Social Change Organizations
click here to return to main page
 

Global partnership for Effective Development Co-Operation   http://effectivecooperation.org/   apparently a new organization, aimed at reducing poverty. Endorsed by the UN, World Bank and many others.


International Development Agencies and Development Banks. All of these are aimed at development. Some have reports, news releases, etc.

African Development Bank   http://www.afdb.org/en/    "The overarching objective of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction."


Asian Development Bank   http://www.adb.org/   "The work of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is aimed at improving the welfare of the people in Asia and the Pacific, particularly the 1.9 billion who live on less than $2 a day."


Australian Agency For International Development   http://www.ausaid.gov.au/   "To assist developing countries reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development, in line with Australia's national interest."


Australian Council for International Development   http://www.acfid.asn.au/   "ACFID is an independent national association of Australian non-government organisations (NGOs) working in the field of international aid and development."


Development Gateway   http://www.developmentgateway.org/    supports international development


Canada   http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/index-e.htm   describes what they do, issues addressed, etc


Center for International Development at Harvard University   http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid   "CID was established with one overriding conceptual notion: the need for cross-disciplinary approaches to the challenges of sustainable development."


France  http://www.afd.fr/home   Its mission is to finance development


IDRC   http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Pages/default.aspx   "is a Canadian Crown corporation that works in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies."


Inter-American Development Bank   http://www.iadb.org/   Its mission is "contribute to the acceleration of the process of economic and social development of the regional developing member countries, individually and collectively.”  They have a lot of data and research available as well.


Japan    http://www.jica.go.jp/english/index.html    their goal is to "advance international cooperation through the sharing of knowledge and experience and will work to build a more peaceful and prosperous world."


USAID    http://www.usaid.gov/   Lots of stuff....  Everything produced by the US government is public domain, so free to use.


UK Department for International Development   http://www.dfid.gov.uk/   "The Department for International Development (DFID) is the part of the UK Government that manages Britain's aid to poor countries and works to get rid of extreme poverty."


UN Development Program   http://www.undp.org/   from the UN, has Human Development Reports   http://hdr.undp.org/   as well as data, the Millennium Project   http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/index.htm    with it's Development Goals and plan to meet those goals.

The UN also has this Social Development   http://www.un.org/en/development/progareas/socdev.shtml   which links to all the other UN sections about social development.




Other orgs

Major NGOs

OECD has these:
Better Life Initiative: Measuring Well-Being and Progress   http://www.oecd.org/statistics/better-life-initiative.htm   "Are our lives getting better? How can policies improve our lives? Are we measuring the right things? The OECD Better Life Initiative and the work programme on Measuring Well-Being and Progress answer these questions. They allow understanding what drives well-being of people and nations and what needs to be done to achieve greater progress for all. "
   OECD is also a cosponser along with IIID   http://www.iiid.net/   of DD4D   http://www.dd4d.net/   Data Designed for Decisions, Enhancing Social, Economic and Environmental Progress


Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development   http://www.oecd.org/department/0,2688,en_2649_33735_1_1_1_1_1,00.html   which "assists countries in adapting their public sector governance arrangements to the changing needs of society."  Of particular interest is this project, Management in Government: Moving towards "Government at a Glance"   http://www.oecd.org/document/12/0,2340,en_2649_33735_37688524_1_1_1_1,00.html   which will "Provide a "suite" of separate datasets across OECD countries" starting in 2009.


World Bank   http://www.worldbank.org/   has a lot of research and data available for free, listed on our research and data pages.
Also see their International Development Association   here  


The UN had these, among others

Sustainable Development Solutions Network   http://unsdsn.org/      "The Solutions Network mobilizes scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society, and the private sector in support of sustainable development problem solving at local, national, and global scales."


Management of Social Transformation   http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/social-transformations/most-programme/    "MOST is a research programme, designed by UNESCO, to promote international comparative social science research. Its primary emphasis is to support large-scale, long-term autonomous research and to transfer the relevant findings and data to decision-makers.  MOST also publishes state of the art reports that assess existing information on specific topics."  They have discussion papers, links, events, etc...


Other NGOs

The Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP)   http://www.allianceforpeacebuilding.org/   is a global membership association ... developing processes for change in the most complex, chaotic conflict environments in the US and around the world.


Bellanet Alliance   http://www.bellanet.org/   This is "an international network of people and organizations harnessing regional and global expertise on Information and Communications Technology tools and Knowledge Sharing practices." They had Online Communities,  http://dgroups.org/   currently being revised.


