Fourteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Transnational organizations spread messages about human rights through the projects they enact. Projects’ influence on lay people’s declarative attitudes may vary by sub-population and be contingent on projects’ organizational forms. I link four national surveys from Malawi with new administrative data on transnational organizations’ funding for human rights projects about violence against women. Multilevel logistic regression models indicate that aid disbursed for activist-led projects substantially increased women’s probability of stating that they reject violence against women. Aid for bureaucrat-led projects did not have this effect on women and decreased stated rejection among men. These results indicate that transnational organizations can affect lay people’s declarative attitudes through the projects they implement, but that their influence can diverge depending on whether activists or bureaucrats design and implement projects.