Transnational Nongovernmental Organizations Research Articles

Leadership and Behavior in Humanitarian and Development Transnational Non-Governmental Organizations

Does leadership matter in the governance of civil society organizations? In particular, do the CEOs of humanitarian and development NGOs exhibit different leadership styles and perceive their work environments in different ways as the literature suggests. To explore this question we interviewed 96 CEOs—32 from humanitarian NGOs and 64 from development NGOs. In the process we found support for the descriptions of the leadership of these two types of organizations extant in the research and practitioner literatures. Those in charge of humanitarian NGOs were more likely to challenge the constraints in their environments, to be interested in influencing what was happening, to want to affect outcomes, and to be focused on addressing the needs of those in the communities facing the crisis, disaster, or emergency. They viewed themselves as having short time in which to respond and chose to communicate and act informally as well as to only collaborate with other organizations if pushed. Providing direct aid and service were high priorities as was advocacy to secure the funding necessary for completing their task. In contrast, CEOs leading development NGOs focused more on respecting and working within the constraints of their positions, being adaptable and flexible in working on having an impact—in effect, being interested in building coalitions and achieving consensus as well as indulging in compromise with the intent of solving the endemic problems that they were there to address. They had a longer time perspective than their humanitarian counterparts and were willing to work within fairly hierarchical structures as well as with a variety of types of collaborators to reach their goals.

Emerging Amazigh Feminist Nongovernmental Organizations

Emerging Amazigh Feminist Nongovernmental Organizations

World port cities as cosmopolitan risk community: Mapping urban climate policy experiments in Europe and East Asia

Extending Ulrich Beck's theory of world risk society, this article traces the emergence of a cosmopolitan risk community of world port cities in Europe and East Asia, constituted around shared imaginations of the global risks and opportunities of climate change. Such urban risk imaginations are shaped and circulated, we argue, within transnational assemblages of local government networks, international organizations, multinational insurance companies and transnational non-governmental organizations. Adopting the methodology of mapping urban climate experiments, we then document one policy indication of this cosmopolitan risk community, in terms of the timing, intensity, priorities and modes of government manifested in the climate policy engagements of 16 major world port cities across the regions of Europe and East Asia. The substantial similarities in such policy engagements, we conclude, amount to a new urban–cosmopolitan realism, reshaping urban politics in the face of climate change.

The Other Side of the Coin: NGOs, Rights‐Based Approaches, and Public Administration

AbstractThe majority of the world's population resides in low‐ and middle‐income countries, where the problem of sustainable development is among the most pressing public administration challenges. As principal actors within the international development community, transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play a leading role in piloting a wide variety of development‐focused strategies. During the past decade, many of these transnational NGOs, along with the United Nations, have embraced a rights‐based approach (RBA) to development as an alternative to traditional service delivery. Despite the growing popularity of RBA among NGOs and other development actors, surprisingly little attention has been paid to understanding the significance of RBA for public administration and for public managers—the “other side of the coin.” Drawing on current research in NGO studies and international development, this article describes several varieties of contemporary rights‐based approaches, analyzes their impact on development practices, and examines the intersection of RBA and public administration.

Rethinking Translation in Feminist NGOs: Rights and Empowerment Across Borders

This article examines the modes of circulation of discourses and practices about women’s rights and women’s empowerment in transnational nongovernmental organizations. Using examples from Kampala, Uganda and Jaipur, India, the authors argue against the usual explanations of “translation” as a mere conduit by which global discourses of rights are vernacularized or localized, either without substantial change or with inaccurate, “traitorous” translations. This view misunderstands the citational nature of translation, which is inevitably a transforming and generative practice that changes what is taken up, making it into something new. The theoretical task of this article is to understand how and why such changes happen. The ethnographic examples illustrate several types of transformation and their implications for transnational feminisms.

