[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are it behooves you. This Reader is about the on-the-ground responsibilities not being fulfilled by most NGOs. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
–It is by acting as duty bearers that NGOs will gain legitimacy, will lead by example and will (supposedly) encourage the practice of decisively claiming people’s rights.
1. While human rights (HR) are universal, it is local communities that have to actively define the meaning of those rights for themselves and understand that duties are spread across a range of actors in the public and, not forgetting, in the private sector.* Therein (supposedly) lies a key role of NGOs.
*: On the other hand, established social movements too often get siloed and their voices of change fall silent on HR issues. Their aspirations for structural change fall short on delivering. It is, therefore, not only about their convergence and cooperation; it is about their decisive inclusion into HR work so that they can share strategies of dissent and oppose the criminalization of dissent. This is particularly important as we pass the baton to the younger generation.
2. This being said, only transitioning toward the rights-based approach (RBA) offers development NGOs the powerful framework they need to move to a truly socially responsible and responsive practice.
3. However, along with many promises, rights-based approaches bring with them significant challenges. They particularly require international NGOs to systematically transform their organizational culture, their governance, their staff’s attitudes, their incentives, their skills and their programming practices. In the real world, many organizations tend to resist such transformation, not necessarily because of a lack of commitment, but because of organizational constraints such as lack of staff capacity/motivation and countervailing demands from particularly donors.
4. Strong and committed leadership of national and international NGOs on every level will remain essential to overcome any tendency to ‘water down’ the organizational implications of a truly RBA. Only then will they truly contribute to claim holders benefitting from development initiatives that so many are hoping and waiting for. (Uwe Gneiting, Tosca Bruno, Hans Peter Schmitz)
Mea culpa NGOs: Is the culpa really changing things?
–A shift towards a rights-based approach means viewing poverty as a human rights issue which implies addressing the causes of inequality, disparity, exclusion and discrimination.
5. NGOs often support governments and this does not address the underlying power inequalities and structural barriers that block the HR claims of marginalized populations.
6. In practice, the challenge for NGOs adopting a RBA is to translate their analyses of why social services are not provided in the first place into a strategy that gradually decreases government reliance on external aid. This entails looking beyond technical support and adopting advocacy efforts designed to challenge political and social factors affecting the accountability of the public authorities to local communities. Addressing these difficulties of reaching the poorest members of a community and supporting communities’ meaningful participation in political processes requires NGOs influencing long-established community dynamics and structures. To do so effectively, NGOs must go into retreats to develop an analysis of the existing patterns of discrimination at the community level so as to prepare their staff to engage with community leadership to enroll them to become involved in HR issues.
7. In short here, the RBA offers the opportunity to redefine the relationship between NGOs and the communities they are working to support. While the core accountability relationship fostered by the RBA is between citizens and government authorities, NGOs are challenged to clearly define their own responsibilities based on the extent of their presence and of their (potential) influence in this. While NGO accountability has lately become a buzzword, several challenges emerge when using a RBA to strengthen their ‘downward accountability’. Accountability mechanisms under a RBA ought to, therefore, shift toward existing and upcoming projects HR monitoring with increased claim holders’participation in project development and execution; accountability mechanisms are critical functions, but do not fully address NGOs’ responsibilities towards local claim holders.
8. Ultimately, the attention must shift entirely away from NGOs and towards the accountability relationship between government and its people directly. Granted, results-driven donor requirements make it more difficult for an NGO to give significant voice and influence to local communities so that they must address these challenges by defining the role of HR principles in their mission and strategies –including the development of policies to resolve potential conflicts between different actors and by making explicit their own responsibilities that come with the power they possess.
9. By acting as duty bearers, NGOs gain legitimacy, lead by example and encourage the practice of claim holders actively claiming their rights. While HR are universal, local communities have to actively define the meaning of HR for themselves and understand that duties are spread across a range of actors in the public and private arena.
Bottom line
10. Transitioning toward a RBA offers development NGOs a powerful framework to improve their practices. However, along with many promises, rights-based approaches bring with them significant challenges. As said, they require international NGOs to systematically transform its organizational culture, governance, staff attitudes, incentives, skills and programming practices. In practice, many organizations tend to resist such transformation, not necessarily because of a lack of commitment, but because of organizational constraints such as lack of staff capacity and countervailing demands from various actors they are accountable to, in particular donors.
11. Again, as said, strong and committed leadership on every level of international NGOs is essential to overcome any tendency of watering down the organizational implications of a RBA. Only then can the RBA generate the benefits to the development field that many are hoping and waiting for. **
**: A caveat: The RBA can create new forms of dependency as local communities rely on NGOs for organizing their representation and maintaining open political spaces and access to local and national government authorities. The challenge is to gradually transfer these capabilities to the local level and create not just the individual, but the collective capacity of claim holders. Direct service delivery as a means to achieve sustainable development outcomes is not an end in itself, it is only a small first step in the RBA direction and NGOs ought not remain at that level.
12. Finally, sustainability is only accomplished when local communities can independently obligate government agencies to deliver services and also effectively monitor the quality of those services. Amplifying the voice of civil society is essential in shaping national-level legislation and long-term policies and securing government support of local communities. (U. Gneiting, T. Bruna, H. P. Schmitz)
The sad truth
13. Over at least six decades, national and international institutions and entire systems were created to ‘combat’ poverty. Also, the creation of knowledge around development meant the emergence of an industry in which this combat became professionalized, with consultants (“The Lords of Poverty”?) and study and research disciplines that effectively manage(d) to place (under)development, not within the political or social sphere, but within the relative neutrality of ‘the scientific’.
14. Development has never (or too seldom) truly been conceived with people and their cultures in mind, but as a general solution that could be applied in all contexts, created by these new development technicians that would eliminate all instances of poverty –and associated human rights (HR) violations(?)– that are found all over the world. Development thus represents(ed) a system in which ideas of ethnocentrism and oppression are(were) perpetuated from the countries of the global North. Through these ideas, they seek(sought) to ‘rescue’ the inhabitants of the South and infuse them with their (‘better’) Western values in order to stop them from living precariously. But the whole point is that development simply must adapt to cultures and local conditions and, from there, offer solutions to problems, not the other way around. (Arturo Escobar)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com