Abstract
Out of the colonial discourse emerged the hegemonic development discourse created by the
West. This ‘Western development discourse’ has resulted in a lot of practices that did not
improve human conditions in any way. As a critique on this discourse, sustainable development
emerged. However, this still carried the Western idea of economic growth that caused for global
inequalities and the climate crisis. At the same that sustainable development came up, NGOs
started to play a more prominent role in the development sector. Especially those coming from
the Global North. While currently many NGOs want to achieve sustainable and inclusive
development in the South, the almost inevitable reproduction of the Western development
discourse might hamper their ambitions. A post-development stance of the NGOs may be better
if they want to achieve the sustainable and inclusive world they aim for. This exploratory
research looks at how the Western development discourse influences three NGOs from the
Global North that work to achieve sustainable and inclusive development in the Global South.
It contributes to an answer to the question of how we can achieve a fair and sustainable world
with minimal inequalities. To get a view of how the NGOs interpreted ‘sustainable and
inclusive development’, a discourse analysis of the website of the NGOs was done, as well as
interviews with employees of the NGOs. Ultimately it became clear that two of the three NGOs
take an alternative development stance and one tended toward a post-development stance.
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________________ 4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK____________________________________________________________ 6
DISCOURSES IN SHORT ____________________________________________________________________ 6 THE EMERGENCE OF “THE WEST” ___________________________________________________________ 8
FROM THE COLONIAL DISCOURSE TO THE WESTERN DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE _______________________ 9
NGO’S AND THE DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE _________________________________________________ 11 SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT _________________________________________________ 12 DEGROWTH ___________________________________________________________________________ 13 METHODOLOGY _______________________________________________________________________ 13
RESEARCH DESIGN ______________________________________________________________________ 13 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH _________________________________________________________________ 14 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF WEBSITES AND INTERVIEWS ___________________________________________ 14
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH _________________________________________ 16
METHODOLOGICAL SKILLS AND DATA HANDLING ______________________________________________ 16 FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGY ________________________________________________________________ 16
ANALYSIS OF THE NGOS _______________________________________________________________ 17
SUB-QUESTION 1:HOW DO THE NGOS EXPLAIN ‘SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT’ ON THEIR WEBSITE? _____________________________________________________________________________ 17 SUB-QUESTION 2:HOW DO EMPLOYEES OF THE NGOS INTERPRET THE TERM ‘SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT’? _______________________________________________________________________ 19
ANSWERING THE MAIN QUESTION __________________________________________________________ 21 Solidaridad __________________________________________________________________________ 22 Oxfam Novib ________________________________________________________________________ 24 Both ENDS _________________________________________________________________________ 26
ALTERNATIVE- AND POST-DEVELOPMENT ____________________________________________________ 28 CONCLUSION__________________________________________________________________________ 28 RECOMMENDATIONS__________________________________________________________________ 30 REFERENCES __________________________________________________________________________ 30 APPENDIX I – QUOTES SOLIDARIDAD THEIR WEBSITE _________________________________ 34 APPENDIX II – QUOTES OXFAM NOVIB THEIR WEBSITE ________________________________ 35 APPENDIX III - QUOTES BOTH ENDS THEIR WEBSITE __________________________________ 36 APPENDIX IV – QUOTES INTERVIEW SOLIDARIDAD ____________________________________ 38 APPENDIX V - QUOTES INTERVIEW OXFAM NOVIB _____________________________________ 40 APPENDIX VI - QUOTES INTERVIEW BOTH ENDS _______________________________________ 42 APPENDIX VII – TRANSCRIPT INTERVIEW SOLIDARIDAD _______________________________ 43 APPENDIX VIII - TRANSCRIPT INTERVIEW OXFAM NOVIB ______________________________ 56 APPENDIX IX – TRANSCRIPT INTERVIEW BOTH ENDS __________________________________ 68
Introduction
Development has been the world’s biggest aim for centuries up until today, but the existence
of this term and questioning what it entails is a much more recent practice (Kothari et al., 2018).
The dominant discourse of development can be explained as the Global South's struggle to
catch up with the Global North in terms of economy (Ebrahim, 2009). We can call this discourse
the hegemonic ‘Western development discourse’ because it was created by the norms of a
dominant social class - the West. It has been the West’s justification for dominating over the
rest of the world led by the idea that the society of the ‘West’ is developed and the ‘rest’ is not
(Ziai, 2015; Petersen, William & Sachs, 1992; Kothari et al., 2018; Du Pisani, 2006). This
domination emerged in the colonial era but has been replaced by globalization due to Western
transnational corporations' settlement wherein the idea of infinite economic growth has
controlled formerly colonized societies. As such, lots of practices that have not improved
human conditions in any way have been carried out in the name of Western development (Ziai,
2015; Petersen, William & Sachs, 1992; Kothari et al., 2018).