InterAction  http://www.interaction.org/    is the largest coalition of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focused on the world’s poor and most vulnerable people.


 International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)   http://www.3ieimpact.org/   3ie funds impact evaluations and systematic reviews that generate evidence on what works in development programmes and why.


Academic


Amsterdam International Institute for Development   http://www.aiid.org/   The Amsterdam Institute for International Development (AIID) is a joint initiative of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) ... founded in 2000 by the two universities as a network linking their best experts in international development and to engage in policy debates.


The Carlo F. Dondena Centre for Research on Social Dynamics   http://www.dondena.unibocconi.it/wps/wcm/connect/Cdr/Centro_Dondena/Home    is an international, interdisciplinary centre for social science research relevant to individuals, businesses, institutions, and economies. At its core is a focus on social dynamics and populations in their economic, organizational, and policy contexts.


Clio Infra  https://www.clio-infra.eu/    This is "a set of interconnected databases has been set up containing worldwide data on social, economic, and institutional indicators for the past five centuries, with special attention to the past 200 years. These indicators allow research into long-term development of worldwide economic growth and inequality."


The Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation   http://www.uu.nl/faculty/geosciences/en/research/institutesandgroups/researchinstitutes/copernicusinstitute/Pages/default.aspx   aims to support the search for sustainable development and innovation through the development of knowledge, methods and instruments.

Country Indicators for Foreign Policy   http://www4.carleton.ca/cifp/   "CIFP is a leader in customized risk analysis for the public and private sector."


Stanford Global Projects Center   https://gpc.stanford.edu/   The Global Projects Center is an interdisciplinary research center at Stanford University. We seek to facilitate understanding of the financing, development, and governance of critical infrastructure worldwide.

The Earth Institute at Columbia University   http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/sections/view/9   This organization "brings together talent from throughout the University to address complex issues facing the planet and its inhabitants, with particular focus on sustainable development and the need of the world's poor."

The ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change   http://www.cresc.ac.uk/   Has some interesting working papers about socio-cultural change, and a newsletter describing their research themes.

 
FERNAND BRAUDEL CENTER for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations  http://www.binghamton.edu/fbc/   "The Fernand Braudel Center was founded in September 1976 to engage in the analysis of large-scale social change over long periods of historical time."  This link has some commentaries, papers, and links available.


Global Awareness Society International   http://orgs.bloomu.edu/gasi/   "We believe that a vital step toward achieving peace, harmony, and cooperation among diverse peoples is to promote mutual understanding and appreciation for one another."


Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies  http://kroc.nd.edu/   This organization "conducts research, education, and outreach programs on the causes of violence and the conditions for sustainable peace."  Has some booklets, other pubs available for download.


Tampere Peace Research Institute   http://www.uta.fi/yky/en/research/tapri/index.html   Studying peaceful change
  

World-Systems Archive   http://wsarch.ucr.edu/    links to some papers.


West African Network for Peacebuilding   http://www.wanep.org/wanep/   Their mission: "promoting cooperative responses to violent conflicts; providing the structure through which these practitioners and institutions will regularly exchange experience and information on issues of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, social, religious and political reconciliation; and promoting West Africa’s social cultural values as resources for peacebuilding."



Independent organizations working for social change



Center for Societal Progress   http://www.fortschrittszentrum.de/en/   "is a non-profit think tank based in Frankfurt, Germany. Since its launch in 2009 it works on new ways and methods that can help improve the quality of life of people. We link the national debate on wellbeing in Germany with activities in other countries."


Nobel Peace Prize Forum   http://nobelpeaceprizeforum.org/   "The Forum advances discussion and action on drivers of conflict and threats to peace and security by bringing together leaders in government, business, academia, civil society and youth to dialogue and take action around five key areas critical to sustainable peacemaking and peacebuilding: Disarmament, Poverty Reduction and Food Security, Environmental Sustainability, Human Rights and Global Health Systems."


Seeds of Change   http://consultants4good.org/   "Fostering social change through education, empowerment and economic development.   Our Vision: At Seeds of Change Consulting, our vision is to become the partner of choice for organizations engaged in international development."  For example, they have an endowment fund, "our long-term goals of building and maintaining educational safe havens for our most vulnerable children and young women."


Coalitions of organizations and organizations connecting volunteers to those needing volunteers

Ashoka   http://www.ashoka.org/   "the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems."


