Browsing by Subject "NGOs"

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Rights-based approaches and social capital in addressing food and nutrition security of the poor and women : a mixed-methods study of NGOs in Armenia and Georgia
(2015) Jenderedjian, Anna; Bellows, Anne
The role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for the improvement of women’s and the poor’s food and nutrition security and advancement of their human rights is gaining prominence in academic and public discourse. NGOs as civil society actors ideally should advocate for greater accountability of states’ food and nutrition-related security programs and policies, support grass-roots efforts for democratized and improved food systems, and represent and protect the most food insecure groups. NGOs, nevertheless, have been criticized for creating dependency among the most food insecure, offering donor-driven top-down solutions and discouraging social mobilization efforts among the most disadvantaged and discriminated against groups. In this study we asked what encourages or prevents NGOs’ engagement with the most marginalized and discriminated against groups, such as women and the poor, and what are the approaches NGOs use in addressing these groups’ food and nutrition security. Applying a mixed quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis, this dissertation focused on NGOs in two post-Soviet countries: Armenia and Georgia. This study has produced three main sets of findings. First, possible determinants for NGOs’: involvement in food-oriented work; adoption of human rights-based approaches, including the right to adequate food; and gender mainstreaming were studied using results from an on-line electronic survey of 228 NGOs in Armenia and Georgia. The adoption of development and human rights concepts by national NGOs was associated with their involvement in networks with transnational donors or civil society organizations. NGO involvement was not determined by public demand alone, but rather as a compromise between various factors, including but not limited to the availability and support of donor funding and the organization’s involvement in a relevant transnational network. These findings confirm and reinforce previous studies on vertical discursive flows from transnational actors to national NGOs. Organizations’ self-reported engagement with the right to adequate food was rare in both countries, implying both absent or weak ties with transnational actors propagating the right to adequate food on the one hand, and on the other hand to low priority paid to the right to adequate food by the food security oriented international organizations cooperating with NGOs in the South Caucasus. Second, a qualitative study of 57 local and international NGOs in Armenia and Georgia explored operational and institutional characteristics of NGOs involved in food and nutrition security. The research found that NGOs’ preferences in building networks and targeting specific groups were determined mainly by the identities of organization core members, most specifically by their gender and their social and economic status. National and international NGOs operating in Armenia and Georgia with male leadership pursued the collective organization of economically better-off male farmers and entrepreneurs, whereas female-led NGOs targeted better educated rural women. The overarching objective of male-led NGO interventions was improved economic gain, whereas female-led NGOs aimed to improve community-wellbeing through promotion of social justice and charity. The study reconfirmed existing concerns that women’s leadership, involvement, and participation is hampered in male-dominated groups. In addition to gender-based segregation, the extremely poor were represented neither by male or female NGO members, nor were they included in NGO attempts to encourage group formation or social mobilization. The findings support Bourdieu’s argument that social capital accumulation is determined by social and economic proximities. Lastly, the case study of a female-led NGO working with internally displaced rural women in Georgia demonstrated how the improvement of women’s food and nutrition status was achievable when social isolation and structural discrimination in public and private spaces were acknowledged and addressed. Supporting bottom-up livelihood strengthening initiatives and addressing violence contributed to internally displaced rural women’s potential to realize the right to adequate food. The dissertation findings represent an advance in the understanding of the role of national and international civil society actors in improving food and nutrition security of the most marginalized and discriminated groups. The study enriches the limited but growing research on rights-based approaches in development as an alternative to technocratic solutions. The dissertation contributes to the research in international development, agriculture and rural development, and broader social theory.