World politics is certainly not how it used to be. We have witnessed
the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of fundamentalism & the
topic of discussion the rise of the non-governmental organizations or
=93private voluntary organizations=94, =93civil society organizations=94
or
=93non-profit organizations=94.
While initially these civil society organizations (CSOs) remained in
the background of world politics they are today seen everywhere &
exerting power in every aspect of policy making at national &
international levels. From self-appointed witnesses, judges, jury to
executioner, NGOs have today become influential players in the global
political arena.
The term Non-Governmental Organization first came into existence after
it was coined so by the UN in 1948. There were 40 such organizations
at the time. Today, their resumes are vast & varied & include
humanitarian issues, disaster matters, conflict resolution,
alleviation of poverty, protecting human rights & child rights=85..
there is not an area that they do not venture into.
While most of us shudder in the face of disaster or catastrophe on the
contrary NGOs thrive & relish when disasters take place. It is only
then that they can become activated =85.& start knocking on the doors of
charitable hearts =85open up new offices=85employ more staff=85& travel
the
globe. It has turned into a very attractive profession & everyone
wants to be involved in NGO work & it is not surprising with the
humanitarian & financial development financing involved why
businessmen, politicians, academics & even journalists are forming
NGOs to plug into these gold mines & rewarding themselves & their
relatives with salaries, perks & privileges. Thus, floods, elections,
earthquakes, wars & the like all eventually lead to very lucrative
gains for NGOs & associated entities.
How many NGOs exist globally =96 no one really knows. According to the
UNDP Human Development Re****t of 2002, nearly one-fifth of the world=92s
37,000 INGOs were formed in the 1990s. The total is likely to be much
higher today. While it is easy to deduce how many governments exist,
it becomes a tiresome quest to derive how many NGOs exist globally &
of them how many are in fact legitimate organizations & this has
prompted many to consider the dangers surrounding their existence. Who
runs these groups? How are they funded? What are their real agendas? &
the most im****tant question being to whom are these NGOs accountable
for the monies credited to their accounts as well as for what they are
promoting through their networks?
Plugging into Governance at all levels
Governance has seen significant changes over the years. Our initial
understanding of governance was its association with governments. Over
the years we have seen new sets of political actors coming into being
largely so as a result in the lack of faith in Governments & their
ability to deliver to the people. Thus, while Governments remain
powerful these new =93political actors=94 have penetrated into civil
society through the late 1980s to become the people=92s advocate in
decision-making. It is another matter of course that what they
advocate is actually the will of the people; nevertheless, this is how
the NGOs have turned themselves into giants in the global political
arena.
As we see them descend upon society carrying laptops, descending from
SUVs, living in plush apartments & drawing a pretty salary they make
fine preachers, critics of governance & often ****tray that only they
have the answer to the worlds ills.
While we do not deny that there are endless cases of corruption &
scandals involving governments, UN itself, world cor****ations, the
religious entities we cannot say that NGOs are immune from corruption
either.
The NGOs today have risen to become mammoth organizations. The big
players like World Vision, Save the Children, Oxfam & Care have
significant financial backing sometimes exceeding that of smaller
nations. World Vision=92s annual budget as of 2006 was around
$2.1billion this is thirty times the annual GDP of countries like
Nauru, San Marino ($1 billion), Liechtenstein ($1.7billion) or Andorra
($1.8billion) Nauru=92s population is 13,000 only while World Vision=92s
global staff accounts for 23,000.
NGOs didn=92t spring overnight. Before the NGOs emerged Foundations took
prominence especially in America & Europe. In the US, the combined
assets of the top 20 American foundations in 2005 was around
$151billion & was easily more than the budget of the European Union
(Euros 106billion - $148billion) that same year. Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation has assets of $29billion followed by the Ford Foundation
with $11.6billion. In Europe, the top 50 European Foundations located
in 8 countries had a combined asset totaling $98billion. Wellcome
Trust (UK) has assets work $24.5billion while Fondazion Cassa di
Risparmio has assets of $7.8billion.
One can perhaps begin to understand how much of clout these groups
have & how easily they can outweigh any government especially the
smaller ones.
NGO & the question of accountability
Funding of NGOs immediately brings us to the question of
accountability since practically all NGOs operates across national
borders. In the United States, all NGOs must file its finances
annually with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the federal agency
in charge of taxation =96 these files are accessible to the public.
