Capacity development, capacity building and organisation development (OD) are key priorities of international development, and this is especially true in the African context. With regard to the NGO sector, since the 1990s donors and especially international NGOs have invested significant resources in building the capacity of African NGOs. While academic research on NGO management and OD has grown significantly in the last decade, it has often taken a decontextualised stance, largely resting on assumptions about the universality and neutrality of management principles, practices and approaches. Furthermore, there are still few accounts on NGO management and OD from within the African NGO sector. This study intends to contribute to filling this gap, by focusing on OD and management in Ugandan NGOs. It originated in my work as OD advisor with two Ugandan NGOs, between 2007 and 2009. The research thus took shape through an iterative process of hands-on immersion as an OD practitioner, focused on the specific dimensions of the action scene I was involved in, and of reflexive inquiry as a theoretical researcher. This study specifically examines how OD is understood in the NGO sector in Uganda: what needs, demands and aspirations it serves, what challenges it faces and what opportunities it offers. It also investigates how management principles and practices shape the role of NGOs within the development industry. In particular, acknowledging NGOs’ commitment to alternative bottom-up development thinking and practice, it investigates whether and how OD processes and management practices might help NGOs to fulfil their stated role. The findings indicate that OD and management processes were fundamentally shaped by external pressure from various actors, especially donors, pushing both NGOs toward the adoption of specific management systems and tools. However, the research also reveals that the NGOs dealt with such externally driven management requirements in various ways, including acts of opposition and resistance. Overall, the findings suggest that management imperatives and requirements not only significantly affect the OD processes of NGOs, but also shape the role of NGOs in the development process, by narrowing their possibilities for engagement with social change agendas and with bottom-up, transformative practice within the aid industry more generally.

My project is an Ecological center with three programs: an educational part, primary for children, a veterinary station and a NGO Centre. During the study trip to Ahmedabad I couldn’t help to notice the bad condition of the stray dogs. There’s problems with rabies and lack of animal birth control of the dogs. I also saw cases when children were hurting dogs and doves, throwing rocks at them, and I also read that Collage students hit stray dogs with sticks in the University havens because they got scared when the animals starts to flock there. I was confused how India, where all living being is considered having a "God value" and should be treated in that way, and also with an outspread vegetarianism would have this condition. For me it seemed like people didn't care or hadn't found a solution for this problem. Then the second reason for creating this project was that I was missing green areas in Ahmedabad, which also is one of the most polluted cities in India. With providing a "chawk" with green parts and bring knowledge of the importance of having a sustainable environment, the kids will learn how to treat nature and animals so they can bring this knowledge further in their surroundings and future city-scaping.

Magister Curationis - MCur / Background: Motivational interviewing is an approach that relates to a person’s hopes and aspirations. It is individual-focused to enhance intrinsic motivation to change. Over a decade, motivational interviewing has been shown to help achieve positive client outcome regarding substance use at various health settings in high income countries. In the Western Cape, clinical evidence suggests there is increase in number of children born with abnormalities related to prenatal exposure to substance. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the current support system in place for women who have children that are suffering from the effect of prenatal substance exposure seems not to be helping. As agents of change some NGOs in Western Cape are working towards decreasing substance use among pregnant women. Problem statement: The NGOs involve groups of individuals in Cape Town who render their service voluntarily to help pregnant women who have problem of substance use. They help motivate and support pregnant women to live a healthy lifestyle. It is however uncertain if personnel in these NGOs have knowledge of motivational interviewing. Aim: In the absence of the above information, this study is therefore aimed to explore NGO personnel’s knowledge on the use of motivational interviewing in addressing substance use among pregnant women in Western Cape. Method: A quantitative approach using a descriptive design with a non-probability all-inclusive sampling was used. A total of 45 participants were drawn from NGO shelters and day centres working with pregnant women who use substance in the Southern sub-urban district of Cape Town metropolis. Structured questionnaires were given to the participants for data collection and the response rate was 53% (n=24). Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: The results of the study showed that the general performance of the participants on knowledge of motivational interviewing was poor. The score of most participants (i.e. mode) fell within 31 – 40%. Hence, the distribution of the scores was skewed toward the failed side. The percentages of males and females that passed were very low and the values were very close. Hence, gender was found not to influence the performance of the participants in this study. Lack of training in motivational interviewing was found to be responsible for lack of knowledge of the concept. There was no correlation between years of experience and age of participants on performance in the evaluation. The knowledge of participants on characteristics of substance user and the dynamic client-therapist’s interaction was very shallow. Participants who agreed to myths regarding substance users were most likely to exhibit actions that were not consistent with principles of motivational interviewing during their interactions with clients. The participants did not have adequate knowledge of the five basic principles of motivational interviewing. The conclusion of the study was that there was need to train NGO personnel in the concepts of motivational interviewing.

