Non Governmental OrganizationsBy:Trevor Sanford, Christopher Gates, Brian Rusch, David Stiles

What is an NGO?

• Private organization• Not funded by the government• Profit is not a primary goal• Social and Environmental protection (typically for underprivileged groups)

Classification of NGOsAccording to the textbook, NGO’s were once considered private, non-profit organizations, exempt from government taxation, for the purpose of providing relief to foreign nations. Examples of this form of NGO would be the Red Cross, Blue Cross - Blue Shield, which are also Non-Profit Organizations (NPO’s). The book classifies an NGO interchangeably with NPO’sThere are five criterias for NPO’s

1. There is a stated purpose for the organization to exist, membership explanation, etc.2. They are not not sponsored or funded by a government entity.3. They are not focused on making profits.4. They are independent, operating autonomously.5. They rely on volunteer service.However, it is difficult to officially classify NGO’s. What we know about NGO’s is that they are not influenced, or supported financially by a government entity.

What do they do?

NGO’s have a variety of functions. Below is a list of NGO’s and their functions, positive and negative.Positive

● Space-X (Space Exploration)● Blue Cross - Blue Shield (Health and Welfare)● Red Cross (Humanitarian)● PETA (Humane Animal Treatment)● LGBT (Human Rights)● Black Lives Matter (Human Rights)● ACLU (Human Rights)

Negative● Ku Klux Klan (Division/Racist)● Al Qaeda (Terrorism)● Drug Cartels (Illegal Marketing)● Mafia (Illegal Activity)● Umbrella Inc. (Illegal Research)

GO’s VS NGO’sNASA is Government. Space-X is Non-Government.United Nations is Government. Red Cross is Non-Government.

NGO scales

• One way to know NGOs is to name them in terms of the scale of their organization.

• “Small-scale” implies the “little guy” the worker, the family farmer, the members of the family business and the peasant and indigenous person-people viewed as being harmed by globalization.

• “Large-scale” implies “big timers,”capitalists, big-businessmen, corporations, and rich people-people often viewed as being helped by globalization.

NGO scales

• “The politics of scale” is that scale is socially constructed.

• What this means is that people make scales of human organization as part of their struggle for social and political power in a given situation.

• For example, an organization of peasants from a particular area might create a local-scale organization in order to make demands from the municipal government for better roads.

NGO scales

• People use scale to gain power of some sort.

• As people constantly shift strategies to compete for power, various scales of human organization are constantly being created, deployed, and dismantled in order to achieve that power.

NGO HistoryBefore the European Colonization

• “Andean Reciprocity” - The idea of helping you today, so you will help me tomorrow.• An informal form of NGO that existed to deal with the often uneven

nature of who had what and could redistribute something such as food from a surplus.

The Catholic ChurchPre 1800s

• The Catholic Church is the largest and most present NGO to ever operate in Latin America.

• The church operates at a fundamental level on the idea of charity and assistance to the poor and often did these programs back in Europe.

• European Colonial Governments supported the church and gave the church power to raise money by donations and tithing and then build buildings that would serve the community and improve their lives such as schools, hospitals, asylums, among others. These were often staffed and run by the church.

The ChurchPost 1800s

• Under the Military Dictatorships and Communist regimes, the Church was the only NGO that was allowed to function due to it not being seen as a threat to the power of the government and the people would rebel if their religion was suppressed.

• Outside NGOs were not allowed in and could do little to help the people.• The church had to change how it operated to find more local revenue

instead of operating off of foreign donations. • Private Charitable Organizations known as brotherhoods and sisterhoods

were created to help people in poverty.

Liberation Theology

• Established by the Catholic Church in the 1960s and 1970s.• often emphasized a decentralized approach to problems by addressing

problems in the community instead of an outside force acting on it and led to a series of different solutions to common problems.

• Thus, it was movement that developed from a bottom up perspective instead of the usual style of Catholic projects that went down the chain from the top.

• Support from the wider church was mixed, but it was very popular and supported within Latin America.

The 1980s and 1990s

• Widespread economic exploitation led to a series of problematic economic factors such as destruction of forest lands and rainforest for cattle ranching.

• Some NGOs took the form of unions, such as a Rubber Tapper Union who protested the rainforest being deforested and destroying their sources of rubber.

• People and NGOs demanded economic and environmental reforms and projects that the governments could not afford due to the debt crisis that developed in Latin America.

Neoliberalism

• Supports Free Market Capitalism• Saw the state as an inefficient institution and needed to be replaced by

private organizations who could do a better job at raising capital to improve society.

• Due to the changes forced on latin American Countries by the World Bank, there was little money to help the poor and disadvantaged. This led to the modern rise of NGOs that operate in Latin America.

NGOs in action:Rondônia

• Brazil is deep in debt to the World Bank

due to lots of loans taken out by previous

military dictators.

• The World Bank is virtually in charge of

Brazilian development.

• Immense deforestation in the Amazon.• pressured by environmentalist groups

(world wildlife fund, environmental defense

fund) to change development policy.

NGOs in action:Rondônia

PLANAFLORO:

• charged Rondonian State gov. with distributing World Bank money to local NGOs who would distribute that through environmentally friendly development.

• Saw little future in cocao, coffee, and cattle raising.• Chose beekeeping, native fruit farming, fish farming.• The bees placed there were not effective at honey production.• NGOs were criticized for lying about fund distribution, and lack of actual

ecological knowledge.

NGOs in action:Mato Grosso

• Bazilian State known nowadays as an

agricultural superpower. Producers of

tons of soybeans.

Soybeans grow in grassy lands, so the

• Amazon was being cut down to make

more room for them.

• Indiginous people were rumored to be

enslaved on bean plantations.

NGOs in action:Mato Grosso

An International NGO named Greenpeace stepped in:

Greenpeace then receives information from local NGOs on working conditions and environmental harm

• published an article “Eating up the Amazon”.• results in a moratorium on soybean exports from the region.

Conditions for both indigenous people and environment are reformed. Greenpeace worked hand in hand with the soybean industry to come up with ideas for change.

Local NGOs place the reforms into action.

NGO’s in action:Mato Grosso

Provides an example where larger NGOs are able to work hand in hand with localized ones to provide compromised change.

Exhibits the idea that a local NGO can monitor smaller areas better than a large centralized government.

Questions

1. What is an NGO (for this class’s intents and purposes)2. How can an NGO be beneficial for an area?3. How can an NGO be counter productive for an area?