The thesis analyses how NGOs define the meaning of civil society in Namibia through their everyday work. Based on 12 months fieldwork at the national umbrella for NGOs the thesis shows that this definition was mainly shaped by NGOs’ administration of the everyday rather than the outcome of ideological debates about how to “do good”. The thesis examines how dominant NGO practices reflect the basic tension between NGOs’ activists claims and the bureaucratic reality of their work and in doing so speaks to debates about NGO agency, accountability and their relevance for development. The thesis shows how organisations use formal criteria in reporting, networking, advocacy, fundraising and branding to continuously redefine what activism ought to be about and how “proper” civic organisations ought to behave. NGOs write reports to enhance their accountability and transparency, but the correct reporting form also delineates what counts as proper civic activism. They present networking as civil society’s main coordinating mechanism, but meetings always call for more coordination and hence additional meetings. Advocacy does not only concern the relations between civic organisations and the government, but NGOs also use these relations to justify surveillance and control within civil society. Competitive fundraising does not blindly follow donors’ demands, rather, through it NGOs create a canon of fundable and thus legitimate projects. Finally, the branding of civic activism is not simply concerned with the promotion of civil society organisations, but is seen as an attempt to create a unified corporate image with a sharp distinction between proper and improper civic activism. Struggles over meaning are therefore shifted into contestations around technicalities. The administration of the everyday in civil society thus becomes the prime means to decide how to “do good”.

The thesis explores international donors’ promotion of civil society in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan since the mid 2000s with a particular focus on how policy changes in the promotion of civil society have influenced Kyrgyz non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and their relations with the state. The thesis is based on tenmonths field research, which involved ninety semi-structured interviews with nineteen donors, forty-seven NGOs, six community based organisations, and three representatives of local authorities, together with two small-scale surveys with twenty-five NGO employees and thirty-three NGO leaders. The key finding is that donors’ focus on civil society promotion in Kyrgyzstan has decreased since the mid 2000s rather their agenda now aims at state capacity-building. Donors’ more limited funding to NGOs is targeted toward the promotion of NGOs’ advocacy role and the encouragement of collaborative relations between NGOs and the state. These findings indicate a shift from donors’ civil society promotion in the 1990s where the key stress was on building civil society in Kyrgyzstan from scratch. Consequently, the thesis discusses the return of the state to donor agenda and the interaction between the state, donors, and NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. These changes have impacted the NGOs sector in Kyrgyzstan. The research has revealed that, as a result of these changes, NGOs are becoming more professional and formal. The thesis argues that reduced donor funding has resulted in a stronger competition among NGOs for funds, while increased interaction with the state institutions has also placed pressure on NGOs to become more professional and to increase their institutional capacity. The thesis suggests that relations between the state and NGOs are characterised by apparently contradictory elements in which both cooperation and counterbalance feature. Notwithstanding the prevailing trend toward NGO professionalisation and formalisation, the thesis argues that NGOs also display other features such as voluntarism, philanthropy, and constituency responsiveness. Consequently, the thesis makes a contribution to the literature on civil society in Central Asia by providing a detailed account of the complex and diverse NGO sector in Kyrgyzstan.

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Campaigning has become an important area of work for development NGOs (NGDOs). How political, in terms of public mobilising to confront authority, has it become? What frameworks can we best use to study this? Based on precedents such as della Porta and Diani's suggestion (2006) that social movement (SM) theory can be enlarged as a theory of collective action, I borrow six SM concepts – frames, repertoires, networks, mobilising structures, identity and political opportunities-threats. I then combine them with NGDO campaigning literature themes to explore those questions in a case study of ActionAid's Tax Justice Campaign (TJC) in Nigeria and the UK. ActionAid's TJC operates through two campaign formats – a single-issue format with one international claim and a multiple-issue format with claims specific to each level. Both formats exist in tension for campaign resources, yet combine to expose international and domestic causes of poverty in low-income countries. This example illustrates ActionAid's campaigning style: walking a tightrope to balance tensions and opportunities in its idea of ‘campaigning'. This style also includes embracing moderate and radical supporter views on poverty and a structure of sponsorship and service-delivery programmes with campaigning accompanying them. For example, financial supporters mobilise towards confronting authorities alongside direct campaigner recruitment. Other NGDOs share this, with other ActionAid campaign features, which together shapes an understanding towards the idea of NGDO political action. I suggest that my findings contribute to both NGDO campaigning and SM theory. To NGDO campaign actors, SM theory provides a new vocabulary to study NGDO campaigning, particularly little explored dimensions in NGDO campaign literature such as state/authority confrontation and political identity. To SM theory, my findings offer an empirical contribution which helps position campaigning NGDOs as another type of contentious actor. At a practice level, ActionAid's multiple-issue campaigning may help prevent local tokenism in international campaigns.

