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Nongovernmental Organizations, Definition and History

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Abstract

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now 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-2004 tsunami reconstruction efforts in Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, to the 2005 Make Poverty History campaign for aid and trade reform and developing country debt cancellation. As these two 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 organization of policy advocacy, and public campaigns in pursuit of social transformation. NGOs are also active in a wide range of other specialized roles such as democracy building, conflict resolution, human rights work, cultural preservation, environmental activism, policy analysis, research, and information provision. This chapter mainly confines itself to a discussion of NGOs in the international development context, but much of its argument also applies to NGOs more widely.
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Nongovernmental Organizations,
Definition and History
DAVID LEWIS
London School of Economics and Political Science
Introduction
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now recog-
nized as key third sector actors on the landscapes of
development, human rights, humanitarian action, envi-
ronment, and many other areas of public action, from the
post-2004 tsunami reconstruction efforts in Indonesia,
India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, to the 2005 Make Poverty
History campaign for aid and trade reform and developing
country debt cancellation. As these two examples illus-
trate, NGOs are best-known for two different, but often
interrelated, types of activity the delivery of services to
people in need, and the organization of policy advocacy,
and public campaigns in pursuit of social transformation.
NGOs are also active in a wide range of other specialized
roles such as democracy building, conflict resolution,
human rights work, cultural preservation, environmental
activism, policy analysis, research, and information pro-
vision. This chapter mainly confines itself to a discussion
of NGOs in the international development context, but
much of its argument also applies to NGOs more widely.
NGOs have existed in various forms for centuries,
but they rose to high prominence in international devel-
opment and increased their numbers dramatically in
the 1980s and 1990s. It is difficult to know precisely how
many NGOs there are, because few comprehensive or
reliable statistics are kept. Some estimates put the figure
at a million organizations, if both formal and informal
organizations are included, while the number of registe-
red NGOs receiving international aid is probably closer to
‘‘a few hundred thousand. The United Nations estimates
that there were about 35,000 large established NGOs in
2000. Nor are there accurate figures available for the
amount of resources that NGOs receive from aid, con-
tracts and private donations. In 2004, it was estimated
that NGOs were responsible for about $US23 billion of
total aid money, or approximately one third of total ODA
(Riddell, 2007: 53). Newsweek (5 September 2005) cited
figures suggesting that official development assistance
provided through NGOs had increased from 4.6% in
1995 to 13% in 2004, and that the total aid volume had
increased from US$59 to US$78.6 billion in the same
period.
The world of NGOs contains a bewildering variety of
labels. While the term ‘‘NGO’ is widely used, there are
also many other over-lapping terms used such as ‘‘non-
profit,’’ ‘voluntary,’’ and ‘civil society’’ organizations. In
many cases, the use of different terms does not reflect
descriptive or analytical rigour, but is instead a conse-
quence of the different cultures and histories in which
thinking about NGOs has emerged. For example, ‘‘non-
profit organization’’ is frequently used in the USA, where
the market is dominant, and where citizen organizations
are rewarded with fiscal benefits if they show that they are
not commercial, profit-making entities and work for the
public good. In the UK, ‘‘voluntary organization’’ or
‘‘charity’ is commonly used, following a long tradition
of volunteering and voluntary work that has been infor-
med by Christian values and the development of charity
law. But charitable status in the UK depends on an NGO
being ‘‘non-political,’’ so that while Oxfam is allowed the
formal status of a registered charity (with its associated
tax benefits) because of its humanitarian focus, Amnesty
International is not, because its work is seen by the Charity
Commission as more directly ‘‘political.’’ Finally, the acro-
nym ‘‘NGO’ tends to be used in relation to interna-
tional or ‘‘developing’’ country work, since its origin lies
in the formation of the United Nations in 1945, when
the designation ‘‘non-governmental organization’’ was
awarded to certain international non-state organizations
that were given consultative status in UN activities.
The work undertaken by NGOs is wide-ranging but
NGO roles can be usefully analyzed as having three main
components: implementer, catalyst, and partner (Lewis,
2007). The implementer role is concerned with the mobi-
lization of resources to provide goods and services to
people who need them. Service delivery is carried out by
NGOs across a wide range of fields such as healthcare,
microfinance, agricultural extension, emergency relief,
and human rights. This role has increased as NGOs
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have been increasingly ‘‘contracted’’ by governments and
donors with governance reform and privatization policies
to carry out specific tasks in return for payment; it has
also become more prominent as NGOs are increasingly
responding to man-made emergencies or natural disasters
with humanitarian assistance. The catalyst role can be
defined as an NGO’s ability to inspire, facilitate or con-
tribute to improved thinking and action to promote social
transformation. This effort may be directed towards indi-
viduals or groups in local communities, or among other
actors in development such as government, business or
donors. It may include grassroots organizing and group
formation, gender and empowerment work, lobbying and
advocacy work, and attempts to influence wider policy
processes through innovation, and policy entrepreneur-
ship. The role of partner reflects the growing trend for
NGOs to work with government, donors and the private
sector on joint activities, such as providing specific inputs
within a broader multiagency program or project, or
undertaking socially responsible business initiatives. It
also includes activities that take place among NGOs
and with communities such as ‘‘capacity building’ work
which seeks to develop and strengthen capabilities. The
current policy rhetoric of ‘‘partnership’’ seeks to bring
NGOs into mutually beneficial relationships with these
other sectors.
