Many Non-Government-Organizations exist today all over the world. Do you have some experience in the area of NGOs, collaboration with NGOs, or running an NGO? In my country they have been financed through different projects as well as by state budgets. Does this fact imply political dependence?
In India, NGOs have significant role in the development process.
"In a democratic society, it is the state that has the ultimate responsibility for ushering development to its citizens. In India, through the progressive interpretation of the Constitution and its laws and policies, the scope of development has been significantly broadened to include not just economic progress for citizens, but also promotion of social justice, gender equity, inclusion, citizen’s awareness, empowerment and improved quality of life. To achieve this holistic vision of development, the state requires the constructive and collaborative engagement of the civil society in its various developmental activities and programs. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as the operational arm of the civil society therefore have an important role in the development processes."
Ref: http://www.development4you.org/2012/04/role-of-ngos-in-india.html
In Greece, there are many NGO, Non-profit, Non-Government-Organizations , as we call them. Some of them they are doing good humanistic work. But in a country where the main political system is kleptocracy, NGO was expected to be corrupted. Under a good government and with strict rules, NGO can be very helpful.
Related to this is what it is called "social capital", i.e. autonomous people's organisations towards helping the co-citizens that they need help. They can also solve problems of local range. Unfortunately this type og decentralised organisations are ver rare.
My experience with NGOs in India is positive. They provide service where needed such as in rural areas and for people who are below the poverty line. For example medical camps in rural areas where medical doctors are not readily available. In many times of natural calamities NGOs come forward very quickly. The main advantage particularly with smaller NGOs is the agility. They are able to reach very quickly when needed. Larger NGOs tend to become more political and corruption ridden.
I completely agree with Kamal. Some of the NGOs have financial support from outside Jordan. .
Dear All,
In an impoverished, egoistic and faithless country, where I live, independent NGOs are desperately needed but their number and activity are very limited. There are some pseudo NGOs but they do not matter because they do not serve the real interests of society.
Briefly, really independent NGOs are practically invisible and unimportant.
Some of the NGOs in Malaysian do humanitarian tasks like this one:
'Several Malaysian Chinese NGOs paid a visit to the Bangi-Putrajaya Hotel to engage the families of the Chinese MH370 passengers, in the hopes of informing them about Malaysia and hearing their grievances and needs.'
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/04/01/MH370-search-Chinease-NGO-visit/
Many of the NGO's are funded through voluntary contributions and also make use of some of the Government funding available for the purpose. Many also receive funding from outside the country through religious and other foundations.
In india, we have good experience of NGOs working for social cause. There are NGO institutes working for the rehabilitation of AIDs patients, their children; those working for rehabilitation of devdasis, spreading awareness about superstitions and many more. They collect money from generous donors, spend from their own pockets and work for the social cause.
NGOs have a strong influence in my country. The majority have been funded through different projects granted by foreign agencies. This, in many cases, implies very strong political dependence.
NGOs is a big story in Greece. After EU decided that a specific percentage of every member annual GDP has to be given for similar projects, then we had an exponential growth in their number: We have NGO with the most strange and most peculiar name and goal. Many corruption exists due to the 'NGO party' here and now due to economic collapse many people were sent to jail. I think that NGO is a well organized tool for intervening at the inside affairs of every country, see 'orange revolution' and other issues.
Since 2003, I work in an ONG focused on offering counseling and training services for less advantaged people and unemployed in order to obtain professional integration. We have implemented more than 10 projects financed by UE. I can tell you that we were never in the position of supporting any kind of Romanian political views. We have a close collaboration with all Town halls and relevant Public Institutions from Arad County. Maybe if we were politically oriented, we could have gain more projects, but also lose a lot of relevant Partners.
When NGOs are significantly large in numbers, they can play a more effective role in shaping policy to the benefit of ethical, moral and just causes. The critical mass they acquire enables them to have a lobbying power.
From outside we can say they are politically and financially independent but if we go deep into it and carefully analyse there actions then we will find that most of them are politically and financially dependent till some extent.
Regards,
Nitish
@Prof Ljubomir, are they supposed to be making profit or providing humanitarian assistance?
