Chapter 1: NGOs and Relationships:
1.6. Research Plan
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work, it was easier to construct relevant interview questions and to understand the
documents, and most importantly, it was vital in order to build trust between myself and the NGO.
The weakness of this research method is its subjectivity: feelings and personal insights risks biasing the analysis. Events, and personal interpretations and experiences is therefore disclosed separately. However, this method was used sparsely, due to its weaknesses mentioned above.
1.6. Research Plan
This study investigates the assumption that the donor-NGO relation affect the performance of the NGO, either directly or indirectly. The study does not limit itself in focusing on only one or a few arguments or theories, but take an explorative form with an open end and focus on the processes that are present in the current case.
The unit of analysis is organisations. Relations are therefore defined as relations between organisations, and networks are networks consisting of organisations. However, actual contact between organisations are obviously conducted between individuals. Contacts between individuals are defined as inter-organisational contacts if the individuals are members, or representatives, of organisations, and the purpose of the contact is in line with the organisations’ objectives (as defined by the organisation). This cover informal contacts where the contact has not been formally sanctioned, but nonetheless fulfil the above requirements.
Some organisations are members of larger organisations. In this case, a differentiation is made based on if the organisation is, or can, work independently of the larger organisation. If the organisation, and the “mother” organisation consists of the same people working for both organisations, or if they greatly overlap (a majority of the different “organisations” actually consist of the same people), they are not deemed as independent. An organisation can be considered as being able to work independent from the “mother” even if they are funded by it and impose some controls, because the organisation may still be able to conduct some
independent work. It is only considered as non-independent if the larger organisation imposes very strict controls. This implies that the case NGO have contacts with many different
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governmental organisations. Another implication is that some organisations in practice consist of only a few individuals10.
The study focus on two areas. The first is an in-depth analysis of specific relations. The donor-NGO relation is the main focus, considering that the literature on this type of
relationship is vast and it is arguably the most important relationship for any NGO. Effects from this specific relation may therefore be easier to spot than effects from other relations.
However, other types of relations are important too, and they are included and analysed to see if the donor-NGO relation affected those relations11. This part is mainly assessed through in-depth interviews with employees at the NGO, as well as by analysing documents provided by the NGO to the donors.
Secondly, a number of policies that NGO are implementing are analysed and evaluated.
The total number and type of projects are assessed, their performance, as well as the amount of money that has been spent on them. This is done statistically according to a cost-effect analysis. The objective is to see which donors are most effective in their support to the organisation. This data also contains information on how much each donor provided to administrative expenses, which are believed to also affect the performance of the NGO.
Information from these areas are then combined and a process tracing method is
undertaken. The causal processes are then compared to the arguments and theories mentioned in the literature review. A comparison between the interviews and the cost-effect data may be interesting in cases where the NGO subjectively prefer a certain donor and perceive them to be the best partner for the organisation, but the cost-effect analysis show very different results. The financial and output data is also compared to statements in the interviews and documents. Since the NGO rely on their network for much of their work, it is possible that they are able to save personnel costs under certain network configurations, as some partners are able to assist with personnel to the NGO.
10 Consequently, this definition also implies that some NGOs, is perceived as very controlling compared to governmental organisations, as not many NGOs would allow their members to conduct separate projects, or start ventures independently using the NGO’s money. Any new activity often needs to be previously sanctioned by the NGO and often involves people from the whole organisation, they may not allow independent sub-organisations to be formed under the NGO. A school usually have, on the other hand, very much freedom to start and conduct projects and ventures without previously consulting the ministry of education.
11 They are: government-NGO relations, IO-NGO relations and NGO-NGO relations. Questions of central interest is: How did the relationship evolve? How is the relationship maintained and what is the nature of it?
What is the identity and internal values of the actors? How does the relation affect the NGO and its work? Why has this relationship in particular evolved, why did it not develop between other actors?
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2. Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia 2.1. Anti-Human Trafficking Projects
In this section the most common and most praised policies against human trafficking will be presented, as suggested by scholars and policy practitioners. The end of the section
contains a brief presentation of the main actors and how they work together to promote these policies.
Human trafficking can be seen either as a product of the informal sector or as a part of it.
It is considered as one of the “push” factors for human trafficking; it is easy for employers in the informal sector to take advantage of their employees by the use of debt bondage,
withholding documents, threats, imprisonment, violence, or other means. It also functions as a recruitment platform for the traffickers. Since human trafficking is a “business” for the perpetrators, it is in itself a part of the informal sector. Any effort aimed at reducing the informal sector should therefore reduce human trafficking (Korsell, Skinnari and Vesterhav, 2011; Tanaka & Keola, 2017; United States Department of State, 2016).
However, Mahmoud and Trebesch (2010) show no correlation between crime statistics and human trafficking in their case study of human trafficking in Eastern Europe. Though they do show a relationship between prevalence of illegal migration and human trafficking.
