Importance of NGO's in Society

Non-governmental organizations or commonly known as NGOs have legally constituted organizations created by people that operate independently from any form of government. NGO’s are generally work in different fields of life, but most commonly associated with the groups seeking some social change and improvement on social grounds. The term originated from the United Nations, and commonly refers to organizations that are not a part of a government and are not conventional for-profit businesses; these organizations work on the non-profit bases and intend to fight for social causes. There may be some cases in which the NGOs are funded totally or partially by governments, in such cases, the NGO maintains its non-governmental status by excluding government representatives from membership in the organization, in other words, the government has no role in decision making. 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 and do not seek any personal profit or payment for their service towards the community.

NGOs are difficult to define and classify, and the term 'NGO' is not used consistently. As a result, there are many different classifications of these organizations in use. NGOs tend to play an increasingly prominent role in the development sector, widely praised for their strengths and capacity to pursue participatory people towards the fight for development and to fill gaps left by the failure of states across the developing world in meeting the needs of their poorest citizens. The most common NGOs use a framework that includes orientation and level of operation. Every NGO has their own way of operation and collection of funding, many organizations are associated with international aid and voluntary donation, but there are also NGOs that do not to take funds from donors or government and instead try to generate funding in other ways, such as selling handicrafts or charging for services. An NGO's orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, or some development work.

History of NGO’s

International non-governmental organizations have a history dating back to at least 1839. International NGOs played an important role during the anti-slavery movement and also participated actively in the movement for women's suffrage, and reached a peak at the time of the World Disarmament Conference. However, the phrase "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. The definition of "international NGO" (INGO) is first given in resolution 288 (X) of ECOSOC on February 27, 1950: it is defined as "an international organization that is not founded by an international treaty". The important roles of NGOs and other "major groups" in sustainable development were recognized in Chapter 27 of Agenda 21, leading to intense arrangements for a consultative relationship between the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. It has been observed that the number of INGO founded or dissolved matches the general state of the world, rising in periods of growth and declining in periods of crisis.

Past few years saw a rapid development of the non-governmental sector in western countries as a result of the processes of restructuring of the welfare state. These played an important part in the developmental process of the masses, where the government didn’t pay much attention. Globalization during the 20th century gave rise to the importance of NGOs in almost every nation. There were few problems that could not be solved within a nation, hence 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 the commercial trend, NGOs have developed to emphasize humanitarian and social issues, developmental aid and sustainable development. 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. Some have argued that in forums like these, NGOs take the place of what should belong to popular movements of the poor. Whatever the case, NGO transnational networking is now extensive.

Types of NGO’s

There can be two different ways of classifying NGO’s. The first can be on the basis of the level of operation of the NGO, where it can be divided on basis of the level of working from local level to state, national or international level.

On the other hand, the second classification can be based on the level of orientation, which includes charitable, participatory or empowering organizations. Hence these can be classified as:

On the Basis of Operation Level

• Community-based Organizations (CBOs) are generally those seeking participation from people out of their own initiatives. The most common form of these organizations may include sports clubs, women's organizations for their empowerment, neighbourhood organizations, religious or educational organizations. There are a large variety of such organizations supported by national or international funding, or bilateral or international agencies, and others independent of outside help which seek funding by providing services like creating handicrafts and art-pieces. Roles of these also vary with each other, while some are devoted to raising the consciousness of the poor people or helping them to understand and fight for their rights in gaining access to some basic services while others are involved in providing such services that may help in the uplift of the masses.
• Some Citywide Organizations include important social organizations such as a local Rotary club or Lions Clubs International chapter, chambers of commerce and industry, coalitions of business, ethnic or educational groups and associations of community organizations. There some, which exist for other purposes related to some social reforms, and are actively involved in helping the poor, while others are created for the specific purpose of social changes in society as a whole, irrespective of the financial status.
• National NGOs include organizations such as the Red Cross, YMCAs/YWCAs, professional associations, etc. Some of these have state and city branches and assist local NGOs. These are actively involved in every social sphere of life, ranging from providing the education to people, helping needy homeless people, fighting for social causes and running blood banks. These play an important role in determining the overall progress of the nation and the uplift of the poor.
• International NGOs range from secular agencies such as Redda Barna and Save the Children organizations, OXFAM, CARE, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation to religiously motivated groups. The activities of these groups vary from mainly funding local NGOs, institutions and projects, to implementing the projects themselves. These organizations generally work for climatic changes, environment or helping out with their services at some disaster site across the world. Their operations seem no international boundaries and they are ready to help people across the world.

