Non-governmental Organisations

11 Key excerpts on "Non-governmental Organisations"

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  New International Law Frameworks: Systems, organization and outcomes

  • Marko Nikoli?, Marko Nikolić(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  New International Law Frameworks: Systems, Organization and Outcomes 186 They are voluntary, non-profit making as well as service-oriented organizations. These organizations work on several issues such as Save the Planet Earth, Environment protection, Science, and Technology, Disability, Education, Health, Agriculture, Animal welfare, Art, and Culture. There are several other names of NGOs such as Voluntary organizations (VOs), Non-Governmental Development Organizations (NDGO), Voluntary Development Organizations (VDOs) and Voluntary Agencies (VAs). NGOs vary greatly according to their programs, approach, philosophy, purpose, orientations, scope of activities, expertise as well as structures (Figure 7.3). Figure 7.3. NGOs work tirelessly towards improving the lives of the people, especially the children. Source: Image from Pacific Air Forces. To a layman, NGO is non-governmental; it is a social institute and also has a purpose of charity. The different definitions of NGOs to have a better understanding of NGOs are mentioned as follows: According to World Bank NGOs are defined as “Private organizations that pursue activities to provide basic social services, relieve suffering, protect the environment, promote the interests of the poor or undertake community development.” In broad sense, the term NGO can be applied to any non-profit organization which is independent from any government. NGOs are generally value based organizations which depend on donations and voluntary service, in whole or in part. Non-Governmental Organizations and International ... 187 According to the United Nations, NGO is described as: Any voluntary citizens’ non-profit group which is organized either on a local, national, or international level to address issues in support of the public good. They serve as early warning mechanisms, provide analysis as well as expertise and help monitor and implement international agreements.

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  Harnessing Cultural Capital for Sustaina

  A Pan Africanist Perspective

  • Munyaradzi Mawere, Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye, Munyaradzi Mawere, Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Langaa RPCIG

    (Publisher)

  It further explores the complexities and politics that define the involvement of NGOs in the development equation and quest for sustainability in rural communities in Zimbabwe as elsewhere in Africa. 137 Understanding NGOs Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) are not easy to define such that the term ‘NGO’ itself is rarely used with consistence due to differences in their level of operation (i.e. whether local, national or international) and orientation (i.e. the types of activities it takes on) (Vakil 1997). The term NGO was first coined in 1945 when an inter-governmental organisation, the United Nations (UN) was formed (Davies 2014a). The UN approved and made possible the existence of specialised international non-states agencies such as NGOs to be awarded observer status at its assemblies and some of its meetings. It is only after this incident that the word NGO became widely used to refer to any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ groups which are organised on a local, national or international level are task oriented and driven by people with a common interest (Ibid). For the World Bank (1996: 4), NGOs “are private organisations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development.” Diverse as human interests themselves, NGOs are highly diverse engaging in a wide range of activities. By their very nature, NGOs are neither part of a government nor meant for profit making such as they perform a variety of service and charitable or humanitarian functions including advocating and monitoring policies and encourage people participation in issues affecting their lives such as politics, health, education, religion, environment, development, climate change, and business-related activities, through provision of information.

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  Non-Governmental Organizations in World Politics

  The Construction of Global Governance

  • Peter Willetts(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  3 Different ways of thinking about what groups are or are not NGOs, including the UN definition of NGOs, will be discussed in this chapter. Then how NGOs participate in the UN system will be discussed in the next chapter.

  Narrow definitions of non-governmental organizations in global diplomacy

  NGOs are often presumed to be concerned with development, humanitarian work, the environment, or human rights. Then, they may be categorized into operational groups that run their own projects or advocacy groups that seek to influence policy. Not surprisingly, such an approach appears in the definitions used by intergovernmental organizations concerned with development. A variety of restrictive definitions of non-governmental organizations is reported in Box 1.1 .

