International Organizations. Week 11. The world of international NGOs

1. International Organizations

Week 11: The world of
international NGOs

2. Attendance Sheet 1, Week 11 Please scan the QR code below:

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3. Office Hour: Wednesdays at 16:00-17:00 D 211

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4. By the end of this week, you should be able to:

Distinguish
unique attributes of I/NGOs through a comparative
study on IOs and I/NGOs
Define and describe
I/NGO missions and their
functions
by studying I/NGOs
through reading the text,
and a deeper study on
their operations
Interpret and criticize
I/NGOs’ effectiveness and
problem-solving capacity
by an analysis of their
performance in some
cases, general handicaps,
and points of weaknesses
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5. For many of the same reasons that governments have banded together in organizations, individuals and groups within civil

society have come together to form
organizations to further their interests.
They can be academic, scientific, financial, humanitarian, sports related, religious,
professional—any group that exists outside of government.
They vary in shape and size and in their commitment and principles; some are very
public in their activities and use of the media, while others work quietly behind the
scenes; some are local, others are universal in nature; some claim to speak on behalf
of other people (and animals, the environment, outer space, etc.), while others speak
only for themselves; some are charities that rely on individual contributions, while
others are dependent on government or corporate sources of revenue, and still others
get funds from both sources; and some exist on practically nothing, while others are
well funded with budgets that rival the GDP of small nations.
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6. The diversity has produced a variety of new names, including GONGOs (government-organized NGOs), QUANGOs (quasi-autonomous

NGOs), PINGOs
(public-interest NGOs), DONGOS (donor-organized NGOs), BINGOs (business
and industry NGOs), and the very small single-person “suitcase” NGOs.
Generally speaking, NGOs and INGOs are voluntary non-profit organizations
(although there are many business federations and associations of
manufacturers, etc.), and they work outside of government and do not seek
power or office in states (although they often try to influence those in power).
As a result, political parties, criminal organizations, and violent or revolutionary
groups are usually not considered to be NGOs. An NGO, wrote one scholar, “is
any non-profit-making, non-violent, organised group of people who are not
seeking government office. An international NGO...can be any non-violent,
organised group of individuals or organizations from more than one country.”
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7. Some argue that NGOs are […] instruments of a new transnational civil society that will ultimately undermine state sovereignty,

to those
who conceptualize them as “benign parasites,” living independent
from but within society, to those who argue that they are merely the
tools of powerful states and a new form of Western colonialism.
What was the first NGO?
To ban prostitution and the opium trade? Or?
The Abolition of the Slave Trade (1787)
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8. Not surprisingly, for the most part, NGOs first appeared in Europe and North America, while the fewest appeared in the

colonized world, among the poorest
and least developed states, and in the communist bloc.
1929 the Federation of International Institutions was created to serve as a kind
of umbrella organization for NGOs.
Article 24 of the League Covenant announced that all existing “international
bureaus” (with their consent) and all future international bureaus “shall be
placed under the direction of the League.”
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9. Not surprisingly, for the most part, NGOs first appeared in Europe and North America, while the fewest appeared in the

colonized world, among the poorest
and least developed states, and in the communist bloc.
1929 the Federation of International Institutions was created to serve as a kind
of umbrella organization for NGOs.
Article 24 of the League Covenant announced that all existing “international
bureaus” (with their consent) and all future international bureaus “shall be
placed under the direction of the League.”
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10. At the turn of the XX century there were around 100 INGOs; by 1939, there were an estimated 700. Article 71 states that ECOSOC

“may make suitable arrangements for
consultation with non-governmental organizations which are concerned with
matters within its competence,” and in the early postwar era ECOSOC’s
Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations began to grant “consultative
status” to a variety of NGOs.
Three levels or NGO categories were established:
1) those with a broad interest in UN activities;
2) those with specific competence in a particular area of UN work;
3) and those interested in informing public opinion on issues.
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11.

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12. In other words, NGOs got a voice and input—and influence—but no decision- making power. Most INGO activity, however, even for

In other words, NGOs got a voice and input—and influence—but no decisionmaking power.
Most INGO activity, however, even for those registered with ECOSOC,
occurred outside the UN.
By the 1990s about half of all relief aid money went through eight NGOs:
Oxfam, CARE International, Save the Children Fund, MSF, World Vision
International, CIDSE (Coopération internationale pour le développement et la
solidarité), Eurostep, and the Association of Protestant Development
Organizations in Europe.
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13. The Nobel Peace Prize Winners: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders (1999) International Physicians for

the Prevention of Nuclear War (1985)
Amnesty International (1977)
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14. With the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 and the growing public awareness of the ills of modern life from

air pollution and pesticide use
to oil spills and the destruction of the ozone layer, hundreds of new NGOs
appeared and the modern environmental movement was born.
The UN was late coming to the environmental movement, which is missing
altogether from the UN Charter.
The UN Environment Program’s (UNEP) aims to collect information and study
environmental issues, educate the public about the problems of pollution,
and monitor environmental changes.
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15. North-South collaboration. Indians for Collective Action was set up in 1965 by Indian students in the United States to provide

aid for their homeland.
Africare, established in the United States in 1970 through the collaboration
between Africans and African Americans, evolved into a major aid and
economic development NGO particularly involved in HIV/AIDs.
The end of the Cold War sparked a rush of new NGOs in Eastern Europe and
the former Soviet bloc.
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16.

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17. Could I/NGOs really claim to speak on behalf of “the people”? These concerns even prompted the creation of another NGO — NGO

Watch — in
2003, by the conservative American Enterprise Institute. To offset some of
this criticism several INGOs produced the Accountability Charter, which by
2009 has been signed by many of the largest NGOs, including Amnesty
International, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Transparency International, and dozens
more.
Most of all, critics pointed to the competition, tension, and duplication
created by hundreds of NGOs competing for scarce resources and
government contracts, a process that often produced confusion, tension,
and, ultimately, failure in the field.
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18. Attendance Sheet 2, Week 11 Please scan the QR code below:

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19.

Home work assignment for the next week:
Reading Assignment: Mackenzie, (109123)
Seminar: Student Presentations
(see Moodle to download)
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20. Thank you for your attention