Non-Governmental Public Action Series Editor: Jude Howell, Professor of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Non-governmental public action (NGPA) by and for disadvantaged and marginalized people has become increasingly significant over the past two decades. This book series is designed to make a fresh and original contribution to the understanding of NGPA. It presents the findings of innovative and policy-relevant research carried out by established and new scholars working in collaboration with researchers across the world. The series is international in scope and includes both theoretical and empirical work. The series marks a departure from previous studies in this area in at least two important respects. First, it goes beyond a singular focus on developmental NGOs or the voluntary sector to include a range of non-governmental public actors such as advocacy networks, campaigns and coalitions, trades unions, peace groups, rights-based groups, cooperatives and social movements. Second, the series is innovative in stimulating a new approach to international comparative research that promotes comparison of the so-called developing world with the so-called developed world, thereby querying the conceptual utility and relevance of categories such as North and South. Titles include : Marian Burchardt FAITH IN THE TIME OF AIDS Religion, Biopolitics and Modernity in South Africa Ana Cecilia Dinerstein THE POLITICS OF AUTONOMY IN LATIN AMERICA The Art of Organising Hope Chris van der Borgh and Crolijn Terwindt NGOS UNDER PRESSURE IN PARTIAL DEMOCRACIES Barbara Bompani and Maria Frahm-Arp (editors) DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICS FROM BELOW Exploring Religious Spaces in the African State Brian Doherty and Timothy Doyle ENVIRONMENTALISM, RESISTANCE AND SOLIDARITY The Politics of Friends of the Earth International Dena Freeman ( editor) PENTECOSTALISM AND DEVELOPMENT Churches, NGOs and Social Change in Africa David Herbert CREATING COMMUNITY COHESION Religion, Media and Multiculturalism Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind COUNTER-TERRORISM, AID AND CIVIL SOCIETY Before and After the War on Terror
Jude Howell ( editor) GLOBAL MATTERS FOR NON-GOVERNMENTAL PUBLIC ACTION Jude Howell (editor) NON-GOVERNMENTAL PUBLIC ACTION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Jenny Pearce ( editor ) PARTICIPATION AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Tim Pringle and Simon Clarke THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSITION Trade Unions in Russia, China and Vietnam Andrew Wells-Dang CIVIL SOCIETY NETWORKS IN CHINA AND VIETNAM Informal Pathbreakers in Health and the Environment Thomas Yarrow DEVELOPMENT BEYOND POLITICS Aid, Activism and NGOs in Ghana Non-Governmental Public Action Series Series Standing Order ISBN 978 0 230 22939 6 (hardback) 978 0 230 22940 2 (paperback) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
International NGO Engagement, Advocacy, Activism The Faces and Spaces of Change Helen Yanacopulos Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development, Open University, UK
Helen Yanacopulos 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-0-230-28456-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-56383-8 ISBN 978-1-137-31509-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137315090 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yanacopulos, Helen. International NGO Engagement, Advocacy, Activism: The Faces and Spaces of Change / Helen Yanacopulos, Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Development, Open University, UK. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. 1. Non-governmental organizations. 2. International cooperation. I. Title. JZ4841.Y36 2015 341.2 dc23 2015026344
Contents Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations vi viii 1 The Current State of INGOs 1 2 Political Spaces of INGOs 21 3 Cosmopolitan Spaces of INGOs 35 4 INGO Spaces of Engagement 60 5 INGO Organisation and Strategy 86 6 Networked Spaces of INGOs 106 7 Digital Spaces of INGOs 132 8 Conclusions 154 Notes 159 References 163 Index 177 v
Preface and Acknowledgements Watching the news footage of the Ethiopia famine in 1984 touched me in a profound way. I had never seen that level of suffering on television and, months later, the Live Aid concert filled me with hope and the promise that we could change the world. Needless to say, many decades, concerts, fundraisers and campaigns later, I now write more about the limitations of such types of engagement than of their hope and promise. And yet, the questions that continue to resonate for me are: How do we move beyond such events, such sporadic spikes in public consciousness, to engender the changes in vast global inequalities and poverty that are needed to make a better world? What can we do to help? Through having researched and taught at the interface of International Politics and Development Studies for almost two decades, as well as having worked in the International Non-Government Organisation (INGO) sector, I see the role of INGOs as paramount to the ways many forms of development occur. I am a long-standing supporter of development INGOs, having volunteered for them in the 1980s, studied and worked for them in the 1990s, and researched and written about them since the 2000s. Additionally, I have worked on numerous international development-related projects for television during the past decade, a key form of development engagement both within the UK and internationally. Thus, I have been involved and have contributed to the ways that international development is constructed, mediated and represented to publics, and this has allowed me to understand the production processes of television and other media as well as to understand the challenges of relaying complex issues of poverty and inequality to large audiences. Effectively relaying the complex issues of international development to publics in an accessible and interesting way is the holy grail of those working in the public-facing aspects of development. As a consequence of having worked in the public engagement of development as an INGO practitioner and an academic, my aims in writing this book have been both analytical and, hopefully, constructive. Throughout the book I am frequently critical of development INGOs, but my aim is not to tarnish or dismiss them, but to help improve the work that they do, and the potential work that they are capable of. Thus, my aim in this book is to be a critical friend. vi
Preface vii The purpose of this book is to first look at the politics of INGO public engagement in a holistic way, through their use of media, their values and frames, their organisational structures, as well as their different uses of space in that engagement. The second purpose of this book is to instigate a debate around the ways that INGOs operate and how this contributes to constructions, mediations and representations of development. The final purpose of this book is to provide insights and reflections from key informants from within the INGO sector on the future of the INGOs, given the somewhat dramatic changes in their operating environments. I would like to thank those who agreed to be interviewed for this book. I appreciate the demands my interviewees have on their time, making their generosity even more impressive. A number of colleagues have commented on drafts of the book, including Kate Wright, Jim Whitman, Wendy Wong, Melissa Butcher and Martin Scott. I thank them for their extremely useful comments, although any errors within the book can only be attributed to myself.
List of Abbreviations BOAG British Overseas Aid Group BOND British Overseas NGOs for Development CSOs civil society organisations INGO International Non-Governmental Organization MDGs Millennium Development Goals NGO Non-Governmental Organization OCOs Online Campaigning Organizations ODA Overseas Development Assistance SDGs Sustainable Development Goals TAN Transnational Advocacy Network UGC user-generated content UIA Union of International Associations WDM World Development Movement WSF World Social Forum viii