INGOs, Aid and Change

Duncan GreenBrandeis Proseminar

March 2012Lecture 5

The rise of lobbying and campaigning

How does Oxfam campaign?

An awful lot of emails, teleconferences, meetings and listserves….

Insider– Lobbying– Research: combined primary, secondary and

‘killer facts’ Outsider

– ‘Pop Mob’; media; celebrities; branding (white bands)

Alliances– Oxfam International, Climate Action Network,

Trade Justice Movement, Make Poverty History, Jubilee 2000

And a fair amount of dressing up

How does Oxfam design a campaign (ideal world version)?

Specify range of possible changes you want to investigate

Scope the context, institutions, agents and events that shape the change

Select the most promising candidates for sustained influencing work

Apply Power Analysis to develop an initial influencing strategy

Campaigning ‘Toolbox’

Persuasion Tools

Why do governments listen?

They usually don’t, but when they do, it’s because NGOs:

– Have legitimacy due to field presence– Move the public (eg Church NGOs on debt)– Are skilled media operators– ‘Tell a story’ – a narrative based on limited

research, with good frames and killer facts– Build unusual alliances (e.g. with private sector,

or developing country governments)– Sometimes spot emerging issues before civil

servants (PWYP)

Compare that previous slide with this killer fact…

In 2003, the average European cow received support of $2.62 per day in agricultural support, which is more than the daily income of half the world's people.

Which will you remember?!

What to campaign on? The best campaigns (and

therefore research) have– A villain– A problem– A solution– Example: TRIPS/Access to

Medicines

Favourite Targets and Issues

Northern Governments– Environmental impact; land grabs; Aid;

IFIs– Debt; conditionality; megaprojects

TNCs– Extractives; Pharma; Labour standards, ethical

consumerism Trade

– Ag subsidies; regional trade agreements (EPAS)

Blind spots and weaknesses

Southern governments often get off lightly - comfort zone is global

Better at blocking bad stuff than winning good stuff

Slow in responding to shocks as opportunities (Planners rule)

Better at getting money than changes in policy

Too much policy, not enough politics? Often neglect ‘framing’

Where next?

Rise in multipolar campaigning– National coalitions– Continental organizations

More thought on framing and long term change

What do we ask for when there is no money? (taxation, regulation, soft law)

Example of good responsive campaign: The Robin Hood Tax

Picks up and rebrands ‘Tobin Tax’ Responds to the moment

– Governments desperate for new sources of revenue

– Public anger with bankers

And recruits some great actors.....

New kinds of change strategies at national level

Research evidence– Russia disability campaign

Elections focus– Zambian health spending

Accelerating Evolution– Chukua Hatua,Tanzania

One programme approach– Vietnam Education

‘Convening and brokering’– Takistan Water and Sanitation Initiative

Last word to some Madrid advertising students

The Aid System

Big Numbers, but not that big

Global arms spending ODA Philanthropy0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800$1630bn

$129bn (cf. 58 in 2000

$7-9.5bn (half from Gates Foundation)

$ b

illi

on

And likely to get smaller

Dilemma: is aid like oil?

Impact on – Policy (conditionality) – Institutions (transaction costs, paying the piper) – Politics (severing the social contract)

How big is the political deficit, and how can good aid overcome it?

Good v Bad Aid Do: fund watchdogs, fund long-term, support state

capacity, put government in the driving seat, ensure downwards accountability– Measles vaccines save 7.5m lives 1999-2005– Education for All– Rise in General Budget Support (but still tiny %)

Don’t: overcomplicate, impose conditions, support parallel systems, poach staff or tie aid– Over 2 year period, Uganda had to deal with 684

different aid instruments from 40 donors, just for central government funding

New thinking on aid

Planning v Markets v Networks Can aid system mimic evolution? Cash on Delivery Aid v Do no harm (Birdsall 2005) Aid in a downturn

– Pressure on Value for Money and measuring impact

– Risks of technocratic magic bullets -charter cities, Independent Service Authorities etc

Group Discussion

How does aid support or harm progressive social change?

How does it need to be reformed?