@Prof Ljubomir, so, this is now the condition of some NGOs, hopefully not all.
@Miranda: In such cases you know what they are doing ? After arrowing, simply make rounds around the arrow at the wall. :)
Non-governmental organisations in South Africa need more appraisal and/or assessment!
Period!
Friends, if they are so profit minded, they missed the mark. Then, are they likely to achieve their objectives at all? What do you think?
@ Ljubomir, you ask very good questions! I would like to meet you in persona; maybe somewhere/sometime?
@Darasingh - this is worth to discuss.
I also am wondering - who is supporting some mystical NGO's, who are trying to make influence in political way. In my country we had/having struggle with "wolf council", now they use other name. No one knows, on what they survive. But target perhaps was to get to the parliament - at least, it seems so.
Dear Linas, it would be very nice if we meet in persona! I hope it will be in near future! I do agree that corruption issue is connected to NGOs, as @Darasingh mentioned!
Dear All, Lijo Francis, Patrick Low and others that you know are not able any longer to log in their RG account from yesterday. RG suspended their accounts without any reason. I don't know why, but I find this an outstanding abuse. Please help them and inform all other participants as this is a signal that things are not going in the right way in RG before it happens to you!
Regards
Gianni
Strange... I cannot send paper I was asked for.
As for Lijo and Patrick - if this is some kind of censorship, then shame on RG administration.
Hey hey - my answer just went nowhere. This is next try, in different words.
As for Lijo and Patrick - shame on RG if they use censorship.
In my context Kurdistan region-Iraq, the influence of NGO on society still inactive but under improving and everybody can noting that, and unfortunately most people look to this sector as a starting business or project, in addition most of proposal or projects funds come from the official office under the region government, which mean they are not independent.
In India, they are many, they have a mixed impact, many of them have an overlapping roles, some others are politically influenced, some donor agenda driven. To sum, the system lack a M&E strategy
NGOs, like ALEC and others like it are destroying my homeland (USA). Others, like HOPE Worldwide are helpful and have gone where few others have been willing to go, for example, to Taleban held Afghanistan prior to 2001.
In Lebanon, there is a strong network of NGOs, many are very active but many more are there to hunt funds since they are formed of 2 or 3 persons!! However, the NGOs that are active have very good political connections and many times are preferred to receive the funds.
Dear @Hussin, dear colleagues, after short absence, here I am again! By some mistake, mine of course, this answer was placed under other thread! So I do correct the mistake:
Citation: "It is clear that NGOs and opposition movements many believe are spontaneous, indigenous, and independent are in fact part of a larger network for the sole purpose of imposing and maintaining global system administration. This is not a web of elaborate, vague associations. In each case there is direct path of funding leading back to Western foundations and the think-tanks that devise policy for them, all funded and chaired by the Fortune 500 of Wall Street and London."
Excellent Ljubomir, the catch behind such practices is to have a say in the policy making in the host country, sure with time.
Ljubmomir,
I would suggest we not lump all NGOs into the same group as your comment implies. I would suggest that we distinguish between positive and negative forces.
@Kevin, I have not lumped all NGO's into the same group! It is a wrong impression! I agree about distinction between positive and negative!
We might do this. Let's look at a list of say, the 100 so-called best NGOs here at this link:
http://www.roomtoread.org/document.doc?id=837
Then we could identify influences and negative forces stemming from their efforts.
In addition, we could either nominate our own worst to best--and explain why (even including multiplier effects).
7 worst international aid ideas - Matador Network
matadornetwork.com/change/7-worst-international-aid-ideas/
Feb 20, 2012 - While there are possibly more people in the world who need shoes than ..... That in turn, I suspect, means that a number of smaller NGOs and ...
NGOs at their absolute worst - Global Dashboard
www.globaldashboard.org/2013/02/20/ngos-at-their-absolute-worst/
Feb 20, 2013 - A gaggle of NGOs have joined forces to launch a declaration ... zone, with no serious attempt to engage with real world trade-offs or set out an ...
