Background Donor–nongovernmental organisation (NGO) partnerships may enable earlier infusion of implementation science principles into developing evidence-based interventions. Yet, donors and NGOs ...often report difficulty leveraging resources, personnel and expertise to create beneficial outcomes for all. Drawing from a PhD thesis, the authors report how the asymmetrical nature of the relationships manifests in practice in the work of NGOs. The study focused on human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV and AIDS) NGOs in Gauteng province in South Africa.Objectives This study examines whether the asymmetrical relationships can be termed partnerships and highlights the potential for such a discourse to reinforce existing relationship inequalities.Method Qualitative data were collected through in-depth individual interviews with key informants from five purposively selected HIV and AIDS NGOs. A total of 28 interviews were analysed deductively using thematic analysis. The Dóchas Partnership Assessment and Development Process framework guided this analysis. The NGOs under study have implemented various HIV and AIDS programmes and policies in their workspace.Results The findings have revealed that ‘partnership’ is a false representation of the actual relationships between donors and NGOs.Conclusion The study concluded that although the notion of partnerships accurately describes the intention of ‘donors’ and ‘NGOs’ to collaborate in ways that ensure improved services and outcomes, the unintended consequences of how partnerships are managed and run inhibit that common agenda. The article concludes with suggestions to build and sustain effective working relationships between partners.Contribution Assessing how donor-NGO partnerships are operationalised can assist in determining the extent to which their relationship is operating and point to areas where partnerships practice can be further developed.
This article explores aspects of translation, multilingualism and language policy in the field of transnational civil society. By focusing on translation policies at Amnesty International, an ...international non‐governmental organisation that performs a key role in global governance, this article seeks to contribute to a globalisation‐sensitive sociolinguistics. It argues that combining a sociolinguistic approach – more precisely linguistic ethnography – with translation studies leads to an increased understanding of the language practices under study. Furthermore, the article calls for more interdisciplinary research, stating that there is space for sociolinguistics and translation studies to contribute to research in international relations and development studies by highlighting the role of multilingualism and challenging the traditionally powerful position of English in transnational civil society.
Dit artikel onderzoekt aspecten van vertalen, meertaligheid en taalbeleid in de transnationale civil society. Door te focussen op het vertaalbeleid van Amnesty International, een internationale non‐gouvernementele organisatie die een belangrijke rol speelt in mondiaal bestuur, wil dit artikel bijdragen aan sociolinguïstiek onderzoek dat aandacht schenkt aan globalisering. Het artikel betoogt dat de combinatie van een sociolinguïstische benadering, meer bepaald linguïstische etnografie, met vertaalwetenschap leidt tot een beter begrip van taalpraktijken. Tenslotte roept het artikel op tot meer interdisciplinair onderzoek. Het argumenteert dat de sociolinguïstiek en vertaalwetenschap kunnen bijdragen aan onderzoek in Internationale Relaties en Ontwikkelingsstudies door te wijzen op de rol van meertaligheid en door de traditioneel sterke positie van het Engels in de transnationale civil society te problematiseren.
‘Divided disasters’ are conflicts and natural hazard‐induced disasters that occur simultaneously, but in different locations within the same national boundaries. They will place pressure on the same ...national governance structures, will draw on the same international and national humanitarian resources, and therefore can mutually reinforce the challenges and risks faced by affected populations. Yet, as this paper argues, the impacts do not originate in the direct interaction of these two variables. Rather, they derive, in part, from the management of humanitarian responses to them—namely, through the reprioritisation of attention and the redeployment of resources as driven by the imperatives of ‘the good project'. Using a case study of the Philippines, and the parallel emergencies of Typhoon Haiyan (one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record) and the spike in violence in Mindanao in 2013, this paper explores the organisational motivators of humanitarian responses to divided disasters, and assesses their implications for affected populations.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of accountability as it relates to a non-governmental organisation (NGO) evolving through a period of considerable change in Sri Lanka.
...Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth single case study of a large NGO working in Sri Lanka is presented. Data collection involved conducting semi-structured interviews with a range of NGO employees and stakeholders, undertaking participant and non-participant observation and document analysis.
Findings
This paper shows how accountability is a contested notion that is shaped by struggles among stakeholders within a field. The authors explore how the “widespread field” consisting of the aid context in Sri Lanka and internationally is rapidly shifting. This creates unique pressures within the “restricted field” of the case NGO and its constituents. These pressures are manifested in the contest between the different capitals held by various stakeholders to shape the NGO. The nature of access to these capitals is important in the way that the NGO is shaped by external forces, and also by the individuals within it.
Research limitations/implications
This study adds fresh perspective to the growing body of work in NGO accountability. The paper highlights the tensions NGOs face through a holistic application of a Bourdieusian conceptual framework. The authors show how the habitus of the organisation is shaped in such a way that conceptions of accountability were captured by powerful external and internal constituencies. Ultimately, the nature of an organisation’s agency is questioned.
Practical implications
The authors present a more nuanced understanding of forces which shape accountability in an NGO setting which is of practical relevance to NGOs and their stakeholders. The authors highlight the struggle for an NGO to maintain its agency through resisting external forces that impact on its operations.
Originality/value
This study presents a comprehensive and holistic application of Bourdieu’s concepts and their interactions in an organisational setting. The struggle to harness various forms of capital in the field, shapes doxa and the habitus of NGO actors, illuminating the role of symbolic violence in the creation of an organisational identity.
