Resume There has been a change in Danish development aid the last decade. Today more and more of the policy formulation and the aid go through the EU. This has result in that a part of the decision making processes have been transferred from the domestic arena to the transnational arena in the EU. Due to this change one may assume that the NGOs advocacy work in order to influence the decision making processes have changed from the domestic arena to the EU. This assumption is the focus of the report. In order to examine this assumption we have based the analysis on a case study with two Danish NGOs; DanChurchAid and the Danish department of Medecins Sans Frontieres. The analysis focuses on how the NGOs use advocacy to gain influence in decision making processes. We use the theory on transnational advocacy networks by Khagram, Riker, Keck & Sikkink in order to examine which strategies and types of advocacy the NGOs use and how they use them to gain influence. This is supplied with the theory of the four dimensions of power by Lukes, Christensen & Jensen in order to examine which channels the NGOs use to gain influence by using advocacy. We can conclude that DanChurchAid and the Danish department of Medecines Sans Frontieres not have responded much to the change of governance level. However they have adapted to the new demands to the use of advocacy regarding the increasing internationalisation of development and human rights issues. This is done regarding the domestic level, though. Instead of each NGO working directly to influence the EU or other transnational arenas they unite in transnational advocacy networks. This allows them to share resources and thus increase the effectiveness. It is important to state that the theory on advocacy networks indicate that an issue only is transferred from the domestic level to the transnational level due to need, such as when the decision making arena itself are moved to this level. But the EU is also used by the network in order to raise and influence issues which are denied access to the domestic arena. Thus the transnational advocacy networks is in one way used to respond to the change in governance level and in another way used to raise issues on human rights in development in another arena than the one where it is being denied.
Table of Content 1 PROBLEM FIELD 4 1.1 THESIS STATEMENT 5 2 METHODOLOGY 6 2.1 CENTRAL CONCEPTS 7 2.1.1 NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATION 7 2.1.2 ADVOCACY 7 2.1.3 HUMAN RIGHTS 8 2.2 CASE STUDY 9 2.2.1 MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES 9 2.2.2 DANCHURCHAID 10 2.2.3 POLICY CASE 11 2.3 EMPIRICAL DATA 12 2.3.1 REPRESENTATIVES 12 2.3.2 QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS 12 2.4 STRATEGY OF ANALYSIS 14 3 THEORETICAL APPROACH 16 3.1 TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY NETWORK 16 3.1.1 TRANSNATIONAL COLLECTIVE ACTION 16 3.1.2 POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURES 18 3.1.3 COOPERATING WITH GOVERNMENTAL ACTORS 20 3.1.4 INFLUENCING 22 3.2 FOUR DIMENSIONS OF POWER 24 3.2.1 FIRST DIMENSION OF POWER 25 3.2.2 SECOND DIMENSION OF POWER 26 3.2.3 THIRD DIMENSION OF POWER 26 3.2.4 FOURTH DIMENSION OF POWER 26 3.3 CONCLUSION 27 4 USING ADVOCACY 28 4.1 MOTIVES BEHIND ADVOCACY 28 4.2 TYPES OF ADVOCACY 30 4.2.1 CAMPAIGNS 30 4.2.2 PERSONAL STORIES 31 4.2.3 APPROACHING DECISION MAKERS 34 4.2.4 ALTERNATIVE ADVOCACY 35 4.2.5 ATTENTION OF MEDIA 38 4.3 CONCLUSION 40 5 INFLUENCING DECISION MAKING ARENAS 42-2 -
5.1 CHANNELS 42 5.1.1 DIRECT MEETINGS 43 5.1.2 BRINGING ISSUES INTO THE ARENA 47 5.1.3 INTERPRETING DECISIONS 49 5.1.4 REFRAMING ISSUES 49 5.1.5 CHANGING NORMS 50 5.2 INFLUENCING EU COMMISSION 51 5.2.1 RELATIONS TO EU 52 5.3 APPROACHING THE TRANSNATIONAL LEVEL 53 5.3.1 IMPORTANCE OF ADDRESSING CIVIL SOCIETY 55 5.3.2 TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY NETWORKS 57 5.4 NGOS FUTURE ROLE 60 6 CONCLUSION 63 7 PUTTING THE PROJECT INTO PERSPECTIVE 67 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 69 9 APPENDIX 77 9.1 APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN FRIIS BACH 78 9.2 APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW WITH SØREN BRIX CHRISTENSEN PART I 96 9.3 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW WITH SØREN BRIX CHRISTENSEN PART II 109 9.4 APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW GUIDE TO DANCHURCHAID 128 9.5 APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW GUIDE TO THE DANISH DEPARTMENT OF MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES PART II 130 9.6 APPENDIX 6: INTERVIEW GUIDE TO THE DANISH DEPARTMENT OF MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES PART II 132-3 -
1 Problem Field During the last decade there has been a shift in the Danish development aid. The shift is due to the fact that the decision making processes concerning development aid has partly moved from the domestic arena to the transnational arena of the EU. A larger part of the formulation of the member states development policy is decided in the EU. Additionally a larger amount of the member states development aid is given as multilateral aid through the EU 1. As Denmark is member of the EU, a significant part of Danish development aid is today subordinated to the strategies of the EU. (Moustgaard, 2008). Thus the EU is a central arena for stakeholders to gain influence on the policy for development aid. Some of the stakeholders are the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working as advocates for the populations in the developing countries. The NGOs try to help these countries populations in gaining influence on the decision-making processes and ensuring their human rights. The NGOs are often based in developed countries and they mainly operate at a domestic level. In order to influence the decision making processes the NGOs uses advocacy as a method to create awareness of specific issues. The idea behind advocacy is to try to change the structures which sustain the developing countries problems. This is seen as very effective, as an influence on the structure itself creates widespread effects as it influences all actors in the structure (Christensen & Jensen, 2001). Due to the fact that a significant part of the decision making concerning development policy has moved from the domestic arena to the EU, it must be assumed that the NGOs have adapted to this change and therefore changed the focus of their advocacy work from the domestic level to the EU. As mentioned above advocacy is a method to create awareness of issues concerning exposed populations in developing countries. Hence the work requires that the NGOs bridge the gap between their work in the developing countries and their own home country. To do this the NGOs use transnational advocacy networks as a strategy. Hereby the NGOs can increase their capabilities by sharing resources and knowledge across borders. This means that the members of the network can exchange experience in order to increase the effectiveness of the own advocacy work. Additionally the members of the transnational advocacy network can align their strategies in order to gain power from the cooperation (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a). 1 10.5 % (per 2007) of Danish development aid are given through the EU (Moustgaard, 2008). - 4 -
