Aid Non-governmental Organizations Research Articles

Trapped in an Abusive Relationship with an Organized Crime Offender: the Importance of Mental Health Support

AbstractThis study aims to get more insight into experiences in the process towards mental recovery and the feasibility of providing mental health support to victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) committed by organized crime offenders in The Netherlands. 150 female victims were identified and, when reached, offered the option for safe and anonymous mental health support for their trauma-related symptoms. We used a mixed-method design involving information from police files (n = 150), patient files (n = 7), focus groups with therapists involved in the mental health support program (n = 4) and in-depth interviews with patients themselves (n = 4). Results showed that participants in the interviews experienced many mental health complaints, but limited access to mental health support. They were trapped in a relationship characterized by violence, psychological warfare and a forced dependency. All interviewed participants were isolated from social support and society in general. Escaping the criminal partner was extremely difficult and even when the participant successfully regained some form of independency, true separation appeared to be almost impossible. The participants felt little support from governmental and non-governmental aid organisations in this process. The mental health support in the current project proved challenging but feasible. Findings suggest that victims of IPV committed by organized crime offenders urgently need professional help. Actions to ensure their safety and to overcome barriers that hamper access to aid organizations are required.

Turkey’s International Humanitarian Assistance during the AKP Era: Key Actors, Concepts and Motivations

This study explores the key actors implementing Turkey’s international humanitarian assistance, the Turkish understanding of humanitarian assistance, and the main motivations of humanitarian assistance in post-2002 Turkey. Despite that Turkey has recently significantly increased its contribution to international humanitarian assistance, these efforts have received limited research attention from academia. By examining Turkey’s governmental, quasi-governmental and non-governmental aid organisations, and a historical account of the early Turkish international humanitarian assistance, the study discusses the relevant domestic, national security, and commercial motivations with respect to the implications of Turkey’s humanitarian aid. This study provides an overarching framework of Turkey’s international humanitarian assistance, which hopes to make a useful addition to the literature.

Positioning AIDS Activism in India: Civil Society Responses Between Development Aid, Global Health and the State, 1989 to 2001

Abstract This article brings histories of medical activism in conversation with studies of international development to understand Ford Foundation-supported AIDS non-governmental organisations in India. While there were organisations with far-reaching visions for change through the voluntary sector, the article argues that the advocacy, caught between political critique and service delivery, was ultimately awkward and ambiguous. It demonstrates this by focusing on the Foundation’s support for Indian civil society after the Emergency, how it ‘learned’ activism from mainstream global and national responses and how AIDS was subsequently subsumed under a resurgent reproductive health movement after the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development. Finally, it argues that AIDS activism declined after the early 2000s because the Indian government absorbed the developmental rhetoric and services of the NGOs. Ultimately, Ford’s career in AIDS activism showcases the limitations of sustained political critique by civil society and non-governmental actors.

Aid Organisations and Prison Ministry in Communist Poland and Their Role in the Resocialisation of Prisoners after 1980

This article traces the history of penitentiary and post-penitentiary practices by churches (primarily Catholic) and social aid organizations in Poland. The involvement of churches and social organizations in prisoner assistance began, partly underground, during the period of the Polish partitions, and took on formal roles and structures during the Second Republic of Poland (1918–39). However, beginning with the Second World War and until the year 1980 the earlier practice of ministry in prisons was significantly limited. The Nazi and Soviet hostile attitude towards religion was continued and in some ways exacerbated during the period of communist governments in Poland, when the function of prison chaplain as well as prison chapels themselves were liquidated, and all that officially remained of the conduct of religious services in prisons was the administration of last sacraments to prisoners about to be executed or terminally ill. During this period the church’s support for prisoners was mostly limited to that offered by clergymen who were themselves inmates. The role of prison ministry and social aid organisations in both penitentiary and post-penitentiary work was revived following the strikes, and consequent mass arrests, which took place in August 1980. The new scope and dimension of prison ministry began with the re-instatement of the function of prison chaplain and has evolved in recent decades to the point where today prison chaplains and church ministries, working alongside non-governmental aid organizations, have become an indispensable part of both the administration of prisons as well as post-penitentiary supervision and assistance.