Definition
Precise definitions vary as to what constitutes an NGO,
and the challenge of analyzing the phenomenon of
NGOs remains surprisingly difficult. One reason for this
is that NGOs are a diverse group of organizations that defy
generalization, ranging from small informal groups to large
formal agencies. NGOs play different roles and take differ-
ent shapes within and across different societies. As a result,
‘‘NGO’’ as an analytical category remains complex and
unclear. For example, despite the fact that NGOs are nei-
ther run by government, nor driven by the profit motive,
there are nevertheless some NGOs that receive high levels
of government funding, and others that seek to generate
profits to plough back into their work. Boundaries are
unclear, and as one might expect from a classification that
emphasizes what they are not rather than what they are,
NGOs therefore turn out to be quite difficult to pin down
analytically. This has generated complex debates about
what is and what is not an NGO, and about the most
suitable approaches for analyzing their roles.
In relation to structure, NGOs may be large or small,
formal or informal, bureaucratic or flexible. In terms of
funding, many are externally-funded, while others depend
on locally mobilized resources. While there are many
NGOs which receive funds from and form a part of the
‘‘development industry’’ (which consists of the world of
bilateral and multilateral aid donors, the United Nations
system and the Bretton Woods institutions), there are
also NGOs which choose to work outside the world of
aid as far as possible. One basic distinction common in
the literature is that between ‘‘Northern NGO’ (NNGO)
which refers to organizations whose origins lie in the
industrialized countries, while ‘‘Southern NGO’’ (SNGO)
refers to organizations from the less developed areas of
the world. Another key distinction is between membership
forms of NGO, such as community-based organizations or
people’s organizations, and intermediary forms of NGO
that work from outside with communities, sometimes
termed grassroots support organizations (GSOs). There
are also numerous examples of bogus NGOs, such as
those established as fronts by government (GONGOs
government-organized NGOs) or ‘‘briefcase’’ NGOs set
up by individuals for purely personal gain.
Some NGOs are well-resourced and affluent, while
others lead a fragile ‘‘hand to mouth’ existence, struggling
to survive from 1 year to the next. There are NGOs with
highly professionalized staff, while others rely heavily on
volunteers and supporters. NGOs are driven by a range of
motivations and values. There are both secular and ‘‘faith-
based’’ organizations. Some NGOs may be charitable and
paternalistic, while others seek to pursue radical or
‘‘empowerment’’-based approaches. Some NGOs aim to
meet only people’s immediate needs, while others take a
longer-term view and seek to develop alternative ideas
and approaches to problems. A single NGO might com-
bine several of these different elements at any one time.
Morris-Suzuki (2000: 68) notes that ‘‘NGOs may pursue
change, but they can equally work to maintain existing
social and political systems.’ For example, for radicals
who seek to explore alternative visions of development
and change, NGOs may be seen as progressive vehicles for
change. For conservative thinkers seeking private alterna-
tives to the state, NGOs may be regarded as part of
market-based solutions to policy problems. A key point
to note here is that NGOs can be seen as a kind of tabula
rasa, onto which a range of current ideas, expectations,
and anxieties about social transformation are projected
(Lewis, 2005). It is partly because of this high degree of
flexibility of the NGO as an institutional form, and the
wide spectrum of different values that NGOs may contain,
that the rise to prominence of NGOs since the late 1980s
has taken place against the back-drop of the ascendancy of
neoliberal policy agendas.
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Salamon and Anheier (1992) argued that existing
third sector organizational definitions had only limited
usefulness because they were not holistic. They were either
legal (focusing on the type of formal registration and
status of organizations in different country contexts),
economic (in terms of the source of the organization’s
resources) or functional (based on the type of activities it
undertakes). Finding such approaches incomplete and
partial, they instead constructed a ‘‘structural/operation-
al’’ definition that was derived from a fuller analysis
of an organization’s observable features. This definition
proposed that a third sector organization had the follow-
ing five key characteristics: it was formal, that is, the
organization is institutionalized in that it has regular
meetings, office bearers and some organizational perma-
nence; it was private in that it is institutionally separate
from government, though it may receive some support
from government; it was nonprofit distributing, and if
a financial surplus is generated it does not accrue to
owners or directors (often termed the ‘‘non-distribution
constraint’’); it was self-governing and therefore able to
control and manage its own affairs; and finally it was
voluntary, and even if it does not use volunteer staff as
such, there is at least some degree of voluntary participa-
tion in the conduct or management of the organization,
such as in the form of a voluntary board of directors.