  Box 1.1 Competing restrictive definitions of non-governmental organizations

  • “An organization which seeks funding, hires staff, and undertakes programs, but does not realize a profit”—UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Forestry Department.1

  • “NGOs include a wide variety of groups and institutions that are entirely or largely independent of government, and characterized primarily by humanitarian or cooperative, rather than commercial, objectives”—World Bank, 1989.2

  • “People’s organizations can be defined as democratic organizations that represent the interests of their members and are accountable to them … Nongovernmental organizations can be defined as voluntary organizations that work with and very often on behalf of others”—United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 1993.3

  • “An NGO is a private, voluntary, not-for-profit organization, supported at least in part by voluntary contributions from the public. For Development Co-operation Report purposes, an

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  Globalization and Security

  An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]

  • G. Honor Fagan, Ronaldo Munck, G. Honor Fagan, Ronaldo Munck(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  16 Nongovernmental Organizations Shamima Ahmed CONCEPTUALIZING NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS The world is seeing an unprecedented growth in nongovernmental organiza- tions, or NGOs, and a corresponding increase in NGO activism. ‘‘The exis- tence of an organized and effective civil society, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), is the greatest social phenomenon in the latter part of the twentieth century, and certainly, in this new millennium’’ (Sfeir-Younis 2004, 29). Nongovernmental organizations have occupied a prominent place in international politics and are viewed as powerful and influential nonstate actors. As Jonathan Doh and Hildey Teegan (2003, xv) explain, ‘‘The events surrounding the effort to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotia- tions in Seattle in December 1999, the protests at the World Bank meetings in the spring of 2000, and the ongoing demonstrations by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at the meetings of the World Economic Forum and else- where underscore the increasing activism and visibility of nongovernmental organizations.’’ One author (Eizenstat 2004) even refers this group as the ‘‘fifth estate.’’ So, what are NGOs? Arriving at a single definition of NGOs that compre- hends all the varieties of this entity is anything but easy. Scholars and practi- tioners have defined it in many different ways, thereby making a single definition a much more challenging task. Some tend to use the term ‘‘nongo- vernmental organization’’ interchangeably with ‘‘nonstate actor.’’ The latter term, however, includes multinational corporations, international producer car- tels like OPEC, a variety of transnational citizen groups, and such organizations as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that are neither states nor private groups. It is important to understand that NGOs are nonstate actors, but not all nonstate actors are NGOs.

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  Management of International Institutions and NGOs

  Insights for Global Leaders

  • Eduardo Missoni, Daniele Alesani(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  2 International non-governmental organizations Definitions, classification, and relation with the UN system Eduardo Missoni

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003289852-3

  2.1 Defining NGOs

  The generic term of international organizations (IOs) is often used in reference to both international institutions – which we tried to define and classify in the previous chapter – and a growing number of non-profit entities with member organizations from different countries. The latter have been often defined as international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), though their legal nature, purpose, organization, and role are far from uniform.

  In the case of international institutions, the characteristics of their membership and of the relations between their members are implicit in the definition. International institutions are established new intergovernmental juridical entities, with their own governance and management structures, created through formal agreements among member states, and represented by their governments; thus, relations among them are truly inter-national.1 On the contrary, in the case of INGOs a clear, unambiguous, and theoretically acceptable definition remains to be formulated.

  Both the concept of “non-governmental” and “international” need to be further defined to circumscribe our field of interest. As we will see, the widely used term non-governmental organization (NGO) is itself an essentially contested concept (Willets 2011 ) and is often used as a synonym for “non-profit”, “civil society”, or “third sector” organization.

  Although the attribute “international” is commonly used referring to INGOs, an organization associating non-state actors (NSAs ) based in multiple countries would be more precisely referred to as trans-national2 or multinational, i.e., subjects operating and linking with others beyond the borders of one nation, or with presence in more than one country. From a juridical standpoint, INGOs are not subjects of international law, although international agreements, conventions, and protocols may refer to them and bestow them specific rights and obligations. For example, workers’ and employers’ organizations enjoy special protection under the International Labour Organization conventions and some international and regional treaties recognize the capacity of NGOs to be party before various courts, tribunals, and bodies. Rights and obligations are also bestowed on a number of NGOs under international humanitarian law. The special status of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is predominantly non-governmental in character, demonstrates the ability of international law to encompass NGOs (Lindblom 2011