This research examines women's organisations of the 20th and 21st centuries in the countries of Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. It examines the ...formation process and the current state of women's non-governmental organisations in Central Asia and identifies new trends and areas in the development of women's socio-political movements in the region. The research is based on theoretical and analytical works reviewing the problem of formation and development of the women's movement in Central Asian countries. The systematic approach was used, alongside the historical and comparative methods. The findings reveal the following— limited mechanisms for equalising gender imbalances in society and increasing women's political representation in the quota system; insufficiency of financial and material resources of women's non-governmental organisations, based mainly on the assistance of international organisations and foundations; lack of active political initiatives of the women's electorate; the inadequacy of the national women's idea in the countries under study, which can consolidate both women's organisations and the female population.
Purpose
This paper aims to look at how organisational partnerships balance knowledge exploration and exploitation in contexts that are rife with paradoxes. It draws on paradox theory to examine the ...partnership’s response to the explore-exploit relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple interpretive case study was used to examine international partnerships in three African countries. These partnerships were between international (Northern-based) non-governmental organisations and local African non-governmental organisations.
Findings
The research finds that within the partnership, knowledge exploration and exploitation exist as a duality rather than a dualism. This is supported by the acceptance and confrontation of paradoxes of performing and belonging. However, macro-level paradoxes of organising linked to power, culture and epistemologies inhibit further effective confrontation of the explore-exploit paradox.
Practical implications
The findings can help managers working in international development organisations to understand how learning is enabled and constrained in partnership-based programmes.
Originality/value
The study provides a novel contribution to knowledge management by applying the paradox perspective to the explore-exploit relationship. This paper extends previous work by drawing on the levels and repertoires present in the paradox perspective to understand how knowledge exploration and exploitation can be mutually reinforcing and can exist as a duality.
Ethnographic and biographical research conducted with mixed-status couples and non-governmental organisations in France and Belgium provides insights into how the citizen partners of mixed-status ...relationships define and assert their family rights. In response to injustices suffered, from the state or from the migrant (non-citizen) partner, these citizens turned to organisations with contrasting discourses on marriage migration. These organisations encouraged them to participate in collective actions, and to give voice to their intimate experiences. Drawing on accounts of 'intimate citizenship', this article explores the citizenship-belonging nexus through lenses of performativity and intersectionality. Gender and ethnicity interact to influence interactions between citizen partners and the state, the tension between their virtual and actual social identities, and - ultimately - their assertions of citizenship, with personal status underpinning public claims. By speaking and acting in the name of their private lives and choices, these citizen partners affirm their (intimate) citizenship through its public performance.
Non-governmental organisations have several mechanisms in place to facilitate learning with and from communities they intend to serve, however these do not always realise authentic participation and ...meaningful programmatic adjustments. In a participatory research in Central-Eastern Uganda we investigated how the community believes collective learning with NGOs could best be shaped. In this paper we present findings as well as reflections on the learning spaces that emerged in the research and how one could assess whether collective learning is a transformative practice. We offer a conceptual framework NGO practitioners can use to enrich their collective learning toolkit as well as to track and trace small shifts and changes happening in learning trajectories in order to lobby for resources to allow collective learning to happen more authentically, through increased presence and informal interaction with communities.
Uncertainty and a lack of stability are among the difficulties non-governmental organisations face. However, certain strategies for ensuring their performance’s sustainability have not been ...empirically demonstrated in the literature. Using strategic resource management practises and artificial intelligence, this study examines the effect of organisational learning and corporate social responsibility on the sustainability of non-governmental organisations’ performance. The survey gathered data from 171 participants representing 21 United Nations organisations and 70 non-governmental organisations in Jordan to accomplish this goal. The data were analysed using WarpPLS and PLS-SEM. The study demonstrates that organisational learning, artificial intelligence, strategic human resource management practises, and corporate social responsibility all contribute to the long-term viability of non-governmental organisations. Furthermore, the study discovered that strategic resource management practises and artificial intelligence significantly mediate the relationship between organisational learning and sustainable organisational performance on the one hand, and corporate social responsibility on the other. Finally, the study provides theoretical and practical guidance on how to apply the findings to assist non-profit organisations’ management in utilising organisational learning, corporate social responsibility, artificial intelligence, and strategic resource management practices to help them run their internal operations in a more efficient and sustainable manner over time.
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, a Toronto HIV/AIDS service organisation (HASO) held an event called “Family of HIV” at its annual general meeting in 2017. A drag queen’s performance of the popular ...gay anthem “We Are Family” and a statement of “love” for the organisation from two clients followed regular annual meeting items like the auditor’s report and election of board directors. These actions created a complex affective and bureaucratic arrangement for an organisation formed through grassroots activism by and for a historically marginalised group (gay men infected with HIV), but that now serves a diverse group of HIV-positive people and is funded through state and private sectors, and is thus enmeshed in a set of obligations and responsibilities to various scales of stakeholders, including local, provincial and national health and welfare agencies. This article argues that the performance of family at the annual meeting privileges a particular affective arrangement of relationships between full-time staff, clients and volunteers that, not coincidentally, occurs in a bureaucratic culture emphasising data as a measurement of value and efficiency. This results in a closely surveilled form of family produced through dense personal and bureaucratic entanglements of regulation, alienation, care, conflict and anxiety.
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