Musique concrte And Soundscape Composition Essay

Musique concrte And Soundscape Composition - Essay Example Even the origin of the conventional modern keyboards can be traced to the early development of traditional instrumental music. Despite the situation, things began to change in the middle 20th century just after the Second World War at around 1948 when some French musicians such as Pierre Schaefer and Pierre Henry began to play music using recoded sounds (AMG Staff 2012). As time progressed, they realized that tape-recorded was a good invention since it gave them the opportunity to do things, which they could not do without sound recording. This is because, through tape recording, they could now be able to speed up or slow down sound; make them quieter or louder; filter the sound; repeat, as well as play the sound backwards (AMG Staff 2012). As a result, they were now able to convert any real life sound such as concrete sounds, rattle of lids of saucepans, crying babies among others into music. The origin of Musique Concrete, however, can be traced back to 1940s brought about by the i nvention of a quality analogue tape recorder for researchers and musicians (Dack 1994, p.4). The two music pioneers, Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaefer while working for ORTF in France began to examine ways of altering the sound they tape-recorded. It is now that Schaeffer introduced the term Musique Concrete in 1948, which according to him meant that concrete, abstract sounds were used as the main ingredients of music according to Dack (1994, p.4). The whole notion behind Musique Concrete is that the composer starts with a set of â€Å"concrete† sounds, which is organized into a piece of music. As a result, theory and traditional musical instruments do not limit the composer of such a piece of music. This implies that they are at liberty to use any sound that they feel appeals to them, and the audience to achieve the final music. The Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrete [GRMC - Musique Concrete Research Group] was the first music group to be formed and specialized mainly in the recording of Musique Concrete pieces (Battier 2007). Consequently, Etude aux chemins de fer is arguably the first piece of Musique Concrete recorded by Pierre Schaeffer at around the same time. The Etudes were produced using children’s toys, locomotive sounds, and spinning of pot lids. The first piece of Etude was broadcast in October 1948, which generated different reactions from musical circles and the press (Battier 2007). In the next concert held in March 1950, Schaeffer decided to seek for the assistance of Pierre Henry another music composer who later emerged as a famous composer of Musique Concrete genre. After coming together, the two collaborated composing the famous Symphonie pour un homme seul, as well as each composer presenting their individual composition according to Battier (2007). It is reported that the music concert attracted other French composers such as Olivier Messaien. In 1951, Schaeffer acquired the first tape recorder in his studio, which enable d him to transform original sound material according to Lange (2009, P.174). This new technique involved the use of tape loops, splicing, cutting, and change of direction. This technique later attracted the attention of many international composers including Iannis Xenakis (left), a Greek mathematician who developed Concrete PH,

Luis Valdez Los Vendidos Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Luis Valdez Los Vendidos - Essay Example He gained a lot of experience by carrying out performances in the fields and in the local community centers. Most of Valdez plays were short satires to inspire his audiences and create awareness among the workers and his audiences about social problems that plagued them. The play expressed the feelings and sentiments of the workers and hinted at probable solutions that could be used to solve the problems and lead much better lives. â€Å"Los Vendidos† is one such play that attracted critical acclaim for voicing the opinions of the oppressed farm workers. This play had everything to do with stereotypes of the Anglo culture portraying the Chicano experience, because it not only depicted the atrocities meted out to the downtrodden Chicano workers but helped them to identify themselves with its characters. The stereotypes reflected in Valdez’s play â€Å"Los Vendidos† included the farm workers, the Urban tough guys, revolutionary characters and the â€Å"new† Mexican American yuppie. Unlike the regular stereotypes where people identify themselves with the same characters played in the cast or according to the prevalent popular culture in which they live â€Å"Los Vendidos† serves to oppose such tendencies by using new techniques of reflecting such stereotypes. In this play, Valdez depicts stereotypes as being artificial or something that has been culturally produced. The playwright makes use of the play to address the idiocy of stereotypes that reflect the problems of the Chicano people that involve the falsities that are regularly accepted by the society in America. The primary ideology behind the â€Å"actos† was to encourage its audience to take ‘social action and satirize the opposition (Valdez 12) the play also serves to point out the discrimination faced by the Chicano people in their daily lives by highlighting the blemishes and wrongdoings of the Americans. These stereotypes are exaggerated beyond proportion t o lay strong emphasis on the importance of acknowledging them in society because they are looked upon as being ‘second class citizens by the Americans who discount them from social circles. ‘Los Vendidos’ by Valdez is one wherein the playwright has sought to highlight the stereotypes related to the Latino people living in America. The rejection of the secretary to each of the offered model Mexican, the farm worker, the urban model, the revolutionary and the America educated academic, reflects the prejudices and lack of understanding among the American population. The Mexicans are labeled in America and each of the four characters symbolizes the common labels. In doing so, the playwright allows the readers to analyze and understand the prejudices which they may be holding against the race. The Honest Sancho’s ‘Used Mexican Lot’ is the name employed by the dramatist to indulge in word play. It likens the Mexicans to objects. The success of Valdez ’ play was also in making the Americans understand the gross ridiculousness of the way they treat the Chicano people. It helped in reflecting the misconstrued and wrong opioniated views on the stereotypes among the Mexican people through the deliberate attempt by Valdez in his portrayal of each different stereotype to drive home his message. By satirizing the American people, he successfully accomplishes the primary objective of making the Americans to think critically about their actions and treatment of the Mexican people. He attempts to make the American

Effects of Architecture on Public Behaviour in India

Effects of Architecture on Public Behaviour in India INTRODUCTION India and its cities is often associated with poverty and disorder in the eyes of both foreigners and nationals alike. The roads and streets are littered, walls are indiscriminately scared by blood red paan, old and unmaintained infrastructure is found vandalized as though its sole purpose was to act as a medium of defiance towards the government’s inefficiency; and any dark niche becomes a place for defecation. This phenomenon, of public acceptance toward urban uncleanliness is experienced in almost all cities of India. India is a country which has a deep rooted history and has many ancient cities. All of which have been documented with awe in the eyes of the writer, talking of their beauty and intricacy. One of the oldest civilizations on the planet, built their haven along the banks of the Indus. Their cities showed a sensitivity toward cleanliness; and the great baths and the sew-age system are a testament to that. Yet today, Indian cities are looked upon as filthy, unhygienic and unorganized. No Indian culture preaches of such treatment towards their environment yet the problem still remains in front of our eyes. However, I believe that the solution to this urban phenomenon may lie in the way we design our built environment. It is widely accepted that the environment we are placed in, plays a major role in affecting how we behave in it. This brings me towards my research question: How can architecture affect the behaviour of the public in order to curb the menace of littering and vandalism, hence maintain cleaner and healthier cities? LITERATURE SURVEY My research will aim at finding a long term, objective answers towards three core topics Vandalism as a cause of social defiance. Littering as a cause of social negligence. Sense of place as a tool to earn respect of the people. Vandalism Almost all major Indian cities date back at least to the colonial era and they see their fair share of social unrest in the form of strikes, riots or revolts and some even have seen war between empires. Unrest has always existed between different classes or casts over the history of our cities and in the present context it mainly exists between different religious communities and much more between the public and its government. Vandalism is one of the by-products of this unrest. My research has found that vandalism is strongly associated with defiance. This defiance can be rooted toward any cause, institution or a government body. This anti-social activity has been enabled by poorly designed built environments which lack surveillance be it manned or automated. This has also led toward increase in crime rate in many high-rise and has eventually reduced the desirability of the housing project. In Oscar Newman’s book ‘Defensible Space’, his research is directed towards how crime can be reduced in the housing projects of New York by designing urban spaces which will affect the behaviour of people and affectively prevent crime from occurring in the first place. The author defines Defensible Space as ‘Defensible space is a model for residential environments which inhibits crime by creating the physical expression of a social fabric that defends itself.’ (Newman, Oscar 1972) His work revolves around how simple gestures in the planning phase can have a vast impact on the inter relationships of multiple users in an urban environment. His work revolves around generating spaces which are surveyed by the community, or a group rather than an individual because when people begin to protect themselves as individuals and not as a community, the battle against crime is lost. (Newman, Oscar 1972) Further his book talks about the need for a site to create a defined territory which can be surveyed by the users of that territory. There is much usefulness in this approach as the potential criminal perceives such a space as controlled by its inhabitants, leaving him an intruder, easily recognized and dealt with. (Newman, Oscar 1972) Edge conditions are also a vital consideration as the outside space becomes more defensible if they are clearly demarcated for the use by one household or a small number of households, and if they are observable by residents, neighbours and passers-by. (Cisneros, Henry, 1996) When interiors are designed, the author has found that ‘attitude towards interior finishes and furnishings creates an institutional atmosphere, not unlike that achieved in our worst hospitals and prisons. Even though the materials are in fact stronger and more resilient to wear, tenants seem to go out of their way to test their resistance capabilities. Instead of being provided with an environment in which they can take pride and might desire to keep up, they are provided with one that begs their ability in tearing it down( in comment of Pruitt Igoe) (Newman, Oscar 1972) Taking inferences from these approaches I aim to see whether similar principles of design can help prevent vandalism in India’s urban spaces, hence develop further inferences towards how cultural differences can affect this stream of though and how it can be used to my advantage if possible. Further, I would like to ascertain whether this approach can also be applied towards prevention of littering in public spaces as well. Another method of reducing vandalism takes a nonphysical approach a particular area involves community involvement by means of fund raising in Jefferson School District, Daly City, California where vandalism had been a concern (average daily attendance 6,100), for many years. Several schools were consistent targets for graffiti and broken windows. Maintenance crews devoted Monday mornings to sweeping glass and repainting surfaces. It was time consuming, costly, and most discouraging.(Brietler,B , 1988) An Idea came in 1985 from the newly appointed superintendent, Joseph DiGeronimo. His plan was to offer an incentive program to the students. Each school would have $500 put into a reserve account for eventual use by students-that is, unless the money was first consumed by the costs of vandalism. The money would go to the student body to use as it wished, as long as the expenditures were legal and in good taste. (Brietler,B , 1988) The scheme was successful enough that it was able to reduce incidents from 114 in 1985-86 to 51 incidents in 1986-87. (Brietler,B , 1988) Even though my research is focused in finding a prevention rather than a cure, secondary measures will only help to reinforce the former. Since, in the Indian context, where monetary gain is the main incentive to get work done efficiently, schemes of a similar nature be implemented so as to facilitate maintenance of our urban spaces. Littering I was initially filled with the notion that vandalism and littering are done by the same social strata and for similar reasons. But on further studying I realized that they are two distinct behaviours and are motivated by different factors. Vandalism had been associated in almost all my readings as an act of defiance of the people of the lower class or people who believe have been neglected by a governing body. It would be wrong to assume that it is the lack of awareness or literacy that is the root cause of littering. The most common sight of littering is that of plastics bags, disposable containers, plates and spoons Items which are attributed with the consumerist classes i.e. the middle class and high class. The Indian department of sciences and technology states: Most of todays plastics and synthetic polymers are produced from petrochemicals. As conventional plastics are persistent in the environment, improperly disposed plastic materials are a significant source of environmental pollution, potentially harming life. Therefore Littering is not merely an eye sore but also a health hazard and, it should be a matter of concern that we keep our cities clean so that we can benefit in the long run. Another fashion of littering is very unique to India owing to a recipe that is unique to Indian culture. Almost all public spaces can be distinctly associated with the splashes of paan cud, commonly seen at every corner of a staircase or the end of a passageway. Paan is made using a single beetle leaf with a filling which is usually constituted of areca nut, lime and cured tobacco. This form of paan is not meant to be swallowed and so spitting is inevitable. The areca nut is what is responsible for creating the blood red coloration which is the key identifier of paan cud. Paan is cheaply available to both the poor farmer and the rich merchant, and is an Indian man’s pass time, chewing constantly to while away the long and monotonous day. The primary cause of this gross negligence towards correct disposal of rubbish, is because of the lack of far-sightedness of the common man. The lack of a united spirit in the city, where every man is out there to fend for himself be it status, earning or justice and this has led to a fragmentation in the urban society. This is what has eluded the minds of the people, that, even trivial acts such as littering can add up to larger consequences. Liberalization has granted the benefit of private ownership of land, but this has allowed people to assume the corollary, that, what is not owned by them is not under their jurisdiction completely forgetting the democratically It belongs to him but at the same time, also to his fellow countrymen. This blatant thinking of in and out, mine and not mine has deluded the spirit of a common in urban society which manifests itself in the form of negligence. Vassos Argyrou argues that depending on one’s position in space people may find things to be in place (have positive value) or out of place (have negative value) or, they may be invisible to the observer†¦ Therefore, the like beauty, litter is in the eye of the beholder. (Argyrou, Vassos, 1997) Depending on these characteristics society way either be proactive or they may be negligent towards littering. Peoples understanding toward cleanliness is mainly defined by their way of life. The fact that some people treat littering as eyesores is presupported by ’the ability to detach oneself from the world and constitute it as an object of contemplation and reflection.’ (Argyrou, Vassos, 1997).. This portion of society’s ability is rendered possible by the division between mental labour and physical labour. This is possible in those who are economically well off and have the luxury to contemplate the world and its problems. The do not need to partake cumbersome labour (like brick laying and farming) in order to fight the elements of nature, rather, they would prefer to do the same through â€Å"sport† (by going rock climbing or hiking). They tend to contemplate the world as an aesthetic reality. Trying to treat nature as a body whose truths assessed and aliments cured. By contrast, for many people the world is far from a comforts and conveniences, and the possibility to contemplate the world is distant. These people are compelled to work on days which, most people would take the day off. To them, the world is a battle field and life a daily struggle. Out of this confrontation – akin to physical combat the world emerges as a formidable adversary and the Self emerges as a physically and mentally strong individual who, far from being deterred by the challenge, welcomes and even provokes it.(Argyrou, Vassos , 1997)They are too obstinate to give up on the challenges that face them and, given these circumstances, their aggressive approach towards life, to them avoiding littering is a far too gratuitous an act to be seriously considered. However, it would be premature to assume that the cause of this uncleanliness is because of the lower working class and that the middle and higher classes are devoid of this attitude towards our cities. This only suggests that different conditions of existence predispose people to view the world and themselves, in different ways. The author later goes on to say that the middle class claim is that people litter because they are ignorant. Rather, it is that people are ignorant because they litter. The distinction is significant because it implies that litter is a self- evident truth accessible to everyone. If the middle class can perceive it as a problem, villagers and urban working classes can see it too. But, as middle class rhetoric has it, they choose to ignore it and this is what makes them ignorant This act of negligence towards the city is well illustrated by Sudipta Kaviraj, in his paper’ Filth and the Public Sphere: Concepts and Practices about Space In Calcutta (1997), talking of the notions, of what is public in the eyes of Indians, in the city of Calcutta. He talks of how Hindu culture is responsible for the concept for ‘apan/par’ in which people only look at their property as their world, which requires attention and has to be kept clean. Whereas the surrounding is of no importance to the dweller. The inside of a Brahmin house was often kept impressively clean, including utensils and other household goods. Interiors of houses were swept and scrubbed with punctilious regularity. Indeed, there was an interesting connection between these duties and the religious markings on the times of day. The household’s internal space had to be cleaned at the hours of conjunction between light and darkness, at dawn and dusk, which coincided with time for worship (puja). The form of this puja, especially at nightfall, was to light the auspicious lamp, which had an understated piety about it and was performed by women, who shared a strong connection with the symbolism of the interior. It would be considered odd, and faintly sacrilegious, to take the auspicious lamp into a room that had not been cleaned in preparation for this most ordinary form of thanksgiving. Thus, the cleaning chores were considered quasi-religious duties for household members (mostly women). Yet the garbage collected from this obsessive house-cleaning would be dumped on a mound right in front of the house. This owed not to a material-geographic but a conceptual distinction. When the garbage is dumped, it is not placed at a point where it cannot casually affect the realm of the household and its hygienic well-being. It is thrown over a conceptual boundary. The street was the outside, the space for which one did not have responsibility, or which not one’s own was, and it therefore lacked any association with obligation, because it did not symbolise any significant principle, did not express any values. It was merely a conceptually insignificant negative of the inside, which was prized and invested with affectionate decoration. Thus, the outside—the streets, squares, bathing Ghats, and other facilities used by large numbers—were crowded, but they did not constitute a different kind of valued space, a civic space with norms and rules of use of its own, different from the domest ic values of bourgeois privacy. (Kaviraj, S 1997) Kaviraj also mentions that cast is not the only factor but the differences in perceptions between the different classes also is responsible for the littering. The middle class who were capable of affording an education attach much sentimental values to their public parks, but the lower class cannot understand the importance of the latter as much of the middle class’s sentiments had aroused from historic contexts which the lower classes could not relate to due to lack of an education. What this shows is that there were two different codes for using social space, one mapping of inside/outside and another of public/ private.