These NGOs also have to register with the state in which it is
resident & must publish an annual re****t. However, in the cases of
other NGOs in other parts of the world there looms the need for
greater transparency in the light of how they get their funds, from
whom to draw conclusions on whose interests these NGOs may be
promoting.
While NGOs have effectively held large institutions & governments
accountable & exposed them to public scrutiny for corruptions & bad
governance they don=92t welcome too many criticisms against the manner
in which they work. There is no global method to ensure that NGOs are
accountable to anyone it is they who in fact carry out their
=93business=94 with impunity.
Transparency & accountability is a growing need but very few wish to
debate it on international platforms as most of those entities
themselves are members or patrons of international NGOs.
While some organizations like Amnesty International, Greenpeace became
household names for their landmine campaigns others gained notoriety
for their violent protests during official meetings of the WTO, World
Bank, IMF=85.during the 1992 East Summit in Rio de Jinero, 17,000 NGO
representatives staged an alternative forum to the UN sponsored
meeting while 1400 were involved in the official proceedings=85.almost
the same exercise took place during the 4th World Conference on Women
in 1995 when 35,000 NGOs organized an alternative forum while 2600
participated in the official conference=85 however by & large most NGOs
have remained non violent. It is a few of the group=92s efforts from the
1980s that generated the need for NGO involvement in decision making.
Thus, from the street efforts the NGOs now have secured an exclusive
status amongst world diplomats & State bureaucrats. We can well
understand their air of bravado in the light of the growing public &
private grants alongside the contracts flowing to them.
Should we then be surprised at how powerful they must feel in global
politics? It was only natural that many organizations would soon hide
themselves under the acronym NGO.
Thus in large part as the needs for social, economic & political
changes began to surface vis a vis global catastrophes that were
either man made or natural so did the virtuous NGOs expand in numbers.
Having soon aligned themselves with movements like the United Nations
Organization itself, the NGOs were soon able to even outsource some of
the UN activity into their ****tfolios of services.
The outsourcing of UN work to these NGOs has increased over the years.
The bigger NGOs are benefiting as most cor****ate too are switching to
those with better profiles leaving the smaller ones near extinction.
World Vision Australia accounted for 40% of all funds raised from
public for international development in 2003 alone.
In these turbulent times the need for salvation & =93giving=94 has
immediately created the =93takers=94 in the form of the NGOs & they have
been able to quickly align themselves to =93causes=94 close to the hearts
of civil society. The Americans are the most charitable when it comes
to charity so much so that they rarely doubt the NGOs that they fund.
Very few NGOs, one could say have even have fallen out of business for
their =93global causes=94 but they have definitely gone global drawing big
bonanzas as they enter different continents.
Let us take a look at some facts from 2006.
=46rom the arena of Torture :
400 detainees from more than 30 nationalities were held at Guantanamo
Bay; 200 had staged hunger strikes since the camp opened; 40 had
committed suicide; 3 died in June 2006 after apparent suicide. The US
let us note is the champion of human rights for all. The numbers of
detainees held in secret detention centers around the world is
unknown.
=46rom the arena of global firearms:
85% of killings worldwide involve the use of small arms & light
weapons. 60% of the world=92s firearms are in the hands of private
individuals.
=46rom the arena of Women:
At least 1 in 3 of the world=92s women had been beaten, coerced into ***
or otherwise abused. 70% of casualties in conflicts were non-
combatants =96 mostly women & children.
It becomes a laudable venture when NGOs use these =93causes=94 to promote
their existence & fund raising itself becomes an effortless endeavor.
The most recent case of human catastrophe occurred with the 2004
Tsunami. It was a natural disaster of mammoth pro****tions since it
affected over 12 countries. It required the prompt attention of the
world & charities. 80% of the people in the UK donated & similarly,
many people from USA to Europe equally contributed to any charity that
came forward to help the =93victims of the tsunami=94. It created a
scenario for many NGOs to set up shop & open avenues to collect funds.
NGOs have created a very effective nucleus even in countries like
Bangladesh where foreign aid has created a =93franchise state=94 in which
large areas of public service are run by NGOs. Cambodia=92s entire
health service is run by NGOs.
