The African Union (AU) has committed to a vision of Africa that is 'integrated, prosperous and peaceful - driven by its own citizens, a dynamic force in the global arena' (Vision and Mission of the African Union, May 2004). This guide is an effort to take up the challenge of achieving this vision. It is a tool to assist activists to engage with AU policies and programmes. It describes the AU decision-making process and outlines the roles and responsibilities of the AU institutions. It also contains a sampling of the experiences of those non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have interacted with the AU.

Tanzania remains one of the world's poorest countries, with a per capita GNI of US$400 and one third of the population (over 12 million people) living below the poverty line. Lack of access to health and education services, lack of agricultural inputs, lack of opportunities to diversify in to non-farm activities, dependency and powerlessness are the defining characteristics of the poor. In this thesis, I argue that the Tanzanian government and the donors share responsibility for the failure of past policies to set in motion an initiative of pro-poor growth and poverty reduction, particularly in the rural economy. I review some of the constraints on growth and poverty reduction under the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction (Mkukuta), including the major role of foreign aid from especially the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. I argue that the programme of the World Bank should be reconsidered, as support is not focused on pro- poor growth. Corruption issues, rising inequality between the elite and the poor and the lack of pro-poor growth are identified as main constraint on poverty reduction in Tanzania.

How could a human rights organization survive in a repressive regime? This book investigates the emergence and survival of a human rights organization in the repressive Suharto regime in Indonesia. Based on extensive fieldwork soon after the fall of Suharto, this book documents the rise of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH), and its subsequent internal disputes, and its role in the emerging civil society in Indonesia. This book also proposes a new approach to understanding civil society by examining the interaction between the state and society, and how social actors in their relationship to the state find ways not only to survive in an authoritarian regime but also to actively influence the state.

Draws out strategic and leadership lessons that engaged citizens and advocates for popular causes stonewalled by powerful lobbies can put to immediate and practical use. Includes a unique strategic template that includes momentum-building stages over a multiyear campaign; using the media to engage public support; building coalitions of faith, community, labour, public health, and business groups; and persuading candidates to support legislation before elections, rather than after they have been elected to office.|Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing. DeMarco's unique strategic template, developed over two decades of serial campaigning, includes momentum-building stages over a multiyear campaign; unrelenting, skillful access to the media for engaging public support; coalitions of hundreds, even thousands, of faith, community, labor, public health, and business groups; and a hard press on candidates to support legislation before elections, rather than after they are comfortably in office. As an organizer/leader, Demarco also succeeds in his campaigns through force of personality: his unquenchable exuberance and idiosyncrasies delight and madden his opponents--sometimes his allies, too. Michael Pertschuk, himself a veteran advocate, here chronicles three of DeMarco's campaigns, each facing a different obstacle course. His deep analysis draws out strategic and leadership lessons that engaged citizens and advocates for popular causes stonewalled by powerful lobbies can put to immediate and practical use.

Draws out strategic and leadership lessons that engaged citizens and advocates for popular causes stonewalled by powerful lobbies can put to immediate and practical use. Includes a unique strategic template that includes momentum-building stages over a multiyear campaign; using the media to engage public support; building coalitions of faith, community, labour, public health, and business groups; and persuading candidates to support legislation before elections, rather than after they have been elected to office.|Vinny DeMarco might be a latter-day Don Quixote except that he tilts his lance at real obstacles to social justice: lobby-locked state legislatures and Congress, stonewalling the public will. And he makes impossible dreams come true. In twenty years of organizing campaigns in Maryland, he has led successful efforts to pass gun control laws (against National Rifle Association opposition), to hike cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking, and to extend health care to hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. He has also built a unique alliance of mainstream and conservative faith groups, which helped secure rare bipartisan votes in Congress for the enactment in July 2009 of landmark FDA regulation of tobacco manufacture and marketing. DeMarco's unique strategic template, developed over two decades of serial campaigning, includes momentum-building stages over a multiyear campaign; unrelenting, skillful access to the media for engaging public support; coalitions of hundreds, even thousands, of faith, community, labor, public health, and business groups; and a hard press on candidates to support legislation before elections, rather than after they are comfortably in office. As an organizer/leader, Demarco also succeeds in his campaigns through force of personality: his unquenchable exuberance and idiosyncrasies delight and madden his opponents--sometimes his allies, too. Michael Pertschuk, himself a veteran advocate, here chronicles three of DeMarco's campaigns, each facing a different obstacle course. His deep analysis draws out strategic and leadership lessons that engaged citizens and advocates for popular causes stonewalled by powerful lobbies can put to immediate and practical use.

