. This is the first independent study of perceptions of its effectiveness, based upon 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews with key individuals from 11 leading international NGOs. Firstly, it analyzes interviewees’ beliefs about the motivations of NGOs in joining the Charter. The findings contribute to the scholarly debate about the key drivers for voluntary regulation between ‘club theorists’ and ‘constructivists’ by demonstrating that NGO behavior in this regard is both self-interested and norm-guided. Secondly, it investigates the extent to which the interviewees believe that the Charter has been effective in enhancing the accountability of its members. Their responses further underline the applicability of club theory and constructivist explanations of NGO behavior, and lead to several policy recommendations about the future direction of Charter.     

Follower or Challenger? How Chinese Non-governmental Organizations Manage Accountability Requirements from Funders

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) sometimes disagree with their funders’ accountability requirements; however, their dependence on the funders’ resources makes it difficult to express their disagreement. This dilemma for NGOs may keep funders from substantively holding NGOs to account and cause mission drift for the NGOs. This paper analyzes an in-depth case study of an understudied scenario: how a newly founded NGO engages with multiple funders with varying competence in accountability practices. By analyzing a Chinese NGO’s accountability relationships with its funders, we found that the NGO’s responses varied according to its organizational interests and how it perceived the funders’ competence. Better trust meant better compliance. Therefore, to secure compliance, it is important to enhance NGOs’ trust in funders’ competence. Based on the findings, we suggest that funders be more aware of NGOs’ agency, be ready to engage in ongoing collaborative learning with NGOs and align NGOs’ interests with the accountability requirements.

     

The Development of Grassroots Chinese NGOs Following the Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008: Three Case Studies,Four Modi Vivendi

Many analysts consider 2008 to have been “NGO year zero” for China, as the relief and reconstruction process following the Wenchuan earthquake witnessed a significant surge in NGO activity. This study traces the development trajectory of three NGOs in Y City over the eight years since the area was severely struck by the Wenchuan earthquake. These NGOs actively assisted in the post-disaster recovery. By the time the reconstruction was complete, they had translated their distinct resources, development plans, and relationships with local government into different approaches to helping the local community. This study proposes an interactive model that captures the nuanced dynamics over time on both sides of the NGO–local government relationships. The model focuses on variations in NGOs’ orientations and bargaining power. This yields a matrix with four elementary types of relationship: “parent-–child,” “mercantile,” “predator–prey,” and alienated relationships. These interaction patterns and their effects are clearly seen in the case studies.     

Pathways to becoming an internal evaluator: Perspectives from the Australian non-government sector

There is a lack of clarity around intra-organisational evaluation roles and pathways into these roles in non-government organisations (NGOs). This article presents three auto-narratives from the authors who are working as internal evaluators in the NGO sector. We examine this phenomenon of role ambiguity by exploring our evaluation journeys and struggles to find identities in the formal evaluation community. Findings from the auto-narratives identify implications for the evaluation field regarding professionalisation. This article explores how aspects of professionalisation, such as clarification of roles and tasks of internal evaluators, could facilitate their recruitment, assess credibility and guide career trajectory. Elucidating internal evaluation career pathways contributes to the evaluation discipline by providing information relevant for evaluation capacity building, evaluator training, and the professionalisation movement.     

Professional discourse in winning images: objectivity and professional boundaries in environmental news images in the World Press Photo contest, 1992–2011

This article applies the ecological theory of professions to analyze professional discourse in the World Press Photo (WPP) contest, an international photojournalism contest held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The article analyzes the content of 148 photojournalism works that received environmental awards in the period 1992 to 2011, the two decades after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The article seeks to understand the representation and negotiation of objectivity and the claims of professional boundaries by the media of both developed and developing countries as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It also seeks to interpret the professional discourse of the WPP in relation to ideologies and power dynamics in both journalism and global environmental politics. The results suggested that the media of developed countries dominated the discourse, and the conventional notion of journalistic objectivity remained intact. However, the results also showed that global environmental politics and the situation of journalism created openings for the media of developing countries and NGOs to enlarge jurisdictional claims in the area of natural disaster reporting and to challenge the conventional notion of objectivity. The results also showed that the conventional notion of objectivity did not necessarily hinder explanations of the complexity of environmental issues, which was made possible by choosing unique angles of storytelling, planning multiple shots, and using richly suggestive, naturalistic images.