Webinar Description
A webinar with Shaazka Beyerle about her new U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) publication, Supporting Nonviolent Action and Movements: A Guide for International Actors. Many organizations are becoming interested in engaging with activists. Yet how does a “newbie” organization—one that is new to the movement space and does not have an activist network per se—decide whether to develop an initiative to support activists? What internal and external factors should the newbie organization look at to make that decision? When should an organization not engage with activists directly, and what are their alternatives?
In this webinar, Shaazka Beyerle will discuss concrete approaches to addressing these questions, touching on shifting power relations, constructive engagement and alternative approaches for implementation of support activities. The guide is based on extensive interviews with international actors from bilateral government donors, implementing partners, private foundations, donor collaboratives, INGOs, multilateral development institutions, and multi-stakeholder initiatives, as well as a USIP-led, multi-country field investigation on the effects of external support for social movement actors.
About the Presenter
Shaazka Beyerle is a senior fellow with the Terrorism, Transnational Crime, and Corruption Center, George Mason University. She’s a researcher, writer, and educator in nonviolent action, focusing on anti-corruption, accountability, peacebuilding, gender, and human rights. Her new publication is Supporting Nonviolent Action and Movements: A Guide for International Actors (United States Institute of Peace). She’s also the author of Curtailing Corruption: People Power for Accountability and Justice (Lynne Rienner Publishers); and chapter coauthor on enabling civil society and social movements in Untapped Power: Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion for Conflict and Development (Oxford University Press).