(Kaviraj,S 1997) This study has helped me grasp the gravity of the situation. That there is a cultural link towards the way we maintain our public sphere and that there lies a differences of conceptual approach towards the term ‘public’ by the different economic strata of society. Another concept I would like to focus on is the broken window theory, which says that a crime is more likely to happen if the physical environment is already abused. This phenomenon is necessary to understand as it acts as the spark to the fire if not tended to. The corollary of the theory can also be tested to see if extremely clean environments can also be used to create a social unacceptance toward uncleanliness of our public spaces. CONCLUSION Littering is a social and health problem. It may be harmless in small quantities, but when it is upscaled to the urban level, it becomes a menace and a cause of concern. Today the Indian government has tried to curb littering by means of promotional messages on television. And people are well aware that it is illegal to litter. Under this circumstance, littering is not merely an act, but also a statement whose message echoes through all people who see it. Citizens who see their streets and roads littered will be filled with the notion that their government is incompetent and incapable. This eventually will lead people to be lax, not just towards littering laws but also towards other restrictions, quoting the latter failure as an example. Owing to its visual nature, littering spreads like a disease in the spaces of the citizen minds and then into the spaces of the city. This will eventually breed negligence among the masses and destroy community culture. This further translates into more extreme cases where our urban spaces will be vandalized to vent out anger. Therefore it is of at most importance that we take immediate action and strongly reinforce these actions with preventative measures in order to maintain a physically and mentally society. From my literature survey it has come to my knowledge that littering and vandalism have been looked at from a very objective point of view and research is directed more towards these phenomena as reactive measures and not a long term preventative measures. Therefore I would like to focus my future efforts into finding ways in which we can prevent littering and vandalism before it can even happen. References: Newman, Oscar 1972, Crime Prevention through Urban Design Defensible Space, the Macmillan Company, New York. Colquhoun, Ian, Design out of crime Creating Safe and Sustainable Communities, Architectural Press Canter, David 1977, Psychology of Place, The Architectural Press Ltd. London G.P.D, 2004 , Economics and Political Weekly , Vol. 39 ,No. 9. The British Medical Journal Vol .2 No. 4255 1942 ,Towards The Clean City, BMJ Kaviraj,Sudipta 1997 , Duke University Press, Filth and the public Sphere: Concepts and practices about Space in Calcutta, Public Culture. Keizer, Kees, 2008 American association for the advancement of science, Vol. 322, No. 5908 Science, New Series. Brietler, Bruce 1988 ,Taylor Francis, Ltd., Vandalism: The carrot instead of the Stick, Vol. 61, No.8 Argyrou, Vassos 1997,Wiley on behalf American Anthropological Association, â€Å"Keep Cyprus Clean† : Littering , Pollution, and Otherness, Vol. 12, No.2 Hazards of plastic, 2009, viewed 20 July 2014 TIFAC, http://www.tifac.org.in/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=739itemid=205

Essay example --

Value-Belief-Norm Theory The aim of this research paper will be to depict the difference between criminals who engage in money laundering and tax evasion. In this regard, the theory of Value-Belief-Norm can be taken into concern. According to this theory, actions of an individual are directly influenced by his/her moral and personal values that impose considerable impact upon the behavioral attitudes (Boersema & Reijnders, 2008). Hence, these psychological aspects further forms as a difference between a normal individual and a criminal. Money Laundering Money can often be duly considered as one of the prime reasons for which most of the criminal activities happen in this world. In this regard, one of the commonly identified crimes associated with money is the aspect of money laundering. Money-laundering is regarded as the process through which criminals of all sorts cover the origin of their wealth in order to avoid suspicions from various law-enforcement agencies. This is also performed by the people with the intention of hiding evidences that could lead to their trail in front of the law. Money laundering can be executed through several ways that include structuring and round tripping among the primary ones. In the method of structuring, money is broken into several small deposits that reduce the chances of any suspicion from various law enforcement agencies. In relation to the method of round tripping, money distorts the market, further lessening the chances for law enforcers to detect the money (UNODC, 2013; [1] Legal Informatio n Institute, n.d.). In terms of law, money laundering is considered as a crime and penalty is thus imposed on people involved in laundering money. E.g. 18 USC Â § 1956 of law dep... ...inals Who Engage In Money Laundering and Tax Evasion From the above discussion, several differences can be depicted between criminals engaged in money laundering and tax evasion. In this context, criminals involved in money laundering are influenced to conduct the crime in order to hide the destination or the source of their income. On the other hand, a criminal involved in tax evasion mainly tends to hide real financial status in the form of paying less tax to the concerned authorities. One more dissimilarity between the two can be apparently observed as the legal actions that are imposed over these criminals. Criminals of money laundering are expected to get stern penalty as compared to that of tax evasion. Additionally, moral values, according to Value-Belief-Norm theory also differ in nature between the criminals engaged in money laundering and tax evasion.

Rape as a Weapon of War

In recent years, global organizations have fought successfully to protect women’s rights and gender equality, and Gabon is determined to play its role in maintaining this trend. Gabon is against all forms of violence against women, and recognizes rape as a serious violation of women’s rights. Gabon also recognizes that sexual violence is perpetuated by War . Currently, armed conflicts across Africa are forcing many women and children to migrate to unsafe territory, and increasing their vulnerability to poverty, abduction and human trafficking . These conditions directly expose them to rape and forced prostitution .Prisoners of war are trafficked into Gabon from Benin, Nigeria, Togo and Mali for prostitution, while others are brought as housemaids and eventually forced to become prostitutes . Human trafficking forces many innocent women and children to live in fear of being exploited. However, Gabon is committed to policies which will bring an end to sexual violence, as well as the conflicts which cause them . In 2001, Gabon enacted strict laws for the prosecution of child traffickers. Gabon has also established a national commission to fight child trafficking, chaired by the nation’s vice president .The Gabonese government also set up a free hotline to fight human trafficking and sexual violence in April 2003, in collaboration with UNICEF. This was the first initiative of its kind in Africa. Gabon recognizes that raising awareness of sexual violence against women is crucial to ending it. The government of Gabon is also confident that a centre to provide protection and assistance to the victims of human trafficking established with the assistance of the European Union in March 2002 will help to rehabilitate the lives of many war-ravaged and sexually abused victims .In January 2002, Gabon joined the the First Specialized Meeting on Child Trafficking and Exploitation in West and Central Africa, in Cote d’Ivoire along with representative s of African countries and UN agencies. Following this meeting, the Yamassoukro Declaration was adopted, upon which Gabon committed to collaborate with other African countries in campaigns against human trafficking . Gabon recognizes the Declaration as a crucial step in uniting womens’ vulnerability to rape across the region.As stated by former Prime Minister Jean- Francois Ntoutoume Emane, the ‘empowerment of women’ has been a major priority for Gabon. Gabon recognizes that women must be empowered to fight sexual violence, for the battle must be fought with them ang not for them.Country Report < http://www. protectionproject. org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/gabon. doc> Ibid Ibid Policy Paper No. 14. 2(E) Human trafficking in Nigeria: Root Causes and Recommendations Country Report < http://www. protectionproject. rg/human_rights_reports/report_documents/gabon. doc> Ibid Troubnikoff, Anna. Trafficking in Women and Children: Current Issues and Developments. Nova Publishers, 2003 Country Report < http://www. protectionproject. org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/gabon. doc> Press Release No: UNIS/GA/1655. General Assembly Special Session Continues, as Heads of State, High-level Ministers Discuss Initiatives for Social Development. < http://www. unis. unvienna. org/unis/pressrels/2000/ga1655. html >

How Time Flies

