Write a brief description and discussion of ONE specific organization that is engaging with a specific problem or issue in ONE

Paper Length:  5-6 pages

Focus:  Write a brief description and discussion of ONE specific organization that is engaging with a specific problem or issue in ONE part of Sub-Saharan Africa.   Ideally you should focus on a single region or a single community WITHIN one country.  However, if the organization you choose is operating in several places, you may focus on a larger number of communities IF you have sufficiently detailed data

Requirements- PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU WRITE YOUR OUTLINE/FIRST DRAFT: 

Instructions for the final draft of the paper:

Choose a specific locally-based (ie Africa-based) organization or government entity that is engaged in making positive changes in a community in Sub-Saharan Africa. The organization you choose should be DIRECTLY engaged in making positive social change.  There are some examples of organizations that do so on p2 of the course syllabus.

Do NOT try to write about a funding organization or an organization that supports other organizations or individuals (e.g. an organization that supports civil society or provides quality information or training and capacity-building.  In VERY rare circumstances, I will allow you to write about an international NGO (ie one based OUTSIDE Africa) but ONLY if that organization works in equal partnership with locally-based organizations and can demonstrate EXACTLY how it does so.

Write a 5-6 page paper that examines this organization.  Your paper will need

1.     a description of the organization and its goals, including where it is based, how many members/staff it has, whether members are part of the decision-making or not, how members are incorporated into the organization, and what kinds of resources the organization provides to communities.

2.    A detailed description (2 pages minimum) of one major issue which the organization is addressing.  You will need to do some research around this issue yourself.   You will need to also have a brief description of the setting in which the organization is working. eg. if in an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa, you will need to describe what living conditions are like there: e.g. what kinds of housing do people have?  What kinds of facilities do people have?  How many people live here? What is the average income?   Please come and see me if you are having difficulty finding sources.

3.    a DETAILED account of the ways in which that organization is addressing the issue. (2 pages or more).  Your description should look at what approaches the organization uses, the specific ways it engages local communities, the obstacles that the organization faces and the concrete way it puts its values into practice.  This means that you will need to choose an organization that is fairly well-documented, and which has more than simple PR statements on its website.

4.    If possible some discussion of the ways in which the organization is accountable to the community in which it works (eg.  The Maasai Womens Council holds itself accountable by holding community meetings where community members can question the actions of the organization, by ensuring that women from Maasai communities are part of the decision-making, and that women from rural communities make up 50% of the board of directors. 

The paper must contain some sort of referencing system, or the writer must be able to formally present his or her source material in a way that discusses the nature of the source material and the writers own assessment of the validity or otherwise of the source.

The format of the paper will be a research paper.  Other formats are possible with permission of the instructor but in all cases the paper must address the three areas described above in 1-4.