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  Human Rights

  Universality in Practice

  • P. Baehr(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  114 10 Non-Governmental Organizations 1 INTRODUCTION Human rights organizations are part of the phenomenon known as ‘non-governmental organizations’ or NGOs. Curiously enough, these NGOs are defined by what they are not. They emphasize their distance and independence from governments, yet at the same time it is mostly the actions and activities of national governments that are the very cause and purpose of their existence. Without governments there would be no non-governmental organizations. 2 A valid description of present-day international relations should, in addition to taking note of the continued role of nation-states and of intergovernmental organiza- tions, pay due attention to the role and function of non-governmental organizations. That seems to be no less true of the sector of interna- tional relations that deals with human rights. The World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, brought together approximately 10 000 persons, including 3000 delegates from NGOs. 3 Non-governmental human rights organizations exist in great num- bers and have developed a great number of activities. However, relat- ively little is known about their effectiveness or impact, except for the fact that they tend to rely on what is commonly known as the ‘mobiliza- tion of shame’. Yet it is hard to put a finger on what exactly constitutes such mobilization. In this chapter, an effort is made to analyse conditions of effectiveness of internationally operating human rights non-govern- mental organizations. After a brief look at problems of definition, the following subjects are dealt with: reliability, the problem of access versus independence, representativeness, mutual cooperation, media-attention and timing. DEFINITION Non-governmental human rights organizations (HRNGOs) exist in all sizes and shapes.

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  Masses in Flight

  The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement

  • Roberta Cohen, Francis M. Deng(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Brookings Institution Press

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER FIVE The Role of Nongovernmental Organizations International NGOs will continue to bear the brunt of operations [to reach the victims of conflict]. While many new local NGOs will spring up and some of the existing ones may expand and become more professional, most will find it difficult to work in conflicts because their governments can pressure their staffs to comply with government policies. . . . International NGOs, sup-ported by donors, can better stand up to repressive governments. —Frederick C. Cuny, President, Intertect, 1992 NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS have become a critical com-ponent of international humanitarian operations. Since the end of the cold war, NGOs have emerged as major actors in the fields of humani-tarian relief, development, human rights advocacy, and most important, internal displacement. 1 Sometimes they are the only ones on the ground working to protect and assist the displaced populations. NGOs have been successful because of their flexibility, speed, and moral courage. As former Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali has ob-served, NGOs were more important in Somalia than the agencies of the United Nations. When the agencies of the United Nations were afraid of the situation, the NGOs were already on the ground. 2 As their credi-bility and expertise have grown, the aid that governments and the public channel through NGOs, especially the international ones, has also in-creased to the point where some surpass UN agencies in their relief 187 188 ROLE OF NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS operations. 3 NGOs are now the second largest source of relief and de-velopment assistance after bilateral governmental donors. 4 They are also the main implementing partners of UN agencies in emergency situations, directly delivering humanitarian assistance, setting up water and sanita-tion systems, offering a modicum of protection, and providing reintegra-tion and development support.

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  Nongovernmental Organizations in International Society

  Struggles over Recognition

  • V. Heins(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  4 NGOs are, as Raymond Bryant observes, constantly preoccupied with enhancing their moral “reputation”; 5 but before that they have to struggle to be recognized at all as an NGO. In short, the term “NGO” betrays its origin as a classificatory device in international organizations that was created by governments to include and raise the status of entities other than governments. Of course, from an analytic point of view, it is unsatisfactory to define NGOs simply by invoking the prefix “non” to hint by antithesis at something otherwise undefinable. The “non” might give comfort to those eager to avoid the taint of “governmental” politics, but it does not tell us anything about what nongovernmental organizations have in common apart from not being part of any government. The term refers to real-world organiza- tions, but also to authoritative statements made about these organizations and acts on the parts of committees granting a (temporary or permanent) status to a specific organization. This messy situation has led many authors to avoid the term altogether and replace it with expressions such as “civil society organizations” or “advocacy networks.” 6 But these con- cepts are misleading as well. The first is rather self-ennobling and idealis- tic and takes for granted that NGOs are indeed the new face of “civil society,” something that in my mind has yet to be demonstrated. The term “advocacy networks,” on the other hand, is unhelpful because it glosses over important nonadvocacy functions of NGOs, such as the pro- vision of human services. An exclusive focus on advocacy would leave out the entire sector of humanitarian action, which is defined by the tensions between service and advocacy functions (as I will show in chapter 5). For this reason, and for want of any better alternative, I suggest sticking to the NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY 16

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  The Global Environment and World Politics

  • Elizabeth R. DeSombre(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Continuum

    (Publisher)

