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Presentation-2

NGOs?Pre- independence backgrounds of NGOs Operations

NGOs in Bangladesh Regime

Types of NGOs

Functions/ Roles of NGOs

In modern nation states, apart from government plans and

programmed to meet basic needs and to come out of

untoward situations, people have enthusiastically taken

initiatives to solve their problems through collective

efforts. In communities, for years, such initiatives are

known as Non-Government Organization (NGO). In

Bangladesh, soon after the independence, NGOs started

operating to rebuild a war ravaged country. PrimarilyNGOs were entrusted with the delivery of essential

services such as food, clothes, shelter and medicine. Over

time, recognizing the need of poverty alleviation and

development in Bangladesh, NGOs began to shift their

emphasis from relief to socio-economic development

programmes aiming at health care, family planning,

income generation and self reliance for the disadvantagedand the poor. As poverty continued to deepen and

encompass ever larger number of people, more foreign

NGOs came to work in Bangladesh. Besides, the number

of local NGOs began growing faster after 1971.

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What is NGO?

The NGO has been defined differently by differentpeople. The most common definitions of NGO are

negative in nature. These organizations are not parts of

the government and do not exist to make profit.

Asian NGO coalition for Agrarian Reform and the

National NGO council of Sri-Lanka chalk out the

following criteria of NGOS:

1. Non- governmental in the sense that it was not set up

or has not been controlled by the government, and is

not a part or an appendage of state apparatus.

2. Non- profit in the sense that its activities are not

governed by profit considerations. Excess funds arenot distributed among the members or used for

private purposes. Whatever income gained is used to

further the objectives of the organization concerned.

3. Non-political in the sense that it is non affiliated to a

political party. In other words, it is a non-party socialor political formation.

4. Secondary organizations, rather than a primary group

or a single community organization.

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5. Development which refers to non-governmental

development organizations engaged in economic,

social or cultural activities which contribute to

enhance the quality of life…such activities may beon economic development (education, health,

sanitation, nutrition and housing) cultural and

environmental or some combination of such

activities.

Kane identifies the following criteria necessary to

qualify for the term NGO:

1. It should be privately set up and structured and

sufficiently autonomous in its activity and financing.

This above all, is what ensures its non governmental

character.

2. It should be non-profit making this is what ensures

its ‘voluntary’ or ‘benevolent ’ character.

3. It should support development. This is what ensures

its ‘public interest’ character even if certain countries

have introduced legislation to limit the areas inwhich this ‘public interest’ can be exercised.

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Norman holds that the definitions of NGOs to be

evolved on four factors:

1. Method of formation, which is voluntary on the partof a group of people.

2. Method of governing, with self governing

organization to decide on its construction, its

servicing, its policy and its client.

3. Method of financing, with at least some of its

revenues drawn from voluntary sources, and

4. Motives with the pursuit of profit excluded.

Frantz holds that

“NGOs are formal organizations, and as such, they

emerge when a group of people organize themselves into

a social unit with the objective of achieving certain goals

and formulating rules to govern the relations among the

members of the organization and the duties of eachmember .”

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He also specifies that

“the goals of NGOs, as opposed to those of other

organizations are almost always related to the problems

of development that is to problems surrounding the

economic, social and cultural order of a country or

region”

The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) defines NGO in

the following way:

It is an organization of private individuals who believe in

certain basic social principles, and structure their

activities to bring about development to the communities

that they are serving. An organization or group of people

working independently without any external control withspecific objectives and aims to fulfill tasks that are

oriented to bring about desirable change in a given

community, area or situation.

NGOs in the landscape of rural development have

provoked much interest among the development planners,

development administrators and development workerswho are keen to see the improvement in the quality of life

of poor men, women and children of the rural

communities. NGOs are working at the back and front,

and sometimes abreast with movement agencies.

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But in operational sense, in some cases NGOs are

supplementing the work of government agencies.

Sometimes they are competing with government agencies

and in some other cases they are working with obscuretarget groups in the rural areas.

Poverty alleviation programmes are not confined to a

particular problem. The design and implementation of

appropriate measures to enhance the economic condition

of the poor have largely been the prerogative of national

governments and greatly emphasized by international

agencies and individual donors.

In Bangladesh, public development discourse is heavily

influenced by donor agencies. As a result, government

efforts are harmonized with global trend of coordinated

strategy of poverty alleviation. The government’s anti-poverty action is more in line with aid discourse than with

any local knowledge as well as the reality of particular

people. This limitation of government strategy of poverty

alleviation and development has prompted NGOs to work

for poverty alleviation and development. But, are they

playing their role properly? And are they committed to

their primary goals of non-profit oriented social serviceand alleviation of poverty?