Non-governmental organization From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search â€Å"NGO† redirects here. For other uses, see NGO (disambiguation). | This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (January 2012) | A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any form of government.The term originated from the United Nations (UN), and is normally used to refer to organizations that are not a part of the government and are not conventional for-profit business. In the cases in which NGOs are funded totally or partially by governments, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status by excluding government representatives from membership in the organization. The term is usually applied only to organizations that pursue wider social aims that have political aspects, but are not openly political organizations such as political parties. The number of NGOs operating in the United States is estimated at 40,000. 1] International numbers are even higher: Russia has 277,000 NGOs;[2] India is estimated to have around 3. 3 million NGOs in year 2009, which is just over one NGO per 400 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India. [3][4] Contents * 1 Definition * 2 Types * 2. 1 Development, Environment and Human Rights NGOs * 2. 2 Track II Diplomacy * 3 Activities * 3. 1 Operational * 3. 2 Campaigning * 3. 3 Both * 3. 4 Public relations * 3. 5 Project management * 4 Corporate structure * 4. 1 Staffing * 4. Funding * 4. 3 Overhead costs * 4. 4 Monitoring and control * 5 History * 6 Legal status * 7 Critiques * 7. 1 Challenges to legitimacy * 8 See also * 9 References * 10 Further reading * 11 External links| Definition NGOs are difficult to define and classify, and the term ‘NGO' is not used consistently. As a result, there are many different classifications in use. The most common use a framework that includes orientation and level of operation. An NGO's orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, or evelopment work. An NGO's level of operation indicates the scale at which an organization works, such as local, international or national. â€Å"Confronting the Classification Problem: Toward a Taxonomy of NGOs† One of the earliest mentions of the acronym â€Å"NGO† was in 1945, when the UN was created. The UN, which is an inter-governmental organization, made it possible for certain approved specialized international non-state agencies – or non-governmental organisations – to be awarded observer status at its assemblies and some of its meetings. Later the term became used more widely.Today, according to the UN, any kind of private organization that is independent from government contr ol can be termed an â€Å"NGO†, provided it is not-profit, non-criminal and not simply an opposition political party. Professor Peter Willetts, from the University of London, argues the definition of NGOs can be interpreted differently by various organizations and depending on a situation’s context. He defines an NGO as â€Å"†an independent voluntary association of people acting together on a continuous basis for some common purpose other than achieving government office, making money or illegal activities. [5] In this view, two main types of NGOs are recognized according to the activities they pursue: operational NGOs that deliver services and campaigning NGOs. Although Willetts proposes the operational and campaigning NGOs as a tool to differentiate the main activities of these organizations, he also explains that a single NGO may often be engaged in both activities. Many NGOs also see them as mutually reinforcing. Professor Akira Iriye defines NGO as â€Å" a voluntary nonstate, nonprofit, nonreligious, and nonmilitary association. â€Å"[6] Types Some find it helpful to classify NGOs by orientation and/ Professional association * Empowering orientation; NGO type by level of co-operation * Community-based organization * City-wide organization * National NGO * International NGO Apart from â€Å"NGO†, there are many alternative or overlapping terms in use, including: third sector organization (TSO), non-profit organization (NPO), voluntary organization (VO), civil society organization (CSO), grassroots organization (GO), social movement organization (SMO), private voluntary organization (PVO), self-help organization (SHO) and non-state actors (NSAs).Non-governmental organizations are a heterogeneous group. As a result, a long (and sometimes confusing or comical) list of additional acronyms has developed, including: * BINGO, short for ‘business-friendly international NGO' or ‘big international NGO' * TANGO, ‘tech nical assistance NGO' * TSO, ‘third sector organization' * GONGO, ‘government-operated NGOs' (set up by governments to look like NGOs in order to qualify for outside aid or promote the interests of government) * DONGO: Donor Organized NGO INGO stands for international NGO; Oxfam, INSPAD,[7] Institute of Peace and Development â€Å"A European Think Tank For Peace Initiatives†; * QUANGOs are quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). (The ISO is actually not purely an NGO, since its membership is by nation, and each nation is represented by what the ISO Council determines to be the ‘most broadly representative' standardization body of a nation.That body might itself be a nongovernmental organization; for example, the United States is represented in ISO by the American National Standards Institute, which is independent of the federal government. However, other countries can be represented b y national governmental agencies; this is the trend in Europe. ) * National NGO: A non-governmental organization that exists only in one country. This term is rare due to the globalization of non-governmental organizations, which causes an NGO to exist in more than one country. [5] * CSO, short for civil society organization ENGO: short for environmental NGO, such as Greenpeace and WWF * NNGO, short for ‘Northern nongovernmental organization' * SNGO, short for ‘Southern nongovernmental organization' * SCO, also known as ‘social change organizations' * TNGO, transnational NGO; The term emerged during the 1970s due to the increase of environmental and economic issues in the global community. TNGO includes non-governmental organizations that are not confined to only one country, but exist in two or more countries. * GSO: Grassroots Support Organization * MANGO: short for market advocacy NGO NGDO: non-governmental development organization USAID refers to NGOs as privat e voluntary organizations. However, many scholars have argued that this definition is highly problematic as many NGOs are in fact state and corporate funded and managed projects with professional staff. [citation needed] NGOs exist for a variety of reasons, usually to further the political or social goals of their members or funders. Examples include improving the state of the natural environment, encouraging the observance of human rights, improving the welfare of the disadvantaged, or representing a corporate agenda.However, there are a huge number of such organizations and their goals cover a broad range of political and philosophical positions. This can also easily be applied to private schools and athletic organizations. Development, Environment and Human Rights NGOs NGOs are organizations that work in many different fields, but the term is generally associated with those seeking social transformation and improvements in quality of life. Development NGOs is the most highly visi ble sector, and includes both international and local organizations, as well as those working in humanitarian emergency sector.Many are associated with international aid and voluntary donation, but there are also NGOs that choose not to take funds from donors and try to generate funding in other ways, such as selling handicrafts or charging for services. Environmental NGOs are another sub-sector, and sometimes overlap with development NGOs. An example is Greenpeace. (see: List of Environmental NGOs). Just like other NGOs networks, transnational environmental networks might acquire a variety of benefits in sharing information with other organizations, campaigning towards an issue, and exchanging contact information.Since Transnational environmental NGOs advocate for different issues like public goods, such as pollution in the air, deforestation of areas and water issues, it is more difficult for them to give their campaigns a human face than NGOs campaigning directly for human rights issues. Some of the earliest forms of transnational environmental NGOs started to appear after the Second World War with the creation of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).After the UN was formed in 1945, more environmental NGO started to emerge in order to address more specific environmental issues. In 1946, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was created with the purpose of advocating and representing scientific issues and collaboration among environmental NGOs. In 1969, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) was funded to increase and improve collaboration among environmentalists. This collaboration was later reinforced and stimulated with the creation of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program in 1971.In 1972, the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, tried to address the issues on Sweden’s plead for international intervention on trans-boundary pollution from other European industrialized nations. Transnational environmental NGOs have taken on diverse issues around the globe, but one of the best-known cases involving the work of environmental NGO’s can be traced back to Brazil during the 1980s. The United States got involved with deforestation concerns due to the allegations of environmentalists dictating deforestation to be a global concern, and after 1977 the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act added an Environmental and Natural Resources section. Human rights NGOs may also overlap with those in development, but are another distinct category. Amnesty International is perhaps one of the best-known. During the early 1980s the Brazilian government created the Polonoreste developing program, which the World Bank agreed to finance. The Polonoreste program aimed to urbanized areas of the Amazon, which were already occupied by local indigenous groups.Rapid deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon called the attention and intervention of UNE SCO, who utilized its Program on Man and the Biosphere to advocate against the Polonoreste program, on the grounds of violating the rights of the indigenous groups living in the Amazon. In the case of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, the environment NGOs were able