Lies or stories?

Lies or stories?Is there so much as a routine, when you're doing field research in Northern Uganda? Follow Marjoke in this new blog on her visits to the villages of Kitgum district.

Why bother to work on governance

Marjoke Oosterom (Institute of Development Studies, UK) carries out her PhD research on civic participation in local government structures in Northern Uganda. In 2010, she will do her field research in the districts Kitgum and Apac. In this blog she tells about her experiences based on interviews carried out in the capital and in Gulu and Kitgum districts.

Civil Society Building Programme Publications

The Civil Society Building Programme Publications currently consists of two working paper series. Both series are aimed at better understanding and improving the contribution of civil society building efforts to facilitate changes in the unequal balance of power in favour of vulnerable and marginalised groups. The Power of Civil Society Working Paper Series showcases young researchers findings on various aspects of civil society building. For instance how movies can prove to be a powerful too...

Claims to Success: ICT based Advocacy for the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

How can the internet be used to promote the advocacy efforts by civil society organizations? In this paper, Caroline Kemp reflects on this question by examining the Solidarity for Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR) and their work towards promoting the Protocol for Women’s rights in Africa. The African Union adopted this protocol in 2005, but to date the ratification, popularization and implementation by member-states has been a slow process. SOAWR been instrumental in civic efforts to promote t...

Avatar meets the Amazon: how to support indigenous movements?

Movies can prove to be a powerful tool to raise awareness for a certain cause. Recently the buzz around blockbuster Avatar is being used by environmental, indigenous and human rights organizations to create global media attention for their struggle. In Avatar the indigenous Na’vi people fight to save their land and traditional way of living on planet Pandora from human beings who want to destroy it to extract minerals for energy supply on planet Earth. The story in Avatar is based on fiction,...

Social movements and NGO interaction

Are we entering a post-NGO era in development? Aid critics very much suggest so. Hailed as a magic bullet for development two decades ago, NGOs are increasingly criticized for being ineffective agents of change, out of touch with broader social currents in society and operating in a fragmented way. Under pressure to show results, NGOs and their donors are increasingly attempting to align with social movements in a bid to scale up their impact. Social movements are an older, looser form of org...

Social movements and NGO interaction

Are we entering a post-NGO era in development? Aid critics very much suggest so. Hailed as a magic bullet for development two decades ago, NGOs are increasingly criticized for being ineffective agents of change, out of touch with broader social currents in society and operating in a fragmented way. Under pressure to show results, NGOs and their donors are increasingly attempting to align with social movements in a bid to scale up their impact. Social movements are an older, looser form of org...

Avatar meets the Amazon: how to support indigenous movements?

Movies can prove to be a powerful tool to raise awareness for a certain cause. Recently the buzz around blockbuster Avatar is being used by environmental, indigenous and human rights organizations to create global media attention for their struggle. In Avatar the indigenous Na’vi people fight to save their land and traditional way of living on planet Pandora from human beings who want to destroy it to extract minerals for energy supply on planet Earth. The story in Avatar is based on fiction,...

Claims to Success: ICT based Advocacy for the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa

How can the internet be used to promote the advocacy efforts by civil society organizations? In this paper, Karoline Kemp reflects on this question by examining the Solidarity for Women’s Rights Coalition (SOAWR) and their work towards promoting the Protocol for Women’s rights in Africa. The African Union adopted this protocol in 2005, but to date the ratification, popularization and implementation by member-states has been a slow process. SOAWR been instrumental in civic efforts to promote t...

Framing and Claiming Reproductive Rights: A Case Study of Civil Society Actors in Tanzania

How do grassroots organizations engage with, understand and use human rights discourses? In the current development context many civil society actors have adopted a ‘rights based approach’ (RBA). However, ‘human rights’ are often articulated at the international level, but understood, experienced and practiced in a local context. What does this dynamic imply for the way local civil society actors lobby the state to implement global human rights at a national policy level?

Seizing and Stretching Participatory Space: Civil Society Participation in Tanzania’s Policy Processes

Civil society participation in PRSP processes has become part and parcel of modern aid modities. Assumed benefits include stronger checks and balances, inclusion of marginalized interests, and a broader support base for implementation. This hints at transformative potential. Yet, where governments or donors drive the process, participation hardly ever surpasses a mere consultative role and risks of cooption loom large.

Civic driven change in West Asia

What can an organisation like Hivos do in repressive regimes like Iran and Syria? Does Civic Driven Change (CDC) offer opportunities or new insights for developing strategies in those countries? These are the questions Maaike van Adrichem poses in her research paper on Hivos programme in Syria and Iran: From civil society building to civic driven change?

LGBT research update

The LGBT movement in Peru slowly reveals some of its dynamics as Marten van den Berge and his Peruvian colleague Giancaro Cornejo facilitate conversations and workshops with organizations in Lima and in some of the provincial capitals, whilst participating in marches, protests and meetings.

Local democratic governance in fragile states

In late November, Jon Gaventa and Marjoke Oostrom from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) facilitated a PSO hosted workshop about local democratic governance in fragile settings. Dutch NGOs concentrate their discussions on how to adjust their bottom-up strategies to fragile settings to contribute to peace, security and democratic governance, and to reconciliation and justice, but more may be required to (re)build local democracy…

HIVOS-ISS seminar: 'seeing like a citizen' 25/11

On the 25th of November, from 13:00-14:30, Professor John Gaventa will facilitate a seminar at ISS on particiation, power and mobilization. If you are interested in citizen action this is an event not to be missed

Dialogues of knowledge in action

The Civil Society Building Knowledge programme supports the Kabarole Research Center in Fort Portal, Uganda to elaborate a new initiative that seeks to bring together politicians, policy makers and communities to jointly engage in development dialogue and knowledge generation. Edit Tuboly, Programme Officer at HIVOS, is currently visiting the region and participated in an open space meeting. An impression

Mobilizing social justice - Unlocking the potential for structural change

On the 23rd and 24th of November, the Hivos-ISS knowledge programme organizes a conference on 'mobilizing social justice; unlocking the potential for structural change'

Citizenship narratives in the absence of good governance; Voices of the working poor in Bangladesh

How does the interaction between the poor and civil society organizations effect perceptions of and possibilities for citizenship? Naila Kabeer and Afirul hoque interviewed 70 citizens from rural and urban Bangladesh, belonging to the so called ‘working poor’. Their voices are the backbone of a fascinating IDS working paper which offers plenty of food for thought.

Power in practice

A new CDRA nugget from James Taylor points at the centrality of practice for a more effective development sector. The burgeoning development knowledge industry and the steady stream of evaluations risk distracting us from what we already know.

Just another Emperor

The mainstream civil society debate tends to concentrate on the dynamics between civil society organizations and the state. Yet, in a globalizing world, state power is increasingly migrating away to trans-national actors that often straddle the traditional private/public divide.

Post-Conflict Participation Blog

Marjoke Oosterom (Institute of Development Studies, UK) carries out her PhD research on civic participation in local government structures in Northern Uganda in cooperation with ICCO and Hivos. In July and August she is in Uganda for a preliminary scoping visit. In this blog she tells about her experiences based on interviews carried out in the capital and in Gulu and Kitgum districts.