NGOs: Syrian humanitarian crisis "worst of our time," slam ...
english.al-akhbar.com/node/18337
Al Akhbar
Jan 22, 2014 - NGOs: Syrian humanitarian crisis "worst of our time," slam Western inaction ... NGOs said in a joint appeal issued at the Davos World Economic ...
The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey
books.google.com/books?isbn=0765626470
Hugh D. Hindman - 2011 - Social Science
Following adoption of ILO Convention 182, many NGOs focused their attention on children in the worst forms of child labor and promoted the new convention.
Kill The NGOs, Chase The Charlatan Experts, Be Wary Of ...
www.siliconafrica.com/kill-the-ngo/
Nov 9, 2013 - “In 1960, China was experiencing their worst famine in history. ... This is the single largest poverty reduction program in the history of the world!
Specifically, Ljubmomir, could nominate the 10 worst in his mind to start?
I do understand that there are all sorts of NGOs, however, I have not seen many NGOs that value the people more than their own interest? Possibly there are reasons for that especially the administrative ones!
I recall in the US, they categorize NGOs according to the return per dollar to the people in need, that is, if I pay one dollar donation, what part goes for administrative costs and what part goes for the real cause.
Yes, you can find a rating system for what percentage of dollar goes to the need on many NGOs in USA and in several lands, but that is only one ranking among many that we could or should be concerned with. What good is it if the money arrives but the project should not have been undertaken (or not undertaken in the manner conducted)?
I am not qualified for ranking the NGOs! Kevin, are you qualified for? I have that list of top 100 NGO's. The good isuue is "Top NGOs By Sector"- from education to law and justice!
My graphical response here, 10 days ago, originates from the following blog!
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/02/empires-double-edged-sword-global.html
Australian non-government organisations (NGOs) must be accredited by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to be eligible for funding under the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). The accreditation process provide the confidence that the Australian Government is funding professional, well managed, community based organisations that are capable of delivering quality development outcome. A number of NGOs play an important role in assisting refugees and internally displaced people in their resettlement. During 2004 Asian Tsunami, Australian NGOs supported larger organisations like UNHCR in providing on the ground support.
Dear Golam, looks like an efficient solution to prevent subjectivity and add more credibility to the NGOs work.
NGO need political back up for funds and smooth functioning - since links and resources are mandatory for such organzizations
Considerable number of NGOs in both developed and developing countries including India are working in areas like health, education, environment, socio-economic development, people empowerment, etc. and campaigning issues related to globalization, social justice, biodiversity conservation, environment protection and so forth. NGOs are a natural outcome of a free democratic and capitalistic society and are seen as the weaker part of a triumvirate, or third sector to counter the other two players i.e. the state and the market. The notion is that as market forces require more and more relaxations of rules and regulations for their benefit, society will naturally demand social justice to balance out negative aspects of market forces such as exploitation and environmental degradation. Nevertheless, NGOs are typically weaker because they are not as financially independent and are often dependent upon state and the market. Or, when independent, they typically do not have the resources and political power and are not as well and long established as the other two. One of many effects then is that many NGOs are subject to political and market forces. There has also been criticism on how NGOs have used their funding or donations received or raised. Criticisms range from pointing out that only small percentages go to people in need, that a lot goes to recover costs, and some have even been used to pay very high salaries of the people at the top of these organizations. In some cases, this is fair criticism. In other cases, these arguments have been used by those who wish to paint a dark picture of NGOs in general because NGO research may ultimately criticize their practices. It has to be expected that NGOs need to pay for expenses, for permanent staff and for various other costs incurred. Due to the pressures of obtaining and maintaining funding, much effort is spent on marketing, and the already constrained budgets require many NGOs to ensure optimal efficiency, similar to private corporations. Sometimes then, the actual activity can be affected due to the need to raise funding.
Many NGOs may have some earning / financial benefits, and real social work is done only by few dedicated NGOs
Bringing in the point that the most influential NGOs are those with strong ties to political figures and parties.
Agreed Prof Hejase, and low level NGOs just make small small money out of Govt. funds, gives false enrollment / figures, and generate all kinds of fake data in a room to impress checking/inspecting officials by follow all sorts of means
I agree with Dr. Kuldeep and Prof. Hussin. All not but most of the NGOs are not honestly performing their job. Running an NGO has become a profession rather than social work. A number of NGOs are seen to be influenced by political parties and business/profiteering groups. Some times such NGOs create hindrance in developmental activities and also adversely affect the decision making process of governments.