to put pressure on the World Bank to cancel the loans for the Polonoreste program. Due to the leverage that the U. S. has over the bank, in 1985 the World Bank suspended the financial aid to the Polonoreste Program.The work of environmental NGOs in the Brazilian case was successful because there was a point of leverage that made the targeted actor vulnerable to international pressure. [8] Even though NGOs might have common goals relating to development or environment issues, interests and perspectives are diverse. A distinction can be made between the interests and goals among those NGOs located in industrialized countries—often referred to as the states of the North—and NGOs from nations located in dev eloping countries—referred to as states of the South.There is sometimes tension between them. Southern states blame the developed nations for over-consumption and pollution resulting from industrialization, and for sustaining inequalities in the international economic system There is also a distinction among groups that take on particular and specific socio-economic issues. The Women’s Environment and Development Organization was created in 1990 with the purpose to advocate for gender inclusion in work related to the Earth Summit.Other groups might focus on issues that include racial minorities and individuals from lower income backgrounds. [9] Track II Diplomacy Main article: Track II diplomacy Track II dialogue, or Track II diplomacy, is a transnational coordination that involves non-official members of the government including epistemic communities as well as former policy-makers or analysts. Track II diplomacy aims to get policymakers and policy analysts to come to a common solution through discussions by unofficial figures of the government.Unlike the Track I diplomacy where government officials, diplomats and elected leaders gather to talk about certain issues, Track II diplomacy consists of experts, scientists, professors and other figures that are not involved in government affairs. The members of Track II diplomacy usually have more freedom to exchange ideas and come up with compromise on their own. Activities There are also numerous classifications of NGOs. The typology the World Bank uses divides them into Operational and Advocacy:[10] NGOs vary in their methods.Some act primarily as lobbyists, while others primarily conduct programs and activities. For instance, an NGO such as Oxfam, concerned with poverty alleviation, might provide needy people with the equipment and skills to find food and clean drinking water, whereas an NGO like the FFDA helps through investigation and documentation of human rights violations and provides legal as sistance to victims of human rights abuses. Others, such as Afghanistan Information Management Services, provide specialized technical products and services to support development activities implemented on the ground by other organizations.NGOs were intended to fill a gap in government services, but in countries like India, NGOs are gaining a powerful stronghold in decision making. In the interest of sustainability, most donors require that NGOs demonstrate a relationship with governments. State Governments themselves are vulnerable because they lack strategic planning and vision. They are therefore sometimes tightly bound by a nexus of NGOs, political bodies, commercial organizations and major donors/funders, making decisions that have short term outputs but no long term affect.NGOs in India are under regulated, political, and recipients of large government and international donor funds. NGOs often take up responsibilities outside their skill ambit. Governments have no access to th e number of projects or amount of funding received by these NGOs. There is a pressing need to regulate this group while not curtailing their unique role as a supplement to government services. Operational Operational NGOs seek to â€Å"achieve small scale change directly through projects. â€Å"[5] They mobilize financial resources, materials and volunteers to create localized programs in the field.They hold large scale fundraising events, apply to governments and organizations for grants and contracts in order to raise money for projects. They often operate in a hierarchical structure; with a main headquarters staffed by professionals who plan projects, create budgets, keep accounts, report, and communicate with operational fieldworkers who work directly on projects[5] Operational NGOs deal with a wide range of issues, but are most often associated with the delivery of services and welfare, emergency relief and environmental issues.Operational NGOs can be further categorized, one frequently used categorization is the division into relief-oriented versus development-oriented organizations; they can also be classified according to whether they stress service delivery or participation; or whether they are religious or secular; and whether they are more public or private-oriented. Operational NGOs can be community-based, national or international. The defining activity of operational NGOs is implementing projects. [5] Campaigning Campaigning NGOs seek to â€Å"achieve large scale change promoted indirectly through influence of the political system. [5] Campaigning NGOs need an efficient and effective group of professional members who are able to keep supporters informed, and motivated. They must plan and host demonstrations and events that will keep their cause in the media. They must maintain a large informed network of supporters who can be mobilized for events to garner media attention and influence policy changes. The defining activity of campaigning NGOs is holding demonstrations. [5] Campaigning NGOs often deal with issues relating to human rights, women's rights, children's rights. The primary purpose of an Advocacy NGO is to defend or promote a specific cause.As opposed to operational project management, these organizations typically try to raise awareness, acceptance and knowledge by lobbying, press work and activist event. Both It is not uncommon for NGOs to make use of both activities. Many times, operational NGOs will use campaigning techniques if they continually face the same issues in the field that could be remedied through policy changes. At the same time, Campaigning NGOs, like human rights organizations often have programs that assist the individual victims they are trying to help through their advocacy work. [5] Public relationsNon-governmental organizations need healthy relationships with the public to meet their goals. Foundations and charities use sophisticated public relations campaigns to raise funds and employ s tandard lobbying techniques with governments. Interest groups may be of political importance because of their ability to influence social and political outcomes. A code of ethics was established in 2002 by The World Association of Non Governmental NGOs. Project management There is an increasing awareness that management techniques are crucial to project success in non-governmental organizations. 11] Generally, non-governmental organizations that are private have either a community or environmental focus. They address varieties of issues such as religion, emergency aid, or humanitarian affairs. They mobilize public support and voluntary contributions for aid; they often have strong links with community groups in developing countries, and they often work in areas where government-to-government aid is not possible. NGOs are accepted as a part of the international relations landscape, and while they influence national and multilateral policy-making, increasingly they are more directly i nvolved in local action. Corporate structureStaffing Some NGOs are highly professionalized and rely mainly on paid staff. Others are based around voluntary labour and are less formalized. Not all people working for non-governmental organizations are volunteers. Many NGOs are associated with the use of international staff working in ‘developing' countries, but there are many NGOs in both North and South who rely on local employees or volunteers. There is some dispute as to whether expatriates should be sent to developing countries. Frequently this type of personnel is employed to satisfy a donor who wants to see the supported project managed by someone from an industrialized country.However, the expertise these employees or volunteers may be counterbalanced by a number of factors: the cost of foreigners is typically higher, they have no grassroot connections in the country they are sent to, and local expertise is often undervalued. [10] The NGO sector is an important employer i n terms of numbers. [citation needed] For example, by the end of 1995, CONCERN worldwide, an international Northern NGO working against poverty, employed 174 expatriates and just over 5,000 national staff working in ten developing countries in Africa and Asia, and in Haiti. FundingWhether the NGOs are small or large, various NGOs need budgets to operate. The amount of budget that they need would differ from NGOs to NGOs. Unlike small NGOs, large NGOs may have annual budgets in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. For instance, the budget of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) was over US$540 million in 1999. [12] Funding such large budgets demands significant fundraising efforts on the part of most NGOs. Major sources of NGO funding are membership dues, the sale of goods and services, grants from international institutions or national governments, and private donations.Several EU-grants provide funds accessible to NGOs. Even though the term â€Å"non-gove rnmental organization† implies independence from governments, many NGOs depend heavily on governments for their funding. [13] A quarter of the US$162 million income in 1998 of the famine-relief organization Oxfam was donated by the British government and the EU. The Christian relief and development organization World Vision United States collected US$55 million worth of goods in 1998 from the American government.Nobel Prize winner Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (known in the USA as Doctors Without Borders) gets 46% of its income from government sources. [14] Government funding of NGOs is controversial, since, according to David Rieff, writing in The New Republic, â€Å"the whole point of humanitarian intervention was precisely that NGOs and civil society had both a right and an obligation to respond with acts of aid and solidarity to people in need or being subjected to repression or want by the forces that controlled them, whatever the governments concerned might think about the matter. [15] Some NGOs, such as Greenpeace do not accept funding from governments or intergovernmental organizations. [16][17] Overhead costs Overhead is the amount of money that is spent on running an NGO rather than on projects. [18] This includes office expenses,[18] salaries, banking and bookkeeping costs. What percentage of overall budget is spent on overhead is often used to judge an NGO with less than 10% being viewed as good. [18] The World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations states that ideally more than 80% should be spent on programs (less than 20% on overhead). 