The Credibility of Transnational NGOs We rely on NGOs to monitor the ethical practices of governments and for-profit firms, and to undertake many humanitarian tasks that public and private actors will not do. While we are critical of public and private sector failures, we do not reflect enough on the credibility of the NGOs which take their place. Can we be sure that products NGOs label as child-labor free are in fact so, that the coffee labeled as fair trade is farmed in sustainable ways, or that the working conditions monitored by NGOs are safe and that the wages are reasonable? Can we know that humanitarian organizations are, in fact, using our donations to alleviate human suffering rather than pursuing other goals? This book explores the problems of establishing the credibility of NGO activities as they monitor working conditions, human rights, and elections, and provide finance through microcredit institutions, development aid, and emergency assistance. peter a. gourevitch is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and founding Dean of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. david a. lake is Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, and (Acting) Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. janice gross stein is Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.
The Credibility of Transnational NGOs When Virtue Is Not Enough Edited by Pet er A. Gourevitch David A. L a k e Janice Gross Stein
cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: /9781107651692 Cambridge University Press 2012 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2012 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The credibility of transnational NGOs : when virtue is not enough / [edited by] Peter A. Gourevitch, David A. Lake, Janice Gross Stein. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-01804-4 (hbk.) ISBN 978-1-107-65169-2 (pbk.) 1. Non-governmental organizations Moral and ethical aspects. I. Gourevitch, Peter Alexis. II. Lake, David A., 1956 III. Stein, Janice Gross. IV. Title: Credibility of transnational non-governmental organizations. JZ4841.C73 2012 172.4 dc23 2011040407 ISBN 978-1-107-01804-4 Hardback ISBN 978-1-107-65169-2 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents List of figures List of tables List of contributors Acknowledgments page vii Introduction 1 1 Beyond virtue: evaluating and enhancing the credibility of non-governmental organizations 3 p e t e r a. g o u r e v i t c h a n d d a v i d a. l a k e Part I Monitoring and NGOs 35 2 Why believe international election monitors? 37 s u s a n d. h y d e 3 Credible certification of child labor free production 62 i r f a n n o o r u d d i n a n d s a r a h w i l s o n s o k h e y 4 Becoming a household name: how human rights NGOs establish credibility through organizational structure 86 w e n d y h. w o n g Part II Humanitarian NGOs 113 5 Dilemmas of information and accountability: foreign aid donors and local development NGOs 115 c a r e w b o u l d i n g 6 In defense of virtue: credibility, legitimacy dilemmas, and the case of Islamic Relief 137 l a u r a t h a u t, j a n i c e g r o s s s t e i n, a n d m i c h a e l b a r n e t t viii ix x v
vi Contents 7 Monitoring repayment in online peer-to-peer lending 165 c r a i g m c i n t o s h Conclusion 191 8 Credibility and compromises 193 p e t e r a. g o u r e v i t c h a n d d a v i d a. l a k e References 208 Index 222
Figures 2.1 Carter Center election observation and criticism page 45 3.1 Bringing the state back in state as regulator and NGO as whistleblower 84 7.1 Timing of lending, posting, and online funding through Kiva 171 7.2a Old Kiva website flow chart 173 7.2b New Kiva website flow chart 174 7.3 Flow chart of money and information in P2P lending 179 7.4 Impacts of P2P credit on MFI market access 182 vii
Tables 1.1 Sources of NGO credibility page 11 3.1 Conditions for credibility in Rugmark/Goodweave, Kaleen, and the Foul Ball campaign 66 5.1 NGOs in Bolivia by sector and sub-sector, 2005 134 6.1 Strategies to enhance legitimacy 147 7.1 Repayment performance through Kiva versus overall, MFI level 186 viii
Contributors Michael Barnett is University Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University. Carew Boulding is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Peter A. Gourevitch is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and founding Dean of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Susan D. Hyde is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. David A. Lake is the Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. Craig McIntosh is Associate Professor of Economics in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Irfan Nooruddin is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University. Sarah Wilson Sokhey is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Janice Gross Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Laura Thaut is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Wendy H. Wong is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. ix
Acknowledgments This book arose from a shared commitment to the importance of norm enforcement. Governments and firms fail to do many important things, and non-governmental organizations around the world have stepped in to fill the breach. While the public and private sectors are subject to criticism, often withering, NGOs generally do not have to meet the same standards; evaluation is sympathetic and often uncritical. How do we really know that salmon is wild, that a soccer ball was made without child labor? How do we monitor the quality of production processes (invisible in the final product), rather than the use value of the final, visible output? These questions blend into a wider set of theoretical concerns in international relations and comparative political economy, including the impact of global supply chains, the challenges of norm enforcement, and the role of non-state actors. The authors discovered they shared these concerns at a chance meeting over coffee at the 2008 International Studies Association meeting in San Francisco among Janice Gross Stein, Peter Gourevitch, Susan Hyde, Carew Boulding, and Wendy Wong. In making introductions, we became aware that we shared a common interest in an analysis of NGO efforts to monitor compliance with norms. The opportunity to collaborate was visible and compelling. Off we went, initially through the creative exchange of emails, memos, and drafts that modern technology makes possible. We quickly drew in David Lake at UC San Diego, where Hyde, Boulding, and Wong had recently finished doctorates on topics of importance to our themes. We then added Michael Barnett, working with Stein on Islamic charities, and his student Laura Thaut. We involved Irfan Nooruddin, whose work on child labor was familiar to several of us, and he drew in his student Sarah Sokhey. In September 2008 we held a planning meeting at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto where we sketched ideas for further work. We held a larger workshop at UC San Diego x
Acknowledgments xi in March 2009 to which we invited other colleagues, and a third, smaller workshop at the Munk School that overlapped with the Toronto 2009 meeting of the American Political Science Association. We decided to include Craig McIntosh s work on Kiva, presented at the UC San Diego workshop, because it provided a clear case of an NGO responding openly to criticism. For help in funding the meetings, we thank the Munk School at the University of Toronto, the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC), the Panta Rhea Foundation, and the UC San Diego Senate Research fund. Lynne Bush was, as ever, an admirable editor. Staff were wonderful to us at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UC San Diego, IGCC, and the Munk School. The Munk School and IGCC provided financial assistance to help us prepare the manuscript for publication. A number of colleagues read various drafts, attended one or more of the workshops, and discussed the ideas in different settings. We note particularly Nigel Bigger, Richard Carson, Mike Hiscox, Lane Jost, Margaret Levi, April Linton, Rick Locke, Kristin Parks, Michael Piore, Dale Squires, and Junjie Zhang. This book is immeasurably better as a result of their critical thinking. In the process of working on this book, the team of editors discovered anew their shared interests and reinforced their long-standing friendships. Both of these were made easier because of the central importance of the topic: the sense among all three of us that virtue is not enough, that transnational organizations which monitor the public and the private sector themselves have to meet standards of transparency and performance if we are to believe the claims they make. We hope that this volume starts a conversation and stimulates others to continue the work on a subject that we believe will only grow in importance in a more tightly interconnected global system.