Thanks a lot my dear friends for fine contributions about NGO's! Let me mention that there are examples of NGO's that were founded by the authorities,at both local and state level, but it is not so transparent, since it is covered! Do you have such situation in your countries?
The budgeting of such "NGO"'s is criminal!
You are right Prof Ljubomir, funding to such NGO who are not honestly and responsibly performing their duties is wastage of public money.
Well said Ruchi - Celebrity or a brand businessman or the state or who so ever is financially supporting NGOs for a noble cause, they should allow NGOs to go ahead with their mission without any influence and intrusion. Also, there should be a proper watch to ensure that the funds are genuinely spent for the cause and there should be a system of performance appraisal of NGOs by the target beneficiary groups.
Prof Ljubomir and friends, here is one NGO in my country. MERCY states their source of funding. 'MERCY Malaysia or Medical Relief Society Malaysia is a non-profit organization focusing on providing medical relief,sustainable health related development and risk reduction activities for vulnerable communities in both crisis and non-crisis situations. As a non-profit organisation, MERCY Malaysia relies solely on funding and donations from organisations and generous individuals to continue their services to provide humanitarian assistance to beneficiaries, both in Malaysia and abroad.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Malaysia
The second link give a fuller list of NGO's.
http://www.malaysiaservicecentre.com/ngos.html
If we say NGOs from Sri Lanka. They have to do the projects after getting approval form the government organizations. Their activities remarkably controlled by the government. In this sense, we cannot say they are completely politically independent organizations. In other way, if we talk about the financial support, most of Local NGOs depend on international NGOs. Therefore they need to work according to the donors agenda.
Connecting the Serbian Diaspora with Serbian Civil Society Organizations - See more at: http://serbianngonetwork.org/#sthash.MmrKQ45x.dpuf
There are many NGOs in India who are actually working for the betterment of people. Some NGOs considerably contributing towards poverty eradication, providing basic amenities to the children like good primary education, combating malnutrition among the children, tackling unemployment & illiteracy, generating awareness among people about various diseases especially among rural areas, giving support of education, shelter, food to the orphan and semi-orphan children/people, arranging free blood to the person in need. However, despite presence of a huge number of working NGOs (>20 lakh estimated) substantial improvement/change in people’s life is not seen. Instance of corruptions are also reported against various NGOs which is frustrating and disappointing. Indeed NGOs have immense for betterment of the society; reforms are needed to monitor the functioning of NGOs and a strict watch on their financial support and fund utilization.
Absolutely right, Even in Sri Lanka, remarkable numbers of NGOs are functioning and spending very huge money over vulnerability reduction and development projects. However, we could not able see any big changes in vulnerable people life. This is because they are not independent in identifying community needs and implementing projects. Moreover, inefficient government mechanism for monitoring projects of NGOs.
We do not live in an ideal world or Plato's Republic. Any side who donates money to another side does not do it for the sake of charity. Donation leads to linking so the NGOs will help in bringing external interventions in the affairs of their countries whatever the justifications are. Of course, those who head NGOs are very much pleased to have a "chunk" of the donated money but they do not foresee the grave consequences resulting from inviting colonialism to the homeland.
Some of The NGOs in Egypt have financial support from outside Egypt . In some cases, this support helped an already-vibrant civil society grow stronger. In other instances, however, money from the outside turned civil society into a vulnerable, externally oriented community.
Ministry of Social Affairs requested all Egyptian NGOs to get registered under Law 84/2002. This law undermines the already limited margin permitted for NGO activities and allows for more restrictions and regulations on establishing them.https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/ola-kubbara/ngos-lose-ground-in-sisi%27s-egypt
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/111294/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-NGOs-continue-struggle-with-restrictive-dra.aspx
Hi to all.
Quite relevant and maybe arguable topic.
