225705 Building Social Justice Capacity in Global Health and Development NGOs

Monday, November 8, 2010 : 1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

Shelley K. White, MPH , Sociology Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
Jonathan White, PhD , Department of Sociology, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA
This session presents the results of a 12-year ongoing consultancy and mentorship with a large, international non-profit organization focused on community-based health and development and children's rights. Through this collaboration, the co-presenters have bridged academia, activist experience, and practice in building and maintaining both a high level of education and proactive action capacity among a large, regionally dispersed, and young staff of 300 in over 35 countries. The co-presenters have developed an innovative model for providing ongoing human rights- based education for staff on the global political economy. Utilizing distance learning technologies, action planning curricula, management trainings, and campaign development modules, as well as in-person consultation and distance support, this model ensures that social justice and activist learning infuse all aspects of the organization's work. Public health, sociology, and critical thinking about neo-liberal economic globalization through the lens of political economic analyses inform in-depth learning modules which, in turn, inform campaign development and holistic health models that consider culture, community and history. The co-presenters have worked with staff and management in developing thoughtful people-centered development projects and curriculum as a counter-reaction to the forces of globalization and mainstream development models. This presentation will consider the potential for expanding such a model to ensure broad-based understandings of social justice within global health and development NGOs.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Other professions or practice related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Discuss challenges to maintaining strong social justice capacity within large global NGOs. Identify potential models for providing on-going education, training and action among staff to infuse political economy-informed global health and development work with a social justice orientation.

Keywords: Social Justice, Community Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have studied political economy, human rights and global inequalities for over 20 years and have authored several works on these topics. With my co-author, I have developed the program model which this paper presents.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.