Thereby transnational advocacy networks can help the NGOs to get a stronger position in order to influence the EU. The objective of both advocacy and transnational advocacy networks is gaining influence to ensure the rights of exposed human beings in developing countries. The transnational advocacy network is also important in order to get information, since influence is often closed connected to knowledge. (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a). When trying to gain influence or setting the agenda the NGOs can use different channels to reach the decision making arena. These channels can both be at the domestic level and the transnational level. At these levels the NGOs can choose to address governmental actors, the civil society, and private actors. As mentioned above there has been a change in governance level, and thus one would assume that the NGOs have adapted to this change by targeted their use of advocacy the decision making processes at the EU level. This assumption has led to the following research question which this report will be based on: 1.1 Thesis Statement Increasingly more and more development policies are taken to the EU level. However, traditionally the role as advocates for the populations in developing countries has been taken by NGOs which mainly operate at the domestic level. We assume that the NGO s have changed their focus from the domestic arena to the EU according to the change of governance level. How have NGOs responded to this change of governance level? - 5 -
2 Methodology In this section we will present our methodology. This will be done firstly by presenting and define the three most central concepts used in this report; non-governmental organisations, advocacy, and human rights. The definitions will both explain and narrow our focus on the problem field. Afterwards we will give a short presentation of the two NGOs we will use as case studies in the analysis; DanChurchAid and the Danish department of Medecines Sans Frontieres. In addition we will outline the policy case and thus give a view on the structure of the EU as the frame of the decision making arena. This will lead us to an explanation of our data collection where we will sum up the main points of the method used for conducting the interviews etcetera. Finally we will present our strategy of analysis in order to give the reader an overview of how the different parts of the report are used in order to examine our thesis statement. We have chosen to focus on advocacy as a method for the NGOs to gain influence in the EU and transnational advocacy network as a strategy to improve the use of advocacy. We see these two as significant means by which the NGOs try to gain influence on decision making processes. Thus we will only cover tools used by the NGOs which are related to advocacy and transnational advocacy networks. We will only look at two NGOs; the Danish department of Medecins Sans Frontieres and DanChurchAid. These two NGOs are selected as they both work with advocacy and transnational networks in order to influence development policies to secure human rights. We have chosen to look at Danish NGOs because of the accessibility to get interviews face-toface. Additionally we have chosen the two cases because they have different organisational structures. Medecins Sans Frontieres is an international organisation where the Danish department is one of 19 departments. Opposite DanChurchAid is a national NGO. We only look at decision making processes concerning human rights and development issues as they are the most common issue area for humanitarian NGOs (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:11). - 6 -
2.1 Central Concepts This section will present a delimitation of the problem formulation in relation to three concepts: 1) human rights, 2) advocacy and 3) NGOs. We will start by accounting for the concept of NGO, then for the concept of advocacy, and finally for the concept of human rights. 2.1.1 Non-governmental Organisation We agree with Anton Vedder s definition of a NGO; A NGO is generally defined as an essentially non-profit, voluntary citizens group which is organized at a local, national, or international level, and is locally, nationally, or internationally active (Vedder 2007:2). NGOs are distinguished from governmental organisations and actors. This report will only concern NGOs working with humanitarian and development issues, as mentioned above in the delimitation. 2.1.2 Advocacy Advocacy can broadly be said to relate to all the activities of the NGO which aim to influence actors, systems, structures, and ideas at many different levels and in many different ways. (Edwards, 2002:98). Thereby advocacy is a tool to gain influence at different levels. The NGOs often use different advocacy types at the same time in order to gain an effect of synergy, where the goal is to work simultaneously and co-ordinated at several levels (Edwards, 2002:98). Diokno-Pascuals (2002:6) also links advocacy to a question of power and sees it as a method to change the distribution of power between actors. Thus the purpose of humanitarian organisations using advocacy is advocating on behalf of marginalised and exposed groups. In accordance to Edwards (2002:96) there are two different forms of advocacy used by the NGOs. The first can be seen as attempts to influence global-level processes, structures, or ideologies. He state that these attempts can be seen as confrontational and fundamental as they call for a change of lifestyle in the target group which breaks with the former tradition. - 7 -
