World NGO Day

In News

• Each year World NGO Day is celebrated on February 27th.

World NGO Day 

• About:
  • It is an international day dedicated to recognize, celebrate and honour all non-governmental and nonprofit organisations, and the people behind them that contribute to the society all year around.
• History:
  • The World NGO (Non-Governmental Organisations) Day assumed its official status when 12-member countries of the IX Baltic Sea NGO Forum on April 17, 2010 formally recognised it. 
  • In 2012, the forum’s Final Statement Resolution adopted the day.
  • Later, in 2014 it was decided that this day would be celebrated as World NGO Day when the United Nations celebrated it.

NGOs

• About:
  • Non-governmental organisations, or NGOs, were first called such in Article 71 in the Charter of the newly formed United Nations in 1945. 
  • They are nonprofit entities independent of governmental influence who work for, environmental, social, advocacy, and human rights work. 
• Range of function:
  • They work across a range of arenas and play important roles of facilitator, catalyst or partner in bringing social transformation. 
  • NGOs play a critical part in developing society, improving communities, and promoting citizen participation. 
• Aim:
  • The main objective of NGOs is humanitarian and cooperative work rather than commercial purposes.
• Importance: 
  • The central government gives a great thrust to NGOs that promote the country’s development. 

Significance

• Core issues dealt by them: 
  • The NGOs look into accelerating activities like issues dealing with poverty alleviation, water, environment, women’s rights and literacy. 
  • In the past decades, there has been significant growth in areas where NGOs have been active. 
• Dynamic:
  • They have been dynamic in almost all sectors: Health, education, livelihood in rural and urban areas to name a few. 
• Influence the Government policies:
  • Another major achievement of NGOs includes influencing the Indian government to formulate various developmental laws and policies, which include:
    • Right to Information, 
    • Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), 
    • Juvenile Justice and 
    • Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). 
• Partner in campaigns:
  • NGOs also partnered with the government to successfully implement major campaigns like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
  • Such partnerships gives better results and involvement of common people.
• Great help in crisis situations:
  • NGOs have always been on the forefront, taking accountability by offering multiple solutions for development. 
  • During the pandemic, NGOs played a pivotal role and supported the government’s COVID-19 response initiative full-fledged. 
• Grassroot presence:
  • Given their grassroots presence and solid community relations, local NGOs played a very important role in accelerating vaccination drives and encouraging communities to practice COVID-19 protocols.

Challenges faced by NGOs

• Lack of Long-Term Strategic Planning:
  • NGOs appear to be incapable of predicting what they will do even in one or two months. 
  • Most of their activities look like one time shots. However, a single event is not enough to change the attitude towards some problem.
• Lack of Funds:
  • NGOs feed on their want to be able to help more individuals and communities depending on their needs. To do so, NGOs need to constantly acquire funds. 
  • In some cases, NGOs become complacent and simply wait for donations or previous supporters to contact them. 
  • This practice will in no way contribute to the successes of an NGO. 
• Absence of networking:
  • NGOs working together to reach their goals more efficiently is one perspective. 
  • However, some NGOs also see it as a form of competition. 
  • For some reason, there are NGOs who believe getting close to other NGOs or nonprofits will cause them to have more competition in terms of applying for grants.
• Lack of maintenance:
  • In many developing countries, the lack of infrastructure is quite common and NGOs believe that people deserve a better standard of living. 
  • Without proper maintenance, the benefits to their living standards may only be temporary.
• Lacking skill:
  • Most NGOs lack the technical know-how for efficient working and are also not interested in investing in training etc. 

Way Ahead

• NGOs need to step in where governments couldn’t, and provide services that governments do not. 
• The working of NGOs should never be put on the back-burner.

Source: DTE