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Name: Raimjanov Ruzivoy Rustamovich
My Student ID: 201924059
7 week homework
Question - Critics of NGOs have been raising the questions on their legitimacy and sustainability. However, other believes NGOs still an important part of Civil Society that creates more balanced relationship between Governments, Markets and Citizens. Write your own viewpoint on both sides and conclude whether NGOs persist as a key stake holder in developing countries in terms of development cooperation.
NGO legitimacy analysed as credibility is about managing reputation. Criti- cism that can damage NGOs’ reputation as a sector is more likely to come from someone powerful than someone who is powerless. NGOs’ effort to set up the Charter and its regulatory supplement is a response to criticism about their legitimacy, from those in power (Kamminga 2007). In meeting the demands of their critics with such elaborate measures, NGOs imply that they are seeking approval in order to legitimise their role at the international level. The danger is that NGOs start to focus on obtaining endorsements from donors to legitimise their power and secure their role, which can desensitise NGOs to the accountability responsibilities they have towards their less powerful stakeholders.
Across the developing world, states with limited finances, poor governance and corruption have failed to bring development to all of their citizens. In this context, alternative forms of development have been used, and since the 1980s, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have increasingly emerged as a vehicle by which to bridge the gap between citizens' needs and existing services. Where states are unable to provide sufficient goods, services, or an enabling environment to help citizens secure their livelihoods, or when disadvantaged groups are excluded from existing government institutions, alternative channels for service delivery must be found and / or governments held accountable. It was this gap that NGOs neatly fit into. However, past criticism of NGOs persists and their activities have focused more on service delivery than advocacy and empowerment. Their difficulties in driving long-term structural change have led to the recognition of broader civil society organizations on the good governance agenda given their stronger position to transform the relationship between state and society.
It was perceived failures of state-led development approaches throughout the 1970s and 1980s that fuelled interest in NGOs as a development alternative, offering innovative and people-centred approaches to service delivery, advocacy and empowerment. While NGOs and their position within the development sector have risen dramatically, the taxonomy of NGOs remains problematic (Vakil 1997). Emerging from long-term traditions of philanthropy and self-help (Lewis and Kanji 2009), NGOs vary widely in origin and levels of formality. While terms such as ‘NGOs’ and ‘third sector’ are classificatory devices that help understand a diverse set of organisations, they can also obscure: in presuming the institutionalised status of NGOs, for example, one potentially ignores a large number of unregistered organisations seeking to further the public good. Any discussion of the provision of aid through civil society organizations (CSOs) needs to take into account the particular case of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs).1 They are a powerful force in the delivery of aid, and important actors within the international development architecture. They are now providing more aid to developing countries than ever before, and the budgets of particularly large INGOs have surpassed those of some Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) donor countries.2 Eight INGOs (World Vision International, Oxfam International, Save the Children International, Plan International, Médecins Sans Frontières, CARE International, CARITAS International and ActionAid International) had combined revenue of more than US$11.7 billion in 2011, up 40 percent since 2005. INGOs represent a major presence in many developing countries, receive substantial sums from donors to carry out humanitarian assistance and development work, and are an increasingly influential actor in policy processes and in the global governance of aid.
INGOs have varied roles in development cooperation, and have varied approaches based on different models of development practice. However, there are strong similarities in the objectives they aim to achieve, and in their overall mandates. Key objectives for INGOs typically include the reduction of poverty and inequality, the realization of rights, the promotion of gender equality and social justice, protection of the environment and strengthening of civil society and democratic governance. For example, three of the largest INGOs have primary objectives based on poverty reduction:
• CARE International “shares a common vision to fight against worldwide poverty and to protect and enhance human dignity.”8
• Oxfam International is a “global movement for change, to build a future free from the injustice of poverty.”9
• World Vision is “dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.”
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