The second form can be seen as attempts to influence specific policies, programmes, or projects. Edwards state that these attempts often require a high level of knowledge in order to be successful at making incremental reforms. He sees this form of advocacy as more likely to be based on cooperation than confrontation. (Edwards, 2002:96). Human rights are a theme which often has been the focus in NGOs advocacy work. Human rights are also an area where the influence of the NGOs has been very significant: Most governments human rights policies have emerged as a response to pressure from organizations in the human rights network, and have depended fundamentally on network information (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:102). Keck and Sikkink (1998a:27) write that the issues on which the NGOs work are concentrated can be summed up to two issues: 1) Issues involving bodily harm to vulnerable individuals responding to normative logic, and 2) Issues involving legal equality of opportunity responding to juridical and institutional logic. Both types of issues can come under the definition of human rights advocacy. However, the first issue is the one traditionally associated with human rights. 2.1.3 Human Rights Human rights are a very broad term which is defined as: the set of norms written or unwritten which regulate the relationship between individual and collective, between private individual and nation state. It is norms that secure the private individual, groups, races, political and religious minorities against violation and attack on their integrity. At the same time it is these norms which secure the communes life conditions, self-determination and identity (Leksikon website 2 ). NGOs are the main reason why the human rights have been given high priority in international policies. Hence, human rights have always been an important component in humanitarian NGOs advocacy work. The NGOs address the human rights according to The 2 Original Danish version: Menneskerettighederne er det sæt af normer - skrevne eller uskrevne - der regulerer forholdet mellem individ og kollektiv, mellem enkeltmenneske og stat. Det er de normer, som sikrer enkeltmennesket, grupper, racer, etniske, politiske eller religiøse minoriteter mod overgreb og angreb på egen integritet. Det er samtidig de normer, der sikrer kollektivet eksistensbetingelser, selvbestemmelse og identitet. - 8 -
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and more specific human rights valid for the single nation state or region, e.g. the EU. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by United Nations in 1948. It consists of 30 articles, defined as basic rights for all human beings, which is divided into themes such as; right to life, work and leisure. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not a binding treaty but rather a statement of principles. However, the articles of human rights have increasingly been institutionalised in international treaties and are used as moral guidelines for the nation states (Risse et al., 1999:1ff). In 2000 the EU adopted an EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The charter is not a convention but only a policy document which is aimed to be implemented in the EU treaty (Menneskeret.dk website). As such there is not a law on human rights instead there is law on fundamental rights. Thus NGOs working on the basis of human rights do not have a written law to refer to but a set of principles which can be comprehended in different ways. On one side this means the NGOs can attach the concept of human rights to many issues. On the other side it also means the EU can detach the concept from a range of issues. 2.2 Case Study The analysis will be based on case studies of two Danish NGOs which will be presented in this section. The NGOs both work with human rights and development but the foundation of their organisation are different. In order to explain some of the NGOs choices in the analysis we account for the main points of the structure of the organisations. Subsequently we will outline the structure of the EU as a transnational institution. This will enable us to get an overview of the institutional frame for the decision making arena which the NGOs wish to influence. 2.2.1 Medecins Sans Frontieres Medecins Sans Frontieres is a humanitarian organisation which delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflicts, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural or man-made disasters (Medecins Sans Frontieres website A). The organisation was founded in Paris in 1971 by a group of doctors and journalists (Medecins Sans Frontieres website A). The doctors had been with the Red Cross in Biafra in Nigeria but were unsatisfied that they were not - 9 -
allowed to speak of their experiences in the field. The duty to give evidence to tell what you see field is therefore a fundamental value in Medecins Sans Frontieres. (Medecins Sans Frontieres website C). The duty to give evidence is executed through advocacy, which thereby plays a significant role in the organisation s work. Today Medecins Sans Frontieres is an international organisation with 19 departments located in different countries (Medecins Sans Frontieres website B, 2009) with missions in more than 60 countries around the world (Medecins Sans Frontieres website C, 2009). Each national department of Medecins Sans Frontieres has its own board and office (Medecins Sans Frontieres website A, 2009). Each department has equal influence on the decisions and objectives of Medecins Sans Frontieres. The missions are coordinated from five operative centres in Paris, Brussels, Geneva, Amsterdam and Barcelona (Medecins Sans Frontieres website A, 2009). This report will focus on the Danish department. 2.2.2 DanChurchAid DanChurchAid is a Danish development organisation established in 1922. The objective of DanChurchAid s work is To help and be advocates of oppressed, neglected and marginalised groups in poor countries and to strengthen their possibilities of a life in dignity (DanChurchAid website B). DanChurchAid has a long experience working with advocacy. It works with advocacy as a cross-cutting strategy in all its work (DanChurchAid website C 2009). On the website DanChurchAid explains its focus on advocacy: Sustainable development will not be achieved through aid alone. DanChurchAid is alert to the importance of overcoming the structural barriers obstructing the rights of poor, marginalised and oppressed population groups (DanChurchAid website F 2009). Besides DanChurchAid s headquarter in Denmark, the organisation has nine regional offices in Africa, Asia and Central America (DanChurchAid website D, 2009). The organisation also dispatches Danish development workers abroad. DanChurchAid cooperate with international and local organisations all over the world (DanChurchAid website E). - 10 -
