December 7, 2009
Where Are NGOs Concentrating Their Campaigning Resources?
Campaign & Advocacy
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Where Are NGOs Concentrating Their Campaigning Resources?
About this study
Note on this edition
In our last Quarterly Analysis, published August 2009, we measured NGO activity over a nine month period and calculated trends by comparing the first half with the second half of this period. In this report we have used 12 months of data, and calculated trends by comparing equal six month periods. This should help to smooth out random fluctuations and reveal genuine trends.
This study is based on data generated by SIGWatch’s NGO global tracking service over 12 months ending October 30, 2009. SIGWatch maintains a system of databases which are updated daily as we identify new NGO actions and campaigns and cross-tabulate them to targeted issues, industries and countries. Currently we track nearly 2,000 NGOs across the world and over 500 separate issues grouped by topic and industry.
Using SIGWatch data for the last 12 months, we can reveal where NGOs have recently been concentrating their campaigning resources and their priority issues and industries, both globally and by world region. As you will see in this report, we are able to resolve this analysis down to the level of single industry sectors and their issues.
When we match NGO activity to issues, we use a specially developed scoring system which takes into account the number of significant NGO events (defined as the launch of new campaigns or tactics, direct actions, reports, or newsworthy claims), the number of NGOs involved, and the potential influence of those NGOs calculated from their geographical range of operation (from lone local NGO to global coalition).
Thus our analysis of NGOs reveals not only activity on particular issues but also its pressure, ie., the amount of NGO effort being applied to change public opinion. These statistics are very useful for issues management, for example, for calibrating how to apportion corporate resources to managing different issues.
A note about our data
Although we aim to collect data globally, because of the greater sophistication, resources and visibility of rich country NGOs, campaigns in North America and Europe tend historically to be over-represented in our databases compared to those in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. We are investing in new methods of tracking NGOs in developing countries to address this problem, but for this report, you should take this into account when using our data to compare levels of NGO activity between regions, recognising that sometimes gaps in data may make some issues appear as inactive when perhaps they are not. For the same reason, we have omitted Africa for want of sufficient data.
Caution should also be applied when using the trend indicators (the arrows indicating whether issues are rising or falling). Where overall levels of activity are low, trends have been calculated on a small base and could be unreliable. Also, some issues tend to naturally fluctuate in activity over the year or because of external events (eg. In the run-up to a major world conference), even though there is no underlying shift in priorities by the NGOs themselves.
Robert Blood, Director
SIGWatch
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