Analysis Of Non-governmental Organizations Research Articles

An Analysis of Non-Governmental Organisations’ Approach to Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in Northern Ghana

Non-governmental organisations in northern Ghana have been key actors in rural development and peacebuilding in conflict-affected communities. This study employed qualitative methods to critically examine how NGOs contributed to maintaining relative peace for the successful resolution of the crisis in Yendi after regicide in 2002. Forty- nine respondents were selected using purposive sampling criterion. Thematic descriptive approach was used for the analysis of the data. The research reveals that peacebuilding NGOs, in partnership with the state agencies and international community, play significant stabilisation role in post-conflict societies due to their neutrality and general acceptability to conflict parties. Based on the perspectives of interview respondents, we argue for the state to focus on creating a conducive atmosphere while NGOs and other non-state actors synergize to effectively manage conflicts in affected societies until lasting solution can be achieved. Some of the recommendation are: Donors must be expanded in order to solicit sufficient funds for successful completion of peace initiatives. NGOs must expand their scope of operations, devise a comprehensive approach for addressing adverse activities and turning them into ‘builders’ in post-conflict settings.

Institutional foundations for environmental conservation: an analysis of nongovernmental organizations’ engagement strategies in the Amazon

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operate in the Brazilian Amazon, mobilizing actors and resources to promote sustainability, mainly by supporting the construction of alternative farming systems. The main efforts are focused on reducing deforestation by means of agroforestry projects, which are introduced as alternatives to extensive livestock farming. This study analyzes the strategies adopted by the Amazonian Institute of Conservation and Sustainable Development and the World Wide Fund for Nature to engage farmers and other actors in their programs. The study was conducted in Apuí, one of the target municipalities of public policies aimed at combating deforestation. The findings reveal that these NGOs adapt their strategies throughout time in face of expressive institutional complexity in local and macro spheres. Acting as “institutional entrepreneurs,” NGOs have changed their discourses from an eminently preservationist focus to one that is more adapted to the economic concerns of local actors and connected to their moral and cultural norms, which also imply a reframing of “sustainability” through a scientific discourse that embodies a more technocratic approach to forest conservation.

An Analysis of Non-Governmental Organizations: Health Nutrition Measures and Peoples Satisfaction

This study was carried out to measure the Non-Governmental Organizations intervention in health nutrition and people's level of satisfaction. A sample size of 230 out of 450 populations was selected through a simple random sampling procedure. The study revealed the children and women (lactating) benefitted through nutrition food, provision of purification tablets for safe drinking water, provision of food baskets to people. Children were benefited through the provision of vitamin, and de-warming medication, treatment of pregnant and lactating women and children suffering from malnutrition were significantly associated with people's level of satisfaction. This study recommended that government, along with NGOs, must take measures for healthy nutrition irrespective of class, caste, and occupation, etc.

Non-Governmental Organisations and Legitimacy: Authority, Power and Resources

In the analysis of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), legitimacy and legitimation are useful concepts because they bring to light the processes through which organisational entities justify their right to exist and their actions within a particular normative context. Theories of legitimacy underscore the moral basis of organisational power as grounded in the relationship between organisations and different kinds of audiences. In this article, we look at how those concepts and theories relate to the study of NGOs. Those theories not only help us understand how organisations establish themselves, strengthen their position and survive over time despite very limited material resources of their own, but also how organisations may build political power. In our review of the literature on organisational legitimacy, we focus on three main aspects of legitimacy: the conceptualisation of the term in organisational sociology, political sociology and political science; the constraining role of institutionalised normative contexts and competing audiences in the legitimation processes; the agentic role of organisations within both institutional and strategic contexts.

Bridging the Gap between Human Rights and Peace: An Analysis of NGOs and the United Nations Human Rights Council:

While the concepts of human rights and peace are increasingly linked in the study and practice of International Relations, there is great variance and inconsistency in how the concept of peace is discussed in the study and practice of human rights. We conduct an examination of the websites of human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) affiliated with the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, to explore whether and how human rights and peace are linked. Religiously-affiliated and women’s NGOs typically link these concepts, while non-Western NGOs stress peace over human rights.

