Favela Media Activism by Custódio Leonardo;

Author:Custódio, Leonardo; [Custódio, Leonardo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2017-06-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The Relationship between NGO Work and Favela Media Activism

In the previous chapters, I noted the importance of the work of non-governmental organizations (NGO) for the formation of favela media activism. In my descriptive reflections about the fieldwork process, I demonstrated how I familiarized with media in favelas and contacted residents involved in media activism through NGOs. When I described the history of bottom-up political struggles in favelas, I described how NGOs have acted and supported actions of local associations and residents. In my description of favela media activism, I used the term “NGO-driven” to characterize institutionalized forms of media initiatives different from those citizen-led forms which residents create and maintain collectively and autonomously. Thus here my goal is to explore further the relationship between NGO work and favela media activism by analyzing the characteristics and development of NGO pedagogical projects in favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Before that, however, it is necessary to clarify what NGO means in terminological and political terms in the Brazilian context. In his approach to non-governmental organizations at the international level, Peter Willetts (2011) describes how the term “NGO” has been contested since its first mention in the UN Charter of 1946. For that reason, he defines it by negation. For him, “NGOs are any organized groups of people that are not direct agents of individual governments, not pursuing criminal activities, not engaged in violent activities, and not primarily established for profit-making purposes” (Willetts 2011, 31). In practice, this suggests that the term can refer to many different types of organizations. NGOs can vary between those for humanitarian aid, human rights advocacy, and environmental activism to the defense of religious conservatism and promotion of reactionary values. They may have autonomous partnerships with governments or be coopted into service provision. They may also be global, regional, national or local.

One way to be more specific, at least in terms of the scope of action, is to use alternative acronyms. According to Willetts (2011), we can arguably differ between NGOs, civil society organizations (CSO), and community-based organizations (CBO). In UN debates, NGOs often refer to international organizations, CSOs to informal organizations within specific countries, and CBOs to organizations at the micro-level in urban and rural environments. These differences, made without clear criteria (Willetts 2011), also imply distinct types of organizational management. For example, management may vary from international bodies to local associations suggesting that CBOs are potentially closer to local communities than NGOs. Explaining the differences between acronyms could be useful to describe the scene of organizations in Rio de Janeiro. As regards favelas, we see international NGOs doing advocacy (e.g. Amnesty International), organizations that resemble nationwide CSOs (e.g. Justiça Global) and CBOs (e.g. residents’ associations in favelas).

The problem is that in practice the differences between organizations may not be as clear as the acronyms suggest. During my fieldwork I looked at the activities of four organizations: CEASM, Observatório de Favelas, Viva Rio and Bem TV. I focused on them because they all had media-related projects.

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