Small Non-governmental Organization Research Articles

Exploring the Funding Challenges Faced by Small NGOs: Perspectives from an Organization with Practical Experience of Working in Rural Malawi.

Malawi is a small landlocked country in Southern Africa, which faces a number of development challenges. It is one of the world's poorest nations and over 70% of the population live below the International Poverty Line of $2.15 per day. Health inequalities are a well-documented problem and those most affected are women and children. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a vital role in supplementing government efforts to provide health services to vulnerable people in areas that are difficult to reach. The World Medical Fund (WMF) is a small medical charity that operates in the central, rural, Nkhotakota region of Malawi where many children lack access to even basic health services. To date, WMF has successfully provided free care and treatment for over 400,000 sick children, but its initiatives, such as mobile clinics, rely entirely on external donations. Since 2000, the funding resources available to small NGOs have declined and efforts to attract funding have become increasingly competitive. Frequently, the criteria used for funding decisions are too rigid, and do not reflect the difficult operating conditions on the ground in rural Africa. As one of the world's most highly resource constrained healthcare environments, Malawi illustrates the need for more flexible funding criteria from donors so that NGOs can carry out their work to save children's lives.

Nomadic plastic surgery: from healthcare huts to war-zones. Our experience over 30 years

We present 30 years’ experience of “nomadic” plastic surgery missions carried out by a small non-governmental organization, specialized in reconstructive surgery in challenging conditions in developing countries. Here, we provide a record of missions carried out between 1993 and 2023. The study shows how surgical missions are conducted and the methodology used. We carried out 70 missions, with more than 8,000 consultations, and operated on 3,780 patients. A quarter of operations concerned clefts, a quarter tumors, a quarter burns and a quarter various diseases such as Noma and, recently, traumatic lesions secondary to armed conflict. We show some adaptations such as autonomy during missions, adjustment of indications to this new environment and the integration of local traditions in our therapeutic action. We offer practical ideas about surgery and some reflections on the social concerns.

“SHE CAN GET A VISA”: How Nationality and Class Shape Decision Making at a Kenyan NGO

Prior studies show how race, class, and gender matter for worker identities within organizations, but there is an opportunity to focus on worker nationality and class background within nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Using evidence from ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and organizational documents at a small NGO in Kenya, I show how nationality and class mediate how NGO workers assign and accomplish organizational tasks. My results suggest that a process of elastic transnational stratification determines how nationality and class distribute tasks and decision-making power in relation to the location and organizational domain in which they must act. While both nationality and class are used as proxies for one’s proximity to power and influence, there are instances where less privileged identities are more strategic to deploy. Nationality and class shape access to various development spaces, the amount and type of resources one can attain on behalf of the organization, and legitimacy locally and at the global level.

Digital information systems in support of accountability: The case of a welfare provision non-governmental organisation

The paper aims at exploring how the creation of Fry's (1995) “conversations for accountability” between a welfare provision non-governmental organisation (NGO) and local institutions and private donors shaped the NGO's accountability path. To this end, the role that digital information systems (ISs) played in supporting this path was analysed. In more detail, the paper investigates how the NGO uses digital information to respond to the external pressure for accountability. This action research revealed that the construction of a shared meaning of accountability was possible because of the NGO's accountability conversations with partners that fostered and were fostered by the use of digital ISs. In this regard, organisational change toward the empowerment of digital ISs was driven by the accountability discourse. The paper indeed theorises the mutually reinforcing cycle existing between “conversations for accountability” and digitalisation of NGOs in support of their accountability path. The enactment of this mutual cycle can be particularly relevant for those small NGOs experiencing financial distress, to strengthen social bonds with partners and preserve their support over time.