  21 A related phenomenon is the lessening attention paid to developing countries that previously were courted with aid to keep them solidly in one bloc or another. Less funding from traditional donor states meant more unmet need. 22 This explanation fits into the privation explanation above, but with a post-Cold War twist: more non-governmental activity came about because the major powers no longer saw the political advantage in meeting the needs of people in developing countries. NGOs have been created, both domestically and internationally, to meet these needs. The level of uncertainty present in environmental issues in particular is suggested as an additional reason that non-governmental actors are so involved in environmental policy-making. 23 Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink note that what they call "transnational advocacy networks" arise most frequently in issues with high "informational uncertainty." 24 Barbara Bramble and Gareth Porter point to the rise in organizations during the 1970s and 1980s that collect and disseminate data and analysis. 25 Non-governmental actors may be particularly well placed to address transnational issues, which are less likely to be the focus of states, whose constituents are domestic. 26 While this kind of non-governmental actor exists within a number of different issue areas, the types of things about which there is uncertainty (as discussed in Chapter 3) are numerous in environmental issue areas, and non-governmental actors can help fill the information void. NGO Approaches It is also important to examine how environmental organizations work to achieve their goals within global environmental policy. While the types of tasks they The Role of Non-Governmental Actors 85 perform could be divided into almost infinite categories, it can be useful to think of them as fulfilling functions either within the state process or outside of it.

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  Human Rights in Crisis

  The International System for Protecting Rights During States of Emergency

  • Joan M. Fitzpatrick(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • University of Pennsylvania Press Anniversary Collection

    (Publisher)

  9. See supra C h a p t e r III (for a discussion of these principles). The Role of Non-Govcrnmcntal Organizations 213 IGOs. Yet the attention of the press may be fickle, and its reliability difficult to verify. Where systematic abuses of h u m a n rights are most severe, there may be no local independent press to gather the basic data. 1(1 Headlines may sprout when a formal emergency is imposed or terminated without any great consequence for the enjoyment of hu-man rights, while long-standing defacto emergencies with severe conse-quences in remote areas may go unreported. Partly out of suspicion of bias or sloppiness, international petition processes often condition the admissibility of a communication on its not being exclusively based on reports disseminated by mass media. C. The Roles of International and National NGOs T h o u g h a basic distinction can be drawn between national NGOs, which work within and focus their concerns upon a single state, and international NGOs, which either operate within several states and direct their attention to h u m a n rights issues in more than one state, or focus upon international h u m a n rights norms and structures, it is not simple to determine when a group is a human rights NGO. For exam-ple, the fact that a group's work makes use of international human rights norms rather than exclusively national law, is not necessarily a dispositive criterion. 12 Many groups based within a single state that have a trade union, religious, or development focus may be the best sources of timely and reliable information concerning the actual im-pact of emergency measures or the extent of gross h u m a n rights abuse. Yet these groups may have no links with the international NGOs, which could repackage and more effectively disseminate their data to the international community, and no direct access to the IGOs with author-ity to monitor the abuses. T h e experience of Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) in Uruguay is instructive.

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  Year Book 1990

  Advisory Committee on Pollution of the Sea

  • Patricia Dent(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Pergamon

    (Publisher)

  6. Activities of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) Foreword by Mostafa K. Tolba Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme A s we enter the 1990s no one can escape the recognition that we are part of an historic period of global change and global awareness. Today it is clear we have to think 'globally'. A brief examination of any of the major world issues — interna-tional security, poverty, mushrooming population, transformation of global economic activity, the technologi-cal revolution, the end of the post-World War II bipolar system — leads to the conclusion that they are not confined within the borders of any one country. Each requires multi-national cooperation. We cannot escape our interdependence. And nowhere is that interdependent global characteristic more evident than in the field of the environment. The simple fact is that human activities, numbers and technol-ogy are now great enough to seriously affect the natural environment on the planetary scale. Man rather than nature has become the primary determinant of the destruction, or the enhancement, of the earth's natural resource base and the life-sustaining environment. Our relentless quest for more and better living conditions — for food, water, energy, shelter and other needs — to meet the requirements of an exploding population is colliding with the limitations of the natural environment. It is dramatically depleting the resource base, especially in developing countries, and it is polluting the earth's bio-sphere on a local, regional and global scale. The people of the world are recognising that what used to be called environmental side effects of economic devel-opment are becoming increasingly critical and thus current forms of economic development are by no means sustain-able.

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