Knowing Best? An Ethnographic Exploration of the Politics and Practices of an International NGO in Senegal by Máire Ní Mhórdha Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social Anthropology University of St Andrews November 2014 Candidate’s declaration I, Máire Ní Mhórdha, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 80,000 words in length, has been written by me, and that it is the record of work carried out by me, or principally by myself in collaboration with others as acknowledged, and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student and candidate for the degree of PhD in March 2008; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University of St Andrews between 2008 and 2014. Date …………… Signature of candidate ……………………................... Supervisor’s declaration I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date …………… .. Signature of supervisor ……………….......................... In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the publication of this thesis: Embargo of all of printed copy and embargo of all of electronic publication of thesis for a period of five years on the following ground: Publication would be in breach of law or ethics This is a study of a high profile international development organisation that attempts to bring about the end of female genital cutting (FGC) in West Africa. I am requesting that the thesis be embargoed to protect the identity of my informants (workers in the organisation). Given the well-known character of the organisation and its unique profile, I cannot disguise the organisation itself or the name of its Director. Although I have anonymised all other individual informants, I believe that they could still be identifiable to readers familiar with the organisation. Publication would therefore be in breach of ethics, as it would violate the agreed consent for protection of anonymity on which this research is premised. Furthermore, the thesis discusses a variety of sensitive data (including on the practice of FGC, which is illegal in Senegal), collected from within a relatively closed network of people associated with the organisation. For this reason, and due to the critical ethnographic approach of the analysis, publication may compromise the organisation and related individuals in relation to each other and to the external parties on which they are reliant for funding and support. For these reasons I am requesting a five-year embargo on all print and electronic publication, to be reviewed in advance of expiry to determine the status of these conditions. Date ……... Signature of candidate …………………. Signature of supervisor…………………………. 1 Abstract This thesis explores the social and political relations of an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Senegal. NGOs and international development have been the subject of research from a number of different perspectives, including the politics (and anti- politics) of development, post-development, structural violence and the ‘everyday lives’ of NGO participants and workers (Ferguson 1990; Escobar 1995; Farmer 2004; Bornstein 2005; Hilhorst 2003). The present study builds on this scholarship through an ethnographic exploration of the networks of people involved with Tostan, an American NGO based in Senegal whose developmental objective is to engender social change among rural groups in Senegal (particularly those that practice female genital cutting), using a human rights education framework. Through identification and scrutiny of the organisation’s macro- and micro-level social relations, I critically examine how ‘development’ operates as a cultural and political process. I focus analytically on conceptions of knowledge and ignorance, particularly the ways in which these constructions are acted upon and utilised by different actors within the organisation. I argue that, as an NGO (and thus a ‘moral actor,’ Guilhot 2005: 6) within the contemporary donor-driven development industry, a key preoccupation for Tostan as an organisation is the management of perception, or a concern for the ‘spectacle of development’ (Allen 2013). Flowing from this argument is the assertion that the activities carried out by actors at every level of the organisation to produce and re-produce particular narratives through strategic knowing and unknowing are as significant (if not more so) as the formal programmatic activities implemented by the organisation ‘on the ground.’ As David Mosse argues, development involves not only social work, but also the conceptual work of ‘enrolment, persuasion, agreement and argument that lies behind the consensus and coherence necessary to sustain authoritative narratives and networks for the continued support of policy’ (Mosse 2005: 34). As I argue here, NGO actors work to (re)produce, project and protect particular narratives, through the strategic exercise of knowledge and ignorance, in order to access or consolidate positions of power within the politics of aid. Drawing on critical theories of development and human rights (e.g. Sachs 1992; Escobar 1991, 1995; Guilhot 2005, inter alia), within a political context succinctly described by Ellen Foley (2010: 9) as ‘the neoliberalization of just about everything,’ I explore how actors across the organisation are linked in a web of cultural and political presuppositions, values, and motivations. 2 Table of Contents Declaration .......................................................................................................................................1 Abstract.............................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................6 Map of Senegal and The Gambia .....................................................................................................9 Chapter 1: Introduction: Methods, Motivations and Context .................................................11 Niassène Diola, Kolda, December 2007............................................................................11 Bignona, Lower Casamance, April 2010 ..........................................................................13 ‘Walking Away From Past’: Tostan and FGC ..................................................................15 Tostan: An Evolving Entity...............................................................................................17 Studying ‘Up,’ ‘Sideways’ and ‘Down’: The Key Actors ................................................18 Methodology: ‘Multi-Locale’ Fieldwork ..........................................................................21 Fieldwork in Kalounaye, Casamance................................................................................22 Fieldwork in Dakar............................................................................................................28 Affinity, Anxiety and Awkwardness: Fieldwork and Position of the Researcher…... .....30 The Political Economy of Development in Post-Independence Senegal ..........................34 A Critical Ethnography of a Development and Human Rights Project.............................39 Narrative Production and the Uses of Knowledge and Ignorance ....................................41 What Follows ....................................................................................................................45 Outline of Chapters ...........................................................................................................46 Chapter 2: Voyage to ‘The Village of Knowledge’: Processes of Translation and Enlightenment...............................................................................................................................49 Introduction .......................................................................................................................49 ‘Where I’m Supposed To Be’: Gender, ‘Silence,’ and the Birth of Tostan in Senegal... .50 Forming an NGO, Developing a Curriculum....................................................................57 ‘Empowerment’ and Global Philanthropy: A Theme and a Funding Stream ...................59 Ending ‘The Tradition’: Tostan and ‘The Movement to Abandon Female Genital