DVA2603
CONCEPTS_AND_FUNCTIONS_OF_NGO.
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Concepts and Functions of NGO
,Subject: CONCEPTS AND FUNCTIONS OF NGO Credits: 4
SYLLABUS
Concepts and Functions
Definition, Introduction, NGOs, Interest Groups, Pressure Groups, Lobbies and Private Voluntary
Organizations, Study, NGOs and their Independence from Governments, NGOs, Political Parties and Ethnic
Minorities, NGOs and their Relations with Business and Commerce, NGOs and the Political Use of Violence,
Different Types of Structures among NGOs, Spread of NGOs, Types of NGO Activities, NGOs, Social
Movements and Civil Society, Political Influence of NGO.
Environment and Taxonomy
Introduction, Types of NGOs, Evolutionary stages of development NGOs, Management of non-governmental
organizations, NGO characteristics, NGO Strengths, NGO Weaknesses, NGO-GO Configurations in Training,
Collaboration with NGOs.
Issues in NGO Management
Introduction, Concentration of power, Staff, Accountability, Fund-raising, Fund-raising, Organzational
continuity: Development of new leaders.
Problems of NGOs
Introduction, NGOs have a problem of legitimacy, Risk Challenges, NGOs Prioritizing the Problems, NGOs
Demands for Particular Types of Support.
Strategy and planning for NGOs
Introduction, Definition, Strategic Planning and Leadership, Benefits of Strategic Planning, Planning
Approaches, Execution, Key Issues Identified.
Suggested Reading:
1. Effects of regulatory mechanisms on the function of human rights NGOs: Regulating the 'right to
association'...to foster or to tamper? By Desset Abebe
2. Ngos And Government Organisation Role Duties And Function by N C Dobriyal
3. Local Organizations in Decentralized Development: Their Functions and Performance in India
(Directions in Development... by Ruth Alsop and Bryan Kurey
4. Formation and Management of NGOs: Non Governmental Organisations by Abraham Anita
5. Strategic Management and Policy Issues of NGOs by O.P. Goel
6. NGOs as Legitimate Partners of Corporations: A Political Conceptualization (Issues in Business Ethics)
by Dorothea Baur
, Lesson 1– Concepts and Functions
Learning Objectives
To explain about the non government organisation.
To analyse NGO and its associated groups.
To recognise NGO activities.
To explain about NGOs and its political parties.
To identify different types of structures among NGOs.
1.1 Definition
The term, "non-governmental organization" or NGO, came into currency in 1945 because of
the need for the UN to differentiate in its Charter between participation rights for
intergovernmental specialized agencies and those for international private organizations. At
the UN, virtually all types of private bodies can be recognized as NGOs. They only have to
be independent from government control, not seeking to challenge governments either as a
political party or by a narrow focus on human rights, non-profit-making and non-criminal.
The structures of NGOs vary considerably. They can be global hierarchies, with either a
relatively strong central authority or a more loose federal arrangement. Alternatively, they
may be based in a single country and operate transnational. With the improvement in
communications, more locally-based groups, referred to as grass-roots organizations or
community based organizations, have become active at the national or even the global level.
Increasingly this occurs through the formation of coalitions. There are international umbrella
NGOs, providing an institutional structure for different NGOs that do not share a common
identity. There are also looser issue-based networks and ad hoc caucuses, lobbying at UN
conferences. In environmental politics, this occurs in the unique form of the nine "Major
Groups".
At times NGOs are contrasted with social movements. Much as proponents of social
movements may wish to see movements as being more progressive and more dynamic than
