News
September 2008
id21 Research Highlight
Lessons in governance reform from Brazil, India and Uganda
Mark Robinson
New book
Civil Society in Algeria: The Political Functions of Associational Life
Andrea Liverani
July 2008
‘We want the dawn: photographs from Egypt’s strike wave’
Anne Alexander organised an exhibition of the work of a number of photographers who have documented the recent wave of workers’ protests in Egypt in the SOAS Students’ Union. Featured photographers included Hossam el-Hamalawy, Jano Charbel, Mostafa Bassiouny, Farah Kobaissy and Nasser Nouri.
The photographs were grouped into four themes: ‘Textile Workers’, ‘Tax collectors’, ‘Tobacco workers’ and ‘Transport Workers’. Another section of the exhibition covered the role of bloggers and independent media activists in covering the strike wave, focussing on the websites of Hossam el-Hamalawy, Nora Younis and Kareem el-Beheiri.
The exhibition was launched with a showing of the film Hussein Hegazy Street on 1 July. This 15-minute documentary was filmed and produced by Nora Younis, an Egyptian journalist and blogger during the nation-wide strike by Property Tax Collectors in December 2007. Nora’s film features interviews with the strikers and scenes from their protest camp in central Cairo, which was located outside the General Tax Authority buildings. The film showing was followed by presentations by two bloggers and journalists, Hossam el-Hamalawy and Farah Kobaissy. Hossam spoke about the development of workers’ mobilisation since December 2006 and the role of independent media activists such as himself in documenting the strikes, while Farah’s presentation concentrated on her experiences of interviewing women tobacco workers during a strike at the Hennawi Tobacco plant in August 2007. Around 40 people attended the event, including colleagues from SOAS and elsewhere, trade unionists (including the current president of University and College Union), two journalists from the BBC Arabic service and another reporter from a community radio station, research students, and members of the public. There was a long, lively discussion. The event was covered by the BBC Arabic service and Resonance FM.
The exhibition was advertised in the programme for ‘Marxism 2008’, a five-day political festival held in SOAS and surrounding venues 3-7 July, and attended by around 4,000 people.
June 2008
New website
International Poverty Centre
http://www.undp-povertycentre.org/
The IPC is a joint initiative between UNDP and the Brazilian Government’s Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) to promote South-South Cooperation on applied poverty research and training. The IPC has already produced more than 170 innovative publications that feed into development policy designed to reduce poverty and inequality. IPC’s research is focused on social protection, cash transfers, MDGs, economic governance, employment generation, gender, pro-poor growth, macroeconomic policies and HIV/AIDS. Our knowledge-sharing network reaches 189 countries.
They are working on different strategies for enriching the content of the website and increasing the dissemination of IPC knowledge products around the world through informal and institutional partnerships. Towards this aim, they are currently developing a section on the site named “Poverty Networks”, which will consist of a comprehensive and accessible directory of development gateways.
January 2008
NGPA Fellowships
The deadline for applications for international and practitioner fellowships is 7th February. This is likely to be the last Call for Fellowships that NGPA will be able to offer.
NGPA International Visiting Fellows
We would like to welcome Enrique Peruzotti and Giovanni Scotto to the Centre.
New Research Findings Reports (pdfs)
New research
Ana C Dinerstein
Non Governmental Public Action and the project of Autonomy in Latin America. A comparative analysis of social movements in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil & Mexico
December 2007
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Call for Applications for International Visiting Fellowships
The ESRC Non-Governmental Public Action Programme (NGPA) is calling for applications for senior International Visiting Fellows to be taken up during the period between May 2008 and March 2009.
Applications for fellowships should be submitted by 7th February to Jane Schiemann, Programme Administrator by email (i.j.schiemann@lse.ac.uk) or by post to the NGPA programme.