DEVELOPMENT NGOS: BASIC FACTS

ABSTRACTThis paper systematically reviews the empirical literature on development non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), drawing both on quantitative and qualitative analyses, and constructs a set of basic facts about these organizations. These facts concern the size of the development NGO sector and its evolution, the funding of NGOs, the allocation of NGO aid and projects across beneficiary countries, the relationship of NGOs with beneficiaries, and the phenomenon of globalization of development NGOs.

IMPLEMENTING GLOBAL STRATEGY IN THE UAE FOREIGN AID: FROM ARAB SOLIDARITY TO SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION

This article is dedicated to the phenomenon of the “emerging donors” activity within the South-South cooperation (SSC). The case of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign aid demonstrates new principles and instruments of SSC; first of all it is solidarity and engagement with the UN and other governmental and non-governmental aid organizations to contribute to the development of the Global South countries. The visibility of the UAE at the regional (Middle East) and international level led the country to contribute to all types of aid activities, particularly humanitarian efforts. As a matter of fact, the UAE is a ‘humanitarian nation’, where aid has become part of its daily foreign policy activities. Consequently, its relations with countries in the “South” and developing countries became much stronger due to the fact that it has contributed to their economic developments and humanitarian efforts. South-South cooperation includes transfer of technologies and resources between the developing countries. Using predominantly quantitative methodology the author analyses the UAE strategy of the foreign aid and proves its coherence with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations. Moreover, the author shows the extension of the UAE foreign aid “map”: largest aid recipient for the UAE are mainly in Asia and Africa where the poorest countries in the world exist.

HIV/AIDS and the experience of a Canadian NGO and another Brazilian

People living with HIV/AIDS (PHA) have been facing many difficulties in their lives because they are discriminated in various contexts, such as family, community, and work. Currently, AIDS Non-Governmental Organizations (AIDS/NGOs) have become increasingly important because, beyond providing traditional social support, they also offer an environment where PHA may openly express and share not only their experiences with HIV/AIDS, but they can change their personal and professional projetcts. We analyzed historical documents, in-depth interviews, and questionnaires answered by community members within two AIDS/NGOs, one in London, Ontario, Canada (NGO-Ca) and another in Greater Sao Paulo, Brazil (NGO-Br). In this article, some pathways of political participation, which are relevant to both communities, are discussed. Surely, this may contribute to the decreasing of stigma and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS: compassion and altruism as a bridge to political participation, effects on activism, and fostering based on solidarity and co-responsibility are also important discussed issues.

What can unmanned aerial systems offer healthcare?

Healthcare requires well-choreographed interactions among providers, patients, medications, medical equipment, laboratories, and imaging services, tasks that would benefit greatly from a highly reliable and expeditious small-package delivery mechanism. Significant potential exists for the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to serve this need, as well as related healthcare applications that have only recently begun to be realized. Medical care relies upon the movement of supplies and equipment, at times through harsh environments. While there will never be a replacement for care of patients by providers, UAS offer a unique opportunity to make healthcare more efficient and cost-effective. Non-governmental aid organizations were among the first to test the limits of UAS, employing them to transport supplies over rugged terrain in under-developed countries. More recently, flights carried medications, blood samples, and heart defibrillators, testing the boundaries of this new delivery resource in more controlled environments in the United States and abroad. While these tests represent a wide variety of applications that UAS may have, many other uses in the healthcare field remain to be explored. In this paper, we summarize potential applications of UAS in medicine.

