In some real sense, the National Traditional Council of tribal chiefs is
the Carter Center. NGOs like the Carter Center can be “multiple realities” that are “ontologically intermingled” with their partners. Further study of the heterogeneous societal and political partners of the
Carter Center in Liberia over time could be revealing.
Dennis Dijkzeul compares three NGOs that addressed Gender
Based Violence (GBV) in a war-torn region of the eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) during the 2000s: the International Rescue
Committee (IRC), with its focus on displacement and health; Malteser
International, a German NGO with its support of local systems to
address women’s health and GBV problems; and Women for Women
International (WfWI), with its sponsorship links between local women
and women abroad. Cumulatively, the three NGOs engaged with a
broad and heterogeneous panoply of societal and political partners in
the region. Each organization innovated to address the needs of
women in eastern Congo at a micro level, but also transformed global
engagement with the region at a macro level, leading to significant
increases in humanitarian aid, political attention in support of a large
UN peacekeeping mission, and a global anti-GBV campaign with a
broad coalition of health, human rights, feminist, and peace networks.