Non-governmental Organizations Sector Research Articles

Disability and Spatial Exclusion Under COVID-19 in South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a range of existing inequalities. People with disabilities are disadvantaged worldwide and frequently denied spaces within personal and public contexts. This article focuses on the environmental and functional experiences of people with disabilities and service providers in South Africa during the pandemic. Lockdown conditions resulted in diminished spaces and loss of agency, consequent to increased dependence on families, the state and the non-governmental organization sector. Service providers had to suspend most services and experienced a lack of government support and collaboration. Mental health issues emerged as a key concern. Despite challenges, online technology provided opportunities for ongoing support, learning, and delivery of certain services. Such findings highlight the need for greater stakeholder collaboration with people with disabilities and their organizations toward increasing their agency and representation, and assessing disability-inclusive policy.

The Impact of System Thinking on Learning Organization Practice in Non-Profit Management

In India, NGOs are a driving force behind social progress and transformation. When governments are unable to meet the needs and demands of the community, they step in to help. Although "learning organisation" is a popular term in business, its application in the nonprofit sector is still unknown. This quantitative study employs a survey research design to investigate the applicability and degree of system thinking implementation in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are involved in rehabilitation services in Kerala. System thinking is one of the characteristics of learning organizations. This survey includes 300 respondents, including professional staff members and managers of 45 non-profit organisations. The study's findings indicate that the degree of system thinking application varies significantly amongst Kerala's nongovernmental organisations. A good continuous learning environment in the nonprofit sector can be ensured by practicing the essence of learning organizations, conceptualizing their purpose, and professionally executing all of their dimensions. It is imperative to view NGOs as learning organizations since they provide invaluable services to both the country and humanity. The study's conclusions highlight the need for system thinking to successfully apply learning organisational dimensions in the NGO sector to transform the organisation and achieve organisational development and innovation while maintaining a high degree of objective truth

Responsible leadership actions and achievement of societal purpose: Perspectives from the Kenyan health NGO sector

The primary goal of this study was to provide empirical evidence to improve understanding of how responsible leadership actions drive the societal purpose of health non-governmental organisations (NGOs). What impact have such efforts had on organizational performance in terms of achieving societal goals? Although researchers continue to investigate the domain of responsible leadership, none have focused on the health NGO sector, particularly in developing countries, and with a focus on providing evidence-backed adaptation practices for the future. A cross-sectional mixed study approach was applied, with positivist and constructivist phenomenological viewpoints being incorporated. The study respondents were sustainable health system experts working in health NGOs on a national and international scale as well as the health ministry. The perspectives of 33 randomly selected respondents were gathered using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey and 10 purposively selected key informants using open-ended interview questions were empirically and thematically analysed respectively. The findings indicate that responsible leadership embedded on organisational purpose benefits the organisation and adds value to society. Responsible leaders in the studied organisations built trust, used open communication, mindful actions and collective consciousness to positively and effectively engage with their employees. The prospection and future-orientation of responsible leaderships of health NGOs could stimulate adaptive responses in postmodern society, allowing them to deepen sustainable value for society. Leadership actions are an essential component of these NGO adaptation to change. That must be taken into account by managers for smooth adjustments to the changing context, allowing these NGOs to remain relevant and authentic to their organisations’ societal purpose. Despite the fact that researchers are continuing to investigate the domain of responsible leadership, no one has focused on the health NGO sector in developing countries like Kenya. The empirical evidence in this article shows that responsible purpose-driven leadership, combined with responsible actions, has an impact on organisations’ adaptation to contextual changes.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Revolutionizing NGOs' Work

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming various industries by enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and decision-making. The non-governmental organization (NGO) sector is also exploring the use of AI to revolutionize their work. This paper explores the role of AI in revolutionizing NGO work, including its potential benefits and challenges. The paper presents case studies of AI implementations in NGO program design, resource management, monitoring and evaluation, and predictive analysis. The paper also discusses the ethical considerations and challenges of using AI in NGOs and outlines the future directions and challenges for AI in the NGO sector.

