Range Of Non-governmental Organizations Research Articles

Risk and refuge: Factors that facilitate and impede community supervision in post-conflict Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT Community sanctions often require the coordination of support between probation staff and a range of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Despite these burgeoning partnerships, few studies have explored the experiences of such support in settings where community spaces and structures remain contested, where violence remains endemic; and where paramilitary influence endures. This explorative study captured the voices of justice involved young men to understand the barriers and facilitators of accessing support intended to reduce the latent criminogenic effects of living in a post-conflict society. This study found that young men experienced ecological stressors known to increase criminal coping. Exposure to paramilitary-related harms and a lack of trust in police as well as local NGOs had a tangible effect on support seeking. Further, adherence to traditional masculine norms exacerbated these issues. Practical implications are discussed.

Realities and experiences of community health volunteers as agents for behaviour change: evidence from an informal urban settlement in Kisumu, Kenya

BackgroundCommunity health workers play an important role in health service delivery and are increasingly involved in behaviour change interventions, including for hygiene-related behaviour change. However, their role and capacity to deliver behaviour change interventions, particularly in high-density urban settlements, remain under-researched. This study examines the behaviour change-related activities of community health volunteers (CHVs)—community health workers affiliated with the Kenyan Ministry of Health—in a peri-urban settlement in Kenya, in order to assess their capabilities, opportunities to work effectively, and sources of motivation.MethodsThis mixed-methods study included a census of 16 CHVs who work in the study area. All CHVs participated in structured observations of their daily duties, structured questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and two focus group discussions. Structured data were analysed descriptively. Thematic content analysis was followed for qualitative data. Results were synthesized and interpreted using the capability, opportunity, motivation for behaviour change framework, COM-B.ResultsIn addition to their responsibilities with the Ministry of Health, CHVs partnered with a range of non-governmental organizations engaged in health and development programming, often receiving small stipends from these organizations. CHVs reported employing a limited number of behaviour change techniques when interacting with community members at the household level. Capability: While supervision and support from the MOH was robust, CHV training was inconsistent and inadequate with regard to behaviour change and CHVs often lacked material resources necessary for their work. Opportunity: CHVs spent very little time with the households in their allocated catchment area. The number of households contacted per day was insufficient to reach all assigned households within a given month as required and the brief time spent with households limited the quality of engagement. Motivation: Lack of compensation was noted as a demotivating factor for CHVs. This was compounded by the challenging social environment and CHVs’ low motivation to encourage behaviour change in local communities.ConclusionsIn a complex urban environment, CHVs faced challenges that limited their capacity to be involved in behaviour change interventions. More resources, better coordination, and additional training in modern behaviour change approaches are needed to ensure their optimal performance in implementing health programmes.

CHANGING PLACE: PALM OIL AND SENSE OF PLACE IN BORNEO

The conservation of tropical ecosystems is complex and contested, not least in terms of cultural and political perspectives between developed and developing nations (Bawa & Seidler, 1998; Colchester, 2000; Brosius & Hitchner, 2010). In Sabah, on the island of Borneo, Malaysia much of the forest has recently been converted to oil palm plantations. The plantations cover vast areas and leave relatively little space for native flora and fauna. Whilst efforts are underway to enhance biodiversity within the plantations, there is no clear consensus as to how this might best be achieved and this has led in part to divisions opening up amongst stakeholders (Othman & Ameer, 2009). A range of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working within Sabah endeavour to conserve threatened biodiversity; at the Governmental level there are significant drivers for development and economic stability; while the plantation owners are trying to improve their yields and increase their global market. There is also increasing consumer pressure in Europe and North America linked to concerns about the survival of iconic rainforest species such as orang-utans. This paper considers these issues within a context of globalisation and profound economic and social change within Malaysia.

Community lost: the state, civil society, and displaced survivors of Hurricane Katrina

Neither government programs nor massive charitable efforts responded adequately to the human crisis that was Hurricane Katrina. In this study, the authors use extensive interviews with Katrina evacuees and reports from service providers to identify what helped or hindered the reestablishment of the lives of hurricane survivors who relocated to Austin, Texas. Drawing on social capital and social network theory, the authors assess the complementary, and often conflicting, roles of FEMA, other governmental agencies and a range of non-governmental organizations in addressing survivors' short- and longer-term needs. While these organizations came together to assist with immediate emergency needs, even collectively they could not deal with survivors' long-term needs for employment, affordable housing and personal records necessary to rebuild lives. Community Lost provides empirical evidence that civil society organizations cannot substitute for an efficient and benevolent state, which is necessary for society to function.