The Attributes of Effective NGOs and the Leadership Values Associated with a Reputation for Organizational Effectiveness

Building on prior research characterizing organizational effectiveness as a social construction, this article identifies the perceived attributes of effective transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the leadership values associated with higher reputations for organizational effectiveness. Results are based on an in‐depth, mixed‐method interview study of 152NGOleaders located in the United States and representing all major sectors of organizational activity. Among the twenty‐nine attributes that leaders identified in peer organizations that they regarded as particularly effective, leaders stressed instantiation of sound principles or strategy, a grassroots approach, large organizational size and resources, being collaborative, singleness of focus, campaigning abilities, funding and fundraising prowess, global scope, and quality people. Furthermore, statistical analysis reveals thatNGOswith leaders who value similarities with peer organizations, grassroots approaches, diversity of strategies, dedication, professionalism, and distributed organizational structures have significantly higher reputations for effectiveness.

Examining the struggles for domestic workers: Hong Kong and the Philippines as interacting sites of activism

Drawing on transnational activism literature, this article presents a nuanced understanding of political action and the link between two contexts of struggles – the Philippines and Hong Kong – in order to explain the emergence and development of transnational political action. It presents a narrative of the emergence of transnational activism that spans Hong Kong and the Philippines by examining the political opportunities and organizing activities undertaken by two major transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to establish and sustain political action for and among foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong. The article shows that those who pioneered the activism in Hong Kong were products of the contentious Philippine politics and worked on social justice issues in their homeland prior to their stint in the territory. While the activists advocate for workers’ rights in Hong Kong, they continue to link their activism to their home country. This linkage is promoted by the discourse of “forced migra...

Transnational Humanitarianism

This review traces anthropological studies of humanitarianism starting in the late 1980s, when humanitarianism began to take shape as a particular moral and political project through the formation of transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). It follows both the evolving relationship of anthropologists to humanitarianism—initially as allies, then as critics, alternately embracing and challenging their conjoined humanist legacy—and the growing field of the anthropology of humanitarianism.

Negotiating Solidarity: Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and the ‘NGO-ization’ of Postcolonial Narrative

This essay examines the relationship between transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and postcolonial disasters as represented in literature. After the 1990s expansion of humanitarian organizations, a wide array of NGO-related literature emerges, including depictions of aid workers in fiction as well as humanitarian-authored narratives. While these texts contain a capacity for self-critique typically lacking in transnational NGO campaign materials, they remain mired in a ‘bureaucratic imagination’, sequestered from supposed beneficiaries. Alongside this literary development is an increasing pressure on postcolonial fiction to align with narrowly defined NGO missions, or what might be called an ‘NGO-ization of postcolonial narrative’. This essay interprets Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People as a vociferous refutation of such humanitarian pressure. Sinha stages the interaction between subaltern survivor and humanitarian benefactor not in terms of heroic salvation or radical rejection but as a conditional and negotiated solidarity. Disaster thus creates an opportunity to reimagine the subaltern-humanitarian relationship.

Transnational actors in environmental politics: strategies and influence in long negotiations

For scholars of global environmental politics, transnational actors are a central focus, and many ascribe significant influence to them. However, it is not always clear how their influence is felt or what strategies are most effective. Most studies that do consider these issues focus on the influence of either environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or business groups on one international outcome. Very few studies analyse these actors together. This limits the generalisability of conclusions. Remarkably, almost none of this work has considered the influence of these actors and the strategies they could employ in prolonged environmental negotiations that last many years or decades. Drawing on a rich empirical data set from the international climate negotiations, both are addressed. How the influence of transnational environmental NGOs and business groups is felt in long negotiations is considered, and three strategies are identified that these actors can use to influence not only state behaviour but each other as well.