2.2.3 Policy Case The EU has increasingly taken over a part of the foreign policy, including development and development aid, which has previously belonged to the national governments, in order to create a common strategy and voice in the EU: The idea that the European Union should speak with one voice in world affairs is as old as the European integration process itself. But the Union has made less progress in forging a common foreign and security policy over the years [...] (EUROPA website A, 2008). The EU consists of 27 member states. The legal frame of the EU consists of five institutions made by the treaties; The Commission, Council, European Parliament, European Court of Justice, and the Court of First Instance. (Foster, 2006:51) The decision making processes belong under the EU Commission. The EU Commission is the executive power of the EU. The EU Commission is independent from direct national influence. The EU Commission consists of 27 commissioners, one from each member state. The commissioners are nominated by the member states in consultation with the President nominee. The EU Commission and commissioners have to act on the behalf of the EU and focus on what is best of the union and not on the behalf of their own states. (Foster, 2006:53). The EU Commission has set up a Directory General for Development which formulates the development policies at both global and sectoral level. In addition the directory creates policy orientations and implementation guidelines. Directory General for development also manages the financial resources and decides how the development aid should be divided according to sectors and development issues (EUROPA website B, 2009). The management and implementation of the developments programs is executed by EuropeAid Co-operation Office which is another office under the EU Commission (EUROPA website C). The office cooperates with a number of external actors, such as the civil society, international organisations, and governments from the member states (EUROPA website C). One of the cross-cutting issues in the development policy is human rights (EUROPA website B, 2009). - 11 -
When the EU enacts new laws, the EU Commission has the right of initiative to propose laws. When the law has been proposed the case is mostly that the Council 3 has the final decision power in adopting legislative proposals. The decision making can be done through unanimity, qualified majority vote where at least 2/3 % of the member states have to vote pro, or simple majority where more than 50 % of the member states have to vote pro. (Foster, 2006). 2.3 Empirical Data In this section we will present our method for collecting the data to be used as the empirical fundament for the analysis. Our empirical data consists of two qualitative interviews with representatives from the case studies supplemented with documents, and articles from the two organisations websites. 2.3.1 Representatives We have carried out interviews with representatives from two Danish NGOs. The concrete representatives were chosen on basis of their experience on working with advocacy in their respective NGO. Søren Brix Christensen has been chairman of the Danish department of Medecins Sans Frontieres since 2001. He has an education as a doctor and works voluntary for Medecins Sans Frontieres. Brix Christensen has been working abroad for Medecins Sans Frontieres on missions in South Africa, Sudan and Mozambique (Christensen website, 2008). Christian Friis Bach has been International Director at DanChurchAid since 2005. He has an education as agronomist. Friis Bach has earlier worked voluntary as chairman for MS Action Aid Denmark 4 (Bach website, 2008). 2.3.2 Qualitative Interviews The interviews have been semi-structured in order to allow the interviewees a more coherent story-telling of their work in the organisations. The interviewer tried to entail an ongoing 3 Consist of one Minister from each member state. 4 Formerly known as Danish Association for International Co-operation (MS) - 12 -
selection of the most relevant question according to the answer of the former question. Hence, we ensured that we got answer of a number of case-relevant questions, but at the same time gave the interviewees the opportunity to talk in addition to the pre-formulated questions. This type of interview gave the interviewer an increased understanding of the field of research as well as the interviewee s knowledge, view, and subjective position (Christensen, 1994). The interview with Brix Christensen was conducted in his doctor s practice and thus emphasises his education and main living as a doctor. The interview with Friis Bach was conducted in his office at DanChurchAid and hence stressed his position as a full time NGO worker. Furthermore the physical meetings allow the interviewer to note facial expressions and body language. These are elements which can underline the message of the interviewees story-telling (Morris, 1977). A similar point is stated by Steinar Kvale who also describes the value of the interviewer sharing the physical surroundings with the interviewee. Especially if the interview is placed in the familiar setting for the interviewee it helps the interviewer to get into the local language, routines and to get a feeling of, what the interviewees are talking about (Kvale, 2004:103). Thus the interviewer is allowed more sensitivity when following up on responses and small hints of the interviewee. We started the interviews with a short overall presentation of our research area and the aim of the interview. We mentioned that we were interested in how the NGOs use advocacy to influence decision making processes, but we did not mentioned that we in particular looked at the EU level. This was done in order not to influence the interviewees answers and thereby decrease the validity of the interview (Kvale, 2004). After the introduction we turned to the questions in the interview guide which roughly was divided in four parts: 1) The governmental actors, 2) Advocacy, 3) NGOs and Transnational Advocacy Networks, and 4) Concrete examples. These categories were motivated by our theory and literature describing concrete cases of advocacy. All questions in the four categories were used as an inspiration for guiding the interview and as a checklist to ensure covering the aim of the interview. We started by asking broad questions in order to minimise leading questions and then asked more specific according to the given answers. Both of us participated in the interviews and undertook different roles. One was guiding the interview, - 13 -