This approach helps to clarify what constitutes an
NGO, normally understood as part of the subset of third
sector organizations that are primarily engaged in devel-
opment or humanitarian action at local, national, and
international levels. A usefully concise definition is that
used by Vakil
Au1 (1997: 2060), who drawing on elements of
the structural-operational definition set out above states
that NGOs are ‘‘self-governing, private, not-for-profit
organizations that are geared to improving the quality of
life for disadvantaged people.’’ One can therefore contrast
NGOs with other types of ‘‘third sector’’ groups such as
trade unions, organizations concerned with arts or sport,
and professional associations.
Historical Background
From the late 1980s, NGOs assumed a far greater role in
development than previously. NGOs were first discovered
and then celebrated by the international donor commu-
nity as bringing fresh solutions to longstanding develop-
ment problems characterized by inefficient government
to government aid and ineffective development projects.
Within the subsequent effort to liberalize economies and
‘‘roll back’ the state as part of structural adjustment
policies, NGOs came also to be seen as a cost-effective
alternative to public sector service delivery. In the post-
Cold War era the international donor community began
to advocate a new policy agenda of ‘‘good governance’
which saw development outcomes as emerging from a
balanced relationship between government, market, and
third sector. Within this paradigm, NGOs also came to be
seen as part of an emerging ‘‘civil society.’
The new attention given to NGOs at this time brought
large quantities of aid resources, efforts at building the
capacity of NGOs to scale up their work, and led ulti-
mately to important changes in mainstream development
thinking and practice, including new ideas about parti-
cipation, empowerment, gender, and a range of people-
centered approaches to poverty reduction work. For
example, Cernea (1988: 8) argued that NGOs embodied
‘‘a philosophy that recognizes the centrality of people in
development policies,’’ and that this along with some
other factors gave them ‘‘comparative advantages’’ over
government. But too much was expected of NGOs, which
came to be seen in some quarters as a ‘‘quick fix’ for
development problems. This had led to a backlash against
NGOs by the end of the 1990s, when the evidence began
to suggest that NGOs had only partially lived up to these
unrealistically high expectations. A global shift also took
place among development donors towards new ways of
working with developing country governments, using
mechanisms such as ‘‘budget support’’ and ‘sector-wide
approaches’’ (Lewis, 2007).
Yet NGOs have a far longer history than this recent
resurgence and retreat suggests. Many of the world’s best-
known NGOs predate the emergence of the development
industry. Save the Children Fund (SCF) was founded by
Eglantyne Jebb in 1919 after the trauma of the First World
War. Oxfam, which was originally known as the Oxford
Committee against the Famine, was established in 1942 in
order to provide famine relief to victims of the Greek Civil
War. CARE began its life sending US food packages to
Europe in 1946 after the Second World War.
In fact, NGOs had been active at the international
level since the eighteenth century in Western countries,
when national level issue-based organizations focused
on the abolition of the slave trade and movements for
peace. By the start of the twentieth century, there were
NGOs associations promoting their identities and agen-
das at national and international levels. For example, at
the World Congress of International Associations in 1910,
there were 132 international associations represented,
dealing with issues as varied as transportation, intellectual
property rights, narcotics control, public health issues,
agriculture and the protection of nature, and NGOs
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became prominent during the League of Nations after the
First World War, active on issues such as labor rights. But
from 1935 onwards, the League became less active as
growing political tensions in Europe led towards war
and NGO participation in international affairs began to
fade (Charnovitz, 1997).
In 1945, Article 71 of the UN Charter formalized
NGO involvement in UN processes and activities, and
some NGOs even contributed to the drafting of the Char-
ter itself. UNESCO and WHO both explicitly provided
for NGO involvement in their charters. But NGOs again
began to lose influence, hampered by Cold War tensions
and by the institutional weakness of the UN Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC). It was not until the 1970s
when NGO roles again intensified and they played key
roles within a succession of UN conferences from the
Stockholm Environment Conference in 1972 to the Rio
Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, where
NGOs were active in both the preparation and the actual
conference itself, which approved a series of policy state-
ments relating to the role of NGOs within the UN sys-
tem in policy and program design, implementation and
evaluation.
Key Issues
A first wave of academic literature on NGOs emerged in
the 1990s (such as Clark, 1990, Korten, 1991
Au2 , Fowler,
1997) that was normative and applied rather than primar-
ily analytical in its focus. While such work presented a
wide range of case studies of NGOs in action and began to
raise important questions about NGO performance and
accountability, it was not until the following decade that a
second wave of more detailed, theoretically grounded
research on NGOs began to become more common with-
in the field of interdisciplinary field of development stud-
ies (e.g., Hilhorst, 2003; Igoe & Kelsall, 2005).
As their name implies, NGOs also need to be viewed in
the context of the government against which they seek to
distinguish themselves. As ‘‘non-governmental’ organiza-
tions, NGOs are conditioned by, and gain much of their
legitimacy from, their relationships with government.