The research reported in this thesis examines the various factors which influence the role of NGOs in development in India. Despite the centrality of NGOs to the development process in the projects examined, little effort has been made to look at existing experience in terms of what works and what does not work in actual practice. This study attempts to analyse the importance and effectiveness of NGOs through the documentation and analysis of the experiences of five NGOs. The five NGOs are: CERTH India and RDI, in the union territory of Pondicherry; ASHA and GRAM, in Krishna and Adilabad districts respectively in the state of Andra Pradesh; and PMDS, in the South Arcot district of the state of Tamil Nadu. These five organisations have spent the five to 15 years organising their respective client communities. The local organisations that have come into existence through their efforts have reached a stage at which village units have federated and are displaying self-management skills to varying degrees. Specific dimensions of the NGOs examined in this study/ include: influencing factors related to their communities and environments; objectives, strategies, structure and functioning, focusing on community participation, vulnerable groups, empowerment, sustainability, the importance of participatory evaluation and participatory research in an NGO; administration and accountability of NGOs; and enabling relations and collaborations which have to be fostered between government and NGOs on the one hand, and global institutions and NGOs on the other. The main approach used in this study was the use of In-depth, openended, informal interviews and discussions based on pre-planned questions, with a range of NGO staff and members of the organisations. Direct contact with some of the beneficiaries, a literature review, and project reports and records also aided the study. The results showed that strategies and techniques used by the NGOs are valuable for attaining self-reliant development. Holistic development is best achieved when the organisation aims at transforming all the important dimensions of people's lives through the process of collective reflection and action on the forces that presently prevent them from developing.

Det svenska biståndet inriktat mot demokratisering uppgick 2008 till ca 4 miljarder kr. Det civila samhällets roll i demokratiseringsprocesser har fått ökad uppmärksamhet de senaste 15 åren och är numera ett av de vanligaste fokusområdena inom demokratibistånd. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka det svenska demokratibiståndet inriktat på det civila samhället och dess effekter och dess möjligheter att påverka demokratiseringsprocesser Genom att undersöka utvärderingar av olika projekt, vars syfte varit att stärka det civila samhället, har biståndets egentliga effekter kunnat redovisas. De länder som undersöks i denna uppsats är Moldavien, Etiopien, Zimbabwe och fyra län-der i Latinamerika; Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Nicaragua. De resultat som redovisas i upp-satsen ligger först och främst i attityd- och beteendeförändringar på individnivå hos de som varit inblandade i organisationer, men även bland vanliga medborgare. Människor har blivit mer medvetna om deras politiska och civila rättigheter. I vissa fall har även förändringar skett främst på lokalnivå, där kommunalpolitiker blivit mindre rädda för det civila samhäl-let, och dialoger kunnat föras och där organisationer och vanliga medborgare vågat ställa krav på vissa av deras rättigheter. På detta plan har biståndet alltså kunnat påverka det civila samhället.Vad som dock utgör ett hinder för det civila samhällets möjligheter att påverka på nationell nivå är den bristande respekt som de statliga institutionerna visar. För att det civila samhäl-let ska kunna påverka beslut och öka demokratin i de länder som undersöks behöver en ömsedig respekt utvecklas mellan staten och det civila samhället. / The Swedish aid focused on democratization amounted to approximately 4 billion SEK in 2008. The role of civil society in democratization processes have received increased atten-tion in the last 15 years and is now one of the most common focus areas of democracy as-sistance. The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish democracy assistance focused on civil society and its effects and its ability to influence the processes of democratization. By examining evaluations of different projects, which aim was to strengthen civil society, the actual effects have been possible to show.The countries examined in this thesis is Moldova, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and four countries in Latin America, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, Nicaragua. The results shown in the thesis is primarily in attitude and behavior change at the individual level among those who have been involved in organizations, but also among ordinary citizens. People have become more aware of their political and civil rights. In some cases, even changes primarily at the local level, where local politicians have become less fearful of civil society, and dialogue, and where organizations and ordinary citizens dared to make demands on some of their rights. On this level, the aid has been able to influence civil society.What, however, is an obstacle to civil society's ability to influence at the national level is the lack of respect which the state institutions show. For civil society to be able to influence decisions and increase democracy in the countries under study there need to be a reciprocal respect developed between the state and civil society.

Since 1978 in mainland China¡¦s reform and opening up, the state gradually beyond the control of the development of society. The civil society in mainland China is changing. The development of NGOs in Taiwan has rapid growth after the lifting of martial law period. Whether China could refuse or not promote the activities of the international NGOs, not only because of local NGOs massive increase but also the wave of globalization. This article compares the ways of NGOs international participations across straits. For mainland China, how to catch up with the world become more important after reform and opening up. And the Martial law ended, Taiwan how to cope with the development of globalization. This article first discusses under the global civil society, the cross-strait NGOs how to participate in international affairs, and how to exchange and cooperate with international organizations. And then observe the interactive relationship from the international participation architecture. Finally, we discuss the cross-strait development of the NGOs with constructivism. And the activity of NGOs develops from global civil society and International participation in interactive mode. Through these three architectures, we could understand the across strait NGOs attitude for international participation, and how to influence the international participation mode. In addition to use the theory to prove the cross-strait NOGs international participation mode and manner. We figure out the different ways of NGOs in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the United Nations across straits, what mainland China NGOs and Taiwan initiative type and service-oriented NGOs. There are many different not only in China¡¥s international participation on unlike issues within theNGOs , but also in cross-strait NGOs international participation way and the types of activities. While Taiwan NGOs do something about international participation, subjected to mainland China. Taiwan how to use the power of the NGOs to break the siege, step on the big stage of international affairs.