The Effects of Resources, Political Opportunities and Organisational Ecology on the Growth Trajectories of AIDS NGOs in China

In this study, I attempt to integrate the theories of collective action and social movements in an analysis of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in China. Using panel data of AIDS NGOs from 1994 to 2008, I analyse the factors that influence the rise and development of AIDS NGOs, including changes in political opportunity, funding and organisational ecology. The results show that political opportunity, increased funding and organisational ecology have positive effects on the growth of AIDS NGOs. However, the growth trajectories of grassroots NGOs, government-organised NGOs (GONGOs) and international NGOs are found to be affected by different factors. The implications of the findings are also discussed in relation to the future growth of NGOs in China.

NGOs as a framework for an education in and through music: Is the third sector viable?

This article presents a selected view of a research project developed in Brazil. The focus of the project was to investigate the modus operandi of 18 NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and their relationship to the development of educational curricula and practices in music. Further, it provides an analysis of NGOs as an opportunity to learn alternative pathways for teaching and learning in music education. A methodology based upon notions of “place-centered education” (Gruenewald & Smith, 2008) was used as a tool to “sense making” as well as to address the interaction with the drastically different propositions observed in three major cities in the country; namely Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre. Interviews, observations, and audio-video documentation helped form a picture of how initiatives to educate in and through music can be powerfully divergent in their modes of production, but interestingly connected in their emphasis upon 1) self-generated knowledge; 2) intersections between local musical-cultural practices and global aesthetic needs; and 3) politically conscious music education leadership; 4) pedagogical practices situated inside a larger social framework. The article concludes by offering a conceptual model that places the possibilities encountered in this “third-sector.”

Revalorizing the Political: Towards a New Intellectual Agenda for African Civil Society Discourse

Who needs civil society? What is civil society useful for? While the foregoing and similar dilemmas dominated the early civil society literature on sub-Saharan Africa, this was soon followed by a steady shift to the analysis of non-governmental organizations. The shift foreshadowed the recent methodological approach to civil society research which emphasizes ‘measuring’ and ‘surveying’ civil society. In this essay, I contend that this approach, to the extent that it seems to totalize civil society as component voluntary associations that can be measured, deepens the crisis of understanding which it aspires to transcend. Yet, although I critique—and reject—this approach, I argue nonetheless that it ought to be seen as an opportunity to reinstate a more theoretically robust and politically driven imagination of civil society, one that problematizes, not just civil society organizations that are, ultimately, only an aspect of civil society, but the civil domain as a whole. While conceding that ‘measuring’ civil society has its own merits, I insist that it comes with a real danger of, first, reducing civil society to organizations, especially organizations that can be measured; and second, distracting students of African societies from the politicality that underpins much of the continent's socio-economic woes.

From Civic Organization to NGOs in Germany: An Interest Group Analysis

Non-governmental organizations (NGO) appear to be a new and increasingly important element in political decision-making throughout the world and have been accordingly analyzed as something new and unique. However, at a second glance a long tradition of non-governmental organized activity can be observed in many countries, including European countries like Germany. Also, the analysis of NGO shows that they often differ only in minor aspects from traditional interest groups and therefore make it possible to apply traditional interest group analysis. In this paper, the activity of NGOs is analysed under these two hypotheses, namely that non-governmental activity is a voluntary institution which has evolved throughout history and that the analysis of NGOs' contribution can use the analytical tool of interest group analysis developed for political economy. The paper gives a short historical overview of NGO activities in Germany. Then it compares a sociological and a political economy approach for the analysis of NGOs. Afterwards, various channels of influence open to NGOs in Germany's particular political and economic setting are discussed, followed by some conclusions for research and policy.

Organising Discontent: NGOs for Southeast Asian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong

In the five decades after World War II, diverse non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have proliferated in different parts of the world to address a variety of issues ranging from humanitarian aid to human rights. At the same time, the volume of vitriolic criticisms levelled against them have also risen. This paper seeks to identify the types of changes NGOs are able to bring about in society. By adapting and applying David Korten's (1990) typology of NGOs, the author undertakes a comparative analysis of NGOs in Hong Kong that are involved with the improvement of foreign workers' rights and welfare. The argument is that the different strategies adopted by the NGOs have wrought social changes in diverse ways, from the provision of welfare assistance to the mass mobilisation of workers, in both sending and receiving countries. This is an example of the catalytic role of NGOs in contributing to a trans-border "community of sentiment" (Appadurai, 1990).