Multiple method approach: case studies of multiple nongovernmental development organisations in Zambia

Abstract

The delivery of community-based international development programmes by local nongovernmental organisations in Zambia is now reaching the third generation of young people. Many of the first generation of children, once participants of community programmes, now manage the implementation process of those programmes. This sector integrates sport with programme delivery in Zambia to advance the life prospects of young people. In this field of sport and international development the development practices within local nongovernmental organisations in Zambia has received limited attention in research. The aim of this research is to explore the practices of development underway within these local nongovernmental organisations in Zambia.

The perspectives of development as freedom and capability and humanness and personhood inform the approach taken by this research to explore local development activities and practices. These perspectives are understood from wider international development literature (Sen, 1999; Hoffmann and Metz, 2017) and emergent literature in the field of sport and international development (Svensson and Levine, 2017; Mwaanga and Adeosun, 2020). Sen (1999) offers this research the lens of poverty as depriving people of what they would otherwise have the capability to achieve while Hoffmann and Metz (2017) offer a series of virtues one must exercise to qualify as an ethical being according to the perspective of humanness and personhood which is otherwise known as African ubuntu philosophy. Svensson and Levine (2017) enable the research to frame development activity that uses sport and physical activity according to the capability approach while Makuku’s (2013) analysis of Shalapo Canicandala, a well-known novel by Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe (1967), effectively lists ubuntu values long practiced by indigenous tribespeople of Zambia which this research applies to explore findings.

The research used a qualitative approach to gather empirical data about local development practitioners’ experiences working for local nongovernmental organisaitons in Zambia. Data were mainly collected from one round of interviews with 15 development practitoners. Further data were gathered by engaging local practitioners in creative methods of creative writing, photography, and voice recordings. Interviews were interpreted with thematic analysis with trustworthiness achieved through membeing checking.

The findings suggest that local development practitioners believe local nongovernmental organisations promote community development effectively and that they do so through a wide range of activities and processes which enable such promotion of community development. The research findings are presented as activities participants listed as essential to their organisations function which in general terms included organisation background, programmes, programme design and implementation, leadership, partnerships, Covid-19, and international voltuneering. Thematic analysis of findings prompted a discussion of precise themes featuring within these organisaiton functions as follows: international volunteers (religion, family values, dress codes, child safeguarding, problem-solving), organisation partnerships (community schools, government departments, universities, sporting bodies), programme design (Sport in Aciton, NOWSPAR, Response Network), programme implementation (dignity, feminism, civic/political leaders, life skills development), traditional games (HIV/AIDS education, male patriarchy, declining interest), social enterprise activity (Covid-19 as catalyst, Zoca, income generation, opportunities to value), international partnerships (independent female choice, social change and knowledge exchange, potential for social change, competing values), and organisation communications (transparent internal communications, effective stakeholder communication, independent stakeholder communication).

The original contributions made by this thesis to knowledge include contributions to theory, methodology, context, and practice. It contributes to theory development by applying the development as freedom and capability and development as humanness and personhood perspective to empirical findings drawn from community development activities underway in the context of Zambia. The thesis offers a contribution to methodology by applying creative methods like creative writing, photography, and voice recording which align with perspectives offered by postcoloinial theorists of development. An original contribution is made to context with the research gathering rich empirical data relevant to the national context of Zambia, the context of the local nongovernment organisations explored as case by the thesis, and community contexts where these organisations work. Finally, the thesis contributes to practice with nuanced understandings of development stakeholders involved in partnership working in the sport and international development sector of Zambia.