Tag: NGOs

Summer Reflections Series: Solidarity Center

By Lissette Almanza

Through the generous support of the Rapoport Center’s Project on Inequality and Human Rights, I was able to spend my summer 2018 interning at the Solidarity Center in Washington D.C. The Solidarity Center, a global labor rights NGO affiliated with the AFL-CIO, works to empower workers to raise their voice for dignity on the job, justice in their communities and greater equality in the global economy. With the fellowship supporting my work on labor and human rights issues, I developed the skills and confidence to continue to pursue a career in international human rights advocacy.

Much of my work at the Solidarity Center’s Equality and Inclusion Department involved conducting research on the relationship between gender, trade policy and women’s labor rights, particularly as it relates to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). My deep-dive into this research allowed me to draft an intersectional analysis on gender-related issues and labor rights violations in the world of work. The exploitation of women workers for economic gains, especially in the garment industry, prevent women and their families from achieving better livelihoods. However, the abuses women experience at work often remain invisible. With a better lens into these issues, my research will help advance the advocacy efforts of the Solidarity Center by demonstrating to union partners in Africa the need to fight for women’s worker rights and an egalitarian workplace.

As the summer unfolded, I found myself immersed in work surrounding gender-based violence (GBV) at work. GBV is violence that is directed against an individual or group of individuals based on their gender identity and can take multiple forms, including physical and sexual abuse, bullying and coercion among others. Following the International Labor Conference (ILC) that took place from May 28 – June 8, a proposed global standard on ending violence and harassment against women and men in the world of work became one step closer to reality, with a strong focus on GBV. Since the International Labor Organization (ILO) is considering for the first time a Convention with a Recommendation on this issue, I quickly realized that I was in the midst of a valuable and learning experience at the Solidarity Center.

As part of this global march towards an ILO Convention with a Recommendation, I had the opportunity to participate in the process of assessing ways that the Solidarity Center can support partners and allies to champion its adoption in June 2019. I used my policy analysis skills to create a comparison document that analyzed the text of the proposed global standard and tracked the amendments offered during the ILC by government, employer, and worker members. These tools are intended to help union partners strategize for the next round of negotiations and understand the position of each member group. I also worked closely with another intern to create an evaluation survey and interviewed field staff across the globe on the work that Solidarity Center and partners have done towards addressing GBV at work, as well as supporting the ILO Convention.

In addition to my work this summer, the Solidarity Center also facilitated weekly sessions to enhance our understanding of labor rights issues, as well as skill-based workshops. Interns met with staff or union affiliates to discuss topics on child labor, migration and human trafficking, workers’ rights in the global economy, and on collective bargaining. The conversations and discussions were enriching and allowed me to grasp a better sense of the importance of advocating for labor rights. The monitoring and evaluation session developed my understanding on what helps improve and achieve results for advocacy work.

Along with immersing myself in international labor rights during my time at the Solidarity Center, my voice as a labor rights advocate blossomed. Now, I feel connected to the worldwide labor movement and prepared to advance workers’ rights wherever I go. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and look forward to applying the skills and knowledge that I gained this summer as I jumpstart my career in the international human rights field.

Ann Swidler on the Romance of AIDS Altruism

by Megan Tobias Neely and Maro Youssef

22 FEB 2017

How is culture embedded within institutions? This central question drives the research of Ann Swidler, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley. The interplay between culture and institutions has taken her from investigating how middle-class Americans talk about love to studying the international AIDS effort in sub-Saharan Africa.

Last November, the Power, History, and Society group in the Sociology Department here at UT-Austin brought Swidler to campus present her current research in a talk titled “A Fraught Embrace: The Romance and Reality of AIDS Altruism in Africa.” Through this timely study, Swidler sought to understand how two institutional orders—that of the international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and of the local village—meet on the ground. She asked: How do NGOs focus their efforts? And how are these efforts implemented in a local cultural and institutional context?

To answer these questions, Swidler, her colleague Susan Cotts Watkins, and a team of 60 post-doctorates, graduate students, and undergraduate students undertook a massive data collection project. From 2004-2016, the team conducted a “Motel Ethnography,” surveying 4,000 Malawian villages, interviewing 2,000 villagers and 200 donors and brokers, and recording 1,200 ethnographic journal entries.

The researchers found that the primary efforts of NGOs focused on trainings. Topics covered everything from “Training for Home-Based Care” to “Youth Peer Education Training” to “Business Management.” These training programs were desirable to NGOs and villagers alike, because they were perceived as sustainable, cost-effective, and empowering. Attendance included a meal and a small amount of compensation. The programs also provided opportunities to employ villagers.

However, the efficacy of trainings came into question in the case of one woman who, despite completing stigma awareness training and attending support groups, failed to acquire practical information on the antiretroviral drugs available to her. Not all training programs, according to Swidler, were equally effective in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS.

This and other shortcomings in the NGOs efforts, Swidler found, arose when the priorities of foreign volunteers were disconnected from local needs. Many volunteers had an idealized fantasy of helping the Other, which Swidler called the “romance of AIDS altruism.” As volunteers encountered difficulties, they became disillusioned and often gave up, citing “misunderstandings” with local intermediaries who were necessary in implementing the NGO programs. Swidler identified how these “misunderstandings” had to do with clashes between the volunteers’ expectations and reality. It had disastrous consequences: When an NGO terminates its programs, the flow of aid throughout the supply chain ceases.

Among the more long-lasting programs, Swidler found that the extent to which NGO efforts were subverted or indigenized depended on the NGO’s relationships with local intermediaries. According to Swidler, when the cultural expectations of an institution are transposed to a new setting, the practices and expectations of the local network “colonize” the imported institutional logics. It is a dialectical rather than one-sided process.

As the result of this dynamic, Swidler found that certain training programs were perceived as more effective by both the NGOs and the villagers. For example, trainings designed to eliminate stigma were well-received because they aligned with local cultural beliefs in a shared obligation to care for the sick and suffering. The programs most effective in changing sexual practice, according to Swidler and her team, framed contraceptives and self-protection as a radical act.

Swidler’s research on the efforts of NGOs in the fight against AIDS in Malawi sheds much-needed light on why transnational health programs do or do not work. In this case, the most effective NGOs worked with local intermediaries to understand the cultural and institutional context of the people they served. The Malawi case demonstrates how culture and institutions must be understood as deeply intertwined in order to make meaningful health interventions.

This commentary was also featured in UT Austin Soc. Listen to the audio of Professor Swidler’s talk on UT Box.

Megan Tobias Neely is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology, graduate fellow in the Urban Ethnography Lab, and on the editorial committee of the Working Paper Series at the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. Her research interests are in gender, race, and class inequality in the workplace, financial sector, and political systems, as well as how these issues relate to the recent growth in widening economic inequality. Maro Youssef is a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and graduate fellow in the Urban Ethnography Lab. Her research interests include gender,  political sociology, culture, social movements, organizations, and North Africa and the Middle East.