Small NGOs and Agenda-Setting in Global Conservation Governance: The Case of Pangolin Conservation

Abstract The study of global environmental governance suggests that agenda-setting power is concentrated in a handful of high-profile, leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The recent rise of interest in pangolin conservation constitutes a deviant case in this theoretical tradition. In order to explain the puzzle, I introduce a new theory of small NGO influence and illustrate the mechanisms through the case study of pangolin conservation. Based on in-depth interviews with conservation NGOs, I show how small NGOs raised the salience of pangolin trafficking in global conservation governance by appealing to the shared values of the people who are highly interested in conservation. Moreover, the targeting of traditional Chinese medicine as the driver of pangolin extinction, while unintentionally, helped raise the salience of pangolin trafficking by leveraging the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment in the Global North. Finally, small NGOs were able to use their expertise to guide leading NGOs and state officials in rule-making processes. The findings offer a corrective to the hierarchical view of civil society, calling for more careful evaluations of small NGOs in global conservation governance.

Academic Pediatric Surgery Capacity Building in Vietnam Through PASS, a Pediatric Acute Surgical Support Course.

Neonatal and pediatric surgical emergencies in Low and Low Middle Income countries remain a significant challenge in combatting the burden and inequities of global health. IPSAC-Vietnam is a small Non-Governmental Organization that has been engaged in a 12-year multi-pronged partnership with several children’s hospitals in Vietnam VN to enhance pediatric surgery capacity. We describe the health care, medical training and emergency system in VN as the background for IPSAC activities and development of Pediatric Acute Surgical Support (PASS) course. The course goal is to prepare health care personnel in the immediate management of neonatal/pediatric life-threatening surgical conditions and road injuries at their first point of entry into Vietnam hospitals. PASS is a horizontal outreach initiative that adopts an interprofessional, multidisciplinary, team-training, train-the-trainers, and outcome-based training approach. PASS can be used as a tool for sustainable horizontal capacity-building by champion leaders at the teaching children’s hospitals and medical universities in developing countries, to strengthen training for pediatric surgical emergencies, to integrate pediatric and pediatric surgical care and to advocate for a comprehensive approach to emergency care of the critically ill child.

Using Evidence and Coalitions to Scale-Up a National Early Education Initiative: The Case of Law 248/2015 in Romania.

In 2015, Romania took an important step toward increasing disadvantaged children's participation in early education programmes through the passage of legislation creating a nationwide conditional cash transfer programme linked to preschool attendance. The programme was modeled on the incentive component of a 5-year pilot project “Every Child in Preschool” (“FCG”) initiated by Asociatia OvidiuRo (“OvR”), a small non-governmental organization. This paper explores how OvR used evidence from its pilot, global research, a quasi-experimental evaluation, collaboration with local authorities, and an intensive advocacy effort toward the legislative and executive branches of the national government to achieve the national scale-up of an early education initiative designed to create equal access in kindergarten among Roma and other impoverished, marginalized children.

Wave of Hope Retrospective

This research reports and analyzes the launch of a small Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) called Wave of Hope to assist in helping Thai villagers along coastal areas to confront tragedy and death from the 2004 tsunami. The terrible destruction of mass flooding is reported and the subsequent design and launch of this little effort is described. A report on the social and economic changes that emerged over the years that followed is made. Finally, the promising potential of university students to use their course learning with real-world applications is summarized and a call to action for further outreach responses to future disasters is articulated.

The multifaceted outcomes of community-engaged water quality management in a Palestinian refugee camp

The Palestinian residents of Aida Refugee Camp have lived under Israeli military occupation for over 50 years. While they struggle against the more legible concerns of the separation wall, unemployment, military violence, and high rates of incarceration, these residents are also acutely aware of a lack of adequate drinking water supplies. This led one young filmmaker, working at a small Palestinian non-governmental organization (NGO) in Aida, to produce a documentary in 2011 called Everyday Nakba, which suggests that for Palestinians, water scarcity is a continuation of the historical crisis of dispossession that began in 1948. This documentary ignited an interdisciplinary and multimodal collaboration among an environmental engineer, an environmental lawyer, an anthropologist, a Boston-based NGO, and the small Palestinian NGO to investigate problems of water quality that are related to water scarcity. This article—co-authored by members of the group of interdisciplinary scholars and NGO workers—reflects on our practice together to chronicle how small NGOs and interdisciplinary groups of community-engaged scholars can creatively approach multifaceted environmental problems, while also examining the limits of such approaches. Our collaboration has catalyzed water quality testing, point-of-use water treatment, rooftop gardens, awareness about water problems, political advocacy, and environmental education, though it has not been able to address the structural problem of inadequate supply of water. It has led to research that contributed to the literature on water intermittency. This article considers how this collaboration has shifted how members of a refugee community think about justice and the environment. Water concerns often demand a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach because water scarcity has health, economic, social, and political implications. Our research team saw how interdisciplinary collaboration and a network of activists in the West Bank and the USA can lead to multifaceted—albeit modest—outcomes, even though military occupation presents stubborn barriers to major change.