Of course, other discourses on development exist, but these are not dominant. One of
such discourses on development that emerged in the 1960 and 1970s is sustainable
development. It came up as a dissent against the current norm of development, critiquing it on
its sustainability. Nevertheless, the aim for economic growth remained in play (Du Pisani,
2006). Soon, sustainable development received a lot of critique on the contradiction it contains
that economic growth and sustainability work together (Du Pisani, 2006; Asara, Otero,
Demaria, & Corbera, 2015). The degrowth movement originated out of this critique. They reject
economic growth as a whole as an aim for a sustainable and just future (Ebrahim, 2009;
Escobar, 2015; Kallis et al., 2018; Vandeventer, Cattaneo, & Zografos, 2019; Kothari et al.,
2018). Nonetheless, the idea of 'growth', under the name of sustainable development or not, is
still pursued and largely unquestioned globally and, therefore, the Western development
discourse remains dominant (Asara et al., 2015).
At the same time as the emergence of sustainable development, since the 1970s, NGOs
started to play a more prominent role within the development sector (Banks & Hulme, 2012).
Like many other institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from the Global North
that work in the Global South are also, at least to some extent, reproducing the dominant
discourses (Ebrahim, 2009; Makuwira, 2018). Therefore, the Western development discourse
influences these NGOs and possibly hampers the ambition of sustainable and inclusive
development.
In this exploratory research, several development NGOs from the Global North that
work in the Global South are researched to show how this Western development discourse
influences these NGOs. As the NGOs chosen for this research are striving for sustainable and
inclusive development, this research aims to see how the NGOs interpret this concept within
the system they operate that is based on the Western idea of development. It will also show how
they differ from each other in their interpretations of these concepts. This thesis' main question
will be: How does the Western development discourse influence the working method of
nongovernmental organizations based in the Global North that strive for sustainable and
inclusive development in the Global South? To get a good answer to this main question, two
sub-questions must be answered. These are the following:
1. How do the NGOs explain ‘sustainable and inclusive development’ on their website?
2. How do employees of the NGOs interpret the term ‘sustainable and inclusive
development’?
The NGOs that I have chosen to do a case study on are Solidaridad, Both ENDS and Oxfam
Novib. I chose NGOs for this research because these are development organizations and
therefore the development discourse is at the forefront of their work. Moreover, I have chosen
these specific NGOs because they all aim for sustainable and inclusive development and all
have been operating for several decades.
I will look at the influence of the Western development discourse by doing a critical
discourse analyses on the way these NGOs talk (interviews analysis) and write (website
analysis) about sustainable and inclusive development. Eventually, the research will show how
the ways NGOs approach their sustainable and inclusive development goals are alike and how
they are all influenced by the Western development discourse.
If we want to achieve a fair and sustainable world for all people with minimal
inequalities, this research's central question is one of many that we must answer. Because the
development discourse encourages and justifies interventions that have real consequences, it is
needed to explore the relations of power and knowledge that are formed within this
development discourse (McEwan, 2001). So, it is vital to understand how the NGOs that are
included in this research cope with the current system based on the Western development
discourse. This research will give the needed insights for every organization that wants to
achieve sustainable and inclusive development. It will also add to the existing literature about
the links between NGOs and the influences of development discourses and aims to contribute
to a body of literature that helps people understand how discourses are formed and how they
influence what people think and do. Furthermore, this thesis can contribute to forming an image
of what power relations need to be revised to achieve real sustainability and inclusivity and how
the Western development discourse influences that.
Theoretical framework
To understand what the questions in this thesis are about and how they will be answered, certain
concepts must be explained. Therefore, in this theoretical framework, I will clarify what a
discourse is, how the Western development discourse was formed, how development
organizations emerged and what role sustainability and inclusivity play within the development
discourse, linked to NGOs.
The main theories that I have worked with are postcolonial theory, post-development theory
and political ecology.
Postcolonial theory sets its context alongside poststructuralism, postmodernism,
Marxism, and Feminism. A critique to development is given by both feminism and
postcolonialism by challenging the dominant discourse on North-South relations that is formed
by the Western worldview (Gandhi, 2019; McEwan, 2001). It questions the idea of the North
as progressive and the South as backward. A postcolonial approach aims to overcome
inequalities by making the voices of the oppressed heard and to remove negative stereotypes
about these oppressed countries and the people living there (McEwan, 2001).
Post-development theory grew out of the critique on development by postcolonial
theorists (Makuwira, 2018) and comes forth from the idea that ‘economic development equals
progress’ needs to be revised (Kothari et al., 2018). Within post-development theory, many
other alternatives to development come into play that all reject the dominating development
theory. Therefore, the theory is hard to define precisely. However, it is clear that this theory is
critical of Western society and how the West frames itself as opposed to the rest of the world
(Matthews, 2010). Latouche, for instance, writes how the imaginary should be decolonized to
achieve a society that distances itself from growth and development (Latouche, 2014).
Political ecology focuses on human-environment relations. It has a critical notion on
sustainable development, also concerning NGOs. Moreover, political ecology will be used
because both economic development and the development discourse are debated (Russell,
2005).
Discourses in short
The description of discourse that I will use comes from the French philosopher Michel Foucault
(1926-1984). In discourses, power and knowledge are joined together (Escobar, 1984). They
are made by the (re-)production of knowledge through language driven by a will to truth. More
broadly stated, discourses are formed by the ways people talk, write, think or represent certain
topics wherein these structures of language form a certain effect of meaning (Foucault, 1971).