Clark (1991) suggested that NGOs ‘can oppose, comple-
ment or reform the state but they cannot ignore it. NGOs
will always remain dependent for their ‘‘room for maneu-
ver’’ on the type of government which they find themselves
dealing with at international, national or local levels. Gov-
ernment attitudes to NGOs vary considerably from place
to place, and tend to change with successive regimes. They
range from active hostility, in which governments may seek
to intervene in the affairs of NGOs, or even to dissolve
them (with or without good reason) to periods of active
courtship, ‘partnership,’’ (and sometimes ‘co-optation’’)
as governments and donors may alternatively seek to
incorporate NGOs into policy and intervention processes.
NGOs have received fierce criticism in some quarters.
One argument has been about the role NGOs have played
in shifting attention away from state institutions towards
more privatized and potentially less accountable forms
of public sector reform (Tvedt, 1998). For these critics,
NGOs helped facilitate neoliberal policy change either by
participating in de facto privatization through the con-
tracting-out of public services, or by taking responsibility
for clearing up the mess left by neoliberal policies which
disproportionately disadvantaged poor people.
Another area of criticism has in relation to the short-
comings of NGO accountability. For example, Wood
(1997) raised concerns about the creation of a ‘‘franchise
state’’ in Bangladesh in which key public services were
increasingly delegated to foreign-funded NGOs with weak
accountability to local citizens. NGOs are also criticized
for a tendency to become self-interested actors which
impose their own agendas on the people in whose name
they act. For example, some argue that NGOs sap the
potential of radical groups, by drawing such activity into
the safe professionalized and depoliticized world of devel-
opment practice. For Kaldor (2003), some NGOs repre-
sent the end points of ‘‘domesticated’’ social movements
that have lost their political edge. In the field of humani-
tarian action and response, there have also been strong
criticisms of NGOs that have failed to live up to expecta-
tions in providing assistance in emergency situations,
with their critics pointing to a institutional self-interest by
individual NGOs, a lack of coordination leading to dupli-
cation of effort, limited understanding of local circum-
stances among international NGOs and a naive approach
to the underlying causes of conflict and instability.
Critiques of NGOs are not confined to the ‘‘develop-
ing’’ world, nor necessarily to those on the political left.
Many US neo-conservatives argued during the 2000s that
NGOs were potentially harmful to US foreign policy and
business interests. For example, the American Enterprise
Institute (AEI), a think-tank close to the Bush adminis-
tration, made headlines in June 2003 set up an NGO
‘‘watchdog’ web site which set out to highlight ‘‘issues
of transparency and accountability in the operations
of nongovernmental organizations,’’ seen as organizations
that serve to restrict US room for maneuver in foreign
policy. Such debates have continued to take place between
NGO ‘‘supporters’ and ‘‘critics’ partly because of the
diversity of cases and contexts, and partly because there
is surprisingly little data available relating to the perfor-
mance and effectiveness of NGOs.
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International Perspectives
There is now almost no country of the world where NGOs
do not exist or operate, yet their form and values are
often strongly rooted in specific contexts. As Carroll
(1992: 38) has pointed out, ‘‘all NGOs operate within a
contextual matrix derived from specific locational and
historic circumstances that change over time.’’ The ebb
and flow of international NGO activities in the contexts
of Western Europe and North America is only part of
the story. The diverse origins and influences on the third
sector in different parts of the world also need to be
considered.
In Latin America, the tradition of peasant movements
seeking improved rights to land, and the efforts of politi-
cal radicals working towards more open democratic socie-
ties both fed into the emergence of local NGOs. NGOs
were also influenced by the rise of ‘‘liberation theology’’
that signaled a renewed commitment to the poor among
some sections of the Catholic Church. In Brazil, Paulo
Freire’s radical ideas about ‘‘education for critical con-
sciousness’’ and organized community action was influ-
ential and inspired many other NGOs around the third
world. Alongside these radical influences there were also
many highly professionalized careerist organizations in
the Latin American NGO community with close relation-
ships with donors and governments (Pearce, 1997).
In Asia, a different set of distinctive factors has influ-
enced the growth of NGOs, such as the influence of
Christian missionaries, the growth of reformist middle
classes and in India the influential ideas of Mahatma
Gandhi, who placed a concept of voluntary action at the
center of his vision of change, inspiring organizations
such as the Association of Sarva Seva Farms (ASSEFA)
seeking to build village level self-reliance. Other areas
of NGO activity associated with South Asia, such as
credit and savings, have been derived from local self-
help traditions, such as rotating credit groups in which
households pool resources into a central fund and then
take turns in borrowing and repaying. The rise of the
Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has been a home-grown
solution to problems of poor people’s lack of access to
credit, helping to spawn a global microfinance movement
through its distinctive group-based approach to small-
scale lending.
A wealth of local associational third sector activity
also underpins many African societies, such as the home-
town associations common in countries such as Nigeria.
These organizations mediate resources and relationships
between local communities and global labor markets and
educational opportunities. The well-documented ‘‘har-
ambee’’ self-help movement in Kenya was a system based
on kinship and neighborhood ties, and was incorporated
by President Kenyatta as part of a modernization cam-
paign to build a new infrastructure after Independence.