The Effects of Resources, Political Opportunities and Organisational Ecology on the Growth Trajectories of AIDS NGOs in China

In this study, I attempt to integrate the theories of collective action and social movements in an analysis of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in China. Using panel data of AIDS NGOs from 1994 to 2008, I analyse the factors that influence the rise and development of AIDS NGOs, including changes in political opportunity, funding and organisational ecology. The results show that political opportunity, increased funding and organisational ecology have positive effects on the growth of AIDS NGOs. However, the growth trajectories of grassroots NGOs, government-organised NGOs (GONGOs) and international NGOs are found to be affected by different factors. The implications of the findings are also discussed in relation to the future growth of NGOs in China.

The Influence of South Korean NGOs on State Aid Policy

I examine the experiences of South Korean nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide aid to North Korea in order to assess the success and limitations of the NGO movement. With reference to the political role of NGOs in constructivist theory, I identify three factors that have hindered the formation of a sustainable partnership between the South Korean government and NGOs since the inter-Korean summit of 2000. First, South Korean NGOs have lacked consistent efforts toward transparency and accountability in operations and organizational management. Second, the great increase in inter-Korean cooperation and exchange after 2000 weakened the research, education, and advocacy function of NGOs. Third, aid NGOs failed to establish independent, diversified, and stable funding mechanisms, decreasing their capacity to act as cooperative partners of the government.

Portrayal of sustainability principles in the mission statements and on home pages of the world's largest organizations.

Conservation can be achieved only if sustainability is embraced as core to organizational cultures. To test the extent to which the related concepts of sustainability, conservation, response to climate change, poverty alleviation, and gender equity have been incorporated into organizational culture, we compared mission statements published from 1990 to 2000 with those published in 2014 for 150 organizations, including conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), aid NGOs, government development agencies, resource extraction companies, and retailers (30 in each category). We also analyzed the 2014 home web pages of each organization. Relative to the earlier period, the frequency with which mission statements mentioned poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and a range of sustainable practices increased only slightly by 2014, particularly among resource extractors and retail companies. Few organizations in any sector had embedded either climate change or gender equity into their mission statements. In addition, the proportional intensity with which any of the aspirations were expressed did not change between periods. For current home pages, conservation NGOs, resource extractors, and government agencies were significantly more likely to acknowledge the importance of matters that were not part of their core business, but few aid agencies or retail companies promoted goals beyond alleviation of crises and profit maximization, respectively. Overall, there has been some progress in recognizing poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable practices, but gender equity and a determination to reduce impacts on climate change are still rarely promoted as central institutional concerns. Sustainability in general, and biodiversity conservation in particular, will not be achieved unless their importance is more widely apparent in core communication products of organizations.

Integrating Economic and Social Rights in a Rights-Based Approach to Development Aid

Human rights law can help identify the responsibilities of all actors involved in securing aid to those in need. It provides a universally applicable and legally binding set of tools that can facilitate the embedding of development aid in existing governance structures, both at domestic and international levels. This essay focuses specifically on economic, social and cultural human rights, including the rights to food, water, housing, health and education. These rights are well-established in most aid-receiving countries, especially on the African continent. The essay’s main assumption is that based on these rights, and in line with the Millennium Development Goals, there is a legal duty to ensure access to ‘core’ packages of essential services to everyone residing in a country. Governments have a primary legal obligation to provide these services to the maximum of their available resources. If they are unable to deliver due to insufficient revenues, other countries, governmental and non-governmental aid organizations should provide assistance and co-operation so as to meet the essential needs of the country concerned. This implies that development aid is, in principle, conditional to the overall good performance of the receiving country. It also implies that when countries are unable to meet the basic needs of their population, the international community is obliged to come to the assistance of these countries.

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouths Are? Donations to NGOs and Support for ODA in Australia

This paper examines support for aid amongst the Australian public. It draws on two new datasets – one based on surveyed support for government aid (ODA), and one based on actual private donations to non-governmental aid organisations (NGOs). In the paper these data are combined with census information and election results to isolate factors associated with differing levels of support for aid. Our analysis shows that parts of Australia where surveyed support for ODA are highest are also, on average, the parts of the countries which have the highest proportion of the population who give to NGOs. Findings also show tertiary education to be the strongest positive socio-economic correlate of both support for ODA and NGO donations. Income, on the other hand is actually negatively correlated with support for aid (although the relationship is not statistically significant for NGO donations). We also find more religious parts of the country to be less supportive of ODA and also home to lower proportions of NGO donors. Politically, we find Green party voting to be strongly correlated with both support for government ODA and private donations. There is also a positive association between Labor voting (and a commensurate negative relationship for Coalition voting) and support for ODA. However, in the case of the major parties, there appears to be no relationship between their support and NGO donations.