Therefore, all ways of producing knowledge about a certain topic together produce the
discourse there is about a certain topic. Knowledge production happens through social practices
by institutions that all consist of some meaning and thus all have a discursive aspect that
strengthens its power when repeated (Foucault, 1971; Hall, 1992). So, the repetition of a certain
discourse forms the norm and ultimately makes it dominant, while not repeating a certain
discourse limits its powers (Foucault, 1984). Therefore, discourses never stop abruptly. They
will always continue to unfold, change and adapt to new circumstances and always carry many
unconscious presumptions (Hall, 1992). A discourse can thus be seen as a complex network of
relationships between all the things that are mentioned or (often intentionally) not mentioned
when talking or writing about a certain topic (Olsson, 2010).
Discourses are formed over long periods of time. Therefore, they are historically
produced ways of making sense of the world around us and are embedded within wider relations
of power that are linked to knowledge (Ebrahim, 2009). That means that every place where
knowledge is produced, discourses are produced and these discourses hold power because they
represent knowledge about a topic a certain way. Next to this, because there exists a dominant
discourse on a certain topic, it also limits the other ways in which concepts can gain power.
Ultimately, everything that exists outside of a discourse has no power (Hall, 1992) and a truth
claim that does not comply with the dominating discourse will be meaningless (Olsson, 2010).
Therefore, “discourses are not representations of an objective reality, but the bricks with which
we build social reality” (Ziai, 2015, p. 13). However, whether a discourse is true or false is a
less important question than whether the discourse is effective and thereby forming a regime of
truth – organizing and regulating relations of power (Hall, 1992).
Thus, we can question dominant discourses formed by knowledges, by questioning their
historical conditions, their effects, the interests they serve and what relations of power they
uphold (Miller, 1990). Researching discourses makes us investigate the history of the present
and makes that we can get a historical awareness of present circumstances and know where our
conceptualization of things comes from (Escobar, 1984). This is what I will do within this
research, first by showing how the Western development discourse emerged and questioning
the current form of this discourse and then then analyzing how NGOs of the North that work in
the South are influenced by the current dominant Western discourse of development. The first
step now is to see what is meant by ‘Western’. The next paragraph will go into this.
The emergence of “the West”
Foucault states that discourses are controlled, organized and redistributed according to specific
processes and his aim is to specify how discourses are formed in Western society (Escobar,
1984). To understand discourses, according to him, we have to study the ways in which certain
behaviors or ideas became problematized in the Western world at particular points in history
and how these were formed through institutions and practices (Escobar, 1984; Foucault, 1984).
The terms ‘West’ or ‘Western’ are very complex ideas with multiple meanings. It says
something about a geographical location, but we also use these words to refer to a certain type
of society, or better to say: a certain level of development. This last way of referring is what I
mean when referring to the ‘Western development discourse’. The West includes all societies
that are developed, industrialized, urbanized, capitalist, secular and modern. Therefore, one
could say that the term ‘Western’ is identical to ‘modern’. And because modernity is believed
to be merged with wealth, many societies strive to become Western (Hall, 1992, pp. 185-186).
Hall (1992, p. 185) speaks of the discourse of “the West and the Rest” that was formed
by how the Western and non-Western societies came to be presented. He says the following
about the development of the term:
“The West” was produced by certain historical processes that occurred in specific places and certain historical circumstances and soon “the West” itself became productive. With this I mean that the concept enabled people to speak of things in certain ways. This resulted in the concept becoming “both the organizing factor in a system of global power relations and the organizing concept or term in a whole way of thinking and speaking”. (Hall, 1992, p. 187)
So, the concept of “the West” makes it possible to classify societies into different categories –
‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’. Therefore, it linguistically represents something, verbally and
visually, it shapes an image of how places and cultures differ from each other; it makes a system
of representation. It also makes comparisons possible; how societies are alike or differ from
each other. It lays bare difference. Lastly, it shows a positive or negative connotation and thus
produces a certain kind of knowledge and attitude about a subject (Hall, 1992).
The Enlightenment in Europe helped to create the concept of ‘the West’. At this time
the idea developed that the European society was the most advanced type of all and the
European man the highest in the range of homosapiens. This idea was partially produced by
Europe comparing itself with other, non-Western, societies that have had a very different
history and thus very different understanding of development compared to the European model.
Ultimately, the Europeans saw their society as the standard against which ‘other’ societies were
measured. It was because of this binary opposition that the concept of ‘the West’ got its
meaning. Gradually, Europe came to stand at the center of the world in the minds of an
increasing amount of people – something that later became known as the ‘Eurocentric’ view on
the world (Hall, 1992).
(…) we may not ourselves believe in the natural superiority of the West. But if we use the discourse of “the West and the Rest” we will necessarily find ourselves speaking from a position that holds that the West is a superior civilization. (Hall, 1992, p. 202)
The discourse of the West about the Rest, according to Foucault, was formed by practice; it was
formed by the way the West behaved towards the Rest. Therefore, it was never innocent as
power and knowledge differences made the encounter between the two unequal (Foucault,
1984; Hall, 1992).
From the colonial discourse to the Western development discourse
As we have seen that the West made itself superior to the rest of the world, this section will
elaborate on the power relations between the West and the rest of the world and how this formed
the Western development discourse.
