Asia Landscape Study

Understanding capacity building gaps within farmed animal welfare / vegan organisations in Asia

About this study

This study was conducted to better understand the internal challenges and bottlenecks faced by farmed animal welfare (FAW)/ vegan organisations in Asia, in order to:

  • Explore what capacity building actions/interventions are most needed to solve the challenges faced by organisations in the region

While we ultimately decided our current programme is not the best fit for solving the pressing needs and challenges of Asian animal advocacy organisations, we think our findings are still especially useful to other capacity builders, donors, and advocates who are interested in growing the FAW/vegan movement in Asia.

We hope that our recommendations will inspire the implementation and/or further exploration of capacity building interventions to support organisations doing advocacy work in the region.

 

Methodology

From April to June 2022, we undertook a research and discovery process to uncover challenges faced by local FAW/vegan organisations across Asia, and we developed ideas and suggestions on how to address those issues.

 
 

  • We conducted desktop research based on publicly available reports by animal advocacy organisations, charity evaluation reports by Animal Charity Evaluators, media interviews with advocates, events, and more.

  • We completed semi-structured interviews with:

    • 4x regional capacity builders/grantmakers

    • 6x local organisations

    • 3x informal chats / email interviews with other regional and local organisations.

  • Based on the challenges and opportunities identified in the previous phases, we came up with ideas for capacity building interventions.

    To validate these ideas, we shared a survey asking local organisations to indicate which ideas they would prioritise or want the most. We received a total of 8 responses.

    Respondents were asked to choose as many or as little ideas as they’d like from a list of 35.

    This report is a synthesis of the challenges, needs and ideas generated from the entire research process.

 
 

“Capacity building needs to be done with long-term impact in mind, there should be clear KPIs and an exit plan by any external capacity building organisation working in Asia.”

— From an interview with a regional capacity builder

 

Organisational Challenges

  • Direct Work Training

    With the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of their advocacy work, there is demand from local organisations to receive locally-relevant training in corporate outreach, government engagement and public awareness building. While training may be mainly intended for staff, it may also apply to volunteers.

  • Leadership and Management Capabilities

    For the long-term growth of organisations and overall movement, building up management capabilities of a team is needed, including leadership skills, sensitivity training, diversity & inclusion, and mental health support.

  • Operational Tasks

    Due to small team sizes, staff members often have to do it all. Administrative and financial tasks take time away from direct work, and may not be done as efficiently as specialised staff can.

  • Social Media & Online Campaigns

    Various organisations mentioned the need to enhance their online and social media presence with better engagement tactics and improved design and content for outreach campaign materials.

  • Locally Relevant Data & Research

    Data collection and research that are conducted locally may better facilitate discussions with key local stakeholders (e.g. government, industry, corporates) who may not be as easily persuaded when presented with evidence from abroad.

Fundraising Challenges

 

Risks with relying on foreign funding

While most, if not all of the organisations we spoke to had adequate funding at the moment, their funding was almost entirely derived from Western sources. This presents inherent risks due to increased restrictions with foreign funding of non-profits in many Asian countries.

Past reports have also indicated that donors may make funding decisions based on what works in the West, which may not necessarily work best in local contexts.

Difficulties with diversifying donor base

Several organisations cited risks with relying on a few major donors - in times of global downturn, there is a risk that funding may be discontinued. Current funding sources may also be limited in terms of scope, precluding more “commercial projects” such as pilot model farms.

On the topic of expanding outreach to local donors, the general consensus was that there was a lack of interest from local/regional foundations, corporations, high-net worth individuals, and small donors for FAW and vegan causes.

Talent and Recruitment Challenges

 

Low salary as a barrier to hiring

Sometimes, management decisions, donor restrictions or budget constraints lead to below market rate salaries, which is a barrier to hiring top talent.

Non-profit work not seen as a viable career path

Individuals interested in non-profit work may face external pressure from friends and family to reconsider this career path due to perception of low pay and lack of future prospects.

Limited career path for FAW/vegan advocates

While there is an issue with perception, the nascent movement in Asia means that there may be a lack of upward or lateral mobility for advocates who are (interested in) working in the field.

Awareness and Movement Building Challenges

 
 

Everyone we interviewed, regardless of country based, mentioned a low general awareness and understanding of FAW and veganism among the public. This is not only challenging for advocacy work, but also for hiring and fundraising.

For the movement to grow, deeper engagement with various types of stakeholders (e.g. industry, academia) and across other social movements (e.g. environmental) may be beneficial.

 

Our Recommendations

  • Direct Work Training

    There is currently demand from local organisations for direct work related training (e.g. outreach to corporations, government, public)

    Capacity builders should explore the most efficient methods of knowledge transfer based on existing materials and identify local knowledge gaps where new training materials would need to be developed.

  • Build Management Capacity

    Develop regionally-appropriate training materials for topics such as leadership & management skills, sensitivity training, diversity & inclusion, advocate mental health support, etc.

    This type of professional development opportunities will also be beneficial for the future career prospects of advocates.

  • Diversify Funding Sources

    Explore non-traditional funding sources for local organisations (e.g. impact investors) and expand their reach to local and international audiences (e.g. using crowdfunding platforms)

    In the long-run, it will also be important to cultivate institutional donors for FAW/vegan causes in the region.

  • Provide External Communications Support

    Provide subsidised/pro bono strategic advice and technical support for organisations to do public outreach on social media, as well as online community building.

  • Conduct Locally-Relevant Research

    Work with local academic experts and researchers to determine what kind of evidence, research, or data would be most useful for an NGO’s work/advocacy, and allow research findings to be open-access/publicly available.

  • Provide Operational Support

    Provide small organisations with subsidised/pro bono structured support for administrative and operational tasks that could be outsourced.

  • Funded Mentorship Programmes

    Matching more experienced/established organisations, technical specialists, or capacity builders with local organisations to support them with funding proposals and provide strategic advice/feedback on programmatic work.

  • Empower Individual Advocates

    Create more opportunities for individual advocates (who are not fully involved/working full-time in animal advocacy) to engage in FAW/vegan work via initiatives such as incubation grants for individual projects, matching skilled volunteers with local orgs, or paid job shadowing/placement opportunities.

  • Raise General Awareness

    Across Asia, public awareness and understanding of FAW/vegan issues is still low. Further efforts need to be made on building the movement and research to find high-leverage intervention points to change mindsets and behaviours.

Read the Full Report
 

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following individuals and organisations for their generous time in sharing their insights for this research (in alphabetical order): 

We would also like to thank other individuals who shared their time with us on background for this research. 

For any questions or feedback about the report, please contact us.