The Voice of Which People? Transnational Advocacy Networks and Governance Networks at the United Nations

We can expand our understanding of the politics of global networks and how they relate to the United Nations, by closely examining the concept of a network. There is a long-established International Relations literature focusing on the more institutionalised, international non-governmental organisations. Keck and Sikkink have drawn on the Sociology literature covering social movements in global politics to discuss transnational advocacy networks. It is also necessary to distinguish a third major category: governance networks. They operate to enhance the participation rights of NGOs in intergovernmental organisations. Differences in membership and functions of the two types of networks can be clearly specified analytically, but real-world networks may have some features from each ideal-type. However, if the distinction between them is not understood and respected by those participating in a network, there can be major political conflicts that threaten the legitimacy of the network. Three case-studies – on the NGO Steering Committee at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, on the World Conference Against Racism and on the World Summit on Sustainable Development – are used to demonstrate how crises can arise when the fundamental contradictions between engaging in collective advocacy and adopting a governance role are not recognised

The most significant lessons about the most significant change technique

This article presents field-based insights into the application of the Most Significant Change (MSC) technique as a method to monitor social change resulting from a development intervention. Documentation of this innovative qualitative monitoring technique is slowly growing, but is mostly limited to grey literature. In particular, there is a lack of rigorous investigation to assess the complexities and challenges of applying the technique with integrity in the development context. The authors employ a conceptual model of monitoring and evaluation practicalities (the 'M&E Data Cycle') for a systematic examination of the challenges to, and key components of, successful application of the MSC technique. They provide a detailed analysis of how MSC was employed in two projects in Laos, extracting the lessons learned and insights generated. This practice-based information can inform future deployment of the MSC technique and contribute to its development

Arctic marine climate of the early nineteenth century

The climate of the early nineteenth century is likely to have been significantly cooler than that of today, as it was a period of low solar activity (the Dalton minimum) and followed a series of large volcanic eruptions. Proxy reconstructions of the temperature of the period do not agree well on the size of the temperature change, so other observational records from the period are particularly valuable. Weather observations have been extracted from the reports of the noted whaling captain William Scoresby Jr., and from the records of a series of Royal Navy expeditions to the Arctic, preserved in the UK National Archives. They demonstrate that marine climate in 1810 - 1825 was marked by consistently cold summers, with abundant sea-ice. But although the period was significantly colder than the modern average, there was considerable variability: in the Greenland Sea the summers following the Tambora eruption (1816 and 1817) were noticeably warmer, and had less sea-ice coverage, than the years immediately preceding them; and the sea-ice coverage in Lancaster Sound in 1819 and 1820 was low even by modern standards. © 2010 Author(s)

Defining and refining effectiveness: Applying narrative and dialogue methods in aid monitoring and evaluation

In this chapter we argue that definitions of 'effectiveness' should be negotiated and that this can be assisted through the careful selection of monitoring and evaluation methods. A flexible view of 'effectiveness' is necessary because the world is complex and ever-changing, and even more importantly because the concept is contended. Inevitably, different stakeholders in development aid hold different perspectives about what 'effectiveness' means in their context. We propose that the use of certain types of qualitative methods in monitoring and evaluation is an important way to promote dialogue on the different definitions of effectiveness between stakeholders. In support of our argument, we demonstrate how two open-ended inquiry methods were applied in the field to first define and then refine the meaning of effectiveness. We also apply a validation framework to test the quality of these methods and to generate insight into the strengths and weaknesses of their application in the field. A key strength of these methods is found to be their attention to capturing diversity of perspective. In addition, both the narrative and dialogue methods are seen to indeed facilitate the negotiation of meaning of effectiveness between the different project stakeholders. We conclude that a thoughtful and flexible approach to monitoring and evaluation that incorporates such qualitative methods enables effectiveness to be defined and refined, and is conducive to more appropriate, better managed aid.© 2007 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved

Are we doing the right thing? Critical questioning for city sanitation planning

Our aim is to provoke practitioners, policy makers and development agencies to reflect on their approaches to city sanitation planning and the assumptions that underlie them. The document is not intended as a critique, and it does not recommend a particular planning approach. Nor does it add to existing stocks of guidance materials on how to develop sanitation plans (e.g. Sanitation 21, WHO Sanitation Safety Planning Guide 2015, Community-Led Urban Environmental Sanitation Planning (CLUES), guidance for City Sanitation Strategies (SSK) in Indonesia and City Sanitation Plans (CSPs) in India etc). Rather, our premise is that raising awareness of underlying assumptions in sanitation planning may lead to better targeted approaches to sanitation planning, if and when those assumptions are shown not to match realities

Seeking the Goal in the Process, the Process for the Goal: Organizational Learning in a Public Sector Change Project

This paper describes how a combination of process modelling and goal modelling techniques has been used to facilitate organizational learning. The case study comes from the public sector in the UK. The modelling techniques have helped users to rationalise about the existing processes and then to design how they would like the process to work. The paper describes how the users have been able to confront the complex issues involved. The experience suggests that the combination of the modelling techniques is important to the learning experience of the users involved

NGO Legitimacy: Four Models

The aim of this paper is to examine NGOs’ legitimacy in the context of global politics. In order to yield a better understanding of NGOs’ legitimacy at the international level it is important to examine how their legitimacy claims are evaluated. This paper proposes dividing the literature into four models based on the theoretical and analytical approaches to their legitimacy claims: the market model, social change model, new institutionalism model and the critical model. The legitimacy criteria generated by the models are significantly different in their analytical scope of how one is to assess the role of NGOs operating as political actors contributing to democracy. The paper argues that the models present incomplete, and sometimes conflicting, views of NGOs’ legitimacy and that this poses a legitimacy dilemma for those assessing the political agency of NGOs in world politics. The paper concludes that only by approaching their legitimacy holistically can the democratic role of NGOs be explored and analysed in the context of world politics

Relying on markets to address human rights: sanitation supply chain analysis in low-density settings

Market-based approaches to improving sanitation coverage have increased in recent years, however the equity implications of these approaches, particularly in the face of the recently established human right to sanitation in 2010, requires a closer examination of the costs of sanitation products and services in remote, rural locations. This paper presents results from a recent study examining the sanitation supply-chain in the province of Dien Bien in north-west Vietnam, a low-density rural setting with high rates of poverty. It was found that current toilet coverage is lower in areas of high poverty, and that these areas also experience the highest costs of sanitation products due to the impact of distance and transport costs. We conclude that market-based approaches require nuanced application and that other forms of support or significant market intervention are likely required to ensure equitable outcomes in remote rural contexts

Nonlinear Dynamics of Aeolian Sand Ripples

We study the initial instability of flat sand surface and further nonlinear dynamics of wind ripples. The proposed continuous model of ripple formation allowed us to simulate the development of a typical asymmetric ripple shape and the evolution of sand ripple pattern. We suggest that this evolution occurs via ripple merger preceded by several soliton-like interaction of ripples.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, corrected 2 typo