EAHRNK’s Theory of Change: Outline and Methodology
Objectives
The European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea seeks to improve human rights in North Korea through support of North Koreans, through improving media reporting, through improving diplomatic relations, and through policy and research work rooted in firsthand experience of life in the DPRK.
Theory of Change (TOC)
Our Theory of Change is based upon comprehensive research into the social, economic and political factors which have a fundamental bearing on the human rights crisis in North Korea, which will lead to:
- Creating and encouraging empowerment of North Koreans both inside and outside the country.
- The recognition that empowerment already exists in some forms and encouraging for the outside world not to harm or jeopardise it.
- Preparation for a future empowered group of North Koreans serving a government of the people.
Our TOC is multi-dimensional and multilateral in its attempts to achieve the goals of the organisation. It focuses not just on providing the means for North Koreans to have a more public voice, but also works to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the flaws of the socio-economic and political system in North Korea which underpin and contribute to the occurrence of human rights abuses. This will lead to more effective policy making and better humanitarian conditions in the country for the long term.
TOC Stage 1
Our activities to achieve stage 1 will be focused on providing both psychological and economic support to North Koreans. In terms of providing psychological support, the activities will focus on encouraging the freer flow of information into (and out of) the country. Examples of such activities include supporting and establishing projects which help bring information in to the country and supporting the networks that already communicate through informal channels. Closely related to this is the notion that psychological support must not end with North Koreans inside the country – support for North Koreans outside of the country is vital for encouraging two-way communications and understanding. In the beginning, our efforts will be focused on supporting and establishing projects which empower the voices and agency of individual North Koreans beyond that of the state.
TOC Stage 2
North Korean citizens have been engaged in an economic revolution from beneath over the past 20 years or so. This revolution was triggered by the famine of the 90s, where citizens were forced to trade, barter, and exchange goods just to stay alive. This development caused unprecedented economic and, to some degree, political empowerment in the country. Unfortunately, in an effort to clamp down on such empowerment, the North Korean state resorted to, firstly, economic measures designed to curtail the flow of currency and, recently, by encouraging foreign businesses to set up inside the country to bring in much needed cash and to centralise economic power into the state’s control and surveillance mechanisms. These centralised business efforts have the effect of disempowering and disenfranchising individual citizens fending for themselves through the informal economy, which have been increasingly diversified in scope. Support for those outside the state funnelled and concentrated channels will lead to a lasting economic empowerment.
TOC Stage 3
Our TOC focuses on the empowerment of North Korean citizens, so our final stage will be to see a state that can work to protect the rights and livelihoods of ordinary North Koreans. Our activities to this end will include awareness of North Korean voices by creating policy based on empirical experience, publishing interviews with North Koreans speaking in individual voices, and putting out research which focuses on the qualitative experiences of North Koreans themselves rather than merely of propaganda or statistical analysis. This will help in supporting a legitimate North Korean voice for a more humane leadership of the country, now and in the future. Current discourse revolves around the system, in terms of collapse or reform, but rarely on how North Koreans can be empowered to shape their country’s future; we aim to work on preparing the ground for North Korean citizens leading the country on the foundations of respect for human rights.