Syftet med studien är att studera hur humor och trovärdighet samspelar i svenska ickestatliga organisationers kommunikation. Detta studeras genom en retorisk metod med hjälpav appellformerna ethos, pathos och logos, humorteorierna om överlägsen, inkongruentoch förlösande humor samt deras retoriska funktioner. Även trovärdighetsteorin och dessbegrepp expertis och pålitlighet används. I metoden används en retorisk disposition somutvecklats med begreppen som är specifika för studien. Materialet består av en reklamfilmfrån Unicef, en reklamaffisch från Röda Korset och en radioreklam från SOS Barnbyar. Istudien visar det sig att humor kan förstärka andra retoriska funktioner i texten, bidra tillden övertygande kraften samt skapa situationer för identitetsskapande processer. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how humor and credibility interact with eachother in Swedish NGO’s communication. This will be studied through a rhetoric methodwith the modes of persuasion ethos, pathos and logos, humor theories about superior,incongruent and release humor and their rhetoric functions. The source credibility theoryand the concepts of expertise and trustworthiness will also be used. The method is basedon a rhetoric disposition which is extended with the concepts which are specific for thisstudy. The material consists of a commercial from Unicef, a poster from the Red Cross and a radio advertisement from SOS Children´s villages. The study shows that humor canstrengthen different rhetoric functions in a text, can contribute to the persuasive power andcan create context of identification.

Development issues are often described as important but dull, and ongoing stereotypical representations of a ‘distant other’ perpetuated by NGO’s and mainstream media create an increasingly disengaged public. In response to this, more creative means of communication are needed to increase engagement and counter dominant stereotypical narratives within the development sector. Humour is rarely considered as a communication strategy for development, but it has the potential to be an influential tool to lower societal barriers and challenge existing power relations. This explorative research aims to examine how humour could be potentially used to disrupt stereotypical narratives and form a site of resistance against concepts such as the White Saviour Complex. It aims to explore the ways humour can engage a broader audience and challenge stereotypical representations of aid, especially within the western media. Considering two primary case studies; online campaign RadiAid and tv mockumentary series the Samaritans, it will explore the ways humour can be used to persuade, raise awareness and increase likability, while also being used as a form of critique. Through the lens of social semiotics, it considers commonalities in how humour can be utilised and how audiences react to it. This research also aims to find the advantages and limitations of using humorous techniques in such contexts.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have grown significantly over the years and are today considered to be one of the most influential and powerful actors in the world when it comes to defending democracy and upholding various rights. When it comes to human rights, Amnesty International is one of the largest and most respected NGO in the world. Amnesty International works for a world where all the human rights should be respected and can be enjoyed by all the people of the world. Despite the important work of Amnesty International, knowledge of Amnesty International and other NGOs are very limited. The knowledge that exists is considered to be very simplistic, since NGOs are much more complex than one actually thinks. This study is therefore an effort to increase the knowledge and understanding of Amnesty International and NGOs. Using the “Stakeholder theory”, Amnesty International will be analyzed to examine how powerful and effective it is. Various stakeholders in the form of governments in countries and the media will be used to analyze their relationship with Amnesty International in terms of being able to influence. The findings has shown that because Amnesty International lives on donations, they depend on having a high membership base and reputation. Amnesty International prioritizes therefore topics based on how much the interest there are from the public opinion and in the media. This, instead of Amnesty International focusing and working in the countries where the most serious human rights violations occur and take place. Therefore, Amnesty International as a NGO will be weakened in its effort to be effective in changing and influencing the human rights in the world.

