There are many facets to the work of INGOs, emergencies and dealing with malnutrition are one aspect of the work and in order to fundraise these scenes do provoke action and are showing the truth in terms of that particular situation. INGOs are also working to deliver sustainable initiatives – Lendwithcare is an example that has also been promoted substantially in the public eyes and also the advocacy work of charities whereby decision makers are lobbied to make an even bigger difference is another. The public do engage with such areas of INGO work.

Nick you say “But most of the emotive Christmas appeals this year, and many others, are NOT connected to emergency relief, but to the general, ongoing levels of African need.”
I’m not sure what you mean by this but it definitely gives the wrong impression. The money that adverts raise is spent on what is being advertised. INGOs must be careful with and accountable for the money they raise from the public and it is a shame when public confusion created from statements like this one above damages this understanding. All adverts have to go through clearcast http://www.clearcast.co.uk/submissions.html When the advert is submitted for approval, all facts within the advert have to be substantiated – so clear evidence of each statement and the advert is raising money for what it states. For example if you say that you’ve helped 14 million people in the last 2 years – you have to show this through reports from the Programme Team, if you say £2 a month can pay for cement and bricks, then you have to show the cost of cement and bricks in a country etc. they won’t let an advert through without the substantiation. Hope this helps clarify Nick.

I don’t work in the field myself, although it is interesting and funny that you both think that someone who knows about sustainable work of INGOs MUST work in the field!

I understand issues of sustainable development work because INGOs DO ALSO TELL the ‘real African story’, as Nick puts it, and through INGO public campaigns I have learnt about the positive in Africa as well as the need for emergency relief. And the fact that emergency relief is still needed is not an ‘outdated’ idea but still one side of the African story.

Nick’s view that INGOs’ public messaging is ‘one sided’ is completely wrong, and it is really irresponsible and damaging of him to be promoting this flawed view.

There are so many public campaign channels other than adverts you know, even though not all adverts are showing emergencies — for example the Wateraid advert just to name one. And newspapers, like the Guardian Nick sited earlier, often acquire development stories from INGOs placing stories through press releases and inviting journalists to visit projects to spread the word about their sustainable development work and the positive change this brings through enabling Africans to lift themselves out of poverty. Talking of ‘the real African story’ there is also seeafricadifferently.com that campaigns to showcase the under-reported progress from Africa — all supported by various NGOs! This article adds some more dimensions to the issue including media responsibility http://www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition/why-does-it-take-images-of-starving-children-for-the-world-to-act.

Nick’s article has not taken into account any other nuances or factors in this issue or that INGOs differ from each other in many ways or that other agents are involved, or that there are many sides to the African story not just one positive or one negative. Instead he is blanket criticising a whole sector, and this makes for a poor argument as an argument like that just doesn’t stand up. I don’t know, maybe this blog was written on the bus in haste, but it just reads like an episode of Brass Eye “So we asked some children….”! Anyhow, good luck!!

Just like the case of the alleged war criminal Thomas Lubanga from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mid-March, the ICC has found Lubanga guilty:
As commander of the rebel group Forces pour la patriotiques libération du Congo (FPLC), he has 2002 and 2003 in the eastern region of Ituri, hundreds of children abducted and forcibly recruited under the age of 15 as soldiers. These crimes are punishable as war crimes under international law!

The verdict is a signal to the perpetrators, but also an important satisfaction for the victims. The victims are entitled a victim compensation from the Court — for many the only chance to build a new life.

This case shows how important it is that war criminals be brought to the International Criminal Court and charged. Only then will the victims really get justice at the end.

It is not sufficient to know only the name of a war criminal and to condemn him in the run before. To defend human rights is work and it is not done purely with propaganda and publicity.

Nancy, I’m not an expert in this field, you’re absolutely right and a lot of commentary in this area, including mine, needs more rigour.

But I think the area that we do understand well and can comment on is the effect of certain types of messages on public perceptions and behaviours.

It is clear, when we do examine this effect, that the messages are not leading towards a better understanding of the picture that you illustrate or more progressive behaviours.

I tried to make the distinction between emergency aid and development, but that wasn’t clear, I agree, and this is a key distinction.

There’s no doubt that disasters need emotive appeals and for the public to give “immediately and generously”, as you say. But most of the emotive Christmas appeals this year, and many others, are NOT connected to emergency relief, but to the general, ongoing levels of African need.

That this distinction has blurred into one — and that, despite trying, I didn’t extricate the two clearly — is, at least in part, a symptom of the way that this work is articulated through mass public campaigns — not just through more subtle messages that come through social media feeds to members and supporters.

Do people understand the distinction that you highlight? If not, should we be doing more to talk about the two types of intervention differently? Wouldn’t it make your job easier if there were higher levels of understanding of this distinction?

And you seem to have missed the point about how this kind of advertising fuels outdated popular understanding of Africa. Your point about adult misunderstandings seems to agree with that point? Wouldn’t you rather that public campaigns increased understanding of the issues you’re working on?

Its a very live debate and one that we should all be having.

There was a similar article (more thorough) in the Spectator:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/7652098/big-charity.thtml

One particularly interesting section:

“Aid workers know they are not saints; privately, they admit the shortcomings of their trade. They accept that billions have been wasted on failed ideas and flawed projects, and acknowledge that huge sums still go missing or are misspent. These concerns find increasingly strong echoes across the developing world. A swelling chorus of economists, politicians and pundits argue that western aid policies are patronising, destructive and outdated.”

http://www.psfk.com/2011/12/gaming-for-good-concepts-to-support-the-climate-reality-group.html

But none of them look remotely fun!

Many of our workshop attendees felt that the Commonwealth Games was a better model in this way.

From my part though, the paralympics affords an opportunity to influence sport at the grass roots level — this is where it makes a difference. The person who uses a wheelchair being paired with an able bodied person in a tennis match because they are of the same tennis ability, the person with an intellectual disability playing football with his peers because he has the same football ability as boys of similar age to him, the ability to use adapted equipment to allow the life of a lawn bowler to be extended, well after arthritis would have stolen the opportunity to bowl… and for all these participants to be accepted, given the opportunity and embraced.

It’s not about segregation in sport, but aspiration! And this aspiration, I believe, floats down to the grass roots level, making inclusion more attractive and possible.

I am very much looking forward to many more of your posts provoking me to rethink what I thought I already knew…

http://www.seeafricadifferently.com is attempting to change people’s perceptions of Africa — focusing on good news stories from the continent. I hope to see sites like http://www.kiva.org increasingly engage a new generation of givers in the UK to be part of a positive solution to poverty rather than only guilt-giving to short term disaster relieve appeals.