Does anyone know of any good critiques of international refugee/disaster relief/development aid NGOs? I've seen criticism here of NGOs as employers but I'm looking more for some critical analysis of how they operate on the ground.
Thanks for posting that link, JK. Having worked in "development", it seems like the book is analysing some of what I experienced. I remember once when I was in Nepal with a large international NGO that partnered with several local ones. I went to one in the bush, had to take a plane far out West first. I remembered being surprised that I wasn't picked up in a large Land Rover or Jeep, which I had already become accustomed to after volunteering/working with NGOs for just a few years. I was 24 at the time, but it was the first eye opener among many. Needless to say, I became quite disillusioned with the whole development racket in the end.
There also this whole post-development academic sub-field, which critiques development, though I can't remember if the critiques were also levelled at how NGOs work on the ground. There may be something in Participation: the New Tyranny, which does deal with how NGOs do "participation" on the ground.
Iirc Smirl talks about that cycle of youthful enthusiasm and cynical burnout which NGOs run on. It's very much an analysis of how NGOs operate in 'the field', and how 'the field' is mostly a closed loop of air conditioned SUVs, secure compounds, and luxury hotels. That said, she does link this to more the political economy of NGOs, like how they end up acting to justify themselves to their donors and hence reproduce themselves as institutions rather than acting in the interests of those they purport to help.
Depending on what you're looking for Mark, scot crow's Black Flags and Windmills offers a strong contrast to the professional-NGO disaster response (also on Katrina, which is one of Smirl's case studies). There's a bit in there on how shit the Red Cross were, but it's mostly about how a ragtag band of anarchists and ex-Black Panthers organised grassroots relief efforts, before it became more of a conventional (albeit radical) NGO later on.
Thanks for the links. I'm not sure I'm actually that clear about what I'm looking for. I suppose I'm trying to place events in Greece with refugees, volunteers, NGOs and the Syriza government in some kind of context, and looking for parallels elsewhere.
Yiannis Mouzalas, the Syriza minister dealing with immigration and the refugee crisis, is a doctor who set up the Greek branch of Doctors of the World (not the same as MSF - I think it started as a breakaway from MSF with a more development oriented focus) and so from an NGO background. He seems very much in charge of efforts to bring volunteers and NGOs under control, with arrests and harassment and new laws being introduced, along with implementing EU imposed policies and calling for a much larger Frontex presence. At the same time there's at least some conflict going on between mainstream NGOs and more independent volunteers and activists, who are also starting to set up their own mini-NGOs.
So really all this is making me wonder a bit more about the role of NGOs, and their relationship with activists and with the state. It's also something that I'm realising I've never given too much thought to before.
With the recent arrests of labor NGO activists in China, Ching Kwan Lee & Yuan Shen's "The Anti-Solidarity Machine? Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in China" (a chapter in From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in Changing China [2011]) is very relevant. I'm about to scan the chapter, so PM me if you'd like to get a copy.
Hi Mark I've always seen the ngo's as a way for the middle class to make themselves feel better before they resort to type and exploit anything and everything available to them.
If it's not class based and from the grassroots up then fuck it off.
Does anyone know of any good critiques of international refugee/disaster relief/development aid NGOs? I've seen criticism here of NGOs as employers but I'm looking more for some critical analysis of how they operate on the ground.
Hi Mark I've always seen the ngo's as a way for the middle class to make themselves feel better before they resort to type and exploit anything and everything available to them.
Clearly you don't know many people working in NGOs then. Sure, there are types like that, but from my experience for most people that work in the big NGOs is just something that gives them a paycheck. They may not care at all about the work that the NGO is actually doing. And actually, NGOs have some of the worst working conditions out there; typically workers are told to stop making demands for better wages etc. because they are doing "good" work. The types you are referring to are often those that work in the field, but not those that work in admin in the home country. Also, there is a huge difference between workers in the field: white folks typically get a salary as if they are working in their home country, often get a free apartment/house, perhaps with a maid, driver etc. (I assume these are the people Smirl are discussing) If you're hired as a "local" it is very very different; shit pay, and you usually do most of the work since you know the culture, language, have contacts etc. I experienced the former as a volunteer by living with expats, but when I got paid I was hired as a local (though for a local NGO, not one of the big ones).
Spaces of Aid by Lisa Smirl
Spaces of Aid by Lisa Smirl is a good critique by a development worker turned academic.
There is also The Revolution
There is also The Revolution Will Not Be Funded (the link has the introduction as a pdf)..