In the countries of Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union, there were dramatic increases in the num-
bers of NGOs as Western donors began what they termed
democracy promotion and civil society development.
For example, while Armenia had only 44 registered
NGOs in 1994, by 2005 the number had increased to
4,500 organizations. In this context, what constituted an
NGO quickly became bound up with these external donor
agendas, and the opportunities these presented to local
activists and entrepreneurs. This led to a local classifica-
tion of organizations into three categories: ‘‘genuine’
NGOs, ‘‘grant-eaters’’ (NGOs set up as a form of corrup-
tion that allow unscrupulous individuals to access grants),
and ‘‘pocket NGOs, front organizations that belong to
the government (Ishkanian, 2006).
While NGOs have ended up taking different forms
across these many and varied contexts, there are basic
common features that remain at the core of people’s
efforts to organize in the third sector. On the one hand
is the need to increase income, secure rights or demand
services, and on the other, to avail of new opportunities
that appear in the form of links with outside organiza-
tions and resources, exposure to new ideas, and political
change which opens up new organizing spaces.
Future Directions
The dominant view of NGOs as heroic organizations seek-
ing to ‘‘do good’ in difficult circumstances has rightly
become tempered in the new millennium as their novelty
has worn off. The idea of NGOs as a straightforward
‘‘magic bullet’’ that would solve longstanding development
problems has also now passed (Hulm Au3e & Edwards, 1997).
For Bebbington et al. (2008), the strength of development
NGOs remains their potential role in constructing and
demonstrating ‘‘alternatives’’ to the status quo, which
remains a pressing need:
"In being ‘‘not governmental’’ they constitute vehicles for
people to participate in development and social change in
ways that would not be possible through government
programmes. In being ‘‘not governmental’’ they consti-
tute a ‘‘space’’ in which it is possible to think about
development and social change in ways that would not
be likely through government programmes.
The relationship of NGOs to social transformation there-
fore takes many forms. For some, NGOs are useful actors
because they can provide cost-effective services in flexible
ways, while for others they are campaigners fighting for
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change or generating new ideas and approaches to devel-
opment problems.
The fact that NGOs have now become the focus of
criticism from many different political perspectives is
both a reflection of the wide diversity of NGO types and
roles that exist, and of their increasing power and impor-
tance in the twenty-first century. The large volume of
resources that they receive combined with the fact that
NGOs receive a higher level of public exposure and scru-
tiny than ever before, speaks to their continuing impor-
tance. Perhaps there is now a more realistic view among
policy makers about what NGOs can and cannot achieve.
Cross-References
Accountability
Democratization (civil society role in)
Effectiveness and efficiency
Grassroots associations
Global civil society
Lobbying
NGOs and humanitarian assistance
NGOs and international relations, UN
NGOs and socioeconomic development
Partnerships
State–civil society relations
References and Readings
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NGOs make a difference?: The challenge of development alternatives
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Carroll, T. F. (1992). Intermediary NGOs: The supporting link in grassroots
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Charnovitz, S. (1997). Two centuries of participation: NGOs and inter-
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Clark, J. (1991). Democratising development: The role of voluntary organi-
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Fowler, A. (1997). Striking a balance: A guide to enhancing the effectiveness
of NGOs in international development. London: Earthscan.
Hilhorst, D. (2003). The real world of NGOs: Discourses, diversity and
development. London: Zed Books.
Howell Au4, J., & Pearce, J. (2001). Civil society and development: A critical
exploration. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
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Author Query Form
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Query Refs. Details Required Author’s response
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AU4 Howell and Pearce, 2001 is not cited.
AU5 Korten, 1990 is not cited.
... These include functioning as charitable organizations, grassroots associations, foundations, universities, and healthcare organizations Comparative research on NPOs shows the diversity in regional NPO practices and highlights associated challenges in studying the NPO phenomenon (Casey, 2016;Davies, 2019;Mirabella et al., 2007;Von Schnurbein et al., 2018). Over the years, NPOs have been playing a wider range of responsibilities in local and international arenas (Arranz et al., 2020;Ja¨ger & Beyes, 2010;Lewis, 2010). Recent research shows the critical involvement of NPOs in creating sustainable communities on all fronts (Moldavanova & Wright, 2020), including in supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) (Besiou et al., 2021;Dı´az-Perdomo, 2021). ...
... Earlier works in NPOs have mostly focused on NPOs as social agents. Published articles in the early years have used keywords like ''voluntarism,'' ''social capital,'' and ''fundraising'' that reflect the most traditional and established role of NPOs as non-government organizations to deliver services to people in need and support social transformation (Lewis, 2010). We noticed that the themes moved to topics associated with ''civic partnership,'' ''philanthropy,'' ''charity,'' and ''governance'' that may suggest beginning emphasis on accountability and collaboration with stakeholders in NPOs' activities. ...