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On the other hand, NGO as ‘an association of persons

formed voluntarily through personal initiatives of a few

committed persons dedicated to the design, study andimplementation of development projects at the

grassroots level. They work outside government

structure but work within the legal framework of the

country.’

In sum NGO as a formal, non profit, non partisan

private body which comes into being as a result of

personal initiative of an individual or a group of

individuals to voluntarily undertakes development

works at the grassroots.

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Pre-independence Background of NGO Operations

Bangladesh has a long tradition of non-governmental

voluntary efforts to address the requirements of collectivelife. The self-reliant village system (John Mathai, Hugh

Tinker) in the country during Mughal and pre-British

period was founded on the efforts privately initiated,

managed and taken care of by the community members

without any governmental support. These community

efforts covered economic, agricultural, industrial,

educational, judicial, philanthropic and other sectors of

life to ensure the continuity of this self-sustaining social

system. People through their own efforts developed

agricultural system, cottage industries of various types

such as handloom and weaving, pottery, carpentry, smithy

works and so on. They also established marketing

network of the produces both at home and abroad (IrfanHabib, Tapon Roy Chowdhury), educational institutes,

pinhead for social conflict resolutions, and conducted

other works to meet social need and were well managed

by the rural masses following participatory methods,

when except for tax paying they had no other significant

interactive relationship with the government. Growth of

the non-government efforts in the country also wasprimarily grounded on the necessity of collective life,

religious urges and natural fellow feelings. In the absence

of welfare government and other external possibilities,

people had to fulfill their collective needs, which created

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an objective situation for non governmental activities very

often under the leadership of social elites. No doubt, the

need for the collective life in general and that of the

dominant sections of the society created an ideal situationfor the growth of the non-governmental efforts in

Bangladesh but religious spirit and cultural urges always

play a vital role behind any philanthropic work in

Bangladesh society. Charity to the poor and support to the

needy have been a predominant appeal of all religions

practiced in this part of the world (Huda and Hussain,

1990).

Since religious values dominate the social norms, non-

governmental efforts get institutionalized shape at that

time through the establishment of the religious institutions

like monasteries, temples, mosques and so on. It is

interesting to note that all of the three major religionshave special attachment for education, which helped the

establishment of so many educational institutions in the

society by the community people without any government

assistance in the ancient past. At the same time, social

economy was also congenial to undertaking these costly

non-governmental ventures.

The agrarian mode of production where state intervention

in welfare line was quite absent generated some non-

governmental efforts in the field of cultivation, irrigation

and transportation. Though ancient cottage industries

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were primarily established for meeting the community

needs based on non-government efforts, the efforts were

dynamic and able to establish international market,

transcending social boundary. Historically it seems thatcomplying with the religious spirit, social needs and

nature of production system of non-government efforts

for community well being flourished in the country

covering almost all the sectors of society where people

within social authority structure played the role of main

actors.

These efforts had the following notable characteristics:

1. These were more humanistic directed towards

the sustenance of balance in the system.

2. Spirit of voluntarism originated from social

necessity, human inherent instinct and religiousurges. The quest for professionalism was not a

dominant factor.

3. Welfare activities were fully run with the

resources available in the society. Reliance on

self-finance was perhaps the most important

characteristic of all welfare activities.

4. Natural and spontaneous nature as opposed togovernment control was another distinct attribute

of the then welfare services.

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NGOs in Bangladesh Regime

Following the legacy of the Pakistan regime, local

government institution could not have been developed inBangladesh at the grassroots level. The vacuum in this

respect rather becomes expanded to such an extent that

the public bureaucracy is institutionally quite unable to

address the dynamics of underdevelopment and

developmental needs of the people. Inhuman sufferings of

people and massive destruction of the physical

infrastructure and the economy of the country caused by

the war of liberation in 1971 called for immediate relief

and rehabilitation. The GOB had to face a task of renewal

and reconstruction of the war torn economy after the

liberation war. But the GOB had neither the capacity nor

the appropriate institutional mechanism to address the

volume and diversity of such enormous problems alone.This situation ushered in the emergence of a large number

of national and international NGOs operation in

Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has perhaps been the most suitable place on

the globe for non-governmental organizations. NGOs

have emerged as an integral part of the institutional

structure for addressing poverty as well as ruraldevelopment, gender equity, environmental conservation,

disaster management, human rights and other social

issues. NGOs, in order to support social and economic

empowerment of the poor, have vastly widened their

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activities to include group formation, micro credit, formal

and non-formal education and training, health and

nutrition, family planning and welfare, agriculture and

related activities, water supply and sanitation, humanrights and advocacy, legal aid and other areas. These

organizations mostly follow the target group strategy

under which the poor with similar socio-economic

interests are organized into groups to achieve there

objectives.

