May 11th, 2010
As noted in my previous post, during the coming weeks I will be travelling in the Balkans focusing on civil society development from an organization development perspective. I will be looking at peace and human rights organizations, that have grown from an initiative into a mature and sustainable organization.
The issue has been on my mind for a long time. In recent years there have been several studies over the impact of civil society development initiatives and support programmes. Here are some examples:
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Posted by Kees Wiebering
April 16th, 2010
In May I will travel once again in the Balkans to implement a research project related to civil society development from an organization development perspective. I will focus on peace building and human rights organizations.
My main question: what is lost and what is gained, when a peace building initiative makes the transition from a small scale initiative to a larger sustainable organization?
Peace building projects are often related to civil society development. The idea is simple: if you have an idea for change, you organize yourself to get it done. To implement it and to create some impact you need more people. For building bridges in society, it is most effective to work with people that are organized and represent some clear interests: networking is a key component of peace building initiatives.
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Posted by Kees Wiebering
September 2nd, 2009
Yesterday’s blogosphere storm of criticism on the MSF video hit a soft spot in the humanitarian aid crowd. MSF wanted to change the way they’re showing what they’re doing. Some links to where the discussion took place: Osocio, The Road to the Horizon, Duckrabbit, Aidwatch and Aidthoughts.
MSF was aware of the change in portaying their work and asked for feedback, which they dealt with through engaging in the blogosphere. I myself largely agree with the criticism that MSF has crossed a line towards cheap tearjerking, but I especially like the point made in Aidthoughts that this is not the way we should talk about crisis zones.
Although I am critical towards the video, as far as I am concerned the real criticism should not target MSF alone, but also those who decide to donate to MSF because of cynical videos like these. After all, listeners and senders tune in to each other.
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Posted by Kees Wiebering
June 17th, 2009
The recent Twitter storm on the developments in Iran shows Twitter’s enormous potential for independent news and communication. But with great power comes great responsibility. At some point media attention dies out, and we all go back to normal business. What happens then to the people that are on the streets right now? I severely doubt that the big contender Mousavi stands for a much needed democratic change. Isn’t he just a better choice between bad ones? There may be a lot in store for the Iranians still.
I asked myself a couple of questions:
The events in Iran, and Moldova earlier this year, show that the social media support makes confontation much faster. Are we prepared to take responsibility for the speed of events social media seem to support?
Is there a way social media can support a longer process towards constructive confontation, or does it rather stay with the thrill of the clash?
What we can do in the longer run? Is there a ‘we’ that is able to organize an inclusive sustainable glocalized approach to support change in Iran – local activists and international actors alike? And is there a role for Twitter or other social media in it?
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Posted by Kees Wiebering
June 8th, 2009
It is a rare situation when you have the opportunity to be able to check, discuss and reflect on the different perspectives of organizations during a humanitarian intervention. I got myself an interesting chance to do so.
As far as I know, there is not much knowledge about how international and local actors interact in a post-war region on the meso and micro level. In university settings a lot of thought goes into larger scale political and sociological processes. In the humanitarian scene there is a vast amount of practical knowledge, and does get reflected from a more project oriented point of view, like the local capacities for peace approach and the relfecting on peace practice. Still, there is not much of a bridge between the large scale views and the project oriented views from current practice.
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Posted by Kees Wiebering