... Economic, regulatory, and social factors affect NPOs in different regions (Casey, 2016;Von Schnurbein et al., 2018). NPOs may take on different shapes and perform a variety of functions in different countries (Lewis, 2010). Each NGO operates within an environment that is developed by a particular condition. ...
Article
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Plain language summary Volunteer management in nonprofit organizations Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) heavily depend on volunteers to achieve their missions. Understanding how to manage volunteers effectively is crucial for NPOs. However, the information on this topic is currently scattered, making it difficult to fully grasp the trends and developments in volunteer management from academic literature. This study aims to reveal deeper insights into how volunteers are managed in nonprofits by examining a large amount of published research. The researchers analyzed 1,605 articles about volunteer management in NPOs published from 1956 to 2022 and indexed in the Scopus database. They used a software tool called VOSviewer to examine the data, which helped identify trends, key contributors, and the evolution of research in this field. The analysis showed a growing interest in volunteer management over the years. It identified key researchers and regions contributing to this field and highlighted frequent topics and themes discussed in the literature. It also noted the significance of international collaborations in advancing research on volunteer management. The insights from this study can help guide future efforts in volunteer management by providing a clearer understanding of how research has evolved and what areas need more focus. This can improve strategies for managing volunteers more effectively in NPOs, ultimately enhancing their capacity to serve their communities.
... Which later allowed them to increase the income as well as increase the personal spending for example on family, nutrition, housing, and children's education (Coleman, 2005;Morduch 2000). In the study of Hossain (1988) NGOs are playing a vital role in reducing poverty from Bangladesh through their vast involvement in many different issues and services such as human rights specially child and women rights, cultural, social, and environmental protection activities, building democracy concepts, policy suggestion, research, and information sharing, provide priority to the least fortunate citizens (Lewis, 2010;Lewis & Kanji, 2009;Md. Rashed Buiya, 2020). ...
... Bangladesh through their involvement with numerous issues and services such as human rights specially child and women rights, cultural, social, and environmental protection activities, building democracy concepts, policy suggestion, research, and information sharing, provide priority to least fortunate citizens (Lewis, 2010;Lewis & Kanji, 2009). ...
... NGOs have been working hard to reach their services to remote areas and want to make sure the socio-economic development those rural areas by their activities. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are connected with numerous issues and services such as human rights specially child and women rights, cultural, social and environmental protection activities, building democracy concepts, policy suggestion, research and information sharing, provide priority to least fortunate citizens (Lewis, 2010;Lewis & Kanji, 2009;Md. Rashed Buiya, 2020). ...
Thesis
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Abstract Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the most discussed matter in the developing countries due to their vast involvement in socio-economic development and poverty reduction programs, and Bangladesh has no exception. The purpose of this study is to identify how are NGOs playing a vital role in eradicating rural and overall poverty from Bangladesh. After the independence of Bangladesh, the numbers of NGOs and its socio-economic development as well as poverty reduction programs have been increasing gradually. The NGOs have come like a savior for innumerable people specially who were living their life without food, cloth, health, education, and other basic facilities. In the beginning stages NGOs were more active in assisting basic needed support, relief, rehabilitation, and other related activities. Gradually NGOs have been engaging in economical and social development activities. For social development they have been conducting two main important programs as SDP and TP, during 2016-17 around 55.31 million people received social service (including members) and about 1.89 million people were engaged in training programs by CDF’s reported NGO-MFIs. NGOs have been engaging with so many different activities for socio-economic development and poverty reduction or eradication programs such as microcredit policies, micro-insurance, sector-wise microcredit plans, foreign remittance, work automations, employment, microfinance in rural & remote area, savings, and other economical programs. During 2016-17, MGO-MFIs distributed loan around Tk. 1,207.538 billion or $4.081 billion, while they issued loan Tk. 1031.39 billion in rural areas which represented about 85.4% of total distributed loan amount. NGO-MFI’s total money circulation amount of 2016-17, is equivalent to about 11.85% of Bangladesh’s current GDP value. Keywords: Bangladesh, NGOs, Poverty reduction, Rural areas, Socio-economic development. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) Codes: L31, O18, & P36.
... The creation of Amnesty International in 1961, Doctors Without Borders in 1971, and an organisation that subsequently became the Human Rights Watch in 1978 introduced an array of interventions, and thus constituted an important step in humanitarian intervention (Irrera, 2010:6). After over many years of intervention in various critical situations, Lewis (2009) stated that NGOs are now recognised as key third sector actors in the area of development, human rights, humanitarian interest, environment, and many other areas of public action, from the post-2004 tsunami reconstruction efforts in Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, to the 2005 "Make Poverty History" campaign for aid and trade reform and developing country debt cancellation. ...
... He argues that the term NGO gained general acceptance in 1945 following the need for the UN to differentiate in its charter, between participation rights for intergovernmental specialized agencies and those for international private organisations. In the same light, Lewis (2009) supported that, NGOs have existed in various forms for centuries, but they rose to higher prominence in international development and increased their numbers dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s. Charnovitz (1997) noted that the involvement of NGOs seems to rise when governments need them and to fall when governments and international bureaucracies gain self-confidence, suggesting a cyclical pattern. ...