Call for Applications (pdf)
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Call for Applications for Practitioner Fellowships
The ESRC Non-governmental Public Action Research Programme is calling for applications for Practitioner Fellowships. The fellowships are aimed at members or representatives of practitioner groups (including developmental NGOs, global coalitions, voluntary sector groups, cooperatives, human rights groups etc) that are not directly funded by specific research projects in the programme. The fellow will be based in one of the NGPA project teams or with the programme director for up to three months.
The fellowships take two forms:
a. Analytic and conceptual reflection
b. Policy/ Practical Application
Applicants are advised to consult closely with the host project in the preparation of their research proposal.
Applications for fellowships should be submitted by 7 February 2008 to the Programme Administrator, Jane Schiemann (i.j.schiemann@lse.ac.uk) or by post to the NGPA programme.
Call for Applications (pdf)
October 2007
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Funding
Funding available for NGPA seminar series, programme events and for work to extend comparative reach of a project. Applications can be submitted at any time up to 31 March 2008.
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Placement opportunity
ESRC/Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills placement fellowship opportunity.(Word)
August 2007
- Reports from the CIVICUS World Assembly are available on their website - http://www.civicusassembly.org/
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Report from NGPA Summer School
The ‘Global Processes’ workshop was designed for doctoral students as an opportunity for them to engage with NGPA programme and its researchers as well as to present their own dissertation work. During the 5-day workshop – in blistering 42 degree heat – they were able to assess the impact of non-governmental public action in various social and political transformations around the world.
Full report (Word)
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New policy initiatives
Participatory Budgeting in the UK and the Government announcement of ten pilot projects to extend local democracy: Did the NPGA make a small contribution to ‘new’ policy initiatives?
Read more about the Municipal Innovations in Non-Governmental Public Participation: UK/Latin America project.
- The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is seeking to appoint a research broker to work with the ESRC's portfolio of international relations and international development research investments to ensure that their research has the maximum impact. The ESRC is advertising the position through various research networks so please feel free to pass on details of the vacancy to colleagues and through the NGPA network.
The research brokers' scheme has been designed to help the ESRC achieve one of its four core strategic objectives: to increase the impact of our research on policy and practice. The broker will take the role of intermediary between researchers and research users by performing a wide range of communication and knowledge transfer activities towards research maximisation, ensuring that the research from the ESRC's portfolio of international relations and international development investments has the maximum impact. The broker will contribute to the wider ESRC Evidence Based Policy and Practice (EBPP) and media/communications strategy.
The research broker will engage with a range of research users, and will need: particular skills in communicating research to a non-academic audience; media networking and as well as having good connections in the Development community in the UK and abroad.
This vacancy is now filled.
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Lessons from a journey: The Unemployed Workers Movement in Argentina 10 years on
22 August, at 6pm in the Cultural Centre for Cooperation, Avenue Corrientes 1543 (C1042AAB) Buenos Aires, Argentina
More information
July 2007
April 2007
Muslim diversities: communities and contexts
This publication seeks to bring together a collection of academic works that extends and informs knowledge and understanding about the diversity of communities and groups that constitute the contemporary Islamic and Muslim social, political, economic and theological landscapes in the UK, Europe and beyond. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 31 May 2007. For those whose abstracts are successful, you will be required to submit a first draft of your chapter by 1 September 2007.
More details (pdf)
March 2007
NGPA International Visiting Fellow
Professor Neera Chandhoke from the University of Delhi has recently arrived in the UK and will be based at CCS until mid July.
Neera Chandhoke holds a professorship in the department of political science, University of Delhi. She teaches political theory and comparative politics, and has written and published widely on civil society, secularism, democracy, affirmative action, representation, social and economic rights, and on freedom from poverty as a human right. She is the author of 'State and Civil Society: Explorations in Political Theory' Delhi, Sage, 1995, 'Beyond Secularism: The Rights of Religious Minorities' Delhi, OUP, 1999, and 'The Conceits of Civil Society' Delhi, OUP, 2003. Neera is an international visiting fellow with the ESRC Non-Governmental Public Action programme located in CCS.