The World Social Forum has become a space for organized citizens to come together for different purposes (support, updates, education, coordination, campaigns, etc.). It has also become a sign of a massive aspiration for the global spread of democratic principles. Its intercultural complexities have not deterred participant organizations from experimenting with new forms of participation and action. The way in which populations from distant corners of our planet have engaged in an open dialogue within the WSF calls also for new ways of understanding such political engagements. This work offers an insight through an anthropological perspective, which suggests a way to observe and analyze complex intercultural dialogues on our common future.

An inspiring mission to rescue young people from drugs and violence with music
At a time when interest in Brazilian culture has reached an all-time high, and the stories of one person's ability to improve the lives of others has captured so many hearts, this unique book takes readers to the frontlines of a battle raging over control of the nation's poorest areas. "Culture Is Our Weapon" tells the story of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a Rio-based organization employing music and an appreciation for black culture to inspire residents of the favelas, or shantytowns, to resist the drugs that are ruining their neighborhoods. This is an inspiring look at an artistic explosion and the best and worst of Brazilian society.

AIDS is registered as one of the major human catastrophes facing the world today, its consequences far reaching. In Uganda successful fight against HIV/AIDS is well recognised. By 1991 Uganda's HIV/AIDS prevalence stood at about 30% in some parts of the country. This had reduced to about 5% by 2001. This success largely depended on the social and interpersonal networks referred to as social capital. The book documents the role of NGOs in mobilising social capital at different levels and its effect on HIV/AIDS challenges in Uganda. A major finding in the book is that the ways individuals and groups are connected and interact with each other are important mechanisms for alleviating HIV/AIDS. From Uganda's story there are three lessons learned; 1. Earlier contextual explanations such as witchcraft as the cause of the disease which had dominated community approaches to HIV/AIDS are demystified;2. Fighting HIV/AIDS goes beyond the medical profession to include the social approaches;3. Emerging issues such as religious fundamentalism have negative impact on Uganda's success story and may explain new trends in HIV/AIDS prevalence

Environmental activism in contemporary Russia exemplifies both the promise and the challenge facing grassroots politics in the post-Soviet period. In the late Soviet period, Russia's environmental movement was one of the country's most dynamic and effective forms of social activism, and it appeared well positioned to influence the direction and practice of post-Soviet politics. At present, however, activists scattered across Russia face severe obstacles to promoting green issues that range from wildlife protection and nuclear safety to environmental education.

Based on fifteen months of fieldwork in five regions of Russia, from the European west to Siberia and the Far East, Red to Green goes beyond familiar debates about the strength and weakness of civil society in Russia to identify the contradictory trends that determine the political influence of grassroots movements. In an organizational analysis of popular mobilization that addresses the continuing role of the Soviet legacy, the influence of transnational actors, and the relevance of social mobilization theory to the Russian case, Laura Henry details what grassroots organizations in Russia actually do, how they use the limited economic and political opportunities that are available to them, and when they are able to influence policy and political practice.

