Top NGO Leadership News – May 28, 2010

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NGO in a Box

So what is “NGO-in-a-box”?

NGO-in-a-box provides technical service providers and support staff within non-profits with bespoke box-sets of tools and materials aggregated around specific themes. Tactical Tech works to form networks of established experts who can act as topical and regional editorial teams. These teams work together to actively recommend and select tools and materials around a given topic.

NGO-in-a-box offers a set of peer reviewed and selected Free and Open Source software (F/OSS), tailored to the needs of NGO’s. It provides them not only with software, but also with implementation scenarios and relevant materials to support this.

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NGO Diplomacy

by Michele M. Betsill and Elisabeth Corell

NGO Diplomacy is a timely and extremely important contribution to understanding what impact NGOs have had in intergovernmental negotiations especially in in the area of the environment and sustainable development. NGO Diplomacy zeroed in on the impact of NGOs on the intergovernmental processes and negotiation outcomes and enlightens understanding of how international negotiations are conducted and the roles NGOs have in these.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

For those who have walked the UN corridors, as for Betsill and Corell, the measures of success of NGO diplomacy are not straightforward. Often the actual impact cannot so easily be proven by a paper trail. Like all diplomacy, and relationships for that matter, the influence of ideas or perceived benefits are fickle and nuanced if one wishes to measure them yet we all know the power of ideas and persuasion whatever their basis.

In short, NGOs can put pressure on governments to persuade them to change policies. But how this is done, where it is done and some of the surrounding and changing circumstances is what NGO Diplomacy looks at.

Betsill and Corell’s work outline how NGO diplomacy plays a significant role in intergovernmental negotiations drawing out distinctions between the ways governmental diplomats and NGO diplomats work and what they can represent. The benefits and the challenges of these two worlds interacting track back to their different boundaries. The states have national and political boundaries. NGOs ‘ boundaries more often transcend state boundaries and are de-marked by issues such as those that affect the global commons.

In particular, this study provides an analytical framework that is intriguing for those who seek to influence negotiators and the negotiation process. Because there are so many variables in the actual work done by both governments and NGOs, the editors acknowledge the difficulty of assessing all factors. However, there are basis for measuring NGO influence in particular cases and this is done using various methods and data types.

The reflections the editors made at the end of their work drew out many important and interesting points connected with political stakes, issues of NGO competitions and politics, alliances with states, perceived levels of contention, and finally the shifting and blurring of some elements of global governance and diplomacy.

Contributors:

Steinar Andresen, Michele M. Betsill, Stanley W/ Burgiel, Elisabeth Corell, David
Humphreys, Tora Skodvin

About the Editors

Michele M. Betsill is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Colorado State University.
Elisabeth Corell, the Wallenberg Fellow in Environment and Sustainability at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs from 2001 to 2006, is currently an independent scholar.

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Lobbying the UN and How to Get Your Point Across

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This is a huge topic that we will not tackle in its entirety here. But what we can do is to provide a short and powerful video that focuses on some elements of highly effective communication.

There will be more mini courses and information made available to those who are actively interested (ie those who sign up below) in the nuts and bolts of diplomatic outreach and advocacy in politically sensitive environments…though we could say, in the end, that all environments have their politics and sensitivities. Politics is definitely NOT wholly owned by the UN (or Washington!) But we all do need to constantly expand and hone our capacities to communicate well.

This FREE video tutorial specifically addresses How to Get Your Point Across to the 4 Personality Types by Answering Four Simple Questions in Your Message.

It addresses the need to build rapport with your target community or contact and earn their trust by speaking to them the way they learn best.

“This FREE instructional video explains the four personality types and shows you which questions, when answered, will have them really listening to you… “

Just enter your name and email here to get immediate access to the first mini training video.

PS: We do want to know who is interested in these materials AND we do want to know what are your most pressing questions in relation to the UN and the work of NGOs. So do add your questions and comments below the video (or here.) Don’t worry, we will NEVER pass your contact information along to anyone else. And you can always excuse yourself from our list with the click of a button!

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From the 2009 UN General Assembly

This is a very short 3 minute briefing including an excerpt of the UN Secretary-General’s opening remarks of the 64th Session of the United Nations in September last year, 2009. I am adding it here as we are re-organizing our blog, but didn’t want to lose this reference.

If you want to hear or see more recent webcasts, you can following the links to the UN’s webcast site to get more webcasts and to view other session, past statements of Heads of State etc.

Last year, the 64th Session’s High Level segment during which heads of state and senior government officials spoke, continued from the 23rd through the 25th September 2009.

The UN webcasts many of their sessions and as noted above, these are freely available online at: http://www.un.org/webcast/ga.html

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