Comparing the Determinants of US-Funded NGO Aid Versus US Official Development Aid

Using a principal–agent approach, I seek to determine if differences exist between official US development aid (ODA) and US-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) development aid allocation. NGO scholars have expressed concern regarding NGOs' relationships with their government funders (Hulme and Edwards, NGOs, States, and Donors, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1997); (Smillie, Stakeholders, Earthscan, London, 2000). Studies of European state-funded NGOs have found that need rather than political or economic interests determines state-funded NGO aid (Nancy and Yontcheva, Does NGO Aid Go to the Poor? Empirical Evidence from Europe. International Monetary Fund Working Paper 06/39, 2006; Dreher et al. 2009; World Economy 33:147–176, Kiel Working Paper No. 1486. Kiel, Germany: Kiel Institute for the World Economy, 2010) however; no study has examined US-funded NGO aid allocations. Results indicate that US-funded NGO aid mirrors US ODA allocations.

Governing AIDS through aid to civil society: Global solutions meet local problems in Mozambique

The aim of this article is to explore how international donors influence civil society organisations (CSOs) in Mozambique through funding mechanisms, the creation of partnerships, or inclusion in targeted programmes. The main focus is the relationship between donors and AIDS non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The main questions the paper aims to answer are: Who is setting the agenda? What power mechanisms are in place to fulfil planned projects and programmes? Are there any forms of resistance from civil society AIDS-organisations in the face of the donor interventions? The actions will be analysed through the lens of governmentality theory. The study concluded that donors have the power to set the agenda through predetermined programmes and using various technologies. Their strongest weapons are audit mechanisms such as the result based management model used as a control mechanism, and there is still a long way to go to achieve a situation with multiple forms of local resistance to the conditions set by economically powerful donors. The standardisation imposed through clustering donors into like-minded groups and other constellations gives them power to govern the politics of AIDS.

What Reverses Decentralization? Failed Policy Implementation, Civic Supporters, or Central Bureaucrats’ Expertise? The Case of Brazil’s AIDS Program

This article argues that Brazil’s success in responding to the AIDS epidemic rested in the government’s pursuit of a reversal of decentralization, which entailed the government’s delegation of policy-making autonomy, funding, and discretionary fiscal transfers to the national AIDS program. AIDS bureaucrats achieved this by establishing close partnerships with social health movements and AIDS nongovernmental organizations advocating policy ideas with a historically proven track record of success while resembling similar social health movements in the past. This partnership, in turn, provided AIDS bureaucrats with the legitimacy and influenced needed for policy reform.

Financial Dependence and Aid Allocation by Swiss NGOs: A Panel Tobit Analysis

Aid by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is still widely believed to be superior to official development assistance (ODA). However, the incentives of NGOs to excel and target aid to the poor and deserving are increasingly disputed. We contribute to the emerging literature on the allocation of NGO aid by performing panel Tobit estimations for Swiss NGOs. We cover the allocation of both self-financed and officially cofinanced aid for a large panel of NGOs and recipient countries. Furthermore, we offer new insights by classifying each NGO according to its financing structure and by interacting financial dependence with measures of need and merit of recipients as well as aid from other donors. It turns out that the allocation of NGO aid is much in line with that of ODA. This applies particularly to officially refinanced NGOs. Moreover, NGOs tend to locate where their peers are active. However, the poverty orientation of NGOs and their incentives to engage in difficult environments are independent of the degree of official refinancing. The allocation of self-financed aid differs in several important respects from the allocation of officially cofinanced aid.