while the other was observer and took notes on which question was answered and which aspects needed to be followed up. Due to disruption of our first interview with Brix Christensen we connected an ekstra interview with him. The interview with Friis Bach was carried out between the two interviews with Brix Christensen. This gave us the opportunity to use some of the answers from Brix Christensen in the interview with Friis Bach and vice versa. This was a great advantage which increased the benefits of both interviews. The interviews were taped and lasted for about half an hour to three quarters of an hour. They were all transcript to give a more fully overview (Kvale, 2004), but we choose not to do this from a strong linguistic perspective. The transcriptions are to be found in full length in Appendix 1-3 in the original Danish language. 2.4 Strategy of Analysis This report focuses on how Medecins Sans Frontieres and DanChurchAid s work with advocacy at the EU level in order to gain influence in human rights decision making in the transnational arena. The assumption presented in the problem field will be answered with the starting point in the work questions listed below. Each of these questions will describe an area of the project thesis and will be answered as a step in the analysis. In the end the answering of the work question will lead to a discussion in relation to the project thesis and especially our assumption. In the following, we will indicate how the work questions will be answered in the report. Work questions 1. What type of advocacy do the NGOs use to gain influence in the transnational arena? 2. Which opportunities do the NGOs have to influence the EU level by using advocacy? 3. How are the Danish department of Medecins Sans Frontieres and DanChurchAid s relations to the EU concerning the human rights decision making processes? Work question 1 will be replied in chapter 4, with the starting point in the concept definition of advocacy (see part 2.1.2) and deepened by the practice described in the interviews. The question will be answered in 4.1 by focusing on the motives behind the Medecins Sans - 14 -
Frontieres and DanChurchAid s use of advocacy. This will provide an understanding of what objectives are set for their work. Part 4.2 will focus on how the two organisations use the different types and strategies of advocacy. This part of the analysis will outline which strategies are used in advocacy. Work question 2 will be examined in part 0, with the starting point in the structure of the EU (see part 2.2.3) combined with the concrete examples from the two interviews. The interviews will be examined with the starting point in the theory of the four power dimensions (see section 3.2) in order to ensure that more hidden channels for influence are noticed. By answering this question we will examine how the NGOs can work through different channels in order to gain influence on the decision making processes in the EU. Thus grounded on the first question this part of the analysis will explore what possibilities the NGOs have to direct the different strategies of advocacy towards the EU. Work question 3 will be examined in part 5.2, with the starting point in the former part concerning which channels the NGOs can use in order to influence the EU. Additionally we will use the theory on transnational advocacy networks to examine whether this strategy can help the NGOs further in gaining influence. This question will explore how the Danish department of Medecins Sans Frontieres and DanChurchAid are using the EU as an arena to gain influence on human rights decision making processes at transnational level. This part of the analysis will show us how the two NGOs concretely work towards gaining influence on the EU in contrary to the former chapter, which showed what possibilities were present for the NGOs. Finally, will we, based on the former sections of the analysis, examine whether the NGOs use the available channels or not. This in order to examine which strategies are used and what arguments lie behind. - 15 -
3 Theoretical Approach This chapter will present our two main theoretical approaches. Firstly we use the theory of transnational advocacy network by Khagram, Riker, Keck & Sikkink. This theory will be used to describe strategies for gaining influence through advocacy on a transnational arena. The theory will make basis for examine which strategies and types of advocacy the NGOs use and their strengths and limits. Secondly we use the theory of the four dimensions of power by Lukes, Christensen & Jensen. This theory describes the different channels which can be used to exercise power and influence in a decision making process. The theory will make basis for examine which channels the NGOs use in their advocacy work. In combination the two theories will supply us with tools to analyse how the NGOs work in order to gain influence on the EU level. 3.1 Transnational Advocacy Network This chapter builds on theories from the three following book; 1) Khagram, Riker & Sikkink (2001), which addresses transnational collective action including transnational advocacy networks. They try to bridge the theoretical literature on transnationalism, regimes, and norms with the theoretical literature on social movements, 2) Keck & Sikkink (1998a) which addresses transnational advocacy networks, and 3) Keck & Sikkink (1998b) which summarise the role of transnational advocacy networks including the importance of relations to governmental actors. The theory on transnational advocacy networks will be used to explain how the NGOs cooperate in order to increase the effectiveness of advocacy in gaining influence in transnational decision making processes. 3.1.1 Transnational Collective Action When NGOs use advocacy as a method they can choose between different strategies to ensure the effectiveness of the advocacy. Khagram et al. (2001:6) divide these strategies into four types of transnational collective action: 1 International/transnational non-governmental organisations 2 Transnational advocacy networks 3 Transnational coalitions - 16 -