The European expansion was based on economic, political and spiritual motives. European
powers started slave-trading in 1441 and formed a commercial empire whereby the transition
from exploration to conquest and colonization was soon made. By the eighteenth-century
Portugal, Spain, England, France, and The Netherlands had all colonized parts of the world,
bringing to them Western economic systems, exploiting wealth, land, labor and natural
resources all in favor of European development (Hall, 1992). These colonial practices produced
knowledge that enabled people from Western countries to call themselves civilized and under
that note employ barbaric practices to the victims they saw as uncivilized (Ziai, 2015). Escobar
(1984) states that the countries that were called the ‘new worlds’ in the times of ‘discovery’
and conquest, came to be represented as ‘underdeveloped worlds’ (p. 385). This happened in a
speech US-president Truman gave in January 1949 wherein he used the term ‘underdeveloped’
for the first time. He said:
[W]e must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas. More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery … Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to the more prosperous areas … The United States is pre-eminent among nations in the development of industrial and scientific techniques … I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of ours sum of technical knowledge in order to help them realise their
aspiration for a better life. And, in cooperation with other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing development. Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more material for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens … The old imperialism – exploitation for foreign profits – has no place in our plans. What we envisage is a program for development based on the concepts of democratic fair dealing. (Ziai, 2015, p. 30)
It was in this speech that the dichotomy of civilized/uncivilized was replaced by the dualism
developed/underdeveloped. Large parts of the population willingly adopted to this discourse of
development wherein the South became imaged as underdeveloped because this discourse no
longer constructed them as inferior, but as equal participants in the race to development
connected to the economic circles – in the progress towards growth. Portraying development
this way – as if anyone could achieve it - made the development discourse far more attractive
to the South then the colonial discourse (Ziai, 2015). But yet, as Ziai (2015) says:
[T]his discourse simultaneously constructs the identity of the underdeveloped as backward and as part of an inferior culture whose deficits can only be compensated by taking over Western ideals of rationality, productivity and modernity and a constant effort to assimilate oneself to the norm. (p. 31)
Truman admitted that self-interest played a role in portraying poverty in the South as a handicap
and a threat for the US economy after the war. Another threat was the possibility of the
colonized joining the communist camp. The problem of underdevelopment was hereby linked
to non-capitalist values and a lack of technology whereby importing Western values of capital
and technology and international trading became the right way to act and so, the capitalist world
system started to thrive (Ziai, 2015, p. 31-32).
This way, the postwar period imposed new types of power and knowledge from the
West on the countries that they saw as underdeveloped. This is how the ‘underdeveloped world’
was shaped that not only consisted of a certain type of economic behavior, but also sociocultural
and political systems that were appropriated whereby the domination of the West over the rest
of the world maintained. There was a reorganization of power at the world level, led by the
West, that was based on a capitalist system. The missions to develop the underdeveloped world
started at this time with development programs of international organizations and the rise of
experts in all types of development fields. The idea was that these countries would become rich
and developed (Escobar, 1984). However, the parts of the world where Western development
was promoted, largely have remained underdeveloped. Or, at the places where development
took place, this development remained largely dependent on countries in the West (Hall, 1992).
As Escobar (1984) says:
[D]evelopment has been successful to the extent that it has been able to penetrate, integrate, manage and control countries and populations in increasingly detailed and encompassing ways. If it has failed to solve the problems of underdevelopment, it can also be said, perhaps with greater pertinence, that it has succeeded well in creating a type of underdevelopment which has been until now, for the most part, politically and economically manageable. (p. 388)
NGO’s and the development discourse
From a Western perspective, some countries were not able to stand by themselves to achieve
conditions of the modern world and therefore needed to be taken care of by countries that were
already developed; the Western countries. You could say that, to become a good country, the
underdeveloped countries needed a necessary correction and therefore they became the objects
of the development discourse. Hereby, global development institutions started categorizing
countries as developed, less developed and least developed, mainly based on their income (Ziai,
2015). However, the execution of this development by the Global North has often been at the
expense of cultural and environmental practices of the Global South (Makuwira, 2018) and led
to crossing planetary boundaries (Gupta, Pouw, & Ros-Tonen, 2015). Next to this, there exists
a fear that the subaltern is silenced. Because of the power relationships between the North and
the South and the differences they have in their interpretation of development, it remains
unclear whose agenda of development is being promoted by development institutions like
NGOs. Following the Western development discourse, development could be seen as a global
business – a political economy of aid in a capitalist world - instead of an empowerment of the
voices in the countries that are receiving development aid (Makuwira, 2018). Social, political
and economic in- and exclusion together result in the level of equality in the world and because
this dominating neoliberal capitalist ideology benefits only some at the cost of others (Gupta et
al., 2015), equality will not be achieved within this system based on Western norms (Kothari et
al., 2018).
When US-president Truman announced the ‘program of development’ in his speech in
1949, he had to explain what he meant with the term ‘underdeveloped’. Nowadays, the terms
‘development’ and ‘development cooperation’ are almost self-evident as everyone instantly
assumes they are about projects that diminish poverty in Africa, Asia or Latin America (Ziai,
2015). The discourse of development has thus reached a certainty in the social imaginary which
means that the power relations between North and South reached it too (Escobar, 1995). If
NGOs continue to enforce this Western development discourse on the countries they work with,
they will continue to marginalize them and amplify inequality. Therefore, they have to be open
to new insights of development (Makuwira, 2018) and make the commitment to monitor
equality, sustainability and ecological protection by setting terms for equal interactions between
the North and the South (Gupta & Vegelin, 2016).