While we cannot deny that many of these NGOs do in fact contribute to
enhancing the lives of people there are others in this NGO bandwagon
whose actions become questionable=85cases of interfering in
parliamentary elections in Macedonia, Slovakia, Belarus, Ukraine,
Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Belgium have also come to light? Some NGOs even
work for States by gathering intelligence & promoting their interests.
The British Foreign Office finances a host of NGOs including Global
Witness=85.perhaps this is one reason why NGOs are accused of espionage.
It was however, not until the world saw a surge in terrorist activity
that many began to see how easy it was to use NGOs as a means to
promote terrorist activity. There are many highly publicized cases of
NGOs promoting terrorist activity as well as using its operations to
collect funds for these terrorists. There are in some cases
Governments that use NGOs to carry out the links with such terrorist
entities. Even the former Russian President Putin has accused British
NGOs of working with the British Secret Service to gather information
We can then begin to see the unpleasant face of globalization taking
shape=85it is this dominance of transnational forces taking liberties
over sovereign states that has rooted the notion of neocolonialism to
surface. The dominating manner in which these entities walk into the
political arena of a country has not helped matters either. However
corrupt Governments may be the public generally tend to rally around
=93their own=94 against these transnational forces. Thus we begin to hear
the cries of anti-NGOs taking place.
To add fuel to fire has been the many cases against NGOs as well. The
most recent case in Sri Lanka was of a UNICEF consultant being fired
for possession of drugs. In 2006, in Batticoloa allegations of staff
of NGOs being used for ****ography came to light. Employees taken to
distant places on the pretext of training in hotels & coerced into
posing **** for cash handouts. The names of four leading NGOs have
been linked to this. More than 300 NGOs & INGOs work in the district
of Batticoloa employing over 10,000 staff. The racket came to light
when a doctor who carried out more than 75 abortions made a
confession. The Cambodian police arrested a 55-year-old US citizen,
who runs an NGO, Bhaktivedanta Eco Village (BEV), in Kollur, Karnataka
(India), on charges of ***ually abusing two children. In Chad, a
French NGO (L'Arche de Zo=E9 - Zoe=92s Ark) was accused of trafficking
children. Some French families have paid upto $8,600 a child. Zoe=92s
Ark had collected over $1.4 million through its internet campaign &
was planning to host 1000 families. A profit of over $250,000 per
transfer tax free too. The NGO links with religious & sectarianism has
also brought forth the question of conversions where we have witnessed
mass scale religious conversions for a packet of food or a roof over
ones head=85all these are taking place in developing nations where
innocent people can easily be manipulated by people who appear as
saviors. Does it then come as any surprise if the general public treat
NGOs suspiciously?.
There are other such actions of NGOs that become questionable. Child
labor is an issue that many NGOs take up however little do they
understand that they garner an income for destitute families. In 1995,
an outcry by NGOs against soccer balls been stitched by children in
Pakistan led to Nike & Reebok closing down their factories & sacking
its women employees & around 7000 children. The income of these
families fell by over 20% & no alternate income means was offered by
the NGOs. In fact it was possible that these children may have been
led to doing greater ills like prostitution or drugs just to bring
some food for their brothers & sisters.
Most of these NGOs are promoters of Western values of life & it is
through their notion of Western living vis a vis womens rights, civil
rights, protection of minorities, freedom, equality that their
****tfolios function upon. This liberal list of virtues is perhaps not
so agreeable to people whose cultures are very different. In a
patriarchal Muslim country would the people encourage aggressive women
empowerment forcefully?
However, the realization that the strength of NGOs depend on the
existence of problems the world over, does not give NGOs much
credibility especially as NGOs keep springing like mushrooms globally
raising the question of accountability to whom. A world without any of
the problems for which these NGOs were created to solve clearly
connotes to mean a jolt to their job status. Would any NGOs give up
the set environment of foreign travel, VIP status & recognition etc to
accept that their =93cause=94 is now over =96 there is a larger picture
out
there? It is in this context that we must evaluate the NGOs per se for
it is their ulterior motives in sustaining their sources of income &
job security that overshadows any integrity or loyalty to find a
solution to any problem that they may venture to resolve.
Keeping problems in stalemate situations is their best modus
operandi.
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