*Topicality/Definitions Democracy Promotion Includes Military Intervention
Civil Society Assistance Fails: Overly Technical
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- Civil Society Assistance Fails: Supports Gradual Approach
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Civil Society Assistance Fails: Overly Technical“TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE” LEADS TO INCORRECT ASSESSMENTS OF PROBLEMS AND FAILED SOLUTIONS Mathijs van Leeuwen, Professor Radboud University-Netherlands, 2009, Partners in Peace: discourses and practices of civil-society peacebuilding, p. 177-8 The example of the villagization program in Rwanda at the beginning of this book illustrated how many intervening organizations assumed that the establishment of physical order corresponded to the re-establishment of social order. It demonstrates the tendency of organizations to interpret conflict in such a way that a technical response is appropriate. In the Great Lakes Region, international interventions to promote regional civil-society peacebuilding basically interpreted the coming together of civil society as a process of exchange and collaboration. Little attention was given to the problem of reconciling those organizations In Burundi, many organizations interpreted land disputes mainly as originating from contradictions in or the absence of proper legislation, and the failing of juridical institutions. Such an analysis legitimized working on the development of new legislation, re-establishing formal institutions, and promoting the legal expertise of local institutions. Thereby they forgot about the accessibility and fairness of all those institutions, both state and local ones. In both Guaatemala and Burundi, many civil-society organizations applied legal approaches to deal with conflict at the local level, at the neglect of mediation as a strategy. This “legal reflex” – the belief that law is the most effective and perhaps only form of protection against conflict – is widespread among organizations involved in peacebuilding.
Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment, 2005, Unchartered Journey: promoting democracy in the middle east, eds. T. Carothers & M. Ottaway, p. 200 The second identifiable U.S. strategy for stimulating gradualist Arab political transitions consists of promoting better governance and other state reforms as well as expanded and strengthened civil societies. These types of activities can be considered indirect promotion of democracy because they do not tackle the core processes of political contestation. Proponents of this strategy are primarily found in USAID (which began sponsoring such efforts in the region in the mid-1990s), the State Department (in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the democracy promotion group in the Bureau for Near Eastern Affairs), and some of the democracy promotion organizations that operate with U.S. funding. The main tool of this approach is assistance for reforming governance and developing civil society (typical sponsored by USAID and now also by the State Department under its Middle East Partnership Initiative. U.S. policy makers have increasingly tried in the past year or two to complement such aid with diplomatic pressure on Arab governments to take seriously the challenge of improving governance and to give a real place to an independent civil society. Civil Society Assistance Fails: Organizations Compete with Each other for FundingEXTERNAL FUNDING CAUSES CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS TO SPEND ALL THEIR TIME COMPETING FOR FUNDING Benoit Challand, Research Fellow-European Institute in Florence, 2009, Palestinian Civil Society: foreign donors and the power to promote and exclude, p. 190 This tension between the interest of donor and of locals is a topos of developmental literature. For many this is simply Achilles’ heel. Anheier and Themuldo noticed that the increased division of labor for northern NGOs to concentrate on fund raising, capacity building and advocacy, might create a uniformization of the agenda. This in turn translated into pressure towards isomorphic tendencies about the issues dealt with, but also on increased bureaucratization. Eventually, the risk is that southern NGOs, in order to gain funding and this type of legitimacy, will be forced to “mismetic isomorphism stemming from increased competition for scarce resource.” But the issue of legitimacy is not only provided by the discourse, by the “technicity” of the jargon, or even by the bureaucratization implied by funding. It also depends on the way it is formulated and how it is practically implemented as a response to local needs or not. For example, one cannot but have the feeling that some of the funding made available by USAID is meant to alleviate the consequences of the harsh closure imposed in the last years by the Israeli military forces. As if it was about making sure that minimum services can be delivered despite the closure and bantustanization of the Territories. For example, in the case of delivery facilities developed recently in villages, one could wonder whether “sustainability” is possible in the long run. Is there really a need to have delivery rooms in each village when in “normal times” each villager can reach an urban center in less than 30 minutes? One cannot help but feel that there is a form of guilty consciousness on the side of some donors, but the consequence is that these donors subsidize and indirectly support the occupation and colonial regime put in place and increased by Israel over the years. The consequence for local NGOs benefits form this financial manna can be perceived by the population as working for somebody else’s interests rather than the local common good. ‘ Another similar danger concerns certain projects dealing with peace and non-violence. If the content promoted by such courses or activities are not context-sensitive or negate some of the basic dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or falsely favor the view that there is a normalization or a symmetric balance in the Palestinian-Israeli relations, then bitterness might grow and jeopardize – or even alienate – the future work of the local NGOs implementing on behalf of international donors. Directory: assets assets -> Northern territory of australia assets -> Number: caveat in the [Will/Will and Codicil/Estate of] assets -> Invitation for Bid Calact/mbta for Standard Floor and Low Floor Rural Duty Vehicles ifb no. 12-03 November 14, 2012 assets -> 12 Step Retreats For Everyone in Twelve Step Recovery Ratner Fellowship assets -> 12 Step Retreats For Everyone in Twelve Step Recovery Ratner Fellowship assets -> Sigaccess annual Report assets -> Central Government is expected to ask the seventh pay commission to consider merging 50% dearness allowance assets -> List of accessible executive records assets -> Emergency telephone numbers Call toll-free from anywhere in France Download 2.51 Mb. Share with your friends:
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