Sustainable and inclusive development
Today many NGOs strive for sustainable development (Bendell, 2000; Lewis & Kanji, 2009)
because they started to realize that development could not go at the expense of people and
practices in the Global South or at the expense of the climate (Bendell, 2000; Gupta et al., 2015;
Makuwira, 2018).
The Brundtland Report, written by the World Commission for Environment and
Development (WCED) that came out in 1987 first coined the term sustainable development. It
presented sustainable development as a global solution to the environmental destruction and
poverty happening because of the continuance of aiming for economic growth (Tregidga,
Milne, & Kearins, 2014) and was described as a kind of “development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(WCED, 1987, P. 43). These ‘needs’ were defined as employment, food, energy and housing
(WCED, 1987) and were very anthropocentrically defined. Unfortunately, they also were not
clear enough to ensure green capitalism could not arise within sustainable development.
Therefore, when sustainable development engaged with organizations through the Earth
Summit in 1992 in Rio, this was exactly what happened. The ‘needs’ that were talked about in
Rio, coming from the description of sustainable development out of the Brundtland Report,
remained too vague. As a consequence, overconsumption by the richest businesses and
individuals were overlooked (Tregidga et al., 2014; Bruno & Karliner, 2002). As Cayley ( 2017)
states about the description of sustainable development: “its vagueness renders it liable to be
undertaken on paper, with no real changes made” (p. 6). Currently, the Brundtland Report is
translated to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Gupta et al., 2015). Because
sustainable development can be interpreted very broadly, it was adopted in many parts of
society in different ways, also by NGOs (Bendell, 2000).
There also, like sustainable development, is no clear definition of inclusive development
yet. The concept was first mentioned by the Asian Development Bank who referred to it as
economic “growth with equal opportunities” (Rauniyar & Kanbur, 2009, p. 3). However, some
years later Gupta et al. (2015) started defining inclusive development as “development that
includes marginalized people, sectors and countries in social, political and economic processes
for increased human well-being, social and environmental sustainability, and empowerment”
which responds to change (p. 546). Just like it is with sustainable development, what inclusive
development means thus depends on how you interpret it.
Degrowth
To change the way we interpret growth and development, we have to decolonize our imaginary
(Latouche, 2014). This, however, is not possible within a growth society (Adams &
Estrada-Villalta, 2017; Kothari et al., 2018; Latouche, 2014) and thus the growth paradigm needs to be
questioned if we want to achieve true inclusiveness and sustainability (Asara et al., 2015;
Kothari et al., 2018). A degrowth society could be the way to achieve this. Degrowth, according
to Asara et al. (2015) “helps to further emphasize the existing contradictions between growth,
the environment and social well-being, and envisions a potential multi-scalar transformation
pathway towards smaller and localized economies that redistribute wealth, supported by state
and supra-national policies” and at the same time “aspires to repoliticise the debates on the
science and practice of sustainability” (p. 381). Post-growth thinking originates from the South
and has existed for decades but was never incorporated in the West until now. To achieve a
degrowth society, every country should be striving for a stable condition at their maximum
sustainable size. At least the countries in the North must degrow and the Global South must
become independent of the Global North (Gerber & Raina, 2018).
Concludingly, a change has been happening in the discourse of development over the last
decades. The traditional Western development discourse that is based on endless economic
growth has been joined by one that considers sustainability and inclusivity. However, these
discourses are still formed by Western thoughts and what the terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘inclusive’
entail remains open for interpretation. Therefore, when an NGO says that they are striving for
sustainable and inclusive development, the question remains how this idea of development is
still based on capitalism and unequal power-relations between the North and the South. This
aim for Western development resulted in an increase of inequality and the exploitation of the
environment.
Methodology
In this section, the methods of this research will be explained.
Research design
This thesis is an exploratory research of three NGOs from the Global North that work to achieve
sustainable and inclusive development in the Global South. I will look at how ‘sustainability’,
‘inclusivity’ and ‘development’ are interpreted by these NGOs and how these interpretations
are in line with the Western development discourse. The broader question underlying this thesis
is whether a sustainable, inclusive and thus equal world could be achieved by NGOs from the
Global North that aim for sustainable and inclusive development in the Global South. This
research is only the first step towards answering this question.
A multiple case study is done for this research that entails a detailed and intensive
discourse analysis of the three chosen cases (Bryman, 2012). These cases will be the NGOs
Solidaridad, Both ENDS and Oxfam Novib. They are exemplifying cases which means that
they are only one example in a broader range of similar cases that they are part of (Bryman,
2012, p. 70).
Qualitative research
For this research, qualitative research methods will be used because my aim with this thesis is
to get an insight into in-depth concepts that cannot be answered with a numerical outcome.
Thus, to gain insight into how the Western development discourse influences Dutch NGOs that
work for sustainable and inclusive development in the Global South, qualitative research is
needed (Bryman, 2012). The methods used in this research will be a critical discourse analysis
of the NGOs their websites (written language) and of in-depth interviews (spoken language)
with employees of the NGOs. These methods are explained below and chosen because I am
investigating a discourse, and a discourse is based on both written and spoken language.
