FROM LOCAL CAPACITIES TO DECOLONIZING APPROACHES: EMERGING PRACTICES OF THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES AND COOPERATION (CECI) WITH A VIEW TO EMPOWERING COUNTRY OFFICES IN SENEGAL, BOLIVIA AND NEPAL
The aim of the research is to build a long-term collaborative network with CECI and its country offices, as well as with Canadian and foreign researchers, in order to reflect on the challenges of organizational change in general.
Thinking about international cooperation
CECI is a Montreal-based international cooperation organization active on three continents: Africa, America and Asia. It advocates peace, human rights and equity, and is founded on the values of respect and cooperation. It is this network and its country offices that make up our research field. The country offices have a variety of professionals at the heart of the research. The main objective is to reflect on organizational change from the perspective of internationalizing the governance and management of a Canadian volunteer cooperation program in Senegal, Bolivia, Nepal and Canada.
Specifically, the project has two sub-objectives: to understand and document inter-organizational relations in the CECI network, i.e. between headquarters and country teams; and to illustrate this approach with a study of the logics of women’s economic empowerment in country offices and at headquarters.
A cross-sectional analysis of CECI’s local office empowerment process
The first was an exploratory review of the literature on organizational change in humanitarian and development organizations in response to localization issues. The second involved interviews with CECI members, and the third involved participation in major events such as meetings, general assemblies and knowledge transfer events organized by CECI in connection with the empowerment of country offices.
Understanding international governance practices
The scale of the economic impact of the health crisis has heightened the pressure to invest in targeted humanitarian projects, for which the presence of Canadian aid workers and humanitarian actors can no longer be carried out internationally under the same conditions as before Covid-19. This unprecedented pressure gives our research an original perspective with strategic, political and human implications. In the pre-Covid
19 period, the challenges of integrating stakeholders and ensuring the lasting impact of the projects they implemented. At the same time, there is a broad consensus in international solidarity studies that current practices do not meet minimum norms and standards in terms of localization and community empowerment.
Against this backdrop, this research is intended as a response to the need to observe and contribute to the development of knowledge on practices of internationalization of governance and emerging practices of inter-organizational relations that wish to move towards greater empowerment of actors.
Biography
Diane holds a doctorate in sociology from the Université du Québec à Montréal, co-directed by Jean-Marc Fontan and François Audet. The trigger for her academic career came from her volunteer work with the French Red Cross (first-aid attendant, PSE1 and 2, social marauding, first-aid training, etc.). The needs and interventions led her to reflect on the role of the organization and the training we needed to be effective in the field.
Diane went on to complete a doctorate in sociology at UQAM in Canada, focusing on the professionalization of players. Her research interests focus on the impact of normative Western practices in the context of post-disaster international solidarity. Her thesis, begun in 2017, questions the effects of Sphere-type standardization of humanitarian aid in fragile states.