This study examines the changing state-society relations in mainland China by exploring the relationships between NGOs and the state during the period of transition to a market economy. The NGOs discussed in this study are primarily concerned with migrant workers, because the issue of migrant workers is one of the toughest issues confronted by the Chinese government. Three different types of NGOs are examined: government-owned NGOs (GONGOs), such as trade associations and county NGOs; grass roots NGOs in the Pearl River Delta and Beijing; and the international NGOs that initiate various programs relevant to migrant workers in China. The author¡¦s analysis is that the Chinese government, influenced by the political context, tends to be suspicious of NGOs and subjects them to restrictive regulations. Given the asymmetric power between the government and the NGOs, state-society relations have developed into a form of state corporatism. It is noteworthy that features of a primary mode of civil society as identified by Charles Taylor have emerged, even though this civil society is far from being capable to counter the power of the state. Moreover, empirical evidence suggests that external factors such as international NGOs and transnational networks are involved in the shaping of state-society relations.

The standard theoretical account of transnational advocacy networks (TANs) is one of principled non-state actors remaking world politics by upsetting conventional notions of power in the international system. Relying on persuasion and framing instead of disruption and protest, these global networks of activists, NGOs, scientists and technical experts transform states and their preferences by developing, promoting, and monitoring compliance with norms. At the core of this literature is an implicit assumption of fixity in the moral commitments of TANs that galvanizes collective identity, sustains transnational mobilization, and ultimately allows them to leverage actors much more powerful than themselves. By contrast, this dissertation develops a theory of “advocacy drift” based on a selection of transnational issue campaigns in the People’s Republic of China. It argues that in state-dominated contexts with highly developed institutions of social control, immovable national interests sometimes exert transformative effects on the principled goals of activist campaigns or see the TAN incorporated into the state itself. This finding not only suggests that authoritarian governments influence advocacy networks just as advocates can influence those governments, but that the preferences and identities of TANs are less static than previously thought, and may shift in response to exogenous environmental stimuli. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-08-08 21:05:30.662

This study contributes to filling a gap identified in the current Malaysian national waste policy, the National Strategic Plan for Solid Waste Management (NSPSWM 2005). It also contributes to the sparse knowledge of NGOs’ involvement in Malaysia in promoting recycling and general environmental awareness with the Malaysian public particularly in an urban context. Although the NSPSWM alludes to NGOs as actors that can assist in improving the public’s awareness of and participation in sustainable waste management (SWM), there is sparse knowledge on how this is facilitated. This study was also motivated to investigate to what extent social learning elements were being embodied in the initiatives of two NGOs that were studied, as it is posited that facilitations for social learning create pathways for change. Although there are various studies on the functions of NGOs, there is little research conducted on how environmental NGOs play a part in SWM in Malaysia. The research approach applied in this thesis was mixed-methods, and the rationale was to apply both qualitative and quantitative methods that would be useful and would combine complementary strengths to help answer the research questions. A qualitative two-case-study approach was used to predict similar or contrasting results based on the theoretical framework considered relevant. The unit of analysis of each case study was a programme that promoted recycling as a sustainable waste management strategy, to the general public in the study area of Selangor, Malaysia. The first case study’s target audience was urban school students; while the second case study’s focus was urban school students, charity homes for the handicapped and hypermarkets. Both NGOs are considered two of the earliest NGOs in the study area to be involved in promoting SWM with the public. The quantitative aspects included findings from a questionnaire survey of 411 students. The population sampled was obtained based on a stratified sampling procedure. The urban student population’s response was collected to gain insights into students’ perception of NGOs’ involvement in SWM, and into what factors significantly influence the students’ recycling participation in schools. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. The findings from this approach complemented the qualitative findings obtained from the two case studies. In addition, interviews were conducted with some students to complement the survey evidence. Where relevant, secondary evidence from the press, reports and Web pages were used to support the primary evidence. The qualitative evidence was synthesized and the aggregated findings were then triangulated with the quantitative evidence for corroboration purposes. These evaluations revealed that the processes involved in the programmes to promote recycling supported social learning and positive outcomes. Almost half of the students sampled were aware and welcomed NGOs’ involvement in SWM, both in schools and in their community. They reported that they learned more about SWM and the environment from participating in their school’s SWM programmes (although these programmes may not necessarily have been facilitated by the particular environmental NGO identified in the case studies). The students also generally perceived that the government should support NGOs’ involvement in SWM and that SWM programmes in schools coordinated by NGOs were beneficial to their learning about SWM. Various factors were also found to have influenced their participation in sustainable waste behavior. The findings could be used to inform the relevant policy makers’ decisions about NGOs’ contributions towards SWM. In addition, the findings from the students’ survey could help inform other NGOs or other organisations, such as universities or corporate bodies that are interested in implementing SWM programmes with schools and who may be eager to extend their corporate social responsibilities using approaches similar to those highlighted in this thesis.