Research NGOs About Minors at Risk of Exclusion From the Educational Field

The following article presents part of the final results of an investigation carried out in the city of Granada, Spain, referring to the knowledge of the dynamics of work in the field of nonformal education with groups at risk of social exclusion and the promotion of communities and groups. More specifically, children at risk of exclusion participate in educational and training activities of local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with ages between 6 and 17 years. Its objectives have been to “recognize and describe the main methodological strategies in the teaching of social values and community development,” and evaluate the effectiveness of this type of educational organizations. We have used a mixed research design such as questionnaires, interviews, and indirect observation of professionals, volunteers, and users of small and very small NGOs and nonprofit organizations. Key findings include the use of alternative methodologies focused on comprehensive development and community partners; and greater efficiency for its users.

Perceived Facilitators and Barriers to Evaluative Thinking in a Small Development NGO

Abstract: The Global Goals come with challenging implications for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in international development and their capacity for high-quality evaluation practice and evaluative thinking. NGOs are pressured to work efficiently, be accountable to donors and beneficiaries, and demonstrate impact. They must also critically examine the underlying assumptions behind their work, or else the sustainability of their work becomes jeopardized. Using previously collected evaluation data from a small NGO in water-based development, this paper highlights perceived facilitators and barriers to evaluative thinking and where they might occur in the evaluation process for an NGO constrained by time and resources.

Twelve tips for medical teaching in low-resource settings

Teaching in a low-resource setting comes with its own challenges and pitfalls. Many concepts, ideas and strategies can be transferred but need to be adapted to the different environment. This article highlights some of the challenges and obstacles that healthcare professionals working in this setting might encounter when setting up an educational intervention. The following twelve specific tips are aimed toward individual healthcare workers, independent charities, and smaller non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who wish to initiate small-scale teaching projects or larger educational ventures. The article covers general matters to consider prior to embarking on this journey and includes cultural, educational, linguistic, and social aspects.

Rethinking development and peacebuilding in non-secular contexts: a postsecular alternative in Mindanao

This paper aims to positively engage with the religious character of many development contexts through an exploration of my own fieldwork in Mindanao. Through problematising a secular development industry and building on the momentum of the religious turn some scholars have identified, I share my initial explorations of how a postsecular framing might offer an alternative approach to development and peacebuilding. Through a deconstructive framing of the religious-secular binary I analyse the practices of one small non-governmental organisation (NGO) and suggest that a practice of ‘journeying with’ – Muslims and Christians on the shared philosophical/theological project to nourish each other’s faiths – can contribute to material and spiritual benefit, and the conditions to enable this.

Digital Games, African Development, and Gender Equality: a Comparative Analysis of Family Values and Moraba

Digital Development Games (DDGs) have been designed to tackle a variety of international development issues, including gender inequality. This study uses critical textual analysis and a political economic approach to highlight how the development goals embedded in two games, Family Values and Moraba, both aimed at gender equality in Africa, were shaped by the large donor organizations that funded them. Understanding the relationship between game developers and funders is necessary in order to understand how and why DDGs work to reinforce established, and often problematic, development narratives. As smaller nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and independent game developers look to large development institutions to support the production of DDGs, research on the ways in which the ideologies of funding organizations get mapped onto games becomes increasingly important. Further, the findings of this study provide a contemporary example of the ways in which development networks are able to incorporate new technologies and discourses into their work without fundamentally changing their worldviews or their approach to creating change.