Drawing on her in-depth interviews with activists, Henry illustrates how green organizations have pursued their goals by "recycling" Soviet-era norms, institutions, and networks and using them in combination with transnational ideas, resources, and partnerships. Ultimately, Henry shows that the limited variety of organizations that activists have constructed within post-Soviet Russia's green movement serve as a "fossil record" of the environmentalists' innovations, failures, and compromises. Her research suggests new ways to understand grassroots politics throughout the postcommunist region and in other postauthoritarian contexts.

Environmental activism in contemporary Russia exemplifies both the promise and the challenge facing grassroots politics in the post-Soviet period. In the late Soviet period, Russia's environmental movement was one of the country's most dynamic and effective forms of social activism, and it appeared well positioned to influence the direction and practice of post-Soviet politics. At present, however, activists scattered across Russia face severe obstacles to promoting green issues that range from wildlife protection and nuclear safety to environmental education.

Based on fifteen months of fieldwork in five regions of Russia, from the European west to Siberia and the Far East, Red to Green goes beyond familiar debates about the strength and weakness of civil society in Russia to identify the contradictory trends that determine the political influence of grassroots movements. In an organizational analysis of popular mobilization that addresses the continuing role of the Soviet legacy, the influence of transnational actors, and the relevance of social mobilization theory to the Russian case, Laura Henry details what grassroots organizations in Russia actually do, how they use the limited economic and political opportunities that are available to them, and when they are able to influence policy and political practice.

Drawing on her in-depth interviews with activists, Henry illustrates how green organizations have pursued their goals by "recycling" Soviet-era norms, institutions, and networks and using them in combination with transnational ideas, resources, and partnerships. Ultimately, Henry shows that the limited variety of organizations that activists have constructed within post-Soviet Russia's green movement serve as a "fossil record" of the environmentalists' innovations, failures, and compromises. Her research suggests new ways to understand grassroots politics throughout the postcommunist region and in other postauthoritarian contexts.

This study focused on governance and financial sustainability of NGOs in South Africa. The primary objective of the study was to evaluate existing governance and financial arrangements of NGOs with the view to developing alternative approaches to governance and financial arrangements with specific reference to lessons of experiences for South African NGOs. The secondary objectives of the study were to firstly develop a historical perspective on trends and tendencies of NGO funding in South Africa. A second objective was to provide a theoretical overview of the financial management and governance arrangements of NGOs. The study thirdly examined options for funding arrangements for NGOs in South Africa. A comparative case assessment of selected NGOs was provided. Research findings forwarded was used to develop a set of conclusions and recommendations for the improved funding and governance of NGOs in South Africa in general.

This book describes and analyses efforts of a small Japanese NGO, Community Action Development Organisation (CanDo), which implements education projects in marginalised areas in Kenya. The NGO's philosophy is based on the Japanese value of supporting self-help efforts of the community. Through interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, it examines the role of small organisations and discusses issues related to facilitating self-help efforts by outsiders. The book argues that small NGOs have a stronger potential to reduce dependency and to have relationships that are more equal with the community in which they are situated, thus providing opportunities that are locally relevant. The in-depth study on this small Japanese NGO should provide a range of insights about development assistance and should be especially useful to professionals engaged in development activities both in the South and the North or anyone else who are interested in international development.

