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An exploration of the effect of world politics on SADC's capacity to manage and resolve violent conflict

The rise of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOS) in the post-Cold War era in Africa exerted pressure on conflict resolution mechanisms as governments responded to perceived and real pressure from external, mainly Western countries. INGOs are well resourced and conduct ‘humanitarian’ and other work funded by donors. The issue of funding is critical to control and legitimacy. It is also tied to achievement of intended goals. The study explores the relationships and in some cases conflict between Western NGOs in Zimbabwe and the government during the period when the latter was experiencing diplomatic estrangement with Western countries. The qualitative study seeks to establish whether INGO operations were influenced by political relations. The researcher interviewed twenty experts in NGO and governmental operations using an interview guide. Data was collected and entered into Nvivo software where it was thematically analysed. The major findings of the study are that the political strand is the main relational context that determined the relationship between the government and INGOs. INGOs were viewed as active conflict drivers mostly due to the bias towards certain political parties and being conduits of Western initiatives. Local conflict resolution mechanisms were also established to be inadequate. The study recommends that the government of Zimbabwe needs to work on maladministration and resolve differences with Western countries. Local NGOs and INGOs should not meddle in politics in order to have a trustworthy relationship with government while donor funds are more appreciated when channelled through governments.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:21157
Date January 2015
CreatorsMatsanga, Mavis
PublisherNelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Masters, MA
Formatxii, 113 leaves, pdf
RightsNelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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