Workshop On Aid, Security And Civil Society In The Post-911 Context: CALL FOR PAPERS
27th – 29th June 2007; Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London
Political leaders around the world have introduced a swathe of counter-terrorist legislation and measures in the wake of the declaration by President Bush of the ‘global war on terror’. Often hastily rushed in, these laws and measures are often riddled with ambiguity and have fuelled a climate of fear and suspicion of `the other’. The circulation of a global discourse of terrorism has demonised certain sections of society, particularly Muslims, as somehow associated by default of their religion with the acts of a few individuals. In the field of development the global war on terror has highlighted the strategic relevance of foreign aid to both national interests and global security at a time when its ideological rationale in the post-Cold War era had almost disappeared. Though there has rightly been considerable concern expressed about the effects of such rushed and extra-ordinary legislation and measures on civil liberties and citizen rights, their effects on the spaces, organisations and actors of civil society have received much less attention.
It is the purpose of this two-day workshop to explore how the increasing convergence of security and development objectives since 911 affects civil societies across a range of political contexts. Particular objectives of the workshop are to understand:
- the broad politics of aid, security and foreign policy goals in the context of the War on Terror,
- the changing relationships between aid agencies and civil society groups, as greater attention is given to global and national security concerns;
- the effects on humanitarian groups and local civil society organisations of deepening civil-military contacts and the increasing deployment of integrated missions in political-humanitarian crises;
- the impact of national security regimes, including the introduction of counter-terrorist and anti-money-laundering legislation on civil societies, particularly in relation to marginalised and poor social groups;
- the responses of civil societies to these downward pressures such as the formation of the Montreux Initiative, increased attention to transparency and accountability issues as seen in various Codes of Conduct, citizens’ initiatives against counter-terrorism measures, renewed organising around human rights and civil liberties and so forth;
- how these issues play out in particular country and regional contexts such as in Afghanistan, Kenya and the Greater Horn of Africa, the USA, Europe, Central Asia, Pakistan, India, Algeria and the Maghreb
Papers are invited on any of these broad issues. Interested academics and researchers are kindly requested to indicate their interest by submitting an abstract of no more than 250 words by March 30th 2007 to J.Lind@lse.ac.uk. Applicants will be informed soon afterwards about whether their abstract has been accepted.
MAJOR NEW RESEARCH PROGRAMME LOOKING AT POVERTY AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL PUBLIC ACTION LAUNCHED, 21ST MARCH
Why are so many Pakistani children being educated at religious Madrasas and what, if anything, are these schools contributing to the development process in Pakistan? Do musical events such as ‘Make Poverty History’ or ‘Rock Against Racism’ have any long-term political impact? And how has international aid and development been affected by the so-called ‘war on terror’?
Three seemingly unrelated questions but, at their heart, is the issue being addressed by a major new academic research programme, the Non-Governmental Public Action Research Programme (NGPA) - funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The programme aims to better understand the impact that the activities of non-governmental agencies have on reducing poverty and exclusion, and in bringing about social change.
NGPA is based at the London School of Economics and led by Professor Jude Howell of LSE’s Centre for Civil Society. It involves an investment by the ESRC of £5.24 million and, so far, 37 separate research projects have been commissioned. A unique aspect of the programme is that it is offering fellowships for community activists - a novel approach aimed at bridging research and practice. Commenting on the launch of the programme Professor Howell says: “Public action by and for disadvantaged people is increasingly significant at local and international levels. The focus of the programme takes in not just NGOs, but a broad range of formal and informal groups concerned with poverty reduction and social transformation – groups such as advocacy networks, campaigns and coalitions, trades unions, peace groups, social forums, rights-based groups, social movements and business in the community initiatives.”
“The launch of this new programme is a recognition that these organisations are playing an increasingly important role at national and international level. This programme should enable us both to better understand how the process is working and also should equip governments and international organisations with the ability to better respond to the activities and aspirations of these groups.”