Like in many otter areas there is also variation within the NGOs world. I rate then with a simple 3 dimensional model: legitimacy, pragmatism and social/environmental impact. I had a few bad surprises over the years (e.g. with lack of legitimacy and hidden agendas) but most of the times I have found many volunteers working hard and dedicated to the well being of other people and the planet.
Disclaimer: I serve "pro bono" in a a board of an non profit NGO helping poor and elderly people in Portugal. My older daughter also has been working with (to the best of my knowledge) a quite credible NGO for some years. We both have realized that by giving a little you also receive a lot of personal fulfillment.
Best..
Luis
Dear @Luis, many thanks for sharing your experiences. Good luck and lot of success in helping the poor and elderly people my friend. Maybe some other followers could share their experience, if any!
I was working with minorities, mostly young gipsies in the area of development of computer skills!
Dear Ljubomir,
Thanks for the incentive, I wish you most success with your work.
Best
Luis
In India number of NGOs are funded by The Government of India with different ministries, The state Governments, peoples contribution, and funded by the abroad out side of the country. Recently the Government of India answered a question at parliement, the Government ceased some of the NGOs FCRA in religious foundation.
NGO'S presented as non profit humanitarian organizations perform many admirable functions in developing countries even though there are some downsides related to religious and political influence in local affairs. Such influence is negligable, however, in evaluating NGO contribution to economic development. To the extent their existence depends on donations they may have limited life. Sadly, there is never enough funding to satisfy humanitarian nee
Due to a faulty computer system this is my third attempt to respond to the question on relevance of NGO’S. My belief is that NGO’S have generally performed well as humanitarian institutions in countries where I have worked, Poland and Armenia. To the extent they depend on donor funds, however, there will unfortunately never be enough donor funds to meet human needs. Furthermore, being dependent on donor funds means the end of NGO’S is predestined in their beginning.
I suggest a different model based on our USDA work in Armenia. Knowing that the project must have an endpoint we choose local employees who could continue the goals of the project at the end of USDA funding. At the end of an eight year project we helped local employees establish a Foundation that could be both profit making and humanitarian. The resulting Foundation, CARD.AM has been a spectacular success, expanding now with offices throughout Armenia. Do take a look at their website as well as my website, Millerbillr.com, that is devoted to USDA/MAP the predecessor of CARD, a Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development Foundation.
Politics have a lot to do with NGOs in Lebanon, since the break of the Syrian conflict and the heavy flows of refugees to Lebanon, tens of NGOs were formed to attract funds for such a cause beside the well established large NGOs already in the country, and the new NGOs are many backed by certain political parties.
Dear Ljubomir,
Dear All,
The importance of NGOs is great mainly in countries with democracy deficiency or where the financial shortage or political will cannot allow either the support of many-sided human goals or certain fundamental needs. Another essential aim of NGOs is the fight against corruption.
Dear Roland,
I can congratulate on your situation. I am afraid the Hungarian position is not as developed. People in a poor and mainly indifferent and isolated society do not concentrate on collective aims.
The Network for Restitution in Serbia, where I am the member as many of us who are the victims of Communist regime, did a fine job!
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbian-president-rejects-law-on-state-owned-property-sale-08-06-2015
NGO's are really blessings in my country, and they operate fairly politically independent but not financially. Most of them raise their own funds but rely on Government subventions.
Best regards,
Debra
M’sians trust NGOs more than government! This is article devoted to @Miranda! :)
Malaysians trust NGOs more than they do their own government, a study, published today, revealed...
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/02/23/msians-trust-ngos-more-than-government/
NGOs are not financially independent and they are politically impotent. As such they have a limited future and have little to offer than the possibility of humanitarian aid; which is a wonderful thing, but unfortunately there will never be enough of it.
I think NGOs serve the purpose of TROJAN horse in developing countries. It is important to know the main source of funding to understand the motive behind the work
https://prezi.com/opoqxdo1ra6y/ngos-global-change-agents-or-trojan-horses-for-western-hegemony/
Thanks Ljubomir. You have said it. It's generous to speak on behalf of those who cannot speak much. I see some NGOs here doing their best, and I support them in ways that I am able to. An example of a fine NGO is MAKNA, Malaysia National Cancer Foundation, that helps people based on need, and is NOT biased on color and creed. More and more of my friends are supporting MAKNA. In this matter, I can talk as much and as loud as possible, without fear of being gagged.
http://makna.org.my/
The role of NGO's is huge in refugees crisis at Balkan route. There is a lot of evidence of presence of many international and local NGO's in process of delivering humanitarian aids to the refugees. Many of them are located at the state borders.