TRAVESTY is an anthropologist's personal story of working with foreign aid agencies and discovering that fraud, greed, corruption, apathy, and political agendas permeate the industry. It is a story of failed agricultural, health and credit projects; violent struggles for control over foreign aid; corrupt orphanage owners, pastors, and missionaries; the nepotistic manipulation of research funds; economically counterproductive food aid distribution programs that undermine the Haitian agricultural economy; disastrous social engineering by foreign governments, international financial and development organizations--such as the World Bank and USAID-- and the multinational corporate charities that have sprung up in their service, CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, and the dozens of other massive charities that have programs spread across the globe, moving in response not only to disasters and need, but political agendas and economic opportunity. TRAVESTY also chronicles the lives of Haitians and describes how political disillusionment sometimes ignites explosive mob rage among peasants frustrated with the foreign aid organizations, governments and international agencies that fund them. TRAVESTY recounts how some Haitians use whatever means possible try to better their living standards, most recently drug trafficking, and in doing so explains why at the service of international narcotraffickers and Haitian money laundering elites, Haiti has become a failed State. TRAVESTY reads like a novel. It takes the reader from the bowels of foreign aid in the field; to the posh and orderly urban headquarters of charities such as CARE International; to the cold, distant heights of Capitol Hill policy planners. The journey is marked by true accounts involving violence, corruption, appalling greed, sexual exploitation, disastrous social engineering, and the inside world of drug traffickers. But TRAVESTY it is not a novel. It is founded on 15 years of academic and field experience, research, and hard data. It entertains the reader with vivid first hand accounts while treating seriously the problems inherent not only in international aid, but the sabotaging effects of the drug war on economic development in remote and impoverished areas of the hemisphere.

This is a story about a house with a history and about the people who lived or worked there. It captures something of the spirit of the times in the worlds of politics and development, and it discusses the links which were established between Oxfam GB in Zambia and the African National Congress of South Africa.

Faith-based non-government organisations are responsible for a considerable amount of international development aid, yet there is little research on the relationship between faith and development. In 2004 the Anglican Board of Mission embarked on an organisational learning process to explore the influence of the development sector on their own sphere of activities. Notions of intentionality, accountability and legitimacy emerged as significant foundations for the agency's work. Its multiple accountabilities - to government, to its Anglican constituency, and to overseas church partners - offer a framework through which the agency can continually assess its organisational integrity and fidelity to its value base. Articulating intentionality of purpose and a clear theological understanding of mission and development are crucial if the agency is to maintain its legitimacy. "Making space to breathe" became a metaphor to describe the task of creating both a reflective space which opens possibilities for transformed praxis, and a liminal space between the evangelical and development activities of the agency in which a unifying philosophical ground can be discovered.

Years of tremendous growth in response to complex emergencies have left a mark on the humanitarian sector. Various matters that once seemed settled are now subjects of intense debate. What is humanitarianism? Is it limited to the provision of relief to victims of conflict, or does it include broader objectives such as human rights, democracy promotion, development, and peacebuilding?

For much of the last century, the principles of humanitarianism were guided by neutrality, impartiality, and independence. More recently, some humanitarian organizations have begun to relax these tenets. The recognition that humanitarian action can lead to negative consequences has forced humanitarian organizations to measure their effectiveness, to reflect on their ethical positions, and to consider not only the values that motivate their actions but also the consequences of those actions.

In the indispensable Humanitarianism in Question, Michael Barnett and Thomas G. Weiss bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines to address the humanitarian identity crisis, including humanitarianism's relationship to accountability, great powers, privatization and corporate philanthropy, warlords, and the ethical evaluations that inform life-and-death decision making during and after emergencies.

Contributors: Michael Barnett, University of Minnesota; Craig Calhoun, New York University; James D. Fearon, Stanford University; Laura Hammond, SOAS, University of London; Peter J. Hoffman, Hunter College; Stephen Hopgood, SOAS, University of London; Peter Redfield, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Jennifer C. Rubenstein, Princeton University; Jack Snyder, Columbia University; Janice Gross Stein, University of Toronto; Thomas G. Weiss, CUNY Graduate Center