Table 1: an overview of the sub-questions.Main question How does the Western development discourse influence the working method of nongovernmental organizations based in the Global North that strive for sustainable and inclusive development in the Global South?
Sub-questions 1. How do the NGOs explain ‘sustainable and inclusive development’ on their
website?
2. How do employees of the NGOs interpret the term ‘sustainable and inclusive
development’?
Discourse analysis of websites and interviews
To answer sub-question one (see table 1), I did a critical discourse analysis (Bryman, 2012, pp.
536-538). Ultimately, the critical discourse analysis will show how the NGOs use their
language as a power resource (Bryman, 2012) and it will lay bare how close their interpretation
of the term 'development' relates to the Western development discourse when linked to the
theory.
For the analysis of the websites of the NGOs I have looked at the way they talked about
how they wanted to achieve their goal of sustainable and inclusive development. I wrote down
the themes the NGOs said to work on, on their website and under each of these themes I
gathered the most important quotes. The key points of these quotes gave the answer to
sub-question one.
The interview type that I used in this research was a semi-structured interview. This was
done by drawing up a list of questions that need to be covered. The main thing I wanted to see
is how the interviewees interpreted ‘sustainability’, ‘inclusivity’ and ‘development’ apart from
one another as well as the concept ‘sustainable and inclusive development’ as a whole. So,
those were the main topics of the interview. Next to that, I also asked who, in the organization,
decides what is perceived as sustainable or inclusive. Lastly, I have asked about their usage of
the term ‘development country’. The interview process remained flexible so that the
interviewee could explain events, patterns, and forms of behavior (Bryman, 2012, p. 471). This
was necessary to be able to answer sub-question two (see table 1) and to distract from the
interview what has a priority and what is left out in the conversation. To answer sub-question
two, the most important quotes on the interpretation from each of the concepts were written
down (see appendix IV, V and VI). After this, the key points of these quotes gave the answer
to sub-question two.
The sampling method used for these interviews is snowball-sampling. This means that
I started by contacting the NGOs by their general e-mail address. After that, the respondents
got me in contact with people that I could interview inside the NGOs (Bryman, 2012, pp.
202-203). There was not a specific person that I wanted to speak within each of the NGOs as the
thought was that every employee could say something about the interpretation of concepts
within the NGO. In the end, the interviewees all turned out to be employed at the NGOs for ten
years or more. This was an assurance that they got a good interpretation of the concepts that
were talked about in the interview.
The interviews were done via Zoom and were audio-recorded and transcribed (see
appendixes VII till IX). The fact that the interviewees could give socially desirable answers is
no problem in this research. This is because in the discourse analyses I am not looking for the
truth, but for the way the NGOs form a regime of truth that organizes and regulates relations of
power. For the interviews, I have always asked beforehand if I may record the interview and
taken notes when doing the interviews to at least have some information when the hardware
malfunctions. Next to this, I saved all audio recordings on an external hard drive immediately
after recording. Lastly, the websites of Solidaridad and Oxfam Novib were written in Dutch
and the interviews were also done in Dutch. Therefore, the quotes that I used in the appendixes
and the results are translated to English by myself.
Table 2: An overview of the indicators of the Western development discourse
1. North-South interactions - Are there equal relations between North and South? - Whose interest in development is served?
2. Capitalism - Does the development the NGOs aim for work in favor of the capitalist system?
3. Dependence on the Global North - Will the countries where the development work is done become more equal to the countries in the Global North? - Will the countries become ‘developed countries’?
- Will the countries become more independent of the Global North?
4. New designs of the economy - Are the NGOs open to new designs of the economy?
A combination of the theoretical framework, the website analysis and the in-depth interviews
together makes it possible to answer the main question of this research (see table 1). Out of the
theoretical framework came several indicators of the Western development discourse. For each
of these indicators I made questions that would lay bare their influence on the NGOs (see table
2). The overall answers to these questions will form the results which mainly consist out of
quotes of the website and the interviewees.
Reliability and validity of qualitative research
Reliability and validity are essential to consider within qualitative research. Good reliability
will be met by ensuring that my observations' outcome is clear and not debatable. A good
validity will be met by a good match between my observations and the theory (Bryman, 2012).
Because the critical discourse analysis was done by only me, the data is considered through
only one lens. For a deeper analysis, more lenses should be included to provide other
perspectives (Janks, 1997). Moreover, this research could deal with generalization problems
because the interviews were conducted with only one person within each NGOs. Everyone
within the NGO should be interviewed on their interpretation of the terms to get the best view
of the NGOs interpretation in general. Unfortunately, that was not possible. However, the
outcome of the interviews could have differed when other employees were interviewed
(Bryman, 2012, pp. 405-406).
Methodological skills and data handling
For the interviews, the interviewees were asked beforehand if I could mention their names in
the thesis or if they wanted to stay anonymous. Moreover, I always worked in a document that
was not accessible to other people, and every update was saved on an external hard drive. The
interviews were recorded and processed on Atlas.ti, a workbench for qualitative analysis of
audio, among other things, to ensure a secure storage. The literature for the theoretic framework
was collected in a structured way on Mendeley.