Thanks for posting that link, JK. Having worked in "development", it seems like the book is analysing some of what I experienced. I remember once when I was in Nepal with a large international NGO that partnered with several local ones. I went to one in the bush, had to take a plane far out West first. I remembered being surprised that I wasn't picked up in a large Land Rover or Jeep, which I had already become accustomed to after volunteering/working with NGOs for just a few years. I was 24 at the time, but it was the first eye opener among many. Needless to say, I became quite disillusioned with the whole development racket in the end.
There also this whole post-development academic sub-field, which critiques development, though I can't remember if the critiques were also levelled at how NGOs work on the ground. There may be something in Participation: the New Tyranny, which does deal with how NGOs do "participation" on the ground.
Iirc Smirl talks about that
Iirc Smirl talks about that cycle of youthful enthusiasm and cynical burnout which NGOs run on. It's very much an analysis of how NGOs operate in 'the field', and how 'the field' is mostly a closed loop of air conditioned SUVs, secure compounds, and luxury hotels. That said, she does link this to more the political economy of NGOs, like how they end up acting to justify themselves to their donors and hence reproduce themselves as institutions rather than acting in the interests of those they purport to help.
Depending on what you're looking for Mark, scot crow's Black Flags and Windmills offers a strong contrast to the professional-NGO disaster response (also on Katrina, which is one of Smirl's case studies). There's a bit in there on how shit the Red Cross were, but it's mostly about how a ragtag band of anarchists and ex-Black Panthers organised grassroots relief efforts, before it became more of a conventional (albeit radical) NGO later on.
Thanks for the links. I'm not
Thanks for the links. I'm not sure I'm actually that clear about what I'm looking for. I suppose I'm trying to place events in Greece with refugees, volunteers, NGOs and the Syriza government in some kind of context, and looking for parallels elsewhere.
Yiannis Mouzalas, the Syriza minister dealing with immigration and the refugee crisis, is a doctor who set up the Greek branch of Doctors of the World (not the same as MSF - I think it started as a breakaway from MSF with a more development oriented focus) and so from an NGO background. He seems very much in charge of efforts to bring volunteers and NGOs under control, with arrests and harassment and new laws being introduced, along with implementing EU imposed policies and calling for a much larger Frontex presence. At the same time there's at least some conflict going on between mainstream NGOs and more independent volunteers and activists, who are also starting to set up their own mini-NGOs.
So really all this is making me wonder a bit more about the role of NGOs, and their relationship with activists and with the state. It's also something that I'm realising I've never given too much thought to before.
http://libcom.org/search/node
http://libcom.org/search/node/NGO ;)
With the recent arrests of
With the recent arrests of labor NGO activists in China, Ching Kwan Lee & Yuan Shen's "The Anti-Solidarity Machine? Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in China" (a chapter in From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in Changing China [2011]) is very relevant. I'm about to scan the chapter, so PM me if you'd like to get a copy.
Joseph Kay wrote: Spaces of
Joseph Kay
I've found this site with articles by her: spacesofaid.wordpress.com
On aid worker memoirs for example.
Hi Mark I've always seen the
Hi Mark I've always seen the ngo's as a way for the middle class to make themselves feel better before they resort to type and exploit anything and everything available to them.
If it's not class based and from the grassroots up then fuck it off.
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/crn-blok-the-ngo-sector-the-trojan-horse-of-capitalism
Mark.
Quote: Hi Mark I've always
Clearly you don't know many people working in NGOs then. Sure, there are types like that, but from my experience for most people that work in the big NGOs is just something that gives them a paycheck. They may not care at all about the work that the NGO is actually doing. And actually, NGOs have some of the worst working conditions out there; typically workers are told to stop making demands for better wages etc. because they are doing "good" work. The types you are referring to are often those that work in the field, but not those that work in admin in the home country. Also, there is a huge difference between workers in the field: white folks typically get a salary as if they are working in their home country, often get a free apartment/house, perhaps with a maid, driver etc. (I assume these are the people Smirl are discussing) If you're hired as a "local" it is very very different; shit pay, and you usually do most of the work since you know the culture, language, have contacts etc. I experienced the former as a volunteer by living with expats, but when I got paid I was hired as a local (though for a local NGO, not one of the big ones).
Click on the link to access
Click on the link to access the scanned pdf of Ching Kwan Lee & Yuan Shen's "The Anti-Solidarity Machine? Labor Nongovernmental Organizations in China," which is Chapter 9 in From Iron Rice Bowl to Informalization: Markets, Workers, and the State in Changing China (2011).
Afed makes a broad critique
Afed makes a broad critique of them briefly in this pamphlet:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiE4obM2NrKAhWI9h4KHXDBD60QFggjMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Flibcom.org%2Ffiles%2Fintro%2520pamphlet%2520reading.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEjCXh4TIMRdgIu7uKRc9Sh1xnqMQ&sig2=lkhLrvijt6gRpLqfG76pwQ