The legitimacy of transnational NGOs: lessons from the experience of Transparency International in Germany and France

AbstractThis article develops theoretical insights concerning the legitimacy of non-profit Transnational Non-Governmental Organisations (TNGOs) in global governance. The research compares the advocacy initiatives of Transparency International (TI), the leading TNGO in the international regime of anti-corruption, in Germany and France during the 1990s. The main argument is that the legitimacy of TNGOs is a relational concept: it is granted or denied in a relationship between at least two parties, in which actor attributes play a role but are not decisive. Only such a relational conception can explain why a given TNGO is granted legitimacy in one context and denied it in another. In addition, legitimacy matters. Although insufficient on its own, legitimacy is a necessary condition for effective advocacy, which TNGOs can generate endogenously. To the extent that the legitimacy of TNGOs depends on their acceptance by dominant groups and powerful decision-makers, therefore, ‘legitimate’ TNGOs may function to sustain rather than challenge the structures of power which condition global outcomes in ways that are often contrary to the goals of equality, fairness, and justice. Thus to assess the impact of TNGOs in global governance, one must examinewhichTNGOs have been granted (or denied) legitimacy and influence, andwhy.

How Successful Transnational Non-governmental Organizations Set Themselves up for Failure on the Ground

Summary This paper examines transnational non-governmental organization (TNGO) influence on global, national, or local policy arenas, as well as how a TNGO’s actions in one arena might aid or encumber its effectiveness in another. It expands Steinberg’s spheres of influence framework (2001, 2003) to create a new capacity typology. Through examining Conservation International’s work in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, this paper demonstrates the “paradox of global capacity”: a phenomenon where a TNGO prioritizes certain capacities that paradoxically grant it access to work at the local level while impeding its efforts to create lasting change there.

Transnational organisations and security

The fields of international relations and criminology analyse security from different directions, but both have had a dominant focus on states and state agencies until recently. Even as they looked at a wider range of actors as security providers, an important category of security actors has not been analysed so far – ‘non-violent’ transnational organisations. Transnational non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and transnational corporations (TNCs) are not security organisations per se, but the strategies these transnational non-state actors pursue in response to violence affect security for both themselves and the societies in which they operate. We argue here that security at the local level is an outcome of interactions among diverse actors including transnational organisations and call for a research agenda focused on how transnational actors choose their response to insecurity and how those choices affect security governance.

Abstracts - 2010 Meetings

Abstracts - 2010 Meetings

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.

Institutional trust: The process of trust formation in Russian forest villages in accordance with the international system of forest certification

The article analyzes the construction of trust in the international system of forest certification promoted by transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The essence of this system — to improve the environmental and social responsibility of forestry companies by providing them with additional competitive advantages in the global market. The study demonstrates that, on an international level, the degree of trust in the system is affected by its design features (management structure and organization of the certification process) as well as the expert activities of a number of transnational NGOs and certification bodies. At the same time, at the local level trust in the new system is constructed on interpersonal relationships between the local community and the certified company. The initial foundation of this process is the rational interest of the local community in the new opportunities and resources offered by the system. At the same time, using the new rights, residents gradually begin to adopt new rules and values. This leads to further development of institutional trust and its transformation from the instrumental to the social, based on common shared values. This article identifies and analyzes the general steps undertaken in trust formation toward a new system that are common to all settlements. At the same time, the research has demonstrated the diversity of the communities and of the factors involved in local trust formation in variety of different cases (the economic prosperity of settlements, the availability of local initiatives in the villages, the immediate task of collecting and collating everyone's problems so that they can be resolved through the new system).The research itself has been based on qualitative research methods (semi-structured, participant observation, and analysis of documents), and the data has been collected at Russian forestry enterprises and forest settlements in the period 2007–2009.

Accountability of Transnational NGOs

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working across borders face increased accountability demands. Although many have proposed ways of changing accountability practices, the debate is rarely informed by leaders’ perspectives of how accountability is perceived and practiced across different organizational settings. In interviews with NGO leaders we find aspirations to make accountability more meaningful and integrated, in particular by listening more to stakeholders other than donors. However, these aspirations are rarely put in practice and leaders continue to highlight traditional means such as financial accounting. This gap is particularly pronounced for smaller organizations and reflects an increasingly competitive environment shaped by rating agencies and a focus on financial metrics. To move from aspirations to practice, NGOs have to be willing to share more meaningful information about their work and outcomes with stakeholders. Practicing transparency that empowers beneficiaries is central to effective organizational learning and balancing demands from different stakeholders.

