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The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of agility in the context of supply chains of humanitarian aid (HA) organizations, particularly non‐government organizations (NGOs). This responds to the increasing pressure on NGOs to use their resources more strategically if they are to gain donor trust and long‐term commitment.

A literature‐based approach that extends the commercial supply chain concept of agility to NGOs is combined with the first exploratory semi‐structured interviews of these concepts with five NGO supply chain directors.

The commercial concept of agility when responding to disaster relief holds strong potential for increasing efficiency and effectiveness, but this application is restrained by the absence of supporting information technology (IT) and the relegation of supply chain management (SCM) to the “back office” by NGOs. This has potential implications for NGOs and other HA agencies.

This paper represents an exploratory study, and an extended pool of interviewees would reinforce the qualitative findings. Planned future research will address this issue.

Practical guidance on how NGOs can proactively manage their organization's ability to respond with agility in a highly pressured environment is provided.

This paper is the first to offer practical guidance to managers of NGOs on strategies available to improve their organization's flexibility and agility, based on theoretical concepts and initial exploratory data. In addition, evidence of how commercial tools apply in a different arena may prompt commercial managers to be more innovative in utilizing and customizing supply chain principles to their particular context of operation.

This paper aims to assess the risks and challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR) management in the Indian-mandated CSR ecosystem from a service purchaser–supplier dualistic perspective and the role management control systems (MCS) and social capital play in managing such risks and challenges.

This study undertook a qualitative approach that involved in-depth interviews of 22 CSR directors, managers or chief executive officers from 13 central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) that had purchased CSR services and nine managers of non-government organisations (NGOs) serving as CSR suppliers. Data analysis was founded on the principal–agent and social capital theoretical perspectives.

A highly bureaucratic, time-pressured mandated environment poses several goal congruence and adverse selection threats to outsourced CSR project arrangements. A mix of formal and informal control mechanisms is critical for enhancing trust or bonding between service purchasers and service providers and enriching bridging capital or access to resources derived from interpersonal connections between NGOs and communities.

NGOs and CPSEs may benefit from understanding each other’s goals and culture and using appropriate formal and informal MCS for managing CSR expectations and outcomes.

Drawing on a unique mandatory CSR regime, this study offers principal–agent and social capital perspectives on CSR programme delivery, highlighting the importance of various formal and informal MCS in lowering agency costs in outsourced CSR relationships.

This paper presents a study on the uses of computer‐mediated communication (CMC) among non‐government organizations (NGOs) in Colombia. Using an interpretivist framework, a case study of perceptions of users of CMC in NGOs affiliated with the Association for Progressive Communication service provider in that country was carried out. The results of the study reveal that users have conflicting attitudes toward their service provider, and that contrary to claims in the literature, the constitution of virtual communities through CMC is a complex process that does not necessarily result in strengthening democratization and development.

This case study aims to explore the findings and documented impacts of Volunteering Qld’s “Step Up” programme which is the largest community resilience building programme led by a non-government organisation (NGO) in Australia.

It will describe the programme design and systems that support this type of qualitative work using evidence-based data collected by the project coordinators over the duration of the programme and contextualising these within a broader resilience framework.

This case study will demonstrate and advocate for the need to create stronger partnerships and more significant opportunities for the sector to engage in resilience-building activities.

The scope of this project was limited by organisational capacity to conduct research into its own programme, as it was being delivered and with limited resourcing. There is a significant need for further research into the work of NGOs in the emergency management and disaster resilience and the impacts of these programmes on communities.

The practical implications of this case study is a recognition that there are inherent challenges for disaster management agencies trying to engage communities in dialogue around planning risk-informed response and recovery plans for disasters.

However, NGOs are ideally placed to work in and with the communities which they service, to educate and support them at all stages of disaster management.

This is a unique first-hand account of the experience of a NGO delivering community resilience programme in Australia and provides an important insight for practitioners and researchers alike.

I know that the Information Superhighway is overtyped and over here, but I would be keen to look at the role that information technology, and specifically online systems, are playing in allowing a wide variety of organisations, both in South Africa and regionally, to communicate effectively with each other and thereby bypassing the traditional (and very often constrictive) media that previously controlled the dissemination of information. It seems that non‐government organisations (NGOs), despite their budgetary constraints, are ahead of other organisations in implementing effective and imaginative information technology solutions to their communication problems. Organisations like Planact, Sangonet and so on have managed to set up effective e‐mail and database systems that allow them to keep in touch with their members. MISANET is an interesting case study. It is an ambitious plan to network all the independent newspapers and media organisations in Southern Africa. The project is being run under the auspices of MISA — the Media Institute of Southern Africa, an NGO that acts as a watchdog for press freedom in Africa. The aim of the project was initially to provide a means of digital exchange for photographic images but it has mushroomed into a fully‐fledged electronic information exchange system with a wide gamut of services — from e‐mail to databases. MISANET plans to make use of the existing networks that are in place in some of the countries in the area as well as set up new ones, to create a blanket computer network system that will allow newspapers to be online constantly to each other. The service will initially rely on existing Internet connections like Uninet, the Internet provider in universities in South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Swaziland. The resources of a number of local NGOs will also be pooled to provide greater connectivity. These include MANGO in Harare, Zangonet in Zambia and Worknet in South Africa.

