Short Abstract:

This panel will examin the advocacy strategies of global development NGOs and the factors that shape those strategies in a range of countries and from different methodological perspectives.

Long Abstract:

This panel will examine the advocacy strategies of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the global development sector from comparative perspectives. The primary objective of the panel is to analyse the range of advocacy strategies used by NGOs and the factors that shape those strategies. The panel will examine NGO advocacy in a range of countries with the goal of better understanding how political, legal, economic and social contexts shape NGO advocacy strategies. These questions are particularly important in the context of a growing global trend towards autocracy, democratic backsliding and conservative populism in which the political opportunities for NGOs and other civil society organizations to advocate for social and environmental justice are shrinking – thus calling for new strategies or the reinvigoration of old ones.

A secondary objective of the panel is to generate the content for a Special Issue of a development studies journal on ‘Advocacy for Global Justice.’ The panel convenor is co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies, which would be the target journal.

Papers are encouraged to address questions related to advocacy strategy (e.g., insider vs. outsider), the legal/regulatory context for advocacy, the decision-making behind advocacy strategies, and the social and political factors that inform and shape the advocacy strategies of NGOs. Papers are also encouraged that examine NGO advocacy in a range of countries and from different methodological perspectives (e.g., from case studies based on institutional ethnography to quantitative analysis of broader patterns).

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