FOREIGN AGENTS analyzes the history and activities of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. FOREIGN AGENTS begins with testimony and subpoenaed documents from the 1963 Senate investigation into the activities of the agents of foreign principals. Senator J.W. Fulbright's discovery of "conduit" money-laundering operations in the US financed by Israeli principals touched off deep and important questions about US lobbying on behalf of the fledgling nation and the applicability of laws such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Logan Act. The book then uncovers AIPAC election law skirmishes in the 1980s-1990s, analyzing the lobby's role in establishing and coordinating political action committees and AIPAC's role in alleged election law violations. FOREIGN AGENTS then turns to the question of espionage. In 2005, two AIPAC executives, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, were criminally indicted for violating the 1917 Espionage Act. FOREIGN AGENTS reviews behind-the-scenes defense team motions and judicial decisions affecting First Amendment freedom of speech issues and questions about "inside the Beltway" trafficking in classified US defense information by lobbies. FOREIGN AGENTS evaluates Rosen and Weissman's assertions that the conduct alleged in the indictment was within the scope of their employment with AIPAC and was undertaken for AIPAC's benefit. FOREIGN AGENTS then makes comprehensive recommendations for legal oversight in the context of AIPAC's history as a powerful and secretive foreign agent for Israel.

"Grassroots social-change organizations are a critical resource for progressive movement-building in the United States. They provide political education and sites for constituent engagement, and they are beginning to create networks across issues and/or communities; they promote home-grown leadership among groups that have been disadvantaged; they contribute to a shared understanding of the problems of inequality and injustice; and they offer a public space for the dialogue needed to identify common principles."-From the Ground Up From community organizing for affordable housing in neglected neighborhoods to providing antiviolence training for youth or litigating for the rights of sex workers, grassroots organizations are engaged in energetic efforts to increase the power of marginalized groups. Social-change organizations operate in communities all over the United States, but little has been written about the details of their operations. From the Ground Up takes a close look at how social-change organizations address challenges related to leadership, staff development, decision-making, resource needs, and collaborations. Carol Chetkovich and Frances Kunreuther, both experienced nonprofit managers, draw on their in-depth interviews with leaders and staff members from sixteen diverse social-change organizations to provide a detailed analysis of these groups and their activities. They note that even working in isolation, these organizations make important contributions to justice in their communities; together they might form the base of a larger progressive movement for change.

"Grassroots social-change organizations are a critical resource for progressive movement-building in the United States. They provide political education and sites for constituent engagement, and they are beginning to create networks across issues and/or communities; they promote home-grown leadership among groups that have been disadvantaged; they contribute to a shared understanding of the problems of inequality and injustice; and they offer a public space for the dialogue needed to identify common principles."-From the Ground Up From community organizing for affordable housing in neglected neighborhoods to providing antiviolence training for youth or litigating for the rights of sex workers, grassroots organizations are engaged in energetic efforts to increase the power of marginalized groups. Social-change organizations operate in communities all over the United States, but little has been written about the details of their operations. From the Ground Up takes a close look at how social-change organizations address challenges related to leadership, staff development, decision-making, resource needs, and collaborations. Carol Chetkovich and Frances Kunreuther, both experienced nonprofit managers, draw on their in-depth interviews with leaders and staff members from sixteen diverse social-change organizations to provide a detailed analysis of these groups and their activities. They note that even working in isolation, these organizations make important contributions to justice in their communities; together they might form the base of a larger progressive movement for change.

It is widely recognised that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have undertaken an increasingly important role in both human development and environmental conservation efforts in the less-developed nations during the past three decades. Much of the literature on NGOs focuses on, or is sponsored by, large Western-based international NGOs which themselves undertake or direct many of the development and conservation efforts. This book cuts through sensitive subjects including government corruption and manipulation, the misuse of NGOs and the limitations of small, under funded local development organisations to identify the crucial role of local NGOs in the challenging context of rural development in Sub-Saharan African. His observations and insights are highly useful and provide important contextual understanding for future human development and environment conservation projects in rural African settings.

"If one organization is synonymous with keeping hope alive, even as a faint glimmer in the darkness of a prison, it is Amnesty International. Amnesty has been the light, and that light was truth bearing witness to suffering hidden from the eyes of the world." from Keepers of the Flame

The first in-depth look at working life inside a major human rights organization, Keepers of the Flame charts the history of Amnesty International and the development of its nerve center, the International Secretariat, over forty-five years. Through interviews with staff members, archival research, and unprecedented access to Amnesty International's internal meetings, Stephen Hopgood provides an engrossing and enlightening account of day-to-day operations within the organization, larger decisions about the nature of its mission, and struggles over the implementation of that mission.