Evaluability assessment of a small NGO in water-based development

Small non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in water-based development in low- and middle-income countries face unique challenges when it comes to evaluative practice. Few prioritize evaluation because they lack expertise and/or feel strongly about funding programs and not processes, given accountability to donors. To examine facilitators and barriers to evaluation in this context, we embarked on an organizational-level evaluation of H2O 4 ALL, a Canadian NGO with no prior evaluation experience. We first conducted an evaluability assessment, guided by Thurston and Potvin’s framework for social change programs, to understand evaluation priorities and needs. By triangulating findings from three qualitative sources of data – an environmental scan, a document review, and in-depth interviews – we demonstrated evaluability assessments’ applicability to water-based development and established a baseline for further research.

Collaborating with Communities and Higher Education to Address the Health-care Needs of Individuals with Disabilities in Ecuador.

Individuals with disabilities experience inequities in access to health care, education, employment, and social inclusion. Causes for Change International (CCI), a non-governmental Organization (NGO), using a community-based rehabilitation approach has worked for 20 years to build self-sufficiency, improve health-care services, and education for women, children, and persons with disabilities in Ecuador. CCI initially addressed health; advocacy for individuals with disabilities; and promoted educational opportunities for children with disabilities, starting in one rural community. CCI’s outreach has expanded through Ecuador’s coastal provinces, Andean provinces, and Galapagos Islands. CCI also focused on local health-care workforce development, developing employment skills for individuals with disabilities and social inclusion for this population. CCI collaborated with local organizations, government, and universities to provide resources, managed by local leadership. Key program elements of the CCI approach include (1) develop trust between CCI, local communities, local agencies, and government; (2) empower local groups to assume leadership and sustain programs; (3) support communities and groups invested in developing self-sufficiency; and (4) strengthen collaborations and partnerships between local and international organizations, universities, and government agencies. Key lessons learned by CCI are to be supportive of cultural differences; understand that limited financial and material resources may limit the program development; recognize that it is difficult not to foster dependent relationships with communities and appreciate the importance of working with and within the host country’s governmental systems. CCI is expanding its service base to other regions of Ecuador and is focusing on development of the Ecuadorian health-care workforce and social inclusion opportunities for individuals with disability. The efforts of a small NGO have helped build community self-sufficiency in meeting the health care and rehabilitation needs of all Ecuadorian citizens and a greater awareness of the abilities and potential contributions of individuals with disabilities.

Rescue of American chestnut with extraspecific genes following its destruction by a naturalized pathogen

Following the near-obliteration of American chestnut (Castanea dentata [Marsh.] Borkh.) by the chestnut blight early in the last century, interest in its restoration has been revived by efforts to develop a blight-resistant form of the species. We summarize progress and outline future steps in two approaches: (1) a system of hybridizing with a blight-resistant chestnut species and then backcrossing repeatedly to recover the American type and (2) transformation of American chestnut with a resistance-conferring transgene followed by propagation and conventional breeding. Several decades of effort have been invested in each approach. More work remains, but results indicate that success is within practical reach. The restoration of C. dentata to its native habitat now appears to be less a matter of time and conjecture than ever before in 90 years of work by public and private entities. The difficult and protracted task of incorporating extraspecific genes for resistance into a tree species with lethal susceptibility to a naturalized pathogen represents perhaps the most extreme of restoration challenges. Its pursuit by a small non-governmental organization supported primarily by philanthropy and volunteers may serve as a model for other species threatened by exotic pathogens or insects.

Applying integrated watershed management in Nova Scotia: a community-based perspective from the Clean Annapolis River Project

This article examines integrated watershed management in the Annapolis River basin in Nova Scotia from the perspective of a community-based watershed organization. It draws on the experiences of the Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP) to provide a case study of the financial, institutional, human, political and social capacity of a small non-governmental organization in implementing integrated watershed management. CARP’s guiding principles of utilizing science, leadership and community engagement to achieve ecologically healthy watersheds align with an integrated watershed management approach. Using examples of CARP’s programming and projects, this article describes the successes and challenges encountered in the implementation of community-based integrated watershed management.