This research is based on feminist epistemology. In feminist epistemology, it is acknowledged
that there is no one truth but many perspectives on the truth (Haraway, 1988). Therefore, this
research, wherein I write from my own view on the truth and my own perspective on reality,
will be influenced by how I interpret the world around me. My view is from a postcolonial,
post-development, feminist standpoint which critically assesses relationships between cultural
and global economic power and the current discourse on development (McEwan, 2001). In my
eyes, striving for economic growth is something that could never be sustainable or inclusive
because this Western idea of development is based on inequality which is fundamentally
unsustainable. Moreover, I think that NGOs cannot achieve sustainable and inclusive
development when they only include Western thought. Therefore, in my opinion, NGOs should
strive for independence of the Global South from the Global North.
Analysis of the NGOs
In this chapter, the sub-questions of this research will be answered with the results of the
discourse analyses of the websites of the NGOs and interviews with employees of the NGOs
that were done. The answers to the sub-questions are made concrete in tables (3, 4, 5 and 6)
wherein the key points of the discourse analyses are shown. An extended version of the analyses
can be found in appendixes I till VI.
Sub-question 1: How do the NGOs explain ‘sustainable and inclusive development’ on their
website?
There was no clear explanation given on either of the websites of the aim towards ‘sustainable
and inclusive development’. Therefore, I have analyzed the websites on what work the NGOs
do to achieve their goal. The key points of that are put in a table (see table 3). These are taken
out of a selection of quotes that I divided under the main themes that the NGOs show to work
on, on their websites. The quotes can be found in appendixes I, II and III.
Table 3: key points websites NGOs - discourse analysis
Website discourse analysis of the NGOs on sustainable and inclusive development
Solidaridad For a world in which everything is made and bought in solidarity with people, the environment and future generations
Treating farmers and workers fairly in production and trade Fair pay for everyone in the chain
Consumers choice important; buy sustainable products
Inform farmers on how to produce more environmentally friendly and more efficiently Training farmers sustainable production techniques against climate change
Training managers on employment conditions, environmentally friendly practices and equal treatment of men and women
Ensuring more attention is given to the interest in society and the economy of makers in the business community
Cooperating with farmers, workers and mineworkers on better rules, policy and legislation Making sure companies take their responsibility to ensure a solidary world
Helping companies to achieve their sustainable goals
Working on more equal power relations between the North and the South Oxfam Novib Beating poverty with their worldwide movement
Making sure people can build their own futures
Offer people the tools and knowledge to stand on their own two feet with the help of local partners
Fighting for fair trade and fair prices
Support local inhabitants in protecting their land rights
Making sure farmers are armed against the consequences of climate change through fieldschools
Changing unequal systems that keep the rich people rich and the poor people poor Giving women and youth better chances
Beating hunger
Making sure that people get a fair price for their product
Creating a safer world with local partner organizations, especially for the most vulnerable Making sure multinationals cannot avoid paying taxes by urging governments to deal with tax havens
Fair groceries so you can buy what you want, where ever you want
Creating chances for women and youth (by giving them microfinancing trainings) Both ENDS Working together with environmental justice groups from the Global South
Gather and share information about policy and investments that have a direct impact on people and their livelihood
Engage in joint advocacy
Stimulating the dialogue between stakeholders
Promoting and supporting sustainable local alternatives
Urging governments, financial institution and pension funds to base their policies on the Paris Agreement
Supporting the Global South in their fight against climate change
Promoting local knowledge and adaptation strategies for climate policy-makers, financial institutions and donors
Facilitating the sharing of knowledge and information in a worldwide network
Advocate for direct access to the Green Climate Fund by the ones most affected by climate change
Making sure Dutch taxpayers’ money is spend in the public interest
Calling at all policy-making levels for international economic legislation, agreements and rules to be changed so that they do not undermine human rights and the environment Making sure development countries have the opportunity to develop their economies by working together with civil society organizations in those countries
Help communities become involved in decisions affecting their environment Lobbying for policies that promote sustainable land and water management Safeguarding human rights (especially those of women and indigenous people) Promoting FPIC
Promoting local initiatives (the alternatives) that make use of natural resources and respect people and the planet
Removing obstacles to scaling up and replicate alternatives to ensure system change
Sub-question 2: How do employees of the NGOs interpret the term ‘sustainable and inclusive
development’?
To answer this question, I have analyzed the interviews with the three NGOs on how they
interpreted the concepts ‘development’, ‘sustainability’, ‘inclusivity’ and how they thought a
‘sustainable and inclusive society’ looked like. The key points of these interpretations are in
the tables 4, 5 and 6. These key points were derived from a table that is attached in appendixes
IV, V and VI. Herein the most important quotes of the interviews were divided on the concepts
mentioned above.
Table 4: Key points discourse analysis interview Solidaridad
Interview discourse analysis Solidaridad
Development Many sides to development issues due to power actors. Not easy to consciously influence these.
Human development index makes that Solidaridad uses the terms ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’, a categorization of concrete indicators.
Development is having the autonomy over the chances that you can get to form your life with.
Development is about sustainable economic development from the interest and needs of production of raw materials, products we all need as humans.
Direct interests of the farmer, their income and productivity and the improvements of their negotiation position.