19] The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has specific guidelines on how high overhead can be to receive funding based on how the money is to be spent with overhead often needing to be less than 5-7%. [20] While the World Bank typically allows 10%. [21] A high percentage of overhead to total expenditures can make it more difficult to generate funds. [22] High overhead costs may als o generate criticism with some claiming the certain NGOs with high overhead are being run simply to benefit the people working for them. [23] Monitoring and control In a March 2000 report on United Nations Reform priorities, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote in favor of international humanitarian intervention, arguing that the international community has a â€Å"right to protect†[24] citizens of the world against ethnic cleansing, genocide, and crimes against humanity. On the heels of the report, the Canadian government launched the Responsibility to Protect R2P[25] project, outlining the issue of humanitarian intervention. While the R2P doctrine has wide applications, among the more controversial has been the Canadian government's use of R2P to justify its intervention and support of the coup in Haiti. 26] Years after R2P, the World Federalist Movement, an organization which supports â€Å"the creation of democratic global structures accountable to the citizens of the world and call for the division of international authority among separate agencies†, has launched Responsibility to Protect – Engaging Civil Society (R2PCS). A collaboration between the WFM and the Canadian government, this project aims to bring NGOs into lockstep with the principles outlined under the original R2P project.The governments of the countries an NGO works or is registered in may require reporting or other monitoring and oversight. Funders generally require reporting and assessment, such information is not necessarily publicly available. There may also be associations and watchdog organizations that research and publish details on the actions of NGOs working in particular geographic or program areas. [citation needed] In recent years, many large corporations have increased their corporate social responsibility departments in an attempt to preempt NGO campaigns against certain corporate practices.As the logic goes, if corporations work with NGOs, NGOs will not work against corporations. In December 2007, The United States Department of Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) S. Ward Casscells established an International Health Division under Force Health Protection & Readiness. [27] Part of International Health's mission is to communicate with NGOs in areas of mutual interest. Department of Defense Directive 3000. 05,[28] in 2005, requires DoD to regard stability-enhancing activities as a mission of importance equal to combat.In compliance with international law, DoD has necessarily built a capacity to improve essential services in areas of conflict such as Iraq, where the customary lead agencies (State Department and USAID) find it difficult to operate. Unlike the â€Å"co-option† strategy described for corporations, the OASD(HA) recognizes the neutrality of health as an essential service. International Health cultivates collaborative relationships with NGOs, albeit at arms-length, recognizing their trad itional independence, expertise and honest broker status.While the goals of DoD and NGOs may seem incongruent, the DoD's emphasis on stability and security to reduce and prevent conflict suggests, on careful analysis, important mutual interests. History International non-governmental organizations have a history dating back to at least 1839. [29] It has been estimated that by 1914, there were 1083 NGOs. [30] International NGOs were important in the anti-slavery movement and the movement for women's suffrage, and reached a peak at the time of the World Disarmament Conference. 31] However, the phrase â€Å"non-governmental organization† only came into popular use with the establishment of the United Nations Organization in 1945 with provisions in Article 71 of Chapter 10 of the United Nations Charter[32] for a consultative role for organizations which are neither governments nor member states—see Consultative Status. The definition of â€Å"international NGO† (ING O) is first given in resolution 288 (X) of ECOSOC on February 27, 1950: it is defined as â€Å"any international organization that is not founded by an international treaty†.The vital role of NGOs and other â€Å"major groups† in sustainable development was recognized in Chapter 27[33] of Agenda 21, leading to intense arrangements for a consultative relationship between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. [34] It has been observed that the number of INGO founded or dissolved matches the general â€Å"state of the world†, rising in periods of growth and declining in periods of crisis. [35] Rapid development of the non-governmental sector occurred in western countries as a result of the processes of restructuring of the welfare state.Further globalization of that process occurred after the fall of the communist system and was an important part of the Washington consensus. [13] Globalization during the 20th century gave rise to the importance of NGOs. Many problems could not be solved within a nation. International treaties and international organizations such as the World Trade Organization were centred mainly on the interests of capitalist enterprises. In an attempt to counterbalance this trend, NGOs have developed to emphasize humanitarian issues, developmental aid and sustainable development.A prominent example of this is the World Social Forum, which is a rival convention to the World Economic Forum held annually in January in Davos, Switzerland. The fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January 2005 was attended by representatives from more than 1,000 NGOs. [36] In terms of environmental issues and sustainable development, the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 was the first to show the power of international NGOs, when about 2,400 representatives of NGOs came to play a central role in deliberations.Some have argued that in forums like these, NGOs take the place of what should belong to popular movements of th e poor. Whatever the case, NGO transnational networking is now extensive. [37] Legal status The legal form of NGOs is diverse and depends upon homegrown variations in each country's laws and practices. However, four main family groups of NGOs can be found worldwide:[38] * Unincorporated and voluntary association * Trusts, charities and foundations * Companies not just for profit Entities formed or registered under special NGO or nonprofit laws The Council of Europe in Strasbourg drafted the European Convention on the Recognition of the Legal Personality of International Non-Governmental Organizations in 1986, which sets a common legal basis for the existence and work of NGOs in Europe. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the right to freedom of association, which is also a fundamental norm for NGOs. Critiques Stuart Becker provides the following summary of the primary critiques of NGOs: There’s a debate that, NGOs take the place of what should belon g to popular movements of the poor.Others argue that NGOs are often imperialist in nature, that they sometimes operate in a racist manner in Third World countries and that they fulfill a similar function to that of the clergy during the colonial era. Philosopher Peter Hallward argues that they are an aristocratic form of politics. â€Å"[39] Issa G. Shivji is one of Africa's leading experts on law and development issues as an author and academic. His critique on NGOs is found in two essays: â€Å"Silences in NGO discourse: The role and future of NGOs in Africa† and â€Å"Reflections on NGOs in Tanzania: What we are, what we are not and what we ought to be†.Shivji argues that despite the good intentions of NGO leaders and activists, he is critical of the â€Å"objective effects of actions, regardless of their intentions†. [40] Shivji argues also that the sudden rise of NGOs are part of a neoliberal paradigm rather than pure altruistic motivations. He is critical of the current manifestations of NGOs wanting to change the world without understanding it, and that the imperial relationship continues today with the rise of NGOs. James Pfeiffer, in his case study of NGO involvement in Mozambique, speaks to the negative effects that NGO's have had on areas of health within the country.He argues that over the last decade, NGO's in Mozambique have â€Å"fragmented the local health system, undermined local control of health programs, and contributed to growing local social inequality† [41] He notes further that NGO's can be uncoordinated, creating parallel projects among different organizations, that pull health service workers away from their routine duties in order to serve the interests of the NGO's. This ultimately undermines local primary health care efforts, and takes away the governments ability to maintain agency over their own health sector. 42] J. Pfeiffer suggested a new model of collaboration between the NGO and the DPS (the Moza mbique Provincial Health Directorate). He mentioned the NGO should be ‘formally held to standard and adherence within the host country', for example reduce ‘showcase' projects and parallel programs that proves to be unsustainable. [43] Jessica Mathews once wrote in Foreign Affairs in 1997: â€Å"For all their strengths, NGOs are special interests. The best of them †¦ often suffer from tunnel vision, judging every public act by how it affects their particular interest†. 