Mobilizing women's groups for improved maternal and newborn health: Evidence for impact, and challenges for sustainability and scale up

Research conducted over the past decade has shown that community-based interventions can improve the survival and health of mothers and newborns in low- and middle-income countries. Interventions engaging women's groups in participatory learning and action meetings and other group activities, for example, have led to substantial increases in neonatal survival in high-mortality settings. Participatory interventions with women's groups work by providing a forum for communities to develop a common understanding of maternal and neonatal problems, as well as locally acceptable and sustainable strategies to address these. Potential partners for scaling up interventions with women's groups include government community health workers and volunteers, as well as organizations working with self-help groups. It is important to tailor scale-up efforts to local contexts, while retaining fidelity to the intervention, by ensuring that the mobilization of women's groups complements other local programs (e.g. home visits), and by providing capacity building for participatory learning and action methods across a range of nongovernmental organizations and government stakeholders. Research into scale-up mechanisms and effectiveness is needed to inform further implementation, and prospective surveillance of maternal and neonatal mortality in key scale-up sites can provide valuable data for measuring impact and for advocacy. There is a need for further research into the role of participatory interventions with women's groups to improve the quality of health services, health, and nutrition beyond the perinatal period, as well as the role of groups in influencing non-health issues, such as women's decision-making power.

Briefing: Famine in southern Africa

ages between now and the next main harvest in April or May of next year. Approximately six million people face critical food shortages in Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi alone.1 The food crisis has many causes, which vary in magnitude from country to country. Climate, bad governance, HIV/AIDS, unsustainable debt2 and collapsing public services have all contributed. While the food crisis has undoubtedly been triggered by bad weather, the climatic shock was not atypical for the region; rainfall, although erratic, has been average for the 2001-2 season.3 Much more serious droughts were experienced in the early 1990s, for example.4 A major cause of the food crisis is the failure of agricultural policies, themselves often decided or heavily influenced by the international financial institutions and donors, and in some cases most notably Zimbabwe exacerbated by the whims of national governments. This food crisis is not a natural disaster. It is, above all, a catastrophe caused by poor policy. Across the region, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) and a range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have already started distributing humanitarian aid, and are gearing up to deliver as much aid as possible in order to avert a famine. In many places, this is the second or third consecutive year of food shortages. Already in parts of Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe people are employing high-risk strategies to survive, such as eating potentially poisonous wild foods or stealing crops. Others are trying to cope by reducing meals to just one a day, or by resorting to prostitution. However, prostitution is potentially lethal in these countries, where up to one in three people is infected with HIV/AIDs. Even where food is available, prices are rising owing to overall scarcity and difficulties with transporting it to remote areas. A recent Oxfam assessment in Shangombo District in Zambia's southern province reported that

Parallel Informal Negotiation: An Alternative to Second Track Diplomacy

AbstractRecently adopted international environmental treaties on climate change and biodiversity represent some of the most complex agreements ever negotiated, involving science-intensive policy questions and implicating not only governments, but industry and a range of nongovernmental organizations. The inter-connections that should have been taken into account in drafting these agreements were difficult to achieve, given the fractured structure of multilateral institutions. Even if the parties were willing to expose their interests as necessary for effective problem-solving, commitments made to home constituencies made it impossible to be flexible. The Consensus Building Institute has pioneered efforts to design a process that can overcome such barriers in high stakes, high profile, multi-party negotiations. Each has involved senior diplomats in what is best described as collaborative problem solving. This article will use the lessons learned from three experiences to show how parallel informal negotiation provides an alternative –or complement – to more traditional second track diplomacy.

Developing Partnership Approaches to Tourism in Central and Eastern Europe

In many of the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the concept of developing wider involvement within decision making-processes remains inherently problematic. Prior to 1989, public participation was a limited and often ignored aspect of policy making. However, more recently throughout the region, tourist agencies, new regional organisations, a range of non-governmental organisations, and community groups have emerged in response to potential growth in new tourism industries, thus expanding the number of stakeholders involved. This paper investigates collaboration and partnership working in two rural regions of Bulgaria and Romania, countries unable to match the performance of their CEE counterparts where tourism development is concerned. It provides a reflective analysis of achievements within a framework of prerequisites to successful partnership working. Although both examples illustrate the emergence of new development practices, the paper questions their sustainability. The analysis identifies a number of elements, common to both cases, that illustrate the need to focus the evaluation of partnership working on long-term processes rather than short-term, more measurable outcomes.