‘Development countries’, other than a value judgement, is a status given to countries by the UN. Depending on this status you have obligations that you have to contribute to, also in terms of financing.
Solidaridad explains what they do within the language there and thus adjust to the norm on their website when talking about ‘development countries’ because otherwise they may lose the connection with the people they want to inform.
Sustainability Sustainability is economically, environmentally and socially.
Using a landscape approach – looking at the diversity of the actors in a certain landscape.
Sustainability and resilience of production lies in the diversification. Then the system is more resilient to climate change and diseases and there will be more biodiversity. The demand of companies to reach certain volumes makes a radical sustainable transition hard. Therefore, it is hard to know when something is good enough. Cooperation is the key to achieve system change, one step at a time.
Sustainability is always context and actor specific and therefore sustainability as a label does not exist; it is a process and constant conversation. However, there are hard boundaries to the physical reality we have to protect all together.
What is seen as sustainable depends on whose voices are heard. There is no solid definition, only value judgements.
Inclusivity Having a clear view of what you talk about and with whom.
Solidaridad integrated some guarantees to make sure they can achieve inclusivity to a certain extent because they took certain barriers of inclusivity into account.
Sustainable and inclusive society
Achieved when everyone plays a role in the system, strengthens and protect each other.
Understanding coherences and using these (socially and ecologically). The stronger the system, the stronger the individual.
Table 5: Key points discourse analysis interview Oxfam Novib
Interview discourse analysis Oxfam Novib
Development Freedom of choice and enlarging choice options; empowerment.
Economic development as a basis to ensure food and an income and access to affordable healthcare and education (preferably made free by the government). Development is that people have the knowledge and skills and own rights to form their own lives.
Culturally determined. Desire for development should come from inside a society. We should not position ourselves in a way that we (from the developed countries) know it better, that is paternalistic. We should learn from each other (North and South) and not think that we know it better because we are developed. Because we may be better off economically, but culturally, socially and politically we could learn something from other countries.
Working from a rights-approach, empowerment approach, not as a charity. We want to get the most out of a group by letting them develop their own solutions.
GDP is very limited because it says nothing about equality. Development should also be about a more equal distribution.
Neoliberal thinking caused for growing inequality and the climate crisis and therefore an alternative economic model is needed. We are working on a human economy that will work with cooperation’s and smallholders, circular economy and feminism. The core of sustainable development is social justice and this also has to be green and inclusive.
It would be best when the Southern club say that they do not need us anymore, or that they only need us because we are good at a certain thing or have access to certain places.
We are always in discussion about power relations. Racism, white privilege, intersectionality and privileges are taken into account in their cooperation, but this remains a difficult task.
Development cooperation must phase out itself, we ultimately want to become unnecessary.
Sustainability Climate justice approach in tackling the climate crisis.
Let the people who made the mess clean it themselves as the people who suffer most from climate change are the poorest people.
Support climate justice movements to show how people must adapt to the new climate and how they need help with that from the governments and the ‘rich West’ with the money that was promised in the Paris Agreement.
To define sustainability, the Brundtland rapport is used.
We have a stated position on climate issues, but not on sustainability as an umbrella term.
Inclusivity Equal rights for all.
Civil society (unions, movements, activists and media) an important actor in inclusive development besides a, hopefully, transparent government and good governance.
Fair pay and fair rights for everyone in international chains.
Governments must levy their own taxes in development countries in a fair way and spend this transparently on its own citizens.
Giving capacity building and trainings on how to go into a political process to ensure all voices are heard in a national adaptation plan.
Every country has to become a democracy Gender and youth focal points of inclusivity Training people on intersectionality
The gender traffic light that Oxfam Novib made has to be green for them to start a partnership with someone.
Co-creation; equally forming something and supporting the voices, coming from the inside, that plead for change.
Sustainable and inclusive society
Everyone has a basic income and can make money in a fair, normal job. A human economy with an open, transparent government, management that is approachable and consulting with its own population, representative of its people. Where the rights of people are guaranteed and equal. And where the ecological boundaries are respected.
Table 6: Key points discourse analysis interview Both ENDS
Interview discourse analysis Both ENDS
Development Policy influencing, network strengthening and capacity building strategies within cooperation.
Participation is very important; deciding together with people what development will look like; a development out of the knowledge there is in communities, locally. Development is not about GDP, so not about economic growth, but a development that contributes to society, does not harm the environment and ensures a valuable life for future generations.
Development as a term that was first used by president Truman from the US made that America became the example of what other countries needed to achieve. This type of wealth was very economically defined and too much determined from the North as a model for Southern countries to conform to. That is a power-relationship that Both ENDS wants to break with.
Another design of the economy based on transformative, alternative practices (by local communities).
Sustainability Not harming the environment and keeping in mind that raw materials are finite. Leaving enough opportunities for future generations.
Decisions and choices that you make cannot be at the cost of or be harmful to the vulnerable or poor population groups.
What sustainability is, is very pluriform within Both ENDS. But they are always for beating inequality.
Inclusivity Always trying to come up for local inhabitants.
The aim to come to a standpoint together with local partners. Sustainable and
inclusive society
Democratic society with an international community and international human rights. Where everyone is treated equally.
Trying to dissolve the inequality that is inherently there.