Korten identifies NGO sector in Bangladesh within the

framework of three generations. These are:

First generation: The first generation NGOs are

charitable, focused on welfare, rehabilitation and relief,

and their efforts are geared towards instantaneous

delivery of goods and services to the poor and unfortunate

people in response to the emergency situation thatdemands immediate and effective humanitarian action.

Second generation: Due to the limitations of the welfare

and relief approach NGOs make a transition from relief

and welfare oriented activities to developing self- reliance

organizations of the poor, increasing their capacity to

meet their own needs with the resources they control andundertake various multi-sectoral activities to promote

their self-reliance. It is here where one notices a clear

transition of NGOs from a mere operational role they

have hitherto played to a more effective catalytic role in

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development. At this stage, NGOs engage in building

intent, but their activities are confined to a limited area.

Specific local groups of NGOs are assisting community

development with a number of sectoral activities, e.g.,agrarian reform, health, cooperatives and so on.

Third generation: The third generation of NGOs stems

from the re-examination of basic strategic issues relating

to sustainability, import and recurrent cost recovery. They

realize that they need to extend greater leadership in

addressing dysfunctional aspects of the policy and

institutional settings of the village and sectors within

which they work. NGOs of this generation expand their

program impacts ensuring sustainability through

undertaking large-scale program system and involving

various public and private organizations. The fully

embraced NGOs of this generation discharge catalyticfoundation- like role rather than an operational service

delivery role directing its attention to facilitate

development by other organizations, both public and

private, of capacities, linkages and commitments required

to address designated needs on a sustained basis. The

third generation is also known as ‘sustainable systems

development’ where NGOs extend the breadth of their programme, ensuring sustainability through undertaking

large-scale programs, complementing the national

development systems and involving various organizations

and institutions.

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Types of NGOs

Types of NGOs are difficult to explain because there is

no single basis of categorizing the NGOs working in

the multifarious fields. It can be made on a variety of bases such as:

1. sizes

2. internal political structure

3. independence or dependence on outside control

4. social functions

5. source of their support

6. location

7. the class and characteristics of members

8. intimacy of contact among members

9. the incentives material, solidarity or purposive

10.beneficiary of the NGOs activities.

The US National centre for charitable statisticsproposes following categories of NGOs:

1. arts, culture and humanities

2. education

3. environment and animals

4. health

5. human services6. international programs

7. public/societal benefit

8. religion, and

9. other including mutual membership.

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Functions and Roles of Non- Governmental

Organizations.

NGOs play multifarious functions and role for the

upliftment of the oppressed people. Mulyangi points outtwo broad roles of NGOs:

1. Supplementing or complementing government

program which today are often hampered by lack of

resources;

2. Opening up new possibilities for reaching and

mobilizing the poor, something which may be

opposed to especially when the programs go as far

as altering the poor to structural industries, thereby

calling into question the legitimacy for certain

government policies and action.

Roy…….describes ten roles of NGOs under followingheads;

1. To supplement government efforts and not to

complete

2. To be the eyes and ears of the people at the village

level

3. To set examples4. To activate the system and make it responds

5. To disseminate information

6. To illustrate how, local, villages and indigenous

resources would be used for their own development

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7. To make communities as self-reliant as possible

8. To train a cadre of grass-root workers who believe in

professionalizing voluntarism

9. To mobilize financial resources from within thecountry; and

10.To mobilize and organize the poor to demand

quality service and impose community system of

accountability on the performance of grassroots

government functionaries.

O’ Neil summarizes eleven types of functions/ roles,

which NGOs may generally perform. These are as

follows:

1. Provide society with a wide a variety of partially

tested social innovations from which business,

government and other institutions can select andinstitutionalize those innovations which seem most

promising.

2. Provides a forum for countervailing definitions of

reality and morality-ideologies, perspectives and

worldviews- that frequently challenge the prevailing

assumptions about what exists and what is good and

what should be done in society.3. Provides for recreational or play, element of society.

4. Facilitates integration in society

5. Provides active help in preserving numerous old

ideas

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6. Characterizes its embodiment and representation in

society of the sense of mystery, wonder, and the

sacred.

7. Provides encouragement and assistance to liberatethe individual and permit the fullest possible

measure of expression of personal capacities and

potentialities within an otherwise constraining social

environment.

8. Acts as a source of ‘negative feedback’ for the

society as a whole

9. Provides specially to the economic system of a

society, especially in a modern industrial society

10. Plays a major role in providing for the general

welfare of society through all manner of social

services

11. Constitutes important resources for all kinds of

goal attainment for the interest of the society.

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From the above discussion it is clear that NGOs role

and functions are not confined in a limited sphere. Their

role is very wide and they cover almost all the

important avenues of the human life specially related tothe people leading backward life.

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