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Oxfam and Research

Oxfam and Research. Duncan Green Head of Research, Oxfam GB ODI/INASP Symposium, Oxford November 2006. The rise of research, advocacy and campaigning among INGOs. Roots in programmes (islands of success in a sea of failure)

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Oxfam and Research

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  1. Oxfam and Research Duncan Green Head of Research, Oxfam GB ODI/INASP Symposium, Oxford November 2006

  2. The rise of research, advocacy and campaigning among INGOs • Roots in programmes (islands of success in a sea of failure) • NGOs saw need to shape/check northern policies (anti-apartheid, Central America, IFIs, debt, trade) • And need to change attitudes and beliefs to build a mass constituency for change • Leading to the rise of global advocacy and campaigning • But bulk of staff still involved in grassroots development and emergencies

  3. Sound research provides an INGO campaign with • Credibility with decision makers and high end journalists (e.g. Rigged Rules and Double Standards) • A coherent campaign narrative and ‘ask’ • Confidence!

  4. What do we mean by ‘research’ • Limited primary research (e.g. Water Provision in Sierra Leone; SCF on User Fees; Programme examples elsewhere) • But mainly ‘narrative’, bridging the journalist-academic divide, combining • Literature review • Case Studies (usually from programme) • Recommendations for decision makers • Killer Facts [eg EU cow] • Executive Summary • Media Launch (stunts, op-eds, exclusives)

  5. Campaigning • The best campaigns (and therefore research) have • A villain • A problem • A solution • Example: TRIPS/Access to Medicines • Villains of choice: Northern Governments, IFIs, WTO, TNCs • But can be an easy ride for: domestic capital, DC governments and NGOs themselves!

  6. Campaign Favourites • Northern Governments • Aid; Make Poverty History; Jubilee 2000 • IFIs • Debt; conditionality; megaprojects • UN • Civilian protection; Arms; humanitarian aid • TNCs • Extractives; Pharma; Labour standards • Trade • WTO; Northern agricultural subsidies; regional trade agreements

  7. How does Oxfam campaign? • Internationally (via Oxfam International) • Insider • Lobbying • Research: combined primary, secondary and ‘killer facts’ • Outsider • ‘Pop Mob’; media; celebrities; branding (white bands) • Alliances • Trade Justice Movement, Control Arms, Make Poverty History, Jubilee 2000

  8. Why do governments listen to NGOs? • They usually don’t, but when they do, it’s because NGOs: • Talk their language/ ‘tell a story’ • Adapt message to legislative/negotiating timetables (eg Development Box) • Move the public (eg Church NGOs on debt) • Are skilled media operators • Sometimes spot emerging issues before civil servants (PWYP)

  9. Why don’t governments listen to (most) academics? • Academic incentive structure all wrong • Risk averse (on the one hand, on the other…) • Impenetrable post modernist or economicist jargon • Talk to peers, not politicians • Do not adapt message to decision makers’ realities (e.g. timetables) • Think like lecturers, not lobbyists (e.g. Cambridge economists and Development White Paper, 2000) • Result? A very restricted gene pool of insider academics (including ODI!)

  10. Constraints on NGO Research • The sensibilist conspiracy – self censorship and the financial-intellectual complex • Dominance of mathematical economics leads to political naivete (problem/solution/exhortation) and historical amnesia • Power Analysis (Government is not a faculty) – policy-based evidence making is widespread!

  11. What needs to change? • Increase national research and advocacy capacity (e.g. Basic Services and South Asia) • Shift to political economy/how change happens • Intellectual Pluralism (Rodrik on the World Bank)

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