44] Since NGOs do have to worry about policy trade-offs, the overall impact of their cause might bring more harm to society. [45] Vijay Prashad argues that from the 1970s â€Å"The World Bank, under Robert McNamara, championed the NGO as an alternative to the state, leaving intact global and regional relations of power and production. â€Å"[46] Others argue that NGOs are often imperialist[47] in nature, that they sometimes operate in a racialized manner in third world countries, and that the y fulfill a similar function to that of the clergy during the high colonial era.The philosopher Peter Hallward argues that they are an aristocratic form of politics. [48] Popular movements in the global South such as, for instance, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa have sometimes refused to work with NGOs arguing that this will compromise their autonomy. [49][50] Another criticism of NGOs is that they are being designed and used as extensions of the normal foreign-policy instruments of certain Western countries and groups of countries. 51] Russian President Vladimir Putin made this accusation at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy in 2007, concluding that these NGOs â€Å"are formally independent but they are purposefully financed and therefore under control. â€Å"[52] Also, Michael Bond wrote â€Å"Most large NGOs, such as Oxfam, the Red Cross, Cafod and Action Aid, are striving to make their aid provision more sustainable. But some, mostly in th e US, are still exporting the ideologies of their backers. † [53] Indeed, whether the NGOs are adiding for evangelical purposes or their ideological intentions, various NGOs are examined and accused of their nature.There has also been the overwhelming disaster of NGOs using white lies or misinformed advise to enact their campaigns. In other words, NGOs have been quite ignorant about critical issues because, as chief scientist at Greenpeace Doug Parr claims, these organizations have lost their efforts in being trully scientific and are now more self-interested. Rather than operating through science so as to be rationally and effectively practical, NGOs are now abusing the utilization of science in order to gain their own advantages.In the beginning, as Parr indicated, there was â€Å"‘a tendency among our critics to say that science is the only decision-making tool . . . but political and commerical interests are using science as a cover for getting their way. ‘â⠂¬ [54] At the same time, NGOs have shown themselves not to be very cooperative with other groups, as the previous policy-maker for the German branch of Friends of the Earth Jens Katjek acknowledged. â€Å"If NGOs want the best for the environment, he says, they have to learn to compromise. â€Å"[55] Challenges to legitimacy The issue of the legitimacy of NGOs raises a series of important questions.This is one of the most important assets possessed by an NGO, it is gained through a perception that they are an â€Å"independent voice†. [56][57] Their representation also emerges as an important question. Who bestows responsibilities to NGOs or INGOs and how do they gain the representation of citizens and civil society is still not scrutinized thoroughly. For instance, in the article, it is stated, â€Å"To put the point starkly: are the citizens of countries of the South and their needs represented in global civil society, or are citizens as well as their needs constructed by practices of representation?And when we realize that INGOs hardly ever come face to face with the people whose interests and problems they represent, or that they are not accountable to the people they represent, matters become even more troublesome. † [58] Moreover, the legitimacy and the accountability of NGOs on the point of their true nature are also emerging as important issues. Various perceptions and images on NGOs are provided, and usually implemented in an image as ‘non-state actors' or ‘influential representatives of civil society that advocate the citizen. Accountability may be able to provide this and also be able to assist activities by providing focus and direction[59] As non-state actors with considerable influence over the governance in many areas, concerns have been expressed over the extent to which they represent the views of the public and the extent to which they allow the public to hold them to account. [60] The origin of funding can have serious implications for the legitimacy of NGOs. In recent decades NGOs have increased their numbers and range of activities to a level where they have become increasingly dependent on a limited number of donors. 60] Consequently competition has increased for funding, as have the expectations of the donors themselves. [61] This runs the risk of donors adding conditions which can threaten the independence of NGOs, an over-dependence on official aid has the potential to dilute â€Å"the willingness of NGOs to speak out on issues which are unpopular with governments†. [57] In these situations NGOs are being held accountable by their donors, which can erode rather than enhance their legitimacy, a difficult challenge to overcome. Some commentators have also argued that the changes in where NGOs receive their funding has ultimately altered their functions. 57] NGOs have also been challenged on the grounds that they do not necessarily represent the needs of the developing world, thr ough diminishing the so-called â€Å"Southern Voice†. Some postulate that the North-South division exists in the arena of NGOs. [62] They question the equality of the relationships between Northern and Southern parts of the same NGOs as well as the relationships between Southern and Northern NGOs working in partnerships. This suggests a division of labour may develop, with the North taking the lead in advocacy and resource mobilisation whilst the South engages in service delivery in the developing world. 62] The potential implications of this may mean that the needs of the developing world are not addressed appropriately as Northern NGOs do not properly consult or participate in partnerships. The real danger in this situation is that western views may take the front seat and assign unrepresentative priorities. [63] The flood of NGOs has also been accused of damaging the public sector in multiple developing countries. The mismanagement of NGOs has resulted in the break down of public health care systems.Instead of promoting equity and alleviating poverty, NGOs have been under scrutiny for contributing to socioeconomic inequality and disempowering the services in the public sector of third world countries. [64] The scale and variety of activities in which NGOs participate has grown rapidly since the 1980s, witnessing particular expansion in the 1990s. [65] This has presented NGOs with need to balance the pressures of centralisation and decentralisation. By centralising NGOs, particularly those that operate at an international level, they can assign a common theme or set of goals.Conversely it is also advantageous to decentralise as this increases the chances of an NGO behaving flexibly and effectively to localised issues. [66] See also * Charitable organization * Civil society * Community foundation * NGO-isation * Non-governmental organizations by country * Non-profit organization * Not just for profit * Occupational health and safety * Track II diplomac y References 1. ^ Anheier et al. , â€Å"Global Civil Society 2001†, 2001 2. ^ â€Å"Hobbled NGOs wary of Medvedev†. Chicago Tribune. May 7, 2008. 3. ^ â€Å"India: More NGOs, than schools and health centres†. OneWorld. net. July 7, 2010.Retrieved 2011-10-07. 4. ^ â€Å"First official estimate: An NGO for every 400 people in India†. The Indian Express. July 7, 2010. 5. ^ a b c d e f g h Willetts, Peter. â€Å"What is a Non-Governmental Organization? â€Å". UNESCO Encyclopaedia of Life Support Systems. City University London. Retrieved 18 July 2012. 6. ^ Iriye, Akira (2004). Global community  : the role of international organizations in the making of the contemporary world (1. paperback print. ed. ). Berkeley, Calif. [u. a. ]: Univ. of California Press. ISBN  9780520231283. 7. ^ inspad. org 8. ^ Keck and Sikkink. â€Å"Environmental Advocacy Networks†.Books. google. com. Retrieved 2011-12-20. 9. ^ McCormick, John. â€Å"The Role of Environme ntal NGOs in International Regimes†. Books. google. com. Retrieved 2011-12-20. 10. ^ a b World Bank Criteria defining NGO[dead link] 11. ^ 100   LSE. ac. uk, Mukasa, Sarah. Are expatriate staff necessary in international development NGOs? 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Retrieved 011-12-20. 17. ^ Greenpeace, Annual Report 2008 (pdf) 18. ^ a b c http://www. fundsforngos. org/budget-for-ngos/defining-terms-budget/ 19. ^ â€Å"Code of Ethics & Conduct for NGOs†. Retrieved 11 April 2012. 20. ^ â€Å"National NGOs Serving as PRs Excluded from the Global Fund's Policy on Percentage-Based Overhead Costs†. 2012. 21. ^ Kuby, Christopher Gibbs  ; Claudia Fumo  ; Thomas (1999). Nongovernmental organizations in World Bank supported projects  : a review (2. ed. ed. ). Washington, D. C. : World Bank. pp. 21. ISBN  978-0-8213-4456-9. 22. ^ Crowther, edited by Guler Aras, David (2010).NGOs and social responsibility (1st ed. ed. ). Bingley, UK: Emerald. pp. 121. ISBN  978-0-85724-295-2. 23. ^ Kassahun, Samson (2004). Social capital for synergic partnership  : development of poor localities in urban Ethiopia (1 . Aufl. ed. ). Gottingen: Cuvillier. pp. 153. ISBN  978-3-86537-222-2. 24. ^ [1][dead link] 25. ^ [2][dead link]  PDF  (434  KB) 26. ^ Engler, Fenton, Yves, Anthony (2005). Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority. Vancouver, Winnipeg: RED Publishing. p. 120. ISBN  978-1-55266-168-0. Retrieved 2011-10-30. 27. ^ OSD. mil 28. ^ http://www. dtic. mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/300005p. df 29. ^ The Rise and Fall of Transnational Civil Society: The Evolution of International Non-Governmental Organizations since 1839. By T. R. Davies City University London Working Paper. Steve Charnovitz, â€Å"Two Centuries of Participation: NGOs and International Governance, Michigan Journal of International Law, Winter 1997. 30. ^ Subcontracting Peace – The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding. Edited by: Richmond, Oliver P. , and Carey, Henry F. Published by Ashgate, 2005. Page 21. 31. ^ Davies, Thomas Richard (2007). The Possibilities of Transnational Activism: the Campaign for D isarmament between the Two World Wars.ISBN  978-90-04-16258-7. 32. ^ Charter of the United Nations: Chapter X[dead link] 33. ^ United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. â€Å"Agenda 21 – Chapter 27: Strengthening the Role of Non-governmental Organizations: Partners for Sustainable Development, Earth Summit, 1992†. Habitat. igc. org. Retrieved 2011-12-20. 34. ^ â€Å"1996/31. Consultative relationship between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations†. Un. org. Retrieved 2011-12-20. 35. ^ Boli, J. and Thomas, G. M. (1997) World Culture in the World Polity: A century of International Non-Governmental Organization.American Sociological Review. pp. 177 36. ^ Bartlett, Lauren (2005). â€Å"NGO Update†. Human Rights Brief 12 (3): 44–45. 