NGO support toolkit (English) 

Institutional Change

NGO support programmes (NSPs) are normally in a unique position to influence the broader institutions that play a significant part in the response to the epidemic, and improve the external context in which they and their partner organisations work. This can be achieved through advocacy for change in the policies and practice of others, by contributing to collective knowledge on good methods and approaches and by building strategic partnerships to work with stakeholders in different sectors.

Policy and advocacy work is more likely to be effective and have higher levels of legitimacy if it is directly linked to the organisation’s overall mission and its programmatic activities. For example, NGOs and CBOs working with sex workers may be able to advocate powerfully for a change in policies or legislation relating to sex and sex work in order to facilitate effective HIV prevention.

By working in partnership with other organisations, NGOs and CBOs can increase their influence and capacity to achieve change through joint action. NSPs are in a position to facilitate such partnerships, and with other sectors, and so increase the potential for resource mobilisation, co-ordinated action and service delivery. However, it should also be recognised that partnerships are not easily forged or maintained and take time, energy and commitment to become successful. Partnership requires consensus building and shared agendas. There are a number of crucial issues that potential partners need to take into consideration before they enter into partnership, such as existing power relations, who will take a leadership role, the boundaries of the partnership and the level and extent of commitment required.

The process of sharing lessons and facilitating learning exchange may also be valuable, by influencing and improving the practice of others. In addition, often such lessons are most convincing when based on research conducted to understand a situation better, identify good practice or test different hypotheses and methods. Contributing to the collective pool of knowledge is another powerful way to influence the wider institutions acting upon the response to HIV/AIDS and thus magnify the effect of the single organisation’s actions. Sometimes the most powerful effect of such institutional change is simply to increase the resources mobilised for HIV/AIDS or get them re-directed in a more focussed or appropriate way.

Issues to consider

• This area of work requires an investment of time and human resources. Less well-resourced organisations should be aware of the potential impact this can have in diverting resources from their core programmes.
• While it often seems obvious for NSPs to concentrate on policy and advocacy work that is drawn directly from their experience of NGO support, there are times when policy work will be required on issues that NSPs have no direct experience of, but which are important to address as they have a broader impact on NGO/CBO activities. These broader issues are often addressed through advocacy coalitions that have combined strength and a range of experience to draw upon.
• NSPS need to be aware of the potential political implications that doing policy and in particular advocacy work can have. Furthermore, this area of work may put the organisation into the spotlight which can have both positive and negative consequences.
• The results of an organisation’s efforts to bring about institutional change is often not easy to measure and impact can be hard to attribute directly. This can make effective monitoring and evaluating of such work especially challenging.

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