Helping international
NGOs to sustain resilience in complex times and places |
International NGOs face considerable political risk, partly just because the problems they help with are more severe in weakly governed and unstable environments. Yet political risk, by whatever label, is seldom top of mind for NGOs.
One reason seems to be that organisational resilience, the principal object of political risk management, often takes a back seat to mission fulfilment. However, the two are inextricably linked: field-level performance ultimately rests on an NGO’s core organisational assets. When the organisation itself, whether at the global or country level, experiences manifested political risk, it becomes less capable of supporting and sustaining programme implementation. And global socio-political trends, including democratic backsliding, hyper-nationalism and great power rivalry, all in a context of climate change, are significantly increasing political risk to NGOs. Harmattan Risk has worked with NGOs in the past, and we look forward to working with the sector more, partly because of the social value in the work NGOs do, and partly because they often face unique and pressing challenges. All of the services that we offer can be tailored to an NGO context. Additionally, we are open to discussing pro bono work with NGOs. Our considerations for undertaking pro bono engagements include our own learning opportunity, itself partly a factor of client interaction, and the feasibility of having a positive impact within a reasonable timeframe or resource commitment. This page contains two Harmattan Insight papers focusing specifically on NGOs, and a brief presentation intended to kick-start thinking on political risk management in NGOs. There is also a summary of a pro bono political risk training session for NGOs. NGOs or NGO associations interested in this workshop are encouraged to get in touch. Note that it is intended for face to face delivery only, since interactive discussion is an important aspect of its value. |