The hidden perks of grad school.

When I was in grad school, I couldn't wait to get out. The learning curve was distressingly steep, everyone seemed to know more than I did, and I was scraping by at just above the poverty line. That's why, after successfully convincing the university that I could graduate without being a total embarrassment, I was thrilled to take a job with a small nongovernmental organization that provides outdoor environmental education and habitat restoration activities to the local community. Just 1 year in the rat race, however, has given me a new perspective. I'm just far enough removed from graduate school to look back fondly on many of the experiences I had and to truly appreciate some of the lessons I learned. ![Figure][1] ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “I took for granted the fact that I could get my hands on just about any paper.” Easy access to peer-reviewed literature is one of the biggest perks of grad school. Mining this resource was a crucial part of my first semester, when my adviser was on sabbatical and decided (wisely) that I should hold off on beginning my research until she returned. Instead, she gave me a reading list and told me to learn my way around the lab and help the other graduate students with their research so that we could hit the ground running when she got back. This freedom to read and explore was particularly important for me because I was a business major in college and lacked much of the scientific background that the rest of my graduate school cohort had. I was determined to show that I belonged in my program, so I made a goal of reading three papers a day to catch up. By the time my adviser returned, I had read more than 100 papers and gained the knowledge and confidence I needed to design and carry out my master's research. I took for granted the fact that I could get my hands on just about any paper I wanted. If you leave academia, there's a good chance that your access to the literature will be limited. If you have friends who are still in grad school, you can usually trade drinks for PDFs, but it's not as easy as logging on with an institutional subscription. So, if you're in school and you aren't already an avid reader, my advice is to start now. A second privilege of being a graduate student is having the time to read in the first place. I left academia partly because I wanted to work on applying research findings to make a difference in the world. The thing I didn't acknowledge, though, is the basic principle of scarcity (I never said I was a good business major): The more time you spend implementing research, the less time you have to consume and digest new research in your field. These days, I squeeze in most of my reading on evenings and weekends. It's difficult to find time during the workday to read primary literature when you're also responsible for advancing projects with lofty deliverables and tight deadlines, often on a tight budget. In academia, in contrast, many advisers value students who dedicate time to reading the literature. I wish I had more fully appreciated the culture of curiosity that academia fosters while I was part of it. There are many perks to working outside academia, including, in my case, the incredibly rewarding and satisfying opportunity to work on projects that apply scientific knowledge to real-world problems. And there are things about grad school that I'm happy to have left behind: I despised grading papers and resented living in near poverty, and I still fundamentally disagree with the publish-or-perish mentality that drives most academics. But there are also things unique to higher education that are pretty amazing. And although graduate school can seem endless at times, in hindsight, the time between your orientation and your thesis defense will feel like a blur. So, to those of you still in grad school, my advice is to appreciate what you have while you have it because, for better or worse, it won't last forever. [1]: pending:yes

Rhetorical Entrapment and Normative Enticement: How the United Kingdom Turned From Spoiler Into Champion of the Cluster Munition Ban

In 2006, Norway launched a stand-alone process to negotiate a ban on cluster munitions. The United Kingdom (UK) reluctantly joined the process to keep it within acceptable bounds. The UK acted as a spoiler in the negotiations. Yet, in the end, it agreed to ban all cluster munitions and became a champion of the new treaty. Why? I argue that two factors constrained and enticed the UK to go along with the process. First, small states and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) structured the negotiations to disadvantage potential opponents. Second, NGOs also used shaming and praising to define the “desirable” UK policy. Not only did the UK accept a comprehensive ban, but it also started championing it as a result of two mechanisms—“cooperative bargaining” at the end of negotiations that led to a fair compromise and “mobilization of pride” by NGOs praising it for supporting the new norm. Whereas usually the success of weak actors in international negotiations is attributed to the persuasive power of their arguments, I show that strategic action by small states and NGOs may prove crucial in engineering the conditions both for their success and the rhetorical entrapment of stronger actors, such as the UK.