Illegal migration is sometimes facilitated by organised criminal networks. It is therefore not unreasonable to suspect that human trafficking correlate with only certain types of crime, such as falsifying documents, but not theft, for instance. It is not necessarily correlated with general criminal prevalence.
Considering the nature of human trafficking, it should correlate with criminal economic activity, since prostitution, forced labour, organ removal, forced begging, and selling children all generate capital. This money will need to be laundered. So where one can find businesses used by criminal networks for the purpose of money laundering, it can be expected that some of this money are profits from human trafficking. (UNODC, 2016)
One can therefore expect that the size of the informal sector or prevalence of organised crime in any country should correlate with the number of trafficked persons regardless if they are trafficked domestically of trafficked to other countries. Policies aimed at reducing
organised crime or the informal sector in general should therefore theoretically reduce the number of trafficked persons in any region. Policies aimed at expanding only the formal
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sector might also prove successful since that may create legal alternatives instead of working in the informal sector.
Several other studies suggest that migration, information, poverty, education, and social networks play a significant role in combatting human trafficking. Potential trafficked persons can be deterred from the traffickers by being aware of them. Individuals with higher
education tend to stay informed of them. They can choose routes and means of migration that is not under the power of the traffickers. They can use established networks of people they trust to facilitate all of above. Projects aimed at facilitating this should reduce the human trafficking (Mahmoud and Trebesch, 2010; Ali, Muhammad, and Abdullah, 2014; Chuang, 2006; Marks and Olsen, 2015).
On a structural level, it is suggested that policies focused at norm changing measures can be successful in setting a new agenda for sexual politics. This involves resocialisation of men and male dominated institutions, as well as both validating the women’s and trafficked person’s unique vulnerability to abuse and empowerment. Local NGO structures possess a key role in this change (Brysk, 2013 in Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink, 2013).
States have been significantly pressured by NGOs, IOs and by other states in this policy area. United States have an official policy to exert pressure on states via established IOs as well as by bilateral means to make sure that they follow certain requirements in the fight against human trafficking. Countries who the US perceive as not making enough effort in reducing the human trafficking within their country will get a low “score” in the report, and receives a harder treatment than others. Though this policy has been criticised as only
showing current US diplomatic relations in the world, where enemies to the US automatically get the lowest score, and close allies get the highest, while others criticize the Act for
employing a too small scope (US State Department, 2016; Noyori-Corbett and Moxley, 2017).
UN put the Palermo protocol in force in 2003, which most signatories around the world have implemented today. The protocol explicitly recommends states to work with local NGOs in this issue. There is also a significant pressure originating from other established IOs like the EU, OSCE, ASEAN and more. The pressure from these organisations also originate from close relationships with local and international NGOs (UN general assembly, 2000;
UNODC, 2016).
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2.2. Human Trafficking and Responses in Greater Mekong
The previous section gives a good overview of anti-human trafficking policies used around the world, and who the actors are that are implementing it. However, there are differences in how the issue is handled in different areas of the world. This is partly due to the different types of human trafficking occurring around the world which requires different policies to handle, but also because regional and country defined differences. Such as differences in development, corruption, as well as geopolitics (UNODC, 2016). This section will not make a country by country presentation, which is due to the international nature of human trafficking. However, the response by the governments in the region relating to the issue will be highlighted.
The overarching trend in the region is similar to other regions of the world: people are trafficked from poor areas to rich areas. There is a notable trend of trafficking to
economically better developed countries, such as Thailand and China, or even going to countries further away. However, there is possibly an even greater trend of trafficking within countries, from poor agricultural settings, to cities. It is also worth to note that the purpose of the trafficking has an important impact on how people are trafficked. Trafficking to China from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar may follow the trend of poor to rich. However, when looking to forced marriages where girls and women are trafficked to China from the above countries, the “husband” are in many cases poor as well, and one purpose of the marriage is actually forced labour, or even organ selling. (UNODC, 2016; US State Department, 2016;
The Epoch Times, 2017; UNODC, 2017; US State Department, 2017).
Most countries in the region criminalise all forms of trafficking as indicated by the Palermo protocol (UN General Assembly, 2000), however, China criminalise some forms of trafficking under different types of laws. For instance, they define minors as individuals under fourteen years old, anyone who is trafficking someone between fourteen and eighteen years old is punished according to the “crime of false imprisonment” (UNODC, 2016). In Laos there are simply no laws in place to cover all forms of human trafficking. For instance, men are not protected to the same level as women and children, and most victim services are not available to men. Victim services in general in Laos are mostly provided by NGOs or IOs (UN-ACT, 2014).