China's evolving AIDS policy: the influence of global norms and transnational non-governmental organizations

China is moving towards greater rule of law and more accountable governance, including civil society participation. China's AIDS response has moved from denial to pragmatic policy. This change has come both through global influence and domestic pressure and led to adoption of many international norms for prevention, treatment, and care, sometimes in conflict with cultural attitudes and political positions. Connections between China's AIDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and transnational civil society organizations have contributed to transfer of new norms and approaches. Policies on sex worker rights, NGOs’ role in governance, legal protection from discrimination, compensation for some infected by medical procedures, and intellectual property rights for essential medicines have begun to change. Advocacy and expert input from domestic NGOs connected to global groups have played a role. This paper argues that these soft power processes accompanying globalization are creating inroads even in China regarding universal human rights and protection of citizen's interests.

Benefiting from AIDS in Contemporary Nigeria.

The Nigerian weekly news magazine Tell ran a cover story in July 2004 reporting on the country’s lucrative AIDS industry, entitled “Feeding Fat on AIDS.” The article connected one of the Nigeria’s biggest health problems with one of its most significant—and certainly its most notorious—political problems: corruption. The central link between AIDS and corruption identified in the story was the proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Since the 1990s, I have frequently heard a joke told by Nigerians claiming that for recent graduates of secondary school and university, one of the only viable options for surviving in the country’s troubled economic circumstances was to start an NGO. The joke served as a critique of NGOs and corruption, but also as a cynical acknowledgement that, for the most part, only those who participate in corruption do well in Nigerian society. The fact that NGO efforts to address AIDS were now tainted with accusations of widespread corruption only further solidified the popular perception that Nigeria faces an alarming social and moral crisis. But much as Nigerians are angry about corruption and suspicious of the motives and operations of local NGOs and the international donors and federal and state government institutions that fund them, practices of corruption unfold in a complicated social context where people often participate in the very activities they condemn. Further, while denunciation of corruption in the abstract is almost universal among ordinary Nigerians, the dynamics that produce corruption, the behaviors that are labeled as corrupt, and the processes that determine who gets branded negatively for their corruption are embedded in complex social webs and intersecting moral economies. The realities that underlie corruption make simplistic judgments superficial and easy explanations inadequate. In this article, I use an example of one Nigerian AIDS NGO and its regional director to illustrate local practices of corruption and the kinds of circumstances that produce (relative) acceptance or ridicule. An analysis of this case reveals not only why so many Nigerian AIDS NGOs have become embroiled in accusations of corruption, but also how we can better understand local responses to corruption that, paradoxically, both push against corruption and allow it to flourish. I focus on an AIDS NGO, not because corruption is peculiar to organizations that aim—or purport—to address the epidemic, but because these NGOs are so common in the wake of the many hundreds of millions of dollars spent to combat the disease, and because corruption in an endeavor ostensibly geared toward alleviating suffering and death makes the contradictions all the more poignant.

The Geography of Volunteer Tourism: Place Matters

Volunteer tourism is a growing form of alternative travel and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the primary institutions placing volunteers abroad. This empirical study focuses on the criteria used by volunteer-tourism NGOs for choosing countries and locations for their work. It also assesses how they use tourist activities and place image to market destinations and to pull or draw in potential volunteers. An examination of the postings on volunteerabroad.com showed that the activity by international volunteer NGOs is clustered or geographically concentrated in just a few places. The twelve member organizations of the International Volunteer Programs Association (IVPA) were used as a case study group, and interviews with the directors identified six criteria for choosing project locations. They were safety, need, attractiveness of the place, presence of local partner organizations, previous staff experience and accessibility. A review of the IVPA member websites revealed significant references to tourism, and dramatic imagery and descriptions of places were widely utilized to attract volunteers. This research contributes to the emerging body of literature on volunteer tourism by examining the locational and place-orientated aspects of the industry. In a largely consumer-dependent segment of the NGO aid industry, destination is primary and place matters.