Citizens and Societies   http://citizensandsocieties.org/   This is "the first professional association of citizens. we need a professional association of citizens to make our communities, whether local, provincial, national, communities where we first put the emphasis on the development of our fellow citizens in order to facilitate the functioning of our societies. The more our fellow citizens will be physically, psychologically, mentally and financially healthy, and the more they will be educated and scolarised, the more our societies will be functional."


Community Indicators Consortium    "The Community Indicators Consortum (CIC) is an active learning network and community of practice among persons and organizations interested or engaged in the field of community indicators and their application."


Nabuur   http://www.nabuur.com/   connecting volunteers to people in developing countries. You can work on your computer at home and help folks elsewhere.
   Listed here  http://staff.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/voluntee.htm 
   and here  http://go.global.wisc.edu/site-lists/volunteer.htm    


Participation.net   http://www.pnet.ids.ac.uk/    "is a global, online space for sharing ideas about the participation of people in development, citizenship, governance and rights. We welcome researchers, practitioners, activists, educators, policy makers and others from around the world to exchange diverse views and resources."
 From the Institute of Development Studies   http://www.ids.ac.uk/ids/   "The Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, is a leading centre for research and teaching on international development." (This is an academic source, but I'm putting it here.)


Open Data Research Network   http://www.opendataresearch.org/    "We’re establishing a research network to explore emerging impacts of open data in developing countries. We are bringing together researchers from the global south to look at open data in action, where it meets processes of governance: impacting on decision-making and implementation in a wide range of settings."



Create your own petition or find one


Change.org   http://www.change.org/   This site allows folks to connect to others who care about social issues, and take action in cooperation with others. Currently it seems to be a site for creating petitions of your favorite cause. You can browse and search for existing petitions.
  Change.org mentioned here
   http://www.calema.ca.gov/planningandpreparedness/pages/human-trafficking.aspx  
   http://pubadvocate.nyc.gov/news/2011-01-21/changeorg-report-walmart-would-kill-jobs-lower-wages-nyc     
   http://nnlm.gov/bhic/category/environmental-health/page/4/  
   http://vscc.virginia.gov/documents/2011/0725/Missing_children_reporting.pdf  


Signon.org   http://www.signon.org/   another place to start petitions. Created by moveon.org. But as of Feb 2012, you can't search for any petitions. So you don't know what other petitions are there unless someone told you.
   listed here
   http://sd28.senate.ca.gov/news/2011-12-13-los-angeles-times-lowe-s-faces-backlash-after-pulling-ads-%E2%80%98all-american-muslim  
   http://staffcouncil.wvu.edu/  
   http://nuweb9.neu.edu/dukakiscenter/?p=1370  


ipetition.com
   listed here
   http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/senator-maziarz-launches-ipetition-save-sanborn-post  
   http://mainearts.maine.gov/overtheedge.aspx  
   http://burgess.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=202389  


Other


AAG Center for Global Geography Education   http://globalgeography.aag.org/   They have several online course modules: Climate Change, Global Economy, and others.


Africa Development and Resource Research Institute   http://adrri.org/public/    "The institute was founded in 2010 to provide non-political independent policy research alternative and charitable activities to promote Africa Development and resources in the area of economics,climate change,public policy formulation,education,engineering,water,trade,medicine,nutrition, sanitation, micro finance, gender issues, management and marketing,poverty,democracy and development through quality applied action research."


Barefoot College   http://www.barefootcollege.org/   "a non-governmental organization that has been providing basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities for more than 40 years, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. These ‘Barefoot solutions’ can be broadly categorized into the delivery of Solar Electrification, Clean Water, Education, Livelihood Development, and Activism."


The Development Cafe   http://www.thedevelopmentcafe.org/   A Network of Social Scientists and Development Professionals.


Do something dot org   http://www.dosomething.org/   We're giving you a place to connect, a place to be inspired, be supported, be celebrated. The only question is, "What's your something?"
   Listed here  http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/06/04/white-house-mental-health-conference-dosomethingorg-crisis-text-li  
   and here  http://www.serveidaho.gov/Resources/YouthOutreach.aspx    
   and   https://www.nationalserviceresources.gov/links/do-something-awards#.VE7Hv_nF80Q  


Global Mindshift   http://www.global-mindshift.org/   engaging people in conversions about change. Also lists many other change organizations.


IIID   http://www.iiid.net/    "The International Institute for Information Design was founded to develop research and practice in optimizing information and information systems for knowledge transfer in everyday life, business, education and science."  IIID is a cosponsor along with OECD of  DD4D  http://www.dd4d.net/  


Practical Action   http://practicalaction.org/    Practical Action aims to demonstrate and advocate the sustainable use of technology to reduce poverty in developing countries.