Irregular migration is prevalent in the region, as the countries share long land borders and most of the region is economically poor with little to no border checks. In response to this, a
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number of NGOs in the region (excluding China, and including Malaysia) as well as the International Labor Organisation (ILO), with funding from the Australian government, are running a number of migrant worker’s resource centres where migrant workers can receive legal assistance and file complaints (2017). Either for themselves, or on behalf of family members. In a report provided by the ILO, it is apparent that the centres are good at resolving conflicts, and that the migrant worker are able to be reimbursed. It also seems that the most successful cases occur when NGOs acts as the mediator between the employer and the migrant. However, it is rare that there are any sanctions or punishments set against the offender as a result of these complaints.
It is also likely that many if not most cases never make it to these centres as the migrants might travel illegally, is a minor, or will work in illegal sectors, such as prostitution. This is clear from that the number of complaints was only 1 014, and the number of complainants were 7 640, over a four-year period (ILO, 2017). In Vietnam alone, over 900 victims were detected in 2014. In Thailand, that number was around 600, and over 300 in Myanmar. There is no accurate data of the number of trafficked persons in Cambodia for 2014, but the number of trafficked persons that were repatriated were 190. The number of cases alone in China were 1 583, and there is no reliable information at all for Laos in that year (UNODC, 2016).
The types of cases both follow the global trend, as well as unique characteristics for the Mekong region. In general, men are trafficked for forced labour, while women are trafficked for forced prostitution. Trafficking in women and children, and forced prostitution, are the most prevalent forms in China. The most common form of trafficking in Myanmar of repatriated victims are forced labour in the fishing industry, closely followed by the construction industry. In Myanmar, most of the repatriated males are from Thailand, and repatriated females are almost exclusively from Malaysia or China. Forced labour and forced marriage is the most common form in Myanmar, and most offenders are females. Thailand also reports most cases being of forced labour, but sexual exploitation closely follows, and most trafficked persons are minors and male. However, the numbers presented here are only official statistics as reported to the UNODC (2016), for the year 2014, there is good reason to assume that the real number of trafficked persons is higher than what gets reported to the UN.
Trends in trafficking are changing very fast, and the countries in this region all rank below 50 in the Transparency International perceived corruption index (2018). Both of these factors hides the real number of trafficked persons in the region. It is known that, for
example, persons being trafficked from abroad to Thailand are often not identified as either
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victims of a crime, or as minors, they are simply identified as illegal migrants and are deported. This is achieved by the use of fake documents and bribes. There have also been cases where police officers and politicians have close ties to the traffickers (US State Department, 2016, 2017; Thai PBS 2018; Bangkok Post, 2018)
In general, cases of human trafficking are complex in nature, which is particularly true for the Mekong region, since the laws in the region are often new and it is not clear how they should be interpreted. For instance, commercial surrogacy has recently been banned in Thailand and Cambodia, it is now considered an act of human trafficking. However, the laws differ between the countries, and it is in practice possible for the surrogacy agencies to continue their business by using different countries, including Laos, for different parts of the surrogacy process. Who will be identified as the offender also differs between the countries (Daily Mail, 2017; The Guardian 2018; Phnom Penh Post, 2018).
Many cases of human trafficking are difficult to discover due to their complexity. Forced marriages to China is a good example of this. Trafficked girls or women are recruited by someone they can identify with, someone of the same country and gender who makes false promises of well paid jobs waiting for them in China. However, as they are travelling, the
“recruiter” delivers the trafficked person into the hands of Chinese traffickers who continue the journey in China, until they are sold to their future “husband”. Since the trafficked person originate from other countries, they might not be aware of exactly where they are, and they are not able to ask anyone in the household since they do not speak the language. It is also very easy for the “husband” to control them, partly because they are often trafficked to rural areas. The trafficked person may not be able to trust anyone in the village or even the police, and they either have to find ways to escape by themselves, to find fellow country-people in the same or neighbouring villages that can help her. They may also attempt to get in contact with NGOs from their own country, or to get in contact with their country’s consulate in China. The authorities will also often view this as a domestic conflict, as something that should be resolved within the family, which is in line with Chinese culture. The different jurisdictions, laws, and nationalities of the offenders makes it hard to successfully prosecute and convict all of the offenders in the criminal network (UN-ACT, 2016; South China Morning Post, 2017; Huffington Post, 2017; Radio Free Asia, 2018).
All countries in the region has signed the Palermo protocol, but all of them have made either complete or partly reservations to paragraph 2 of article 15 of the protocol. The paragraph states:
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“Any dispute between two or more States Parties concerning the interpretation or application of this Protocol that cannot be settled through negotiation within a reasonable time shall, at the request of one of those States Parties, be submitted to arbitration. If, six months after the date of the request for arbitration, those States
Parties are unable to agree on the organization of the arbitration, any one of those States
Parties are unable to agree on the organization of the arbitration, any one of those States