Ethical Questions and International NGOs

In 2007, Melbourne University hosted a workshop to discuss many ethical questions that International NGOs face. This book is borne of that workshop. It fully considers current challenges and dilemmas INGOs confront and offers new ideas for meeting them.

In recent decades there has been a great expansion in the number, size and influence of International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) involved in international relief and development. These changes have led to increased scrutiny of such organisations, and this scrutiny, together with increasing reflection by INGOs themselves and their staff on their own practice, has helped to highlight a number of pressing ethical questions such organisations face, such as: should INGOs attempt to provide emergency assistance even when doing so risks helping to fuel further conflict? How should INGOs manage any differences between their values and those of the people they seek to benefit? How open and honest should INGOs be about their own uncertainties and failures?

This book consists of sustained reflections on such questions. It derives from a workshop held at Melbourne University in July 2007 that brought together a group of people for the most part, reflective practitioners and moral and political philosophers to discuss such questions. It explores honestly some of the current challenges and dilemmas that INGOs face, and also suggests some new ideas for meeting these challenges. Our hope is that the kind of explicit reflection on the ethical issues INGOs face exemplified in this publication will help to promote a wider debate about these issues, a debate that in turn will help INGO managers and others to make better, wiser, more ethically informed decisions.

Sustained discussion of ethical questions International NGO's face Contributions from both practitioners and moral and political philosophers Derives from a dialogue between practitioners and moral and political philosophers Framed by an Introduction and Afterword co-written by a development practitioner (Chris Roche) and a philosopher (Keith Horton) Extended discussion of issues such as INGO accountability and effectiveness, the dilemmas of humanitarian relief, and questions associated with the phenomenon of INGO growth and organisational structure

Contenu
Ethical Obligations to the Poor in a World of Nation States.- Human Rights, Development INGOs and Priorities for Action.- The Ethics of Taking Sides.- The Epistemic Problem: Potential Solutions.- The Seeming Simplicity of Measurement*.- Whose Impact, and Is It All About Impact?.- Compromised Humanitarianism.- Aid Agencies, States, and Collective Harm.- To Respect or Not to Respect . . . Ethical Dilemmas of INGO Development Practitioners.- Ethical Behaviour in Non-government Organisations.- Afterword.