4 Transnational social movements. According to our project thesis this section will only address transnational advocacy networks. Transnational advocacy networks differ from the other collective actions by not involving coordination of tactics or mobilisation of a large number of people. Hence, it is the most informal configuration of non-governmental actors (Khagram et al, 2001:7). The transnational advocacy networks are defined as networks among non-state actors, states and international organisations across borders (Keck and Sikkink, 1998a:1) but NGOs 5 are the key components in the networks (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:10). Medecins Sans Frontieres is an international organisation with national departments. Thus, it can be discussed whether the network of Medecins Sans Frontieres, should be defined as a transnational non-governmental organisation rather than a transnational advocacy network. The organisation s network mainly consists of national departments but most of the departments also cooperate with other local NGOs in their work. Thus, we found it correct to define the network Medecins Sans Frontieres operate through as a transnational advocacy network as the organisation does not work as a close network. Both Keck and Sikkink (1998a) and Khagram et al. (2001) point out that in contrary to other transnational networks, such as networks between companies or governmental organisations, advocacy networks consist of activists whose work are driven by principled ideas or values and they believe that individuals can make a difference. Principled ideas are concerned with what is right and wrong. If principled ideas become accepted by a broad range of actors it turns into norms 6 (Khagram et al., 2001:14). According to Keck & Sikkink (1998a) and Khagram et al. (2001) the essence of transnational advocacy networks work is promoting causes, principled ideas, and norms in order to change and implement international norms and practices. The core of the transnational advocacy network is to share values, and exchange information among the members (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:2, 9; Khagram et al., 2001:7). This term explains the focus of the transnational networks work and can help to explain the NGOs choice of method and strategy which will be addressed in part 4.2 in the analysis. 5 Both national NGOs and international NGOs (INGOs) (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:10). 6 Norms is shared expectations held by a community of actors about appropriate behaviour or actors with a given identity (Khagram et al., 2001:13). - 17 -
3.1.2 Political Opportunity Structures The political opportunity structures are very important because they can limit and expand the work of transnational advocacy networks. Hence, this section will be used in the analysis of how the transnational advocacy networks are used according to the structure of the arenas where the NGOs work, such as the EU. We will use two models in the analysis, the boomerang model and the spiral model, to give an explanation on how the opportunity structure at the transnational level frame the work of the Danish department of Medecines Sans Frontieres and DanChurchAid. It is important to be aware of the political opportunity structures, at both domestic and transnational level 7, since they play a significant role for the transnational advocacy networks work (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:31; Khagram et al., 2001). According to Khagram et al. international institutions indeed present clear political opportunity structures for transnational advocacy (Khagram et al., 2001:18). The transnational opportunity structures interact with the domestic opportunity structures rather than suppress them. Thus, in order to understand the effectiveness of transnational advocacy networks it is crucial to understand the dynamic interactions between the transnational opportunity structures and the domestic opportunity structures (Khagram et al., 2001:18f). The transnational advocacy networks often emerge when networking is seen as an opportunity to further the actors work and actively promote the networks, or when domestic channels are blocked or ineffective for resolving a conflict. The emergence of transnational advocacy networks can hence be explained by one of the following two models: the boomerang model; or, the spiral model. (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:12; Khagram et al., 2001). They are illustrated in Figure 2-1. The boomerang model explains the emergence of transnational advocacy networks in cases where a national issue is transferred to the transnational level due to a closed opportunity structure at domestic level (Khagram et al., 2001:19; Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:12f). As Keck & Sikkink define it: Where channels of participation are blocked, the international arena may be the only means that domestic activists have to gain attention to their issue (Keck and 7 The EU is one of the institutionalised transnational opportunity structures. - 18 -
Sikkink, 1998a:12). However, Khagram et al. (2001:20) point out that in case of a problem, the activists only go to the transnational level if it is necessary, although the problem is transnational in nature, since the transnational level is much more complex than the national level. Figure 3-1 Boomerang pattern: State A blocks the NGOs within the state. The NGOs thus create network whose members put pressure on State B and if relevant an intergovernmental organisation, which in turn put pressure on State A (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:13). The spiral model illustrates the emergence of transnational advocacy networks when the domestic opportunity structures are closed and the international opportunity structures at the same time are open: Closed domestic polities generate transnational linkages as domestic activists are pushed outward, often to protect their existence (Khagram et al., 2001:19). In this model the aim is to open the domestic opportunity structures through regime change (Khagram et al., 2001:19). Thus, this model is seen in cases where the domestic regime is a non-democratic country. - 19 -