Article
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Purpose: The Anglophone conflict has attracted interest from different stakeholders around the world, including international and local NGOs that are providing humanitarian and peacebuilding services to the affected communities. Despite their efforts to curb the negative effects of the conflict and improve human security, the situation remains stagnant, despite some relative peace in certain parts of the two regions. The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the humanitarian and peacebuilding role of these NGOs in the conflict. Methodology: A quantitative research approach was used in this study. A survey of 639 respondents was conducted using a questionnaire with open and closed-ended questions. The findings revealed that the NGOs humanitarian and peacebuilding role came in the form of providing foodstuffs and healthcare, promoting social cohesion by creating opportunities for re-socialisation, remobilization, recreation, and reintegration in the affected communities. Findings: The findings also revealed that less than half (40.1%) of the affected population benefited from the humanitarian supplies. Also, the majority (62.1%) of those who benefited were females. A greater proportion (36.7%) of the respondents reported that the NGOs delivered humanitarian aid only after two years, meaning they were not regular. The study also revealed a significant difference between North West and South West region respondents’ assessments of NGOs possession of means to address humanitarian and peacebuilding concerns of the affected communities with the Chi-Square test result of c 2 =44.493, df = 3 and P-value <.000. Thereby, rejecting the null hypothesis and accepting the hypothesis. Hence, the NGOs were not effective in their humanitarian and peacebuilding role in the Cameroon Anglophone conflict. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The results of this research do not counter the interdependence or voluntary failure theory since the NGOs could not adequately and effectively play their humanitarian and peacebuilding role in the ongoing conflict. NGOs should also consider empowering members of the affected populations to take care of themselves rather than thinking of continually providing them with their needs which are often insufficient.
... This growth in both civil society generally, and SFD specifically, created a significant, decentralised group of organisations explicitly working to achieve various social and systemic goals, such as improved education, social cohesion or peace (Radcliffe, 2016;Svensson & Woods, 2017). In doing so, some of these civil society actors may work with local governments or the private sector to support the delivery of goods and services (Lewis, 2010). However, they may also simply work around existing structures or actively promote systemic change (Lewis, 2010). ...
... In doing so, some of these civil society actors may work with local governments or the private sector to support the delivery of goods and services (Lewis, 2010). However, they may also simply work around existing structures or actively promote systemic change (Lewis, 2010). This is certainly the case within SFD, where some organisations explicitly challenged current sporting or government structures and sometimes opted to eschew government support all together . ...
Article
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Over the last 30 years there has been a growth of actors involved in Sport for Development (SFD). Though some of these actors aligned with prevailing power structures, others challenged existing power structures. In that sense, the SFD movement became disparate and multi-faceted and could be seen as an emerging area that could challenge dominant structures. With time, the SFD sector has coalesced around a variety of formal structures, and these more ‘rebellious’ tendencies have been dampened. Though some have argued that these structures show adaptation or professionalisation, using Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò’s work as a foundation, I will argue that these changes emerged as part of a purposeful process of elite capture. In particular, elite capture has occurred in three interconnected ways. First, elite actors established standards, policies and guidelines that aligned with their interests. Second, elites imposed those standards by funding and controlling projects in the field. Finally, elites legitimised the standards they set by taking over avenues for knowledge production within SFD. Taken together, elite capture limits the ability of SFD actors to challenge the systemic factors that impede their participants and communities. To escape this, as Táíwò argues, means more than just offering representation to ‘marginalised’ groups. New structures outside of the constraints of existing ones are needed.
... As such, their aid chain encompasses two potential contact zones with donors (Contact Zone I). However, the focus of this paper is on interactions between NGOs in Kenya and "their" project beneficiaries (Contact Zone III), some of which also involve showing a project to representatives of the partner NGO based in the Global North and facilitating interactions between them and the project beneficiaries (Contact Zone IV). 3 2 For a definition of NGOs, see Lewis (2010). ...
Article
Contemporary development NGOs aim to promote community participation and ownership rather than impose solutions that lack local relevance and support. Participatory development approaches consequently attribute high value to the direct interaction between NGOs and beneficiaries, and to an NGO’s ability to hear and understand the concerns of local communities. However, given the diversity of actors involved, these interactions are far from straightforward, and many, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa, involve one or multiple language barriers. Surprisingly, the multilingual nature of the contact zone between NGOs and their beneficiaries is rarely acknowledged explicitly in the discourse on participatory development emanating from NGOs and other institutions in the aid chain. Furthermore, NGOs seem to lack a systematic approach to multilingual communication in these encounters. This lack of engagement with multilingualism in development discourse, however, is not matched by a commensurate gap in development practice. Indeed, both translation and interpreting are common in development encounters, and aid workers in the Global South are highly resourceful in overcoming language barriers. The findings presented in this paper provide an overview of the multilingual practices deployed by Kenyan development NGOs to communicate with beneficiaries and deepen our understanding of how language constrains and shapes participation in development. In shedding light on these practices, the author hopes to contribute to enhancing the visibility of languages in development discourse.
