D EFINING AN NGO

There are a number of different definitions given for the term ‘non-governmental organisation’ (NGO), many of which point to the fact (see for instance Smillie (1995)) that the name does not actively explain what they are doing. The term

‘voluntary’ or ’private’ organisation, used in the United States and in Scandinavian countries, might be more apposite and both terms are included in what others define as the ‘non-profit sector’, detailed later in this chapter.

Chapter 2: Non-governmental Organisations

Setting language definition aside, there have been several research projects

examining the non-governmental sector that have sought to establish what this large and diverse group of organisations has in common and to identify some of their main characteristics. Some of the early NGO research was undertaken by Korten (1987;

cited in Sahley (1995)), who, for analytical purposes, divided NGOs into four categories:

 Voluntary organisations that pursue a social mission driven by a commitment to shared values.

 Public service contractors that function as market-oriented non-profit businesses serving public purposes.

 People’s organisations that represent their members’ interests, have member-accountable leadership and are substantially self-reliant.

 Governmental NGOs (GONGOs) that are creations of government and serve as instruments of public policy.

Korten (1990) later undertook an evolution study of NGOs, in which he grouped them into four distinct generations:

1. The first generation of welfare oriented Northern NGOs worked directly with communities and attempted to alleviate the conditions of poverty by transferring goods and services to the poor.

2. The second generation marked a shift away from temporary poverty alleviation strategies to attempts to initiate a process of sustainable development, in partnership with communities, while recognising the need to address the wider issues of institutional development.

3. The third-generation NGO strategies are concerned with sustainable systems and institutions. Efforts to overcome institutional or policy constraints and to create the conditions conducive to development are central to these approaches.

4. The fourth-generation NGO is comprised of social or ‘peoples development movements’, driven not by budget or organisational structures, but rather by ideas, by a vision of a better world (author’s highlighting).

Another way of grouping NGOs is a classification applied in an evaluation of the Norwegian aid sector (Tvedt 1995: 117), where a distinction is made between NGOs with 1) humanitarian-altruistic attitudes; 2) political-idealistic aims; 3) missionary purposes; 4) interest organisations and organisations that promote social welfare; or 5) links to occupational organisations and trade unions. This classification, however, might be more specific to the Norwegian NGO sector rather than providing an analytical tool for the broader international NGO sector.

The World Bank (2000), attempting to provide a comprehensive overview of the NGO sector, and recognising the term NGO as very broad and encompassing many different types of organisation, thus defines NGOs as ‘private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development’.

They however note that

(…) in wider usage, the term NGO can be applied to any non-profit

organization which is independent from a government. NGOs are typically value-based organizations which depend, on the whole or in part, on charitable donations and voluntary services. Although the NGO sector has become increasingly professionalized over the last two decades, principles of altruism and voluntarism remain the defining characteristics.

Turning to the operational NGOs: these are classified in three main groups, which appear to be useful when one is analysing the diversity of NGOs found in different countries. The first is the community-based organisation (CBOs), also referred to as grassroots or people’s organisations, ‘which serve a specific population in a narrow geographical area.’ As examples of CBOs the World Bank lists women’s groups, credit circles, youth clubs, cooperatives and farmers’ associations. These are

‘normally “membership” organisations made up of a group of individuals who have joined together to further their own interests’ as opposed to the two other categories, the national NGOs, which ‘operate in individual developing countries’ and the international NGOs, which are ‘typically headquartered in developed countries and carry out operations in more than one developing country’, which the World Bank (WB) defines as an ‘“intermediary NGO” formed to serve others.’

However, the most comprehensive attempt to analyse the ‘non–profit sector’, which includes all these types of NGOs, stems from a long-running research project at John Hopkins University in the USA. ‘The Comparative Non-profit Sector Project’ has been ongoing since 1989, and encompasses background studies from about 40 countries. In a recent working paper by Salamon, Hems et al. (2000: 4-9), summing up the project so far, non-profit organisations were identified as entities that are:

 Self-governing organisations.

 Non profit-distributing.

 Private and non-governmental in basic structure.

 Voluntary to some meaningful extent, and therefore likely to engage people on the basis of some shared interest or concerns.

In the same study the validity of five hypotheses is examined, relating to the potential contributions and potential drawbacks of non-profit organisations, as identified from literature studies, through measurement and ranking in a number of target countries through expert and focus group interviews. The five contributions identified are:

1. The service role (including comparatively higher quality, greater equity, lower cost/efficiency and high degree of specialisation).

2. The innovation role.

3. The advocacy role.

4. The expressive and leadership development role.

5. The community building and democratisation role.

Drawbacks identified included:

 Particularism.

 Paternalism.

Chapter 2: Non-governmental Organisations

 Excessive amateurism or professionalism.

 Resource insufficiency.

 Accountability gap.

While some variation is identified, both positively and negatively, the general picture is that organisations within the non-profit sector perform with fewer drawbacks and vulnerabilities than frequently assumed. It appears, however, that the social capital and expressive functions are less developed than their role as service provider. Thus the project concludes positively, describing the non-profit sector as ‘a vehicle of considerable promise for alleviating problems facing the world’(Salamon, Hems et al. 2000: 24).¹⁸

The conclusion to be drawn from this review is that there is not one final definition of what constitutes a non-governmental organisation, but rather broad frames with which a large and diverse range of organisations might associate themselves. Some broad common characteristics do, however, emerge from the various research projects undertaken to provide insight into this sector; namely, that the organisations should basically not be directly organisationally associated with a government or intergovernmental organisation (although they still might receive the main bulk of funding from such sources), but be self- governing, non-profit-making and have a degree of voluntary contributions, either in their constitutions or among their intended beneficiaries.

However, while the above analysis seeks to identify commonality within this wide sector of ‘non-governmental organisations’, one does need to look further at some of the more distinct features and the diversity of these organisations and, certainly, some of the concerns being raised about the entire NGO sector.