When NGOs break the law: The impact on fraud risk!
"Some international NGOs are tempted to break the laws and regulations of their countries of operation, registration, or both. Here we don't so much mean situations where legal authority is unclear, or regulations and obligations are ill-defined or differently interpreted, or laws which violate human rights. Here we're focussing on a situation where an NGO wilfully or negligently breaks legitimate, clearly-defined and communicated local laws and regulations...
When an incident of fraud takes places in a project where the NGO was working unlawfully, managers may then be incentivised against taking civil or criminal justice action for fear of drawing attention to the project's own misdemeanours. This may significantly hamper the prospect of redress (getting our money back), and impact upon the available sanctions for a perpetrator. This, in turn, could damage the NGO's ability to deter fraud and corruption if a potential perpetrator knows that such an outcome is unlikely...
How can these organisations claim to help the nation’s development when, through corruption, they weaken the rule of law? How can we deal with this hypocrisy?...:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-ngos-break-law-impact-fraud-risk-oliver-may?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A577811291463508264691%2CVSRPtargetId%3A9075310574979829254%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name
Dear Ljubomir,
Although your initial question has been around for some time, I see the dialogue is still ongoing, so - here are my 5 cents: I am researching a phenomenon, which I call "civil society capture", similar to the "state capture". There are two publications on that issue - 2013 - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308918633_Civil_society_in_Bulgaria_Between_Social_Entrepreneurship_and_State_Capture
and 2010 - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303806191_Civil_Society_in_Bulgaria_Trends_and_Risks
I hope the empiric findings would be relevant for you.
Todor
Book Civil society in Bulgaria: Between Social Entrepreneurship a...
Book Civil Society in Bulgaria: Trends and Risks
While some of the NGOs in India are doing excellent work in different fields like health, education, skill development, poverty alleviation, rural development, etc; a number of NGOs are either inactive or fraudulent, used tax evasion and misappropriation of government funds. NGOs are less flexible in carrying out their task as most of the tasks depend upon availability of funds for which they have to depend upon government support or external donations. Furthermore, the structures of NGOs have become bureaucratic in nature leading to a decreased effectiveness in the overall development.
There are more than 30 lakh NGOs who have registered under the Societies Registration Act and are operating in different states and union territories of India. Some of them are doing very good job and are working for the poor and needy people to provide them food, shelter, education; some NGOs are working to help women from women harassment and atrocities, some are working to help people to fight against severe diseases like cancer, HIV, heart disease and many more dangerous diseases.
Though there are many fake NGO's who run it for their own vested interests but because of them, we cannot ignore the genuine NGO's who are actually doing good for the society.
Dear Ljubomir
Your statement, "When NGOs break the law: The impact on fraud risk! " is very real and unfortunately the refugees issues has been abused by many NGOs. Examples exist in Lebanon. So many NGOs were founded to take advantage of the huge funds allocated to the refugees issues. Though, this does not mean no good NGOs exist. However, the following question will be, what % of the funds is really allocated to ease the burden of the refugees versus what is claimed administrative costs!!
In non democratic regimes, NGo's are often the long arm of government.
Unfortunately in my country (Iraq) they are never independent,
regards
Since the start of the Syrian conflict, hundreds of NGOs were initiated to take advantage of the foreign aid!!!
As inspired by Hussin Jose Hejase contribution, I bring the following:
"Donors have a critical role to play in ensuring people can get the assistance, the help and the vital services they have a right to.
Committed funds, not just pledges, are needed to meet the growing needs of people across Syria, as well as refugees and host communities. SIRF also calls on donors to channel funds through a variety of mechanisms including NGOs (national and international), UN agencies and host governments to ensure that aid is delivered effectively..."
http://www.hi-us.org/humanitarian_ngos_fund_syria_response_now_before_it_s_too_late
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