Nongovernmental Organizations

NONGOVERNMENTAL Organizations, today known almost universally by the acronym NGOs, is a term referring to those organizations, typically arising or working in the less developed countries (LDCs), that are founded outside government initiative and without government direction. Generally they are civil society organizations and agencies that form spontaneously to address specific needs in a community without the direct involvement or support of the state. With the increasing reach of a global consciousness, several famous NGOs are also based in the developed countries (DCs), but cater primarily to those in the LDCs.

As indigenous self-help organizations, NGOs (or CSOs, community service organizations—there are many other acronyms to describe these organizations) have existed for centuries in many nations across the globe, but it is in the 20th century that these organizations demonstrated enormous vitality, growth, and success.

These organizations usually operate in the informal, noncommercial sector, but within the legal framework of the society. Often they work hand in glove with the established institutions in the public sector, foreign governments, and international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. Amnesty International may be one of the most well-known examples of an NGO with a global presence whose work has earned the organization worldwide admiration and a Nobel Peace Prize.

While NGO activities often complement those of the state by seeking out those whom the bureaucratic or market mechanisms fail to reach, typically the very poorest, there are occasions when NGOs can even be seen as substituting for the state, as in upholding the legal rights of their clients. NGOs operating at local, regional, national, and international levels have been highly successful in meeting needs in the social, religious, advocacy, and political arenas.

In recent decades, partly because of the spread of the Internet and globalization, along with an increased distrust of governments, the NGO movement seems to have come of age. In almost every nation and continent from Ethiopia to Bangladesh, from the Urals to the Andes, thousands of NGOs addressing every conceivable area of need in civil society have cropped up. Some indication of the breadth and depth of NGO activities can be gleaned from the following summary figures. Globally there should be about 50,000 NGOs, but the exact number is unknown because the small, informal [Page 778]nature of NGOs makes them hard to count. These NGOs cover every aspect of social, political, economic, and civic life and they can be roughly categorized as providing environmental and gender-related services and catering to developmental needs—health, education, and economic. As a single NGO often works in all fields, it may be misleading to seek a division of the NGOs into types. Bangladesh alone is said to have over 3,000 NGOs, of whom about 1,200 deal with problems affecting children.