The Status of Non-governmental Organizations in International Law Abstract Non-governmental Organizations and particularly International Non-governmental Organizations are important players in international relations as well as other stakeholders like States, International Governmental Organizations and Supranational Corporations. Each of these actors has a unique role in international relations, but the role of these actors can overlap each other. Where the interests of these entities overlap, the interaction between actors takes the place. The aim of this thesis was the historical evaluation of the status of International Non- governmental Organizations till the present, settle up with the theoretical basis of legal doctrine on international legal subjectivity and the classification and division of International Non-governmental Organizations. Another objective of the thesis was the definition of individual actors of international relations and embracing of organizations "sui generis" and the most important non-governmental organizations from different sectors and (by using a uniform methodology) compare these organizations and theirs influence on the international public law. In the next part, the thesis pursued with the extraction of statistical data and their placement into the historical context,...

Objective Over the latest decades, NGOs have grown exponentially both in size and influence; they have come to play a significant role in development and support for civil society and the democratization process in developing countries. With an increased influence and budgets, NGOs have also come to be increasingly associated with corruption – as victims of corruption, as driving forces of corruption, and finally as anti-corruption activists and strategists. However, corruption is a complex and ill-defined concept where definitions and perceptions vary greatly between scholars and practitioners. The aim of the thesis is to describe and compare how western NGOs as well as the Swedish governmental donor agency Sida, operating in Afghanistan, a war-ridden, developing country with a high level of corruption define and approach corruption[1]. Theories The study is based on theories of institutionalism and anthropology to analyze how the chosen organizations define corruption. These theories are most appropriate for this thesis since the focus of the study is on organizations and the individuals working within them. Institutional theories study how institutions affect individuals behavior and how an individual's behavior affects the evolution of institutions. On the other hand, anthropology theories study how people who share a common cultural system organize and shape the physical and social world around them and how they, in turn, are shaped by those ideas, behaviors, and the environment. Analysis and methodology The analysis is based on an institutionalist approach, and organizational theories focus on power-dependency, considering that in terms of social science, the institutionalist approach emphasizes the role of institutions, which is the focus of this thesis. Therefore, this approach was an appropriate choice when conducting this research. The method used in the thesis is a comparative methodology. Each organization's anti-corruption policy, as well as interviews with representatives of two Swedish NGOs and Sida, was compared and analyzed. Results and discussion Similarities are found in organizations' formal definition of corruption, as all organizations share a similar anti-corruption policy, where corruption and corrupt activities are defined from a Western model. However, the differences are found in the experience of corruption, as NGOs, unlike Sida are active in the field, they are more exposed to the complex and challenging environment in which they feel that their formal guidelines and policies are not adapted to. They primarily experience that the level of tolerance of corruption varies in the context in which they are active.  The donor agency, Sida, is believed by the Swedish NGOs to be focusing more on working within the regulations and formal policies of anti-corruption, conducted by their origin country being Sweden, rather than on the complex nature of the context the operate in in this case being Afghanistan. Consequently, this issue is also followed by NGOs feeling pressure to implement projects within the framework of the donor agency's regulation, to avoid risking any loss of donor funds.  On the other hand, Sida states the opposite, emphasizing a more cooperative relationship with their partner NGOs.

The Status of Non-governmental Organizations in International Law Abstract Non-governmental Organizations and particularly International Non-governmental Organizations are important players in international relations as well as other stakeholders like States, International Governmental Organizations and Multinational Corporations. Each of these actors has a unique role in international relations, with different impacts into the international law. This thesis has mapped international NGOs in detail, from the beginning of their origin to the present. NGOs were divided and classified according to several selected criteria and finally, the definition of NGOs was made. In the next part of the work, has been identified a group of non-governmental organizations sui generis. Although they are non-governmental organizations, enjoy international legal subjectivity. This thesis dealt with elements of the sociological method, so it dealt much more with the facts why the document was created in such a form and how it is actually fulfilled, rather than what is the content of the document itself and how it should be interpreted. With regard to the chosen method, causal cases are placed in historical contexts. The second part of the work dealt mainly with sports organizations, which were the initial impulse to write this...

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