Yale Human Rights and Development Journal, Vol. 7 [2004], Iss. 1, Art. 4 2004) Zimbabwean Human Rights Crisis to ensure that external efforts to assist them are in fact useful and effective. Closer collaboration with such activists, as well as with their counterparts in the southern African region, is imperative for western organizations at this critical stage for Zimbabwe. In a world that is increasingly fractured and multi-polar at a political level, western NGOs must be willing to discard old methodologies that saw them leading advocacy efforts in the global South, rather than working in a collaborative fashion with civil society from the affected country or region. Human Rights First learned a great deal from both the advocacy surrounding the August 2003 African Civil Society Consultation on Zimbabwe and the substantive discussion itself. In particular it should be noted that our instinct to organize the event jointly with a local NGO was even more important, from a strategic perspective, than we had initially believed. Without the prominent public positioning of DITSHWANELO at the forefront of the consultation, all of our efforts to ensure a genuinely consultative process would have been marginalized by sustained Zimbabwean government attacks painting the consultation as one hosted by British and U.S. lackeys. From an inter-NGO perspective the partnership with DITSHWANELO was also very important. By reaching out and working collaboratively with DITSHWANELO and the other organizations involved in the consultation, Human Rights First appropriately created a partnership that set the tone for the meeting. Ensuring an environment in which all NGOs seek to listen to and learn from one another, and provide input on areas of their greatest expertise is ultimately a more effective and sustainable advocacy strategy. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yhrdlj/vol7/iss1/4 20