On the Basis of Level of the Orientation

• Participatory Orientation NGO’s are those who by self-help projects help out local people particularly in the implementation of a project. The help provided by these NGO’s may be done by contributing cash, tools, land, materials, labour etc. In the classical community development project, participation begins with the need definition and continues into the planning and implementation stages. Cooperatives often have a participatory orientation. Hence these types of organizations are mainly helpful for some small project development.
• Charitable Orientation often involves a top-down paternalistic effort with little participation by the beneficiaries. It includes NGOs with activities directed toward meeting the needs of the poor. These may help people by distributing food, clothing or medicine; providing housing, transport and schools etc. to the needy people. Such NGOs may also undertake relief activities during a natural or man-made disaster and these NGO’s normally seek funding from the government as well as in the form of personal donations.
• Service Orientation is those which includes NGOs with activities such as the providing healthcare facilities, family planning or education services, in which the program is designed by the NGO and volunteers are sent in by the NGO’s and people are expected to participate in its implementation and in receiving the service. These require charitable services in the form of volunteers and not much of financial assistance.
• Empowering Orientation type of organizations aims to help poor and needy people develop a clear understanding of the social, political and economic factors affecting their lives, and to teach them in order to strengthen the awareness of their own potential power to control their lives and become aware of their rights.

Importance of NGO’s in Society

NGO’s plays an important role in the social development of a state, nation or a community. For the proper development of a particular country or a region, it is very important to bring education and awareness to the people about their rights and duties. We need to alert the people against the imposters and pretenders, which is generally the role of political parties which they do not tend to do effectively. Normally political parties are expected to do the job. But in a democracy, political parties keep only votes in their minds and generally focus on selling their party agenda or the manifesto. In the real sense, the political party that gains a visible majority vote is returned to power and do not put in much effort over this issue. Compromising with this issue means a big chunk of society is to remain disengaged and deprived, without proper knowledge it is not possible to achieve the goals.

It has never been made clear but the axiom that the will of the majority must prevail. Once in the seat of power, it turns up to be a government that governs but not guides and tends to forget duties. Ambitious and dominating ruling party, while sitting pretty in the seat of power, gets distanced from the real power centre if not by its own choosing at least by the force of circumstances. Under such a situation, the emergence of the third force is quite logical. This third force is something that is not controlled by any political set-up and has a very significant role to play. In technical language, this third force is called the NGOs. It becomes a bridge between the governed and the governor. NGO’s plays an important role in helping out the common man with their rightful demands and also try to help needy people in every possible way.

The first and foremost the NGOs are responsible for disseminating education among the people at large and making them aware of their rights. This is the biggest role as well as the biggest challenge for the NGOs. NGOs seek to achieve large-scale change promoted indirectly through the influence of the political system. NGOs need an efficient and effective group of professional members who are able to keep supporters informed, and motivated, and must plan and host demonstrations and events that will keep their cause in the media. NGO’s maintain a large informed network of supporters who can be mobilized for events to garner media attention and influence policy changes; hence they have the power to reach masses and bring to light any kind of injustice prevailing within society.

Conclusion
Globalization during the 20th century gave rise to the importance of NGOs throughout the world. Many problems could not be solved by the government or governments of different countries. 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. These NGO’s may work on any level, be it national, international or community level. NGOs have also been major players in promoting human-oriented development strategies at their own level, without the help of government and have emerged as a major force in driving the growing movement of corporate social responsibility.  They are a powerful force for promoting good, clean governance and uplift of deprived.  They provide social support that governments are unable or unwilling to provide.  They provide critical humanitarian relief in war-torn and natural disaster-affected areas. And most importantly, they can represent the voices of the poor.