Coalitions as monitoring partnerships

One of the key functions for those promoting social and political change is monitoring the implementation of agreements that have been made. For a coalition, this monitoring function can be a strong reason to continue working as a global network. Taking on the monitoring function allows a coalition to occupy a position of authority – of course this depends on the way the monitoring is done and the extent to which the actors being monitored accept the validity of the research. Monitoring functions may also be seen as valuable by donors at a time when the funding for advocacy and campaigning work might become more limited. This is true both for the coalition that facilitates the monitoring and the member NGOs that might become researchers on a national basis for the monitoring effort. When the monitoring is done by a partnership of NGOs or the coalition itself, rather than by one NGO, it may have more legitimacy in the eyes of external partners such as governments and businesses.