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Advocacy rules? NGOs search for development alternatives

Are NGOs suited to advocacy? Traditionally, NGOs have been involved in hands-on development work, but in an effort to increase impact, UK NGOs are shifting towards advocacy and policy work. How do they grapple with issues of legitimacy, accountability, governance, and evaluation? Do they need to strengthen links between their operational activities and advocacy work, and mainstream advocacy within their overall activities?

Civil society groups are increasingly important and prominent players in international development. Being international can provide a privileged perspective on the links between national and international policy decisions and on-the-ground developmental impacts. Research by the Open University exploring how NGO operational experience informs advocacy found that:

Within NGOs the role of advocacy is often poorly-understood, with tensions arising around its relationship to marketing, fund-raising and more traditional development work.
NGOs enjoy good relations with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) although there are some concerns about NGOs’ independence and autonomy.
‘Legitimacy’ is often used as a synonym for accountability, representation, effectiveness and expertise, making ‘legitimacy debates’ less than clear.
NGOs claim legitimacy for their advocacy from a variety of bases. Only ten percent of the NGOs examined claim to ‘represent’ the South, but legitimacy is most often claimed on the basis of links to, and experience in, the South.
NGOs remain weakly accountable to the Southern groups whose interests they claim to promote.
While some effort is being made to develop suitable evaluation methodologies, most NGOs conduct very limited evaluations of their advocacy.

Policy suggestions for NGOs include the need to:

base advocacy on a clear understanding of the relevant policy processes
strive to make the link between operational experience and advocacy messages
demonstrate the value of advocacy and respond to doubts about their legitimacy and accountability.

Policy relevant lessons for DFID include the need to:

be clear about how NGOs should increase their legitimacy and accountability, and encourage NGOs’ efforts to become more accountable and transparent.
be clear and transparent in its relationships with NGOs to ensure that close partnerships do not compromise NGOs’ independence.
continue to support the southern capacity-building role of UK NGOs, and their development awareness and education work in the UK.
promote the evaluation of advocacy work, and the development of innovative evaluation methodologies.

Source(s):
‘Making the connection: Legitimacy claims, legitimacy chains and Northern NGOs’ international advocacy’, by A. Hudson in ‘New roles and relevance: Development NGOs and the challenge of change’ edited by D. Lewis and T. Wallace, Kumarian Press (2000) Full document.
‘International perspectives on voluntary action: Reshaping the third sector’ Lewis, D. (ed.) London: Earthscan (1999)
‘Strategy and structure in managing global associations’ in Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Non-Profit Organisations Volume 10 by D. Young, B. Koenig, A. Najam, and J. Fisher (1999)

Funded by: UK Department for International Development (DFID – ESCOR) and Nuffield Foundation Social Sciences Small Grant Scheme

id21 Research Highlight: 1 May 2001

Further Information:
Alan Hudson
Government and Politics Discipline
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1908 654 435
Fax: +44 (0) 1908 654 488
Contact the contributor: alanhudson@bigfoot.com

Government and Politics, The Open University, UK

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