An enduring feature of Amnesty's inner life, Hopgood finds, has been a recurrent struggle between the "keepers of the flame" who seek to preserve Amnesty's accumulated store of moral authority and reformers who hope to change, modernize, and use that moral authority in ways that its protectors fear may erode the organization's uniqueness. He also explores how this concept of moral authority affects the working lives of the servants of such an ideal and the ways in which it can undermine an institution's political authority over time. Hopgood argues that human-rights activism is a social practice best understood as a secular religion where internal conflict between sacred and profane the mission and the practicalities of everyday operations are both unavoidable and necessary.

Keepers of the Flame is vital reading for anyone interested in Amnesty International, its accomplishments, agonies, obligations, fears, opportunities, and challenges or, more broadly, in how humanitarian organizations accommodate the moral passions that energize volunteers and professional staff alike."

"If one organization is synonymous with keeping hope alive, even as a faint glimmer in the darkness of a prison, it is Amnesty International. Amnesty has been the light, and that light was truth bearing witness to suffering hidden from the eyes of the world." from Keepers of the Flame

The first in-depth look at working life inside a major human rights organization, Keepers of the Flame charts the history of Amnesty International and the development of its nerve center, the International Secretariat, over forty-five years. Through interviews with staff members, archival research, and unprecedented access to Amnesty International's internal meetings, Stephen Hopgood provides an engrossing and enlightening account of day-to-day operations within the organization, larger decisions about the nature of its mission, and struggles over the implementation of that mission.

An enduring feature of Amnesty's inner life, Hopgood finds, has been a recurrent struggle between the "keepers of the flame" who seek to preserve Amnesty's accumulated store of moral authority and reformers who hope to change, modernize, and use that moral authority in ways that its protectors fear may erode the organization's uniqueness. He also explores how this concept of moral authority affects the working lives of the servants of such an ideal and the ways in which it can undermine an institution's political authority over time. Hopgood argues that human-rights activism is a social practice best understood as a secular religion where internal conflict between sacred and profane the mission and the practicalities of everyday operations are both unavoidable and necessary.

Keepers of the Flame is vital reading for anyone interested in Amnesty International, its accomplishments, agonies, obligations, fears, opportunities, and challenges or, more broadly, in how humanitarian organizations accommodate the moral passions that energize volunteers and professional staff alike."

Study of the history and politics of non-governmental organisations NGOs are fast taking over the world of development so there is an increasing need to analyse their effect Discusses how and why the actions of NGOs are often very different from their claimed intentions A valuable new text for students of development studies and other social sciences Non-Governmental Organisations and their networks are proliferating in all regions of the world. They address every transnational issue from population to peace, human rights to species rights, genocide to AIDS. Supporters claim NGOs are effective in achieving their goals, while detractors counter that NGO power is paltry compared to governments and corporations. Challenging both views, DeMars irreverently reveals the political claims implicit in every transnational NGO. They are best conceptualised, he argues, not in terms of either principles or power, but through the partners they make in transnational society and politics. NGOs and transnational networks institutionalise conflict as much as cooperation, and reshape states and societies, often inadvertently. and reengineered the family. Their historical origins contrast sharply with current realities, and show signs of radical change in the future. Introduction 1 Your NGO Starter Kit 2 Partners in Conflict: A Structural Theory of NGOs 3 Ironic Origins of Transnational Organising 4 NGOs vs. Dictators: Argentina's Dirty War Revisited 5 Dancing in the Dark: NGOs and States in Former Yugoslavia 6 Engineering Fertility 7 Changing Partners, Shaping Progress: The Future of NGOs Appendix A: Active NGOs Discussed in This Book Selected Bibliography Index