NGOs: What's In An Acronym? [1] (original) (raw)
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Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOS)
Introduction to the International Human Rights Regime, 2003
As defined by the World Bank NGOs refers to not-for-profit organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development. These organisations are not a part of the governement, have a legal status and they are registered the specific Act under which they have to be registered. The term NGO in India denotes wide spectrum of organisations which may be nongovernmental, quasi or semi governmental, voluntary or non-voluntary etc. In India, based on the law under which they operate and the kind of activities they take up, civil society groups can be classified into following broad categories:
The Politics of NGOs -Beyond Survival
Introductory Remarks Once upon a time NGOs, their leaders and workers were celebrated as the "voice of the poor people", avant-garde for social transformation. No doubt, in some areas a few NGOs played and play an important role in raising the voice of the concerned people of India. But yet, by and large they have failed to be "Poor people's voice". Precisely because the NGOs definitely have and can take on a role, not only because there is a need, but also because there is a potential (see: 'Independent Sector' in the Report of the 'Club of Rome': The First Global Revolution, Rome 1991), it becomes all the more important to understand the reasons that debilitates the NGOs from becoming the "poor people's voice". One of the reasons: The majority of the NGOs are not democratic, participatory and just within their own structure. If this is true, then there is a necessity to look into the NGO phenomenon and the institutions related to it closely and critically. This short paper does not cover all aspects of it but wants to invite the readers to fill the gaps as per their positions, views and experience. Every institution and profession has its own jargon, creating new phrases and word combinations, very specific to their context, allowing the persons affected and involved to express their positions, hopes, anxieties, disappointments or achievements with sarcasm or humour. The use of jargon may not always describe a situation precisely; it shows primarily a tendency. It may not even mean to address every person and institution related to that profession. The words used here on the cover need a short clarification since the very specific and contextual NGO translation of them will not be available in the dictionaries. * Remote Moneylender Funding Agency (FA). Actually FAs do not lend money. They donate it. They have their reasons to do this. Some call them also "Absentee Patron". * NGO Lord, NGO Lady Managing director or the proprietor of the NGOs; also called as leader, king/queen or dictator, depending upon his/her character. * Middleman A man (seldom a woman) between FA and NGO who covers all sorts of jobs keeping sharply his own advantage (money, power, information) in mind. In some cases he is titled as "consultant". * Joint Family NGO with a patriarch at the top, whom no 'family member' can criticize. Normally this function is executed by the NGO lord or middleman. Usually in public or when in conflict with the workers, they title the NGO as "family" or "joint family". * Voluntarism A trait that NGO workers are expected to function with uncritically, within the "family". * Bondage To tolerate oppression in order to avoid the booting out of the "family", though NGO worker is "free" to leave anytime. This paper is divided into three parts. The first deals with the development of the NGOs, the second with the donor agencies, and the third with the situation of the NGO workers. Any reaction from your side is welcome! C.R Bijoy/K Arun 1992
NGOs are relatively younger participants of international relations, issues concerning which haven't been complexly studied yet. One of the particles of that complex is the classification of NGOs.
NGOs: between buzzwords and social movements
Development in Practice, 2007
The associations that the term 'NGO' has acquired in development discourse need to be criti-cally analysed in relation to practice on the ground. Drawing on an analysis of the rise of NGOs in Palestine, the author suggests that the development of the NGO movement served to ...
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs): definition and history
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have come to be recognised as key ‘third sector’ actors on the landscapes of development, human rights, humanitarian action, environment and many other areas of public action, from the post-disaster reconstruction efforts after the Indian tsunami or the West African ebola outbreak, to campaigns for aid and trade reform and developing country debt cancellation. As these examples illustrate, NGOs are best-known for two different, but often interrelated, types of activity - the delivery of services to people in need, and the organisation of policy advocacy and public campaigns in pursuit of social transformation. NGOs are also active in a wide range of other specialised roles such as democracy building, conflict resolution, human rights work, cultural preservation, environmental activism, policy analysis, research and information provision. This paper mainly confines itself to a discussion of NGOs in the international development context, but much of its argument also applies to NGOs more widely.
Compte rendu de 'Handbook of Research on NGOs
ERIS – European Review of International Studies, 2020
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing CC-BY License at the time of publication. european review of international studies 7 (2020) 105-122 brill.com/eris