37. ^ Stone, Diane. â€Å"Transfer Agents and Global Networks in the ‘Transnationalisation’ of Policy†, Journal of European Public Policy. austiniskewl, 11(3) 2004: 545â⠂¬â€œ66. 38. ^ Grant B. Stillman (2007), Global Standard NGOs, Geneva: Lulu, pp. 13-14. 39. ^ Stuart Alan Becker (January 28, 2011). â€Å"The definitive description of a non-government organisation†. The Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved 2011-09-19. 40. ^ Shivji, Issa G. (2007). Silence in NGO discourse: the role and future of NGOs in Africa.Oxford, UK: Fahamu. p. 84. ISBN  978-0-9545637-5-2. 41. ^ Pfeiffer, J. 2003. International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science & Medicine 56 (4):725. 42. ^ Pfeiffer, J. 2003. International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science & Medicine 56 (4):725-738. 43. ^ J. Pfeiffer. (2003). International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science & Medicine 56 (2003) 725-738 44. ^ Jessica T.Mathews (Jan. – Feb. , 1997). â€Å"Power Shift†. Foreign Affair s. Retrieved 2012-06-01. 45. ^ Bond, M. (2000) The Backlash against NGOs. Prospect (magazine). 46. ^ Mother Teresa: A Communist View, Vijay Prashad, Australian Marxist Review, No. 40 August 1998 47. ^ Abahlali baseMjondoloRethinking Public Participation from below, ‘Critical Dialogue', 2006 48. ^ See his Damming the Flood (Verso, London, 2007. ) 49. ^ Building unity in diversity: Social movement activism in the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Sophie Oldfield & Kristian Stokke, 2004 50. Ashraf Cassiem: South African Resistance Against Evictions, Marlon Crump, Poor Magazine, 2009 51. ^ ‘NGO’: The Guise of Innocence, by Jenny O'Connor, New Left Project, 2012 52. ^ Putin, Vladimir (February 10, 2007). Speech and the Following Discussion at the Munich Conference on Security Policy (Speech). 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy. Munich, Germany. Retrieved February 28, 2012. 53. ^ Bond, Michael. â€Å"The Backlash against NGOs. † Prospect, April 2000, pp . 321. Print 54. ^ Bond, Michael. â€Å"The Backlash against NGOs. † Prospect, April 2000, pp. 323. Print 55. Bond, Michael. â€Å"The Backlash against NGOs. † Prospect, April 200, pp. 323. Print 56. ^ Weber, N. and Christopherson, T. (2002) The influence of non-givernmental organisations on the creation of Natura 2000 during the European policy process. Forest policy and Economics. 4(1), pp. 1-12. 57. ^ a b c Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (2002) NGO Performance and Accountability: Introduction and Overview. â€Å"In: Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. , ed. 2002. † The Earthscan Reader on NGO Management. UK: Earthscan Publications Ltd. Chapter 11. 58. ^ Neera Chandhoke. (2005) â€Å"How Global Is Global Civil Society? Journal of World-Systems Research, 11, 2, 2005, pp. 326-327. 59. ^ Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (2002) Beyond the Magic Bullet? Lessons and Conclusions. â€Å"In: Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. , ed. 2002. † The Earthscan Reader on NGO Management. UK: Earthsca n Publications Ltd. Chapter 12. 60. ^ a b Edwards, M. and Hulme, D. (1996) Too Close for comfort? The impact of official aid on Non-Governmental Organisations. â€Å"World Development. † 24(6), pp. 961-973. 61. ^ Ebrahim, A. (2003) Accountability in practice: Mechanisms for NGOs. â€Å"World Development. † 31(5), pp. 813-829. 62. ^ a b Lindenberg, M. and Bryant, C. 2001) Going Global:Transforming Relief and Development NGOs. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press. 63. ^ Jenkins, R. (2001) Corporate Codes of Conduct: Self-Regulation in a Global Economy. â€Å"Technology, Business and Society Programme Paper Number 2. † United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. 64. ^ Pfeiffer, J. 2003. International NGOs and primary health care in Mozambique: the need for a new model of collaboration. Social Science ; Medicine 56(4):725-738. 65. ^ Avina, J. (1993) The Evolutionary Life Cycles if Non-Governmental Development Organisations. â€Å"Public Administration and Devel opment. † 13(5), pp. 53-474. 66. ^ Anheier, H. and Themudo, N. (2002) Organisational forms of global civil society: Implications of going global. In: Anheier, H. Glasius, M. Kaldor, M, ed 2002. Further reading * Mark Butler, with Thulani Ndlazi, David Ntseng, Graham Philpott, and Nomusa Sokhela. NGO Practice and the Possibility of Freedom Church Land Programme, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 2007 Churchland. co. za[dead link] * Olivier Berthoud, NGOs: Somewhere between Compassion, Profitability and Solidarity Envio. org. ni, PDF Edinter. net Envio, Managua, 2001 * Terje Tvedt, 19982/2003: Angels of Mercy or Development Diplomats.NGOs ; Foreign Aid, Oxford: James Currey * Steve W. Witt, ed. Changing Roles of NGOs in the Creation, Storage, and Dissemination of Information in Developing Countries (Saur, 2006). ISBN 3-598-22030-8 * Cox, P. N. Shams, G. C. Jahn, P. Erickson and P. Hicks. 2002. Building collaboration between NGOs and agricultural research institutes. Cambodian Journ al of Agriculture 6: 1-8. IRRI. org[dead link] * Ann Florini, ed. The Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Japan Center for International Exchange, 2001). Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press * Rodney Bruce Hall, and Biersteker, Thomas. The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge Studies in International Relations, 2003) * Dorthea Hilhorst, The Real World of NGOs: Discourses, Diversity and Development, Zed Books, 2003 * Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy: The Mask of Pluralism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003). Ian Smillie, ; Minear, Larry, editors. The Charity of Nations: Humanitarian Action in a Calculating World, Kumarian Press, 2004 * Simon Maxwell and Diane Stone. (eds) Global Knowledge Networks and International Development: Bridges Across Boundaries (Routledge, 2005: I-xix; 1-192). * Sidney Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism, New York  :Cambridge University Press, 2005 * Thomas Ward, editor. Development, Social Justice, and Civil Society: An Introduction to the Political Economy of NGOs, Paragon House, 2005 * H. Teegen, 2003. International NGOs as Global Institutions: Using Social Capital to Impact Multinational Enterprises and Governments’, Journal of International Management. * Jennifer Brinkerhoff, Stephen C. Smith, and Hildy Teegen, NGOs and the Millennium Development Goals: Citizen Action to Reduce Poverty, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. * S. Goonatilake. Recolonisation: Foreign Funded NGO's in Sri Lanka, Sage Publications 2006. * Teegen, H. Doh, J. , Vachani, S. , 2004. â€Å"The importance of nongovernmental organisation in global governance and value creation: an international business research agendaâ€Å" in Journal of International Business Studies.Washington: Vol. 35, Iss. 6. * K. Rodman, (1998). â€Å"‘Think Global ly, Punish Locally: Nonstate Actors, Multinational Corporations, and Human Rights Sanctions† in Ethics in International Affairs, vol. 12. * Grant B. Stillman (2006), NGO Law and Governance: a resource book, ADB Institute, Tokyo, ISBN 4-89974-013-1. More useful are regional histories and analyses of the experience of NGOs. Specific works (although this is by no means an exhaustive list) include: * T. R. Davies, The Possibilities of Transnational Activism: The Campaign for Disarmament between the Two World Wars, Brill, 2007.ISBN 3-598-22030-8 * H. Englund, Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights & the Africa Poor, University of California Press, 2006 * Carrie Meyer, The Economics and Politics of NGOs in Latin America, Praeger Publishers, July 30, 1999 * Chhandasi Pandya. 2006. Private Authority and Disaster Relief: The Cases of Post-Tsunami Aceh and Nias. Critical Asian Studies. Vol. 38, No. 2. Pg. 298-308. Routledge Press: Taylor & Francis Group * Maha Abdelrahman, Civil Society Exp osed: The Politics of NGOs in Egypt, The American University in Cairo Press, 2004.Al-Ahram Weekly has done a review of the book. * Sangeeta Kamat, Development hegemony: NGOs and The State in India, Delhi, New York; Oxford University Press, 2002 * Adama Sow, Chancen und Risiken von NGOs – Die Gewerkschaften in Guinea wahrend der Unruhen 2007 – EPU Research Papers: Issue 03/07, Stadtschlaining 2007 (German) * Lyal S. Sunga, â€Å"Dilemmas facing INGOs in coalition-occupied Iraq†, in Ethics in Action: The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations, edited by Daniel A. Bell and Jean-Marc Coicaud, Cambridge Univ. and United Nations Univ.Press, 2007. * Lyal S. Sunga, â€Å"NGO Involvement in International Human Rights Monitoring, International Human Rights Law and Non-Governmental Organizations† (2005) 41-69. * Werker & Ahmed (2008): What do Non-Governmental Organizations do? * Steve Charnovitz, â€Å"Two Centuries of Partic ipation: NGOs and International Governance,† Michigan Journal of International Law, Vol. 18, Winter 1997, at 183-286. * Abahlali baseMjondolo Rethinking Public Participation from Below, ‘Critical Dialogue', 2006 * Akpan S. M (2010): Establishment of Non-Governmental Organizations (In Press). Edward A. L. Turner (2010) Why Has the Number of International Non-Governmental Organizations Exploded since 1960? , Cliodynamics, 1, (1). Retrieved from: [3] * Eugene Fram & Vicki Brown, How Using the Corporate Model Makes a Nonprofit Board More Effective & Efficient – Third Edition (2011), Amazon Books, Create Space Books. The de facto reference resource for information and statistics on International NGOs (INGOs) and other transnational organisational forms is the Yearbook of International Organizations, produced by the Union of International Associations. David Lewis and Nazneen Kanji (2009): Non-Governmental Organizations and Development. New York: Routledge. * Issa G. Sh ivji (2007): Silence in NGO Discourse: The Role and Future of NGOs in Africa. Nairobi: Fahamu. * Jens Steffek and Kristina Hahn (2010): Evaluating Transnational NGOs: Legitimacy, Accountability, Representation. New York: Palgrave, Macmillan. External links * NGO Search: NGO/IGO google custom search engine built by the Govt Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association. * Interface journal special issue on NGOs * A brief history of Non-Governmental Organizations Historical Database of International NGOs * Duke University NGO Library * Global Policy Forum: The site includes articles on a wide range of aspects of NGOs. * NGOs – Non-Governmental Organizations * What is a Non-Governmental Organization? 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