Week 11 Journal

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Week 11 Journal

Acronyms offer us a concise version

of often more complex names, complex names which suggest the complexity of the

topic. NGO is the acronym for Non-Government Organizations, a complex topic

that links states and citizens, the economically advantaged and disadvantaged,

and nations around the globe. A definition of NGOs discussed in class that is

from the World Bank; “groups that are mostly separate from government and have

primarily humanitarian rather than corporate ambitions, which support

international development”. Non-Government Organizations are particularly

interesting because they come in a variety forms that meet a diversity of

needs; they can be charitable (meting the needs of the poor), service oriented

(health, education and family planning oriented), encourage participation

(local self-help) and empowering (enabling the understanding of social,

economic and political factors effecting people). What I found most interesting

was the role that NGOs can have within the state and how NGOs can either be

effective or ineffective depending on state function.

What

contrasts the non-profit sector from governments, aside from the obvious ruling

role of the state, is that NGOs are more administratively flexible than the

government and can often reach realms of human life to a more intimate level

than the state. Their claim to reaching the “grass-roots” of society gives NGOs

the ability to be innovative and specialized when dealing more closely with the

poor and disadvantaged (Desai, 525). What is unique is that NGOs have a certain

association with being moral superior to states; obviously this varies greatly

between countries. But a common perception is that because non-profit

organizations don’t have the same financial goals as governments and businesses

do, they can have a greater focus on improving humanity, the driving focus is

directly on who is being helped. Desai’s suggestion on NGO’s accountable is to

that to “continue to sustain their claim to moral authority, [NGOs] need to

maintain attributes such as impartiality and independence, veracity and

reliability, representiveness, accountability and transparency”(Desai, 529). As

a member of a liberal-democracy I would say that this should be a standard of

impartiality and transparency that states strive for likewise, but after

considering the unique and vital role of NGOs it has aided me in understanding

why non-profit is held to the slightly higher standard. Since I do not think

that states should be a moral authority, but offer rather a standard of basic

and collective morality, it cannot be an absolute since involvement and

presence in a state is not voluntary in the way that involvement in NGOs is.

This is why governments should not be as directly involved in NGOs but rather

offer a framework in which NGOs can operate and exercise their own moral

reasoning within. John D. Clark’s suggestion for states when dealing with NGOs

is that they “should not seek to manage NGOs-that would undermine NGOs and

inappropriately stretch government capacity…they should create conditions that

encourage effective self-regulation of the sector”(Clark, 532).

An

interesting article I found that explores the role of NGOs in post-apartheid

South Africa is “Struggles with activism: NGO engagements with land tenure

reform in post-apartheid South Africa” by Elizabeth Fortin. It details the role

that non-profit groups had in the creation and debate over the Communal Land

Rights Act, passed in 2004 which was seeking to rectify the apartheid allotment

of land in the country. Previously there were ‘homelands’ that were given to

blacks where their tribes were to congregate, mostly rural areas, that were

increasingly overcrowded as these ‘homelands’ covered 13% of South Africa’s

land mass (Fortin, 386). However, they perhaps would not have been so

overcrowded if they weren’t used as “’dumping ground’ for millions who were

removed from ‘black spots’ and farms in ‘white’ South Africa”(Fortin, 386). The

role of NGOs in this newly democratic country (which could be considered to

have something of a ‘weak state’) was that those working in the land sector

acted as ‘a bridge’ to ease the transition and better enable the flow of

communication between involved parties.

“[Land sector NGOs] relate both

to rural people, most of whom are marginalized in terms of their material

reality and access to information but subject to immense inequalities of power

of on-going contestation, and also to those in the government and in wider

policy-making spheres. This mediating position gives them access to knowledge

conceived within these two very different fields”(Fortin, 393).

This relates to Desai’s

‘grassroots’ interpretation of the role of NGOs, which were apparently very

important in South Africa because many of the sill-enacted laws were from the

apartheid era of the countries history. Fortin does offer the critique that the

NGOs involved could only be dependable on accurately representing the

marginalized depending on the strategies they adopted. Stating that “the degree

to which a strategy or mix of strategies compromises the logic by which

legitimacy is claimed provided a useful test of whether organizational self

interest is [a] subordinating mission”(Fortin, 394). Which highlights the idea

that the involvement of NGOs in the role of the state is crucial, but should

also be critical considered.

Works Cited:

Clark, John D. NGO’s

and the State. The Companion

to Development Studies. Ed.

Vandana Desai and Robert B. Potter. 2 ed. London: Hodder Arnold Group, 2008. 530-534. Print.

Desai, Vandana. "The

Role of Non-government Organizations (NGOs)". The Companion

to Development Studies. Ed. Vandana Desai and Robert B. Potter. 2 ed. London: Hodder Arnold Group, 2008. 525-529. Print.

Fortin, Elizabeth. “Struggles with activism: NGO engagements

with land tenure reform in post-apartheid South Africa”. The Journal of Modern African

Studies. 48.03 (2010): 383-411. Print.

Holler, Barbra. “NGOs and Development”. Global Development

100. Queen’s

University.Hailsham,

17 November 2014.

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