Sustainability in NGO Programming: A Case Study of Working Equid Welfare Organizations
Format of work:
Journal Article
Event presented at / Journal Name:
SAGE Open
Speaker / Contact Author's Name:
Emily Haddy
Speaker / Contact Author's E-mail Address:
emily.haddy@port.ac.uk
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Research aim:
The research aimed to explore the factors associated with program sustainability in animal welfare, specifically within working equid initiatives. The objectives of the study were to examine, from the perspective of NGO staff, the conditions that need to be in place at three levels: NGO, community, and programmatic levels in order to achieve programming that creates sustained welfare improvement.
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Background:
The sustainability of NGO initiatives has become an aspect on which the success of programming is judged. Sustainability requires the creation of lasting benefits beyond the lifespan of specific initiatives. This study explores the conditions needed to achieve sustainable change by focusing on a sector that has recently experienced a shift towards more sustainable, interdisciplinary programming: that of working equine (animal welfare) NGOs.
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Approach:
Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 32 NGO staff working for 8 different animal welfare NGOs across 13 countries were conducted. These interviews covered potential barriers and avenues to success in producing sustainable working animal welfare improvements. Thematic analysis was used to identify consistent themes across contexts and organizations.
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Key finding:
Using working equid NGOs as a case study, conditions needed for the achievement of sustainable welfare change initiatives were identified. These highlight the need to take into account the human factors that can influence the success of initiatives. Specifically, the need for long-term funding in order to invest in understanding communities and identifying people with whom beneficiaries can have honest conversations; the utility of multi-approach initiatives and the need for tailoring initiatives to local conditions. The consideration of these conditions is recommended for future program planning in order to ensure that welfare improvement initiatives are maximally effective.
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Industry or policy relevance:
The findings of the study are relevant to animal welfare NGOs in that they identify conditions needed to achieve sustainable welfare change and highlight some of the associated challenges commonly encountered. Consideration of these conditions can aid in future welfare program planning. Due to the broad nature of the barriers and conditions identified in this study, which draw parallels with findings from other fields, many of the issues raised are likely to also be relevant to other NGO sectors.
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Route for practical application:
This type of exercise, documenting the opinions of highly experienced staff from a range of positions across related NGO organizations, could be useful in understanding the factors associated with sustainable initiative success across not-for-profit fields.
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Confidence in findings and next steps towards realising impact:
A key strength of the study is the breadth of perspectives and experiences presented, of NGO staff with a variety of roles and responsibilities at different levels as well as lengths of time with the organizations involved. The total number of participants interviewed was 32; as qualitative data provides contextual information in a high level of detail from the perspective of the participant, the sample size was sufficient. However fewer staff from small, national NGOs took part in comparison to international NGOs and the two types of organization can face different types of challenges with regards to funding, programming and staff capacity. A larger number of participants from smaller NGOs would have helped to further explore these differences. Next steps to realising impact will be engagement with NGOs to explore how the findings can be presented in a practically useful manner and operationalised in a programming capacity.
Funders:
The study was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership bursary awarded to E. H.
Links to Open Access Publications or DOI:
Citation:
Haddy, E., Brown, J., Burden, F., Raw, Z., Kaminski, J. & Proops, L. (2023) Sustainability in NGO Programming: A Case Study of Working Equid Welfare Organizations. SAGE Open, 13(4).