Perceptions of Non-Government Organisations Managers About International Financial Reporting Standards in NGOs Sector: A Case Study of a Large NGO in Durban, South Africa

The role of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) in the growth of organisations has expanded significantly in recent literature. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are crucial in global affairs and have different operating contexts, but it is unclear how their use of IFRS is of sufficient quality to satisfy various stakeholders' interests. On this question, this article investigated the managers' perceptions of IFRS practices and quality in a large NGO in Durban, South Africa. A qualitative approach was employed, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 purposively selected participants. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed. Robustness analysis was performed using conventional thematic content analysis. Evidence from this study showed that despite adopting IFRS accounting and financial procedures, the managers of the selected NGO found it difficult to have quality financial statements due to IFRS for SMEs failing to fit NGOs' operating context. This article established NGOs managers' perceptions of the role of IFRS in managing diverse NGOs stakeholders' interests, provided recommendations applicable to similar NGOs globally and contributed to the scholarly debates for policymakers and practitioners on using IFRS for SMEs in NGOs. This study has also provided a very robust plan for future researchers.

An Alternative Approach to Teaching about NGOs Globally: A Comparative Country-Based View Seen through a Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention Lens

This paper describes a comparative approach to teaching Introduction to Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) in a master’s-level professional degree program. The approach addresses the challenge created due to significant differences in the NGO sector from country to country. This comparative approach utilizes a focus on five countries in different regions of the world, and partnerships with a community-based NGO in each country that addresses the prevention of genocide, mass atrocity, and inter-group violence. These partnerships enable students, working in teams, to compare NGO work across countries and apply theory to practice.

Nongovernmental Organization Practitioners' Perspectives on the Challenges and Solutions to Changing Handwashing Behavior in Older Children: A Qualitative Study.

Increasing handwashing with soap (HWWS) among older children (aged 5-14 years) can achieve a substantial public health impact. However, HWWS interventions targeting older children have had mixed success. Recent research has attempted to quantitatively identify effective intervention techniques; however, success is likely also influenced by the wider context of implementation. We explore nongovernmental organization (NGO) practitioners' perspectives on the challenges and solutions to HWWS interventions targeting older children to enhance understanding of what is required, beyond intervention content, for them to be effective. We conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews in April-November 2020 with 25 practitioners employed across 11 NGOs and involved in HWWS interventions targeting older children in development and humanitarian settings. We used purposive and snowball sampling to recruit participants in roles at the global, national/regional, and local levels. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed to identify challenges and solutions to HWWS interventions targeting older children. Results were organized according to program development cycle stages. Twelve themes relating to perceived challenges emerged: (1) lack of prioritization, (2) funding inconsistency, (3) insufficient formative research, (4) demand on resources, (5) unengaging intervention content, (6) non-enabling physical environments, (7) availability of skilled implementers, (8) reaching out-of-school children, (9) community mistrust, (10) lack of coordination, (11) lack of evaluation rigor, and (12) failure to assign older children's HWWS as a primary outcome in evaluations of hygiene interventions. Recommended solutions were at the intervention, organization, and sector levels. Intervention design and delivery are important for the success of HWWS interventions for older children, but contextual factors, such as the availability of human and material resources and the level of coordination within and beyond the NGO sector, should also be considered. NGOs need to prioritize HWWS promotion among older children and support programs accordingly.

Mandatory disclosure of managerial contracts in NGOs

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) have been recently mandated to disclose the details of their executives’ compensation packages. Contract information is now accessible not only to current and prospective donors, but also to rival NGOs competing for donations in the fundraising market. We analytically study the impact of publicly available contract information on fundraising competition of NGOs. Although such a provision makes contract information available to multiple stakeholders and increases the transparency of the NGO sector, we argue that it also induces NGOs to use properly designed managerial incentive contracts strategically to influence rival NGOs. In particular, we find that the observability of incentive contracts reduces existing fundraising competition. This can be beneficial in terms of NGOs’ outputs and social welfare, in particular when these organizations are trapped in a situation of excessive fundraising activities. However, we show that when donors’ willingness-to-give for projects are sufficiently different, publicly available contract information can distort the NGOs’ choice of projects, leading to socially inefficient project clustering.