Sexuality, rights and personhood: tensions in a transnational world

BackgroundThis article discusses what happens when normative ‘global’ discourses of rights and individuated sexual identity confront the messiness of ‘local’ realities. It considers the tensions that emerge when the relationship between sexual and social identities is not obvious and the implications of such tensions for public health and sexual rights activism. These questions are addressed through debates over the naming of male-to-male sexualities and desires in the context of globalization and the growth of a large NGO (non-governmental organization) sector in urban Bangladesh.MethodsThe material in the paper draws on a research project undertaken in 2008-9 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A fundamental objective was to produce a contextualized understanding of sexuality in Dhaka city. Methods used included structured interviews, focus group discussions and informal conversations with a range of participants (students, factory workers, public health professionals and sexual minorities). The aim was to generate a conceptual and analytical framework around sexuality and rights rather than to undertake an empirical survey of any one population.ResultsAs descriptors, globalized identity categories such as Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), used by public health providers, the state and donors; and gay/lesbian, invoked by human rights activists and transnational NGOs, are too narrow to capture the fluid and highly context-specific ways in which gender and sexually nonconforming persons understand themselves in Bangladesh. Further, class position mediates to a significant degree the reception, appropriation or rejection of transnational categories such as MSM and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT). The tension is reflected in the sometimes fraught relations between service providers to MSM, the people they serve and an emerging group who identify as LGBT.ConclusionA simple politics of recognition will be inadequate to the task of promoting health and human rights for all; such a strategy would effectively exclude individuals who do not necessarily connect their sexual practices with a specific sexual or social identity.

Acuerdos de gobernabilidad para la sostenibilidad: una perspectiva regional

Purpose The article focuses on the preconditions for forging International strategies to deal with social and environmental sustainability. Taking the Brundtland Report and its implied strategy based on inter-governmental conferences and treaties at the global level as a point of departure, this article suggests an alternative strategy which focuses on governance arrangements (GAs) rather than government agencies and at the regional rather than the global level. The article argues that for these to function effectively, they must be perceived as legitimate by those affected by their decisions. This article argues that this will depend on their conformity to certain generic principles regulating the chartering, composition and decision-making of such GAs. If these are successful in Europe, their norms may diffuse to other world regions. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual article which presents principles for international governance for sustainability based on current experiences with governance in the European Union. Findings The article points out that since the publication of the Brundtland report, among the most significant political/institutional changes with regard to policies for environmental sustainability have been the expansion of the competences of the European Union (EU) and the emergence of a numerous and wide-ranging set of trans-national non-governmental organizations. The article indicate show this new institutional terrain may be used to forge new governance strategies for sustainability. Originality/value The originality/value of the article lies in its analysis of decision-making in the EU as a point of departure for global governance for sustainability.

Mediating Abundance and Scarcity: Implementing an HIV/AIDS-Targeted Project Within a Government Hospital in Tanzania

While free antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Tanzania has undeniably increased accessibility of services, the effects of ART programs as they are brought into existing health facilities are more ambiguous. As transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) establish clinics within government hospitals, we see a telling example of how NGOs are providing services from within the state. The conditions of NGO-operated clinics within government health facilities act as a daily reminder of the failures of the government to provide health workers with that to which they feel entitled: adequate pay, access to sophisticated technology, upgraded training, extra-duty allowances, and a professional working environment. At the same time, health personnel compete to position themselves in such a way to be able to make claims on the state through these NGO clinics, which is the only means available for them to access the very resources to which they feel entitled by their profession.