To be or not to be a campaigning organisation: the case of the NGO ActionAid

ABSTRACT

Can a service-delivery-born development NGO become a campaigning organisation? The short answer is “yes, but”. In the past decade, ActionAid made bold steps, such as shifting its global strategy towards campaigning, developing an international network of campaigners, and using non-campaign functions such as programmes and fundraising to mobilise unusual activists. However, these happened in a context of charity sector restrictions and an organigram still heavily based on programmes. This study talks to the debates about the political relevance of development NGOs, suggesting that politicisation processes often happen through “tense opportunities” where hybrid apolitical and political dimensions coexist.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society
• NGOs
• participation
• rights
• partnership
• sub-Saharan Africa
• Western and Southern Europe

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Bridget Burrows (ActionAid), Soren Ambrose (ActionAid), Tunde Aremu (ActionAid Nigeria), and Akinola Adekunle (Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria) for feedback of previous drafts. For PhD fieldwork in Nigeria upon which this article is based, I thank Emma Pearce (ActionAid), Kate Carroll (ActionAid), Kate Newman (Christian Aid), Onyinyechi Okechukwu (ActionAid Nigeria), Ruth Kelly (ActionAid UK), and Tasha Adams (ActionAid UK). I thank Akinrimisi John, Bisodun Omolola, “Lovette”, and Oluwadare Wasiu as research assistants and English-Yoruba translators, Anthony Etim for sharing his collection of market stories, and Akinola Adekunle and Olubukola Ayeni for the photos and assistance in the Ondo visits. Thanks to David Archer, Wale Adeduntan, and Celestine Odo from Action Aid for the latest updates. Thanks to all the respondents for their time. The Mutua Madrileña Foundation and Sussex University supported this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 www.aamarchives.org; www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/oxfams-response-death-nelson-mandela and https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/archives/2014/05/16/christian-aid-archive-the-origins-of-christian-aid-week/.

2 https://actionaid.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Peoples-Action-to-End-Poverty-Strategy-2012-2017.pdf and https://actionaid.org/publications/2012/peoples-action-practice.

3 Applying social movement theory to an NGO may not sound intuitive given the obvious differences between movements and organisations. Yet, the theory has gradually broadened to relate to neighbouring areas of collective action research, such as unions and voluntary action (della Porta and Diani 2006, 19; Lewis and Kanji 2009; Tarrow 2011, ch. 9).

4 See references for a longer explanation of concepts, which I do not develop here for word limit reasons.

5 www.christianaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/2017-12/partnership-for-change-full-report-may-2012.pdf (2012–2017) and http://oxf.am/ZPbh (2013–2019).

6 www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/actionaid_2013_trustees_report_stg12_final.pdf (p.15).

7 This high number (compared to initial expectations) was due to the typhoon Haiyan emergency donations, according to the interviewee.

8 Some Activistas lived in rural communities themselves although most of them were urban, university students.

9 In the UK, ActionAid UK had no local partners.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mª Josep Cascant-Sempere

Dr Mª Josep Cascant-Sempere is a Research Associate at the Open University, UK, and a Teaching Associate at the University of Valencia, Spain. Her research interests include citizen action, local governments, and the evolution of the development NGO sector. This article is an output of PhD research conducted at the Institute of Development Studies in the UK (2012–2016).