3.1.3 Cooperating with Governmental Actors To be able to utilise the consequences of the political opportunity structures the transnational advocacy networks have to be aware of the importance of the governmental actors. This section will look at the cooperation between the governmental actors and the NGOs. This will be used to examine how important it is for the NGOs to work at the EU level and how governmental actors can be used in order to gain this influence. Keck and Sikkink (1998b) emphasise that links between the NGOs and governmental actors are central to the work of transnational advocacy networks. Transnational advocacy networks often include governmental actors and a lot of their work is targeted governmental and intergovernmental organisation such as the EU. As such governmental actors can both be the object and the subject of the transnational advocacy networks. The actors included are often the ones who share values with the transnational advocacy networks and thus will try to further the objective of transnational advocacy networks within their organisations. Keck and Sikkink (1998b) stress the network with governmental actors as a key point for the work of the transnational advocacy networks, as they write: Their ability to get things done frequently depends on their ability to exert leverage over more powerful actors, mainly officials of states (their own or others) or international organizations (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b:222). The quote states another important factor for influence, namely the transnational advocacy networks power in the arena in question. If a network experiences a lack of power in the arena itself it can instead choose to focus their advocacy work on more powerful actors. If this succeeds the network will have an actor with more power to defend their values in the arena where they themselves were lacking influence before. Keck and Sikkink argue that the political opportunity structure mentioned above has to do as much with political relations as with political institutions. (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b:222). This also implies importance of timing in order to constitute a network which includes governmental actors. The governmental actors each holds their own official positions and their personal stances thus become crucial for the success of gaining influence for the transnational advocacy network. In other words, cooperation between governmental actors and transnational advocacy networks depends on the transnational advocacy network catching - 20 -
the interest of the governmental actors in order to make them support the interests of the network (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b). Cooperation with governmental actors also has the advantage of offering transnational advocacy networks a link to these and other governmental actors, since most of the governmental actors also are part of transnational networks. This opens up for new arenas for the transnational advocacy networks. To gain influence on these transnational networks it is essentially for the transnational advocacy networks to have knowledge of how these institutions are structured and are functioning. The single NGO often has the problem that they cannot afford to maintain staff people in a variety of countries. (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b:228). This means the NGOs are largely depended on their location since meetings outside the country borders are require more resources due to travel expenses and time spending than meetings in the country. (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b). The transnational advocacy networks thus create an improved possibility for the NGOs to gain access to international arenas where meetings are spread over the world. However, despite the transnational advocacy network s role, Khagram et al. stress that most transnational non-governmental actors are relatively weak (2001:11). Therefore the NGOs create and use transnational advocacy networks as a strategy when working with advocacy in order to strengthen their position and capabilities as actors in the transnational arena, given that; By building new links among actors in civil societies, states, and internationally organizations, they multiply the channels of access to the international system (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:1). Thus, transnational advocacy networks create opportunities for the actors to get access to channels which can be important for the success of the advocacy. Hence, as Khagram has argued, the network of members spread over many different countries gives the actors the opportunity to direct their actions to the most sensitive point in the network (Khagram et al, 2001). And, importantly, Keck and Sikkink point out that if possible the actors often use pre-existing transnational networks when they want to create awareness on new issues (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:167), in order to save resources and make use of already existing expertise. - 21 -
3.1.4 Influencing This section state how the transnational advocacy networks work with different strategies of advocacy in order to gain influence. This will be used in answering which strategies and types of advocacy is used by the NGOs in order to gain influence at the EU level and how they are using transnational advocacy networks. In order to fulfil the networks objectives, as mentioned earlier, the transnational advocacy networks have to influence different policy levels. The types of influence and the target level of the transnational advocacy networks differ according to their objective. According to Keck and Sikkink (1998a:25,192,201) the types and stages of transnational advocacy networks influence can be sat up as followed: Information generation and agenda setting. Influence on discursive positions of states and international organisations or establishment of prescriptive status of norms. Influence on institutional procedures, e.g. treaty ratification, cooperation within international organisations. Influence on policy change in, e.g. states, international organisations, private actors. Influence on behaviour of governmental- or non-governmental actors. However, it is important to be aware that the transnational advocacy networks success in influencing policies depend on the strength and density of the network, and the ability to address the issue and overcome opposition (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:26,74). One way to address the issue is by exchanging information with the other members of the transnational advocacy network. Together the members of transnational advocacy networks provide information that would not have been available otherwise, and additionally give a voice to people who would not have been heard otherwise. Thus, they give non-state actors an opportunity to get alternative information, which not only contain facts but also testimonies from the people, whose lives have been affected. The networks make it possible getting the testimonies from the local NGOs and transfer them to the international level. The stories are thus collected through the different actors in transnational advocacy networks and by different means; the development workers personal meetings, through the local partner organisations contacts or exchange visits with the partners (Keck & Sikkink, 1998a:18f). The transnational - 22 -