Reuse Everything Institute   http://www.reuseeverything.org/   At least one thing they do is change plastic bottles into roofing material.
   The are listed here
      http://mba.sustainability.duq.edu/job-placement/job-placement-data.asp   graduates got jobs with them


Search for Common Ground   https://www.sfcg.org/   We work with all sides of a conflict, providing the tools needed to work together and find solutions.


SIETAR The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research   http://www.sietar.org/   the aim "is to encourage the development and application of values, knowledge and skills that promote and reinforce beneficial and long-lasting intercultural relations at the individual, group, organization, and community levels."  The other chapters are listed here   http://www.sietarusa.org/links   chapters in North America, Europe and Asia.


Sustainable Society Index   developed the index to measure how sustainable the country is.


Tactical Tech  https://www.tacticaltech.org/   is an organization dedicated to the use of information in activism.


World Learning   http://www.worldlearning.org/   "is a private, nonprofit international organization with both academic and field project capabilities." Especially see their World Learning International Development programs  http://www.worldlearning.org/international-development.htm   "This carries out overseas projects that create democratic change and support peace, understanding and social justice."



Associations, societies, centers, etc.


Center for global studies   http://www.globalcentres.org/   some interesting on line publications, see   http://www.globalcentres.org/html/publications.html   for example, altered states, discusses why this globalization is different.


Global studies association     http://www.globalstudiesassociation.org/    This group is for "promoting the creation and dissemination of multi and interdisciplinary knowledge in the social and human sciences concerning global affairs, problems and changes."  You can download some papers from their first international conference about Networks and Transformations.  Papers include "Globalisation - The New Order or Disorder?", "Location, Privatization, McDonaldization" and others.


International Society of Child Indicators   http://isci.chapinhall.org/   "The new ISCI brings together experts in the field worldwide to: Contribute to the well-being of all children., Share knowledge and experience, Improve data resources, Foster collaborative research and projects ..." and more.

International Studies Association   http://www.isanet.org/   includes list of internet resources at their compendium.


International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP)   http://www.iussp.org/   "promotes scientific studies of demography and population-related issues."
 

Globalization Studies Network   http://gstudynet.org/   The core idea is "The proposition was made that the topic of globalization and its multidisciplinary perspective was beyond the capacity of any one university to take on and address comprehensively."


Society for International Development   http://www.sidint.net/   a global network of individuals and institutions concerned with development


Other

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance    http://www.idea.int/index.cfm    includes some free on line publications on democracy building.
 

Studying Development   http://www.studying-development.org/   "Find study and training courses in International Development and Humanitarian Aid. The site aims to help orientate those wishing to enter, or already active in Development and Humanitarian Aid. "


Centre for International Governance Innovation   http://www.cigionline.org/   "an independent, nonpartisan think tank that addresses international governance challenges."


One World Trust   http://www.oneworldtrust.org/   "The One World Trust promotes education, training and research into the changes required within global organisations in order to make them answerable to the people they affect and ensure that international laws are strengthened and applied equally to all."


Technology


The Center for Science, Technology, and Society   http://www.scu.edu/socialbenefit/index.cfm    This organization "researches and promotes the use and understanding of science and technology for the common good.  Through research, education, and public events, the Center brings together scholars, industry leaders, and public advocates to collaboratively serve humanity by leveraging its unique strengths.


The Society on Social Implications of Technology   http://www.ieeessit.org/   The scope of the society includes such issues as environmental, health and safety implications of technology; engineering ethics and professional responsibility; history of electrotechnology; technical expertise and public policy; peace technology; and social issues related to energy, information technology and telecommunications.


Department of Science, Technology and Society  
http://www.uu.nl/faculty/science/EN/organisation/depts/chemistry/research/sts/Pages/default.aspx?refer=/en/faculties/science/organisation/depts/chemistry/research/sts/Pages/default.aspx  
part of the  Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation listed above


Humanity Plus   http://humanityplus.org/   "The goal of Humanity+ is to support discussion and public awareness of emerging technologies, to defend the rights of individuals to adopt technologies that expand human capacities, to anticipate and propose solutions for the potential consequences of emerging technologies, and to actively encourage and support the development of emerging technologies judged to have sufficiently probable positive benefit."


 

last verified 6/1/2015
last updated 5/7/2016.
click here to return to main page