... As noted in the above literature, the important place NGOs have in a civil society, also translates to the diverse nature of such organizations. Bibu, Lisetchi and Brancu (2013), as well as Lewis (2010), observed that these entities have become prominent players in society today and because of that, they accommodate themselves to various groups of people, depending on its scale and purpose. As such, NGOs come in various sizes with several operating internationally, others at a national level and even some at a community scale. ...
Research
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Democracy is viewed as an integral element for a progressive society to govern itself as it embeds people to be its main participants and beneficiaries. While its ideals have been sought after, many countries still fall short to adhere to it fully and Fiji is no exception. The country has a history of political upheavals, with its fourth and most recent constitution promulgated in 2013, leading to the restoration of democratic rule the following year. This supervised research project studies the involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations in Fiji’s democratic governance since 2014. To do this, the qualitative study gathered both secondary and primary data, the latter of which encompassed 13 participants who respectively engaged in eight interviews and one focus group discussion. Entities involved included three NGOs, namely the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum, Dialogue Fiji and the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, as well as two institutions of the state which are the Fiji Elections Office and the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji. The data collected found that NGOs in Fiji engaged in a number of roles, including advocacy and watchdog of the state. It was also seen that a number of constraints were encountered, such as the detrimental relations NGOs have with the government and the lack of public interest. Overall, while NGOs in Fiji have done much to strengthen the democratic process, more was still left to be done, especially in addressing the constraints the NGOs are facing.
Article
Comprehending interest group politics is central to studying the European Union’s (EU) policy shaping and decision-making, in education as in other policy areas. Yet the contribution of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to EU policy shaping and decision-making in European education has been overlooked. Drawing on organisational studies, this article presents the results of an embedded case study of two Brussels-based NGOs, one representing a sectorial interest and the other a broader interest in education. The author examines their organisational features, funding sources, relations to EU institutions and the advocacy tools they use to strengthen civil society’s voice at the European level. She argues that these NGOs act as agents in a double-loop transmission rather than simple transmission belts as depicted in the literature. She draws attention to their increased dependency on EU funds and constant need for alliances and coalition building as two aspects which may limit their freedom or increase internal competition in the future. Determining whether this reflects a more general trend in the advocacy work of Brussels-based NGOs will require expanding attention to other NGOs active in education and across sectors.
Conference Paper
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Abstract Objective. This study focuses on the role of interfaith NGOs in Indonesia in realizing democratic development. An example of this research is the collaboration between the two largest interfaith organizations in Indonesia, Nahdlaltul Ulama, the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia and even the world, with the Indonesian Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation based in Taiwan. The role of interfaith NGOs plays an important role in realizing pluralism in Indonesia. It is very important to build peaceful and constructive interfaith relations so that they become an example for the international world, where democracy and religion can work together. Methods. The article uses methods of analysis and synthesis Results. The collaboration between Nahdlatul Ulama and the Tzu Chi Foundation resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding focusing on the areas of education, health, humanism, environmental protection and community empowerment. Scientific novelty. Indonesia has a long history of religious life. Violent conflicts over strife between religions have become a major focus for NGOs such as Nahdlatul Ulama and the Tzu Chi Foundation to prevent such things from happening. Religious pluralism is an important element in the development of a democratic society. So the discussion is still up for debate. Practical significance. The material of this article may be useful for studying the trend of interfaith cooperation in Indonesia. Keywords: Pluralism, Democracy, Multiculturalism, Moderate Islam, Humanism. Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest is declared by the authors.
Article
In this paper we argue that the lack of attention to the third sector historically is primarily a result of the weakness and limitations of the concepts that are used to define and describe it. The purpose of this article is to remedy this situation by developing a general definition of the sector that can be used in comparative research. To do so, the article first identifies four alternative types of definitions that are potentially available and evaluates each in terms of three basic criteria. On this basis it concludes that the most useful definition is the ‘structural/operational’ one, which includes in the non-profit sector organisations that share five basic characteristics. These are: formal, private, non-profit-distributing, self-governing and voluntary. The basic definition is then tested against the realities of three disparate countries and found to perform quite well. On this basis we recommend the structural/operational definition, particularly for comparative, crossnational research.
Book
The first edition of this book was published in 2001 by Routledge and was the first academic text on the important new emerging field of NGO management. It sets out the field for researchers with a new and original conceptual framework, contains a comprehensive review of existing literature from a variety of disciplines (including management, development studies, and social policy) and provides wide-ranging examples from the author's own practical and research experience. New to this edition: twelve new detailed case studies of NGO management issues and challenges new discussion points, lessons learned and questions for debate to guide the reader through each chapter definitions of key terms highlighted key ideas to illustrate each chapter. Revealing the distinctive organizational challenges faced by NGOs this second edition provides a fully updated and revised text that will prove invaluable to all those studying or working in NGOs, the voluntary sector or development studies.