The launch was held at the Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam Street London WC2N 6EZ at 6.30 on 21st March, 2007
Pictures of the launch
January 2007
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Weaving global networks- Handbook for policy influence
Networks are increasingly drawing scholarly and practitioner attention as very effective ways to organise efforts towards achieving certain social agendas. New regional and global networks of civil society organisations (CSOs) are being constantly created and CSOs continue to participate in them. There is a demand to improve knowledge about how these networks – as one mode of non governmental public action – operate today. There is also a need to open up new spaces to think about how they can evolve in the near future in order to become more legitimate, effective, transparent, democratic and accountable.
This Handbook was produced under the NGPA Practitioner Fellowship scheme by CIPPEC, in collaboration with CSGR and ODI, to help networks enhance their capacity to influence global policymaking processes. Its goal is two-fold: 1) it aims at contributing towards the systematisation of lessons learned by practitioners from networks of CSOs throughout their participation in regional and global fora; and 2) based on these lessons, it seeks to offer some practical tools and guidelines that might help these networks enhance their impact through the use of evidence and knowledge in regional and global public policies and policymaking processes.
It is available at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/staff/stone/research/
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IP-NGOs Report in the Media
A new entry has been posted to the Intellectual Property Watch website about the IP-NGOs report.
"Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are important players in intellectual property policy debates but should be aware of limitations and potential improvements to their influence with developing countries, according to a new report from the United Kingdom."
The full article, Report Assesses IP NGOs’ Impact On Developing Country Negotiators, is available at the Intellectual Property Watch website.
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IP-NGOs Report
A report, setting out the policy findings from NGOs, the NGPA research project on non-governmental organisations, intellectual property rights and multilateral institutions entitled, Intellectual Property Rights and Multilateral Institutions (the IP-NGOs project), is now available and can be downloaded from the IP-NGOs project website: www.ipngos.org
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A decade of reform and reaction
Edited by Diane Stone, University of Warwick, UK and Christopher Wright, LSE, UK
This timely book offers the first critical retrospective of World Bank policy reforms and initiatives during the past decade.
The World Bank Group is viewed as one of the most powerful international organisations of our time. The authors critically analyse the influence of World Bank policy and engagement during the past decade in a variety of issue areas, including human rights, domestic reform, and the environment. This book delves into the bowels of the World Bank, by exploring its organizational structure, professional culture and bureaucratic procedures, and illustrates how these shape its engagement with an increasingly complex, diverse and challenging operational environment. The book includes chapters on two under-researched divisions of the World Bank Group; the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. Several illuminating country studies are also included, analysing the World Bank's activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Lebanon and Vietnam.
November 2006
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‘Partnershipping’ within the Catholic Church aid chain.
Linked to the research project ‘Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains-A Catholic Church Case Study’ Reverend Sister Nora McNamara, one of the new NGPA ‘practitioner fellows’ organised a workshop in Abuja, Nigeria, on the 21st and 22nd November 2006. It was attended by 23 people involved in the Catholic Church aid chain, including development, health coordinators and HIV/AIDS programme coordinators in Nigeria and some major Catholic donors – Catholic Relief Service (USA), CAFOD (UK) and Misereor (Germany).
The workshop presented the initial findings of the research project and provided an opportunity for those that took part in the research to give their feedback on the results and allow space for them to debate ways in which they could respond to the findings. Much candid discussion took place and it was interesting to all present how even within the Catholic ‘family’ sharing the same Catholic Social Teaching there was conscious (and unconscious) negotiation continually taking place over the practice of partnership (or ‘partnershipping’ in the local parlance) in projects and programmes. It was also clear that partnership wasn’t just a donor-field partner (north-south) issue but much still needs to be done within the Church structures in Nigeria and between Catholic-based donors.
As a sequel to the workshop, a manual incorporating techniques on how to keep the rigour and enthusiasm alive in development by means of good ‘partnershiping’ as a central foundation is being prepared. Many of the attempts to ensure the centrality of people in development seem to have been lost within the various transitions that have taken place. The manual will seek to help revive them and help individuals and groups draw on the wealth of information and material already available and currently being revived and up-dated to meet on- going changes.
Last updated: 24 September 2008 ^
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