advocacy networks flow of information also mean that the information to be used for lobbying, targeting key elites and feeding useful material to well-placed insiders. (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b:236) is less resourceful to collect and can be used to inform more actors than if the information was kept within one organisation. Keck and Sikkink stress that transnational advocacy networks must frame the issue in question in a way that will capture the attention of decision makers (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b:223). This is often done by renaming the issue and making it a matter of public international concern (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b:225). One strategy for getting attention is that the transnational advocacy network can focus on behaviour which is against the existing norms. They can try to sustain the existing norms by working to; publicize norm-breaking behaviour to embarrass public authorities and private firms so they will conform to norms (Khagram et al., 2001:16). This method is also called the mobilisation of shame (Khagram et al., 2001:16f). Another strategy for getting the attention of the civil societies is by using the most basic common denominator (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b:230) which can be found in the issue. The most basic common denominator describes the framing of an issue which can be accepted by most people across cultures. As an example the woman rights movement can gain more broad support by raising violence against women as their main issue rather than the right to free abortion. Thus the use of a more common denominator will allow an issue to become transnational as it gains support worldwide. When working to gain attention the media is an important actor as they can deliver the information from the transnational advocacy networks to the civil society. This implies that the transnational advocacy networks keep their credibility in order to be used as experts on relevant issues by the media. In order to gain the interest of the media the transnational advocacy networks are often depending on events that can serve as points of reference for the issue (Keck & Sikkink, 1998b). This section has accounted for the theory of transnational advocacy network by Khagram, Keck & Sikkink. The theory has given a base for examining advocacy as a method for the NGOs and especially the strategy of using transnational advocacy networks. - 23 -
3.2 Four Dimensions of Power This chapter builds on theory by Christensen and Jensen (2001) who have constructed a model with four dimensions of power. The work of Christensen and Jensen (2001) builds on the work of Lukes (2005) who constructed a model with three dimensions of power. Lukes was afterwards criticized by Peter Morriss for his concept of power. Morriss points that the difficulties Lukes has with the interrelationship between power (as agency) and structure only arises because he continues to work with a concept of power-over. (Morriss, 2006:130). Instead Morris points to instead use a concept of power-to since this include the structures influence on what the actors can obtain (2006, 130). Christensen and Jensen has included a fourth dimension describing the institutional power and thus already attained for the problem pointed by Morriss. We will in the following present the four dimension of power. Power is by Lukes defined as the bringing about of consequences (Scott, 2001:1) and the four dimensions each focus on one or two channels through which actors can seek to gain influence on the consequences of the decision making process. Thus the theory provides a theoretical tool describing decision making processes and the channels for influence. In the analysis this will allow us to examine how the NGOs use the different channels to gain influence. The first three dimensions of power involve power as actor A s influence on actor B. The fourth dimension is different as it involves an institutional power which influences the actors. The four dimensions of power in a decision making process are illustrated in Figure 3-2. The boxes in the figure represent each step in the decision making process and the arrows shows how the decision moves in process. Arrows pointed into emptiness illustrates that a range of issues are excluded from the process. The grey stippled lines illustrate the channels by which there can be gained influence. The fourth dimension of power is not showed in the figure as it surrounds the whole decision making process. In the description of each power dimension references will be made in order to explain the figure more detailed. - 24 -
Figure 3-2 Model of the three dimensions of power in a decision making process (Authors translation and modification of figure by Christensen & Jensen, 2001:63). 3.2.1 First Dimension of Power The first dimension sets focus on conflicts of interests sited in the decision making arena and on how power can be used to influence these decisions. The direct power is observable and therefore has a focus on the involved actors behaviour. (Lukes, 2005). In other words, direct power describes how actor A by its resources tries to influence actor B to do something which B would not have done otherwise (see Figure 2-2). Even though A tries to exercise this power it is not certain A succeeds. The issues in the decision making arena are won by the most influential actor in the arena. (Christensen & Jensen, 2001). This can explain how the NGOs can influence the governmental actors, such as the national governments and the EU. However, it is important to be aware that this exercise of influence requires that the NGOs have decision making power in the relevant arenas. - 25 -