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The emergence of international NGOs mediating in intrastate conflicts has been labelled byThe Economistas ‘privatizing peace’. This article explores this growth and the tensions brought about by the unofficial standing of NGO mediators. Primary among these is the power differential experienced by weak mediators, whereby they are perceived as unable to deploy the necessary inducements to create conditions favourable for a resolution. This article reviews NGO strengths and weaknesses as mediators by undertaking a case study analysis of the role of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (1999–2003) and the Crisis Management Initiative (2005) in the peace processes in Aceh, Indonesia. It is concluded that despite evident limitations in terms of resources and leverage, within the specific context of the Aceh conflict, the characteristics of the NGO mediators and the mediation strategies adopted by the NGOs allowed them to implement an effective mediation process, and resulted in favourable mediation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines how different organizational structures in disaster aid delivery affect house aid quality. We analyze three waves of survey data on fishermen and fishing villages in Aceh, Indonesia, following the 2004 tsunami. We categorize four organizational structures based on whether and to whom donors contract aid implementation. Compared to bilateral contracting between donors and implementers, donors that vertically integrate and do their own implementation offer the highest-quality housing as rated by village heads and have fewer counts of faults, such as leaky roofs and cracked walls, as reported by fishermen. However, they shade in quality as they lose dominance as the leading aid agency in a village. Domestic implementers and the government agency that was responsible for significant portions of aid delivery provide significantly lower-quality aid. We also examine how the imposition of shared ownership, the primary social agenda for boat aid agencies, affects boat aid quality. We find that village and fishing leaders steer poor-quality boats toward those whom shared ownership was imposed upon, often lower-status fishermen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]