NGOs as Advocates for Development in a Globalising World

About this book

Discusses the strengths, limitations and impacts of NGO advocacy at different scales - local, regional and global - traces the reasons for recent changes, and presents detailed, empirical data.

To maximise their impact, NGOs have globalised their operations and formed new strategic alliances to maximise the effectiveness of their advocacy. Historically, as a means of improving the life of people in disadvantaged communities, northern development NGOs primarily acted at the local scale in developing nations. In the last decade, these NGOs have increasingly given resources to advocacy campaigns directed at global and regional actors, including multilateral banks, governments and corporations. To date, there has been little basis for gauging the extent to which NGOs advocacy work has contributed to poverty alleviation.

This book traces this recent growth in NGO advocacy. Rugendyke presents empirical findings about the impacts of NGO advocacy activity on the policies and practices of global and regional institutions. The research reveals the mixed successes of advocacy as a strategy for addressing the ongoing causes of poverty in developing nations. Case studies illustrate the advocacywork of Australian NGOs, of British NGOs policies about engaging with multinationals, of Oxfam Internationals advocacy directed at World Bank policies and NGO advocacy in the Mekong Region. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the mixed successes of advocacy as a strategy used by NGOs in attempting to address the ongoing causes of poverty in developing nations are examined in this book.

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