This paper sets out in the context of three strands of knowledge; disaster management, strategic management and project management and builds upon the authors’ (2009) theory for the delivery of post-disaster reconstruction (PDR) projects. With the expected increase in the magnitude and frequency of natural disasters in coming years, more people than ever will be faced with PDR scenarios. In many cases, non-government organisations (NGOs) are in a position to make interventions to improve conditions for people facing the impacts of disasters and it is essential that responding agencies deploy appropriate configurations of competencies to mitigate project barriers. Using a mixed-methods approach, a study incorporated four case studies in post-tsunami Sri Lanka and four case studies in post-cyclone Sidr Bangladesh. Exploratory interviews with expert NGO participants were combined with direct observations and the collection of quantitative survey data. The mechanisms and phenomena observed within the case studies contributed to the development of a conceptual theoretical framework. The study reveals that NGOs face barriers in seven key areas and that they must deploy certain configurations of organisational and operational competencies in order to effectively develop and implement strategies to address these barriers. The theoretical framework demonstrates how the utilisation of these competencies, deployed in targeted clusters, has the potential to create positive outcomes for beneficiaries as measured by PDR Project Success Indicators (PDRPSIs). If dynamic tools can be developed that effectively model competency and predict success, all organisations involved in disaster response and recovery could benefit. In addition, the knowledge is highly transferable to other sectors and environments.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the support network organisations between local government, non‐government organisations (NGOs) and community groups in post‐disaster management.

The paper takes the form of an exploratory case study which concentrates on the Bantul district, Indonesia. The Bantul local government, located in Yogyakarta Provincial Indonesia, was selected as a case study because it had experience in managing post‐disaster conditions after the 2006 earthquake. Data were gathered through in‐depth interviews with 40 key informants with knowledge about the case.

The research revealed that this local government has made significant achievements in managing network organisations for logistic and humanitarian aid implementation. Inter‐organisational networks, citizen‐to‐organisation networks and organisation‐to‐citizen networks have become prominent resources for local government in managing a disaster because they address the lack of local government capability through negotiated efforts or partnership with other government levels, social institutions, non‐profit sector organisations and the community, in order to mobilize and utilize available capacity effectively.

This paper presents lessons learnt from local government in organising the support network for logistic and humanitarian aid to respond to disasters.

This chapter presents an exploration of the ways in which humanitarian non-government organisations (NGOs) and communities affected by the 2014 floods in Solomon Islands interpreted and responded to the disaster, identifying factors that assisted and constrained stakeholders in disaster response and recovery. The research investigates the extent to which communities were consulted and participated in NGO responses, and the factors which informed community–NGO relationships. A qualitative case study approach was used, employing interviews, focus groups and document analysis, guided by a reflexive discourse analysis and narrative inquiry approach, which places the focus of the study on the experiences of participants. Communities played very limited roles in NGO responses, especially non-dominant or marginalised sectors of society, such as youth, women and people with disabilities. Failure to respond appropriately to the differentiated needs of affected populations can exacerbate their risk of experiencing secondary disaster. The authors argue that there is a need to improve the inclusiveness of responses to disaster, engaging women, youth and people with disabilities in decision making in order to respond more appropriately to their needs.

Increasingly, the attitudes of consumers are being shaped by an array of advocacy organizations that research and campaign on various social and political causes collectively categorized as non‐government organizations (NGOs). They are the key driver in the public’s increasing demand that corporations act in a socially responsible way. This means not only offering products and services that do not pose new environmental or social risks but also doing business in a way that supports the livelihood of people in the producing nations and sustainability of our planet’s eco‐systems. NGOs are powerful with consumers because they are significantly more trusted overall than business. CEOs and corporate managers may approve or disapprove of the growing role of activist NGOs, but it is perilous to ignore their growing influence and ability to shape public perceptions of a company. There are seven guiding principles for successfully engaging the NGOs: (1) act and respond as one global brand, making certain that, for example, the environmental practices by a unit in Spain are consistent with the corporate position in the USA; (2) prepare for greater transparency, reporting social and environmental impacts as well as financial information is a starting point for building greater trust and dialogue with the NGOs; (3) do not be forced into a “yes‐or‐no” public confrontation on any issue; (4) enlist and engage multiple partners and perspectives on business practices and strategies; (5) do not rely solely on industry‐wide action, or hide behind it; (6) distinguish between an NGO’s rhetoric and its actual objectives; and (7) know when to stand your ground.

In April 2007, Banco Compartamos of Mexico held a public offering of its stock in which insiders sold 30 percent of their holdings. The sale was over-subscribed by 13 times, and Compartamos was soon worth $1.6 billion (for details of the story, see Rosenberg, 2007; Malkin, 2008; Accion International, 2007). A month before the offering, the Economist (2007) had written: “Compartamos may not be the biggest bank in Mexico, but it could be the most important.” Compartamos’ claim to importance stems from its clients – not from their elite status, but from the opposite. The bank describes them as low-income women, taking loans to support tiny enterprises like neighborhood shops or tortilla-making businesses. The loans the women seek are small – typically hundreds of dollars rather than many thousands – and the bank requires no collateral. It is a version of “microfinance,” the idea associated with Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, winners of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. For Yunus, microfinance can unleash the productivity of cash-starved entrepreneurs and raise their incomes above poverty lines. It is a vision of poverty reduction that centers on self-help rather than direct income redistribution.