About the Authors

jonathan p. balcombe, PhD, is an ethologist with a focus on animal sentience and protection. In addition to peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, his books include Pleasurable Kingdom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and What a Fish Knows (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2016; available in 15 languages). His latest book, Super Fly, was released in May 2021 by Penguin Books. Balcombe is former director of animal sentience with the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy and department chair for animal studies with Humane Society University in Washington, DC. Email: jonathan@jonathanbalcombe.comangela fernandez is a full professor of law at the Faculty of Law and Department of History at the University of Toronto. She is a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, a member of the board of advisors and a director of Animal Justice Canada, as well as a member of the Brooks Animal Studies Academic Network (with the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights, Law, and Policy). Professor Fernandez has been the book review editor (Americas) for Law and History Review since 2017 and a contributing reviewer to the legal history section of The Journal of Things We Like (Lots) (JOTWELL) since 2011. Her books include Pierson v. Post, the Hunt for the Fox: Law and Professionalization in American Legal Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2018). Her research interests include history, law, animal law, and ethics. Email: angela.fernandez@utoronto.castephen marcus finn is professor emeritus of English at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is a founder and director of Asher's Farm Sanctuary, one of only two such sanctuaries in Africa, and has spoken at international conferences on animal rights related to religion, education, and the arts. His publications include the animal rights novel The Story of Humphrey the Hereford, the novel Soliloquy, and the prize-winning play The Club, about school bullying. He has also written a screenplay, Caw to the Rescue, that is in line with his Farmed Animal Rights Manifesto for film. His other publications include books on propaganda, persuasion, and South African poetry and short stories. Email: finnfam@mweb.co.zarobert garner (frsa) is emeritus professor of politics at the University of Leicester. He has published widely on the politics and philosophy of animal rights. His books include The Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights (with Yewande Okuleye; Oxford University Press, 2021), A Theory of Justice for Animals (Oxford University Press, 2013), and The Animal Rights Debate (with Gary Francione; Columbia University Press, 2010). Email: rwg2@le.ac.ukjessica holmes is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she teaches in the Interdisciplinary Writing Program. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington (2015) and a BA in English from Lewis & Clark College (2011) and was a Mellon Fellow for New Public Projects in the Humanities (2019). Her creative and critical work has been published in numerous journals and publications, including Auto/Biography Studies (2020), Intimate Relations: Communicating in the Anthropocene (2021), and The Routledge Handbook of Vegan Studies (2021). Her research areas include environmental humanities, contemporary poetry, and critical animal studies. Email: holmes07@uw.edulinda johnson, PhD, is a lecturer II in the Department of Art History at the University of Michigan-Flint and an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She has received fellowships from Historic Deerfield in art history and is a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. She teaches courses from Renaissance to modern art, science and art, and art and animal ethics. She is affiliate faculty in the arts administration program at the University of Michigan-Flint and a graduate advisor. Johnson is author of a forthcoming book, Art and Animal Ethics in Western Art History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and published “A Pre-Millennial Portrait during the Revocation of the Massachusetts Charter” in American Literature and the New Puritan Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2017). She is a consulting editor of the Journal of Animal Ethics (University of Illinois Press) and is a member of the editorial board of Paragone: Past and Present: A Journal on Rivalry in the Arts. Email: linjohdr@umich.edut. s. johnson is a current master's student at Full Sail University. He is a professional writer and researcher based in central Oklahoma. His research interests include: animal rights, humanitarianism, and animal ethics. Email: tjohnson8@student.fulsail.edujason p. kight, JD, MBA, is an assistant professor of business law and business ethics at Winona State University. He received the CALI Excellence for the Future award in animal law at Southern Illinois University Law School. Research interests include: law, animal ethics, and safety. Email: JKight@Winona.educhien-hui li is associate professor in the Department of History of the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. She has previously published in the areas of animal protection, political radicalism, and the relations between religion and science in 19th-century Britain. Her most recent publication is Mobilizing Traditions in the First Wave of the British Animal Defense Movement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). E-mail: li.chien.hui@gmail.comronald g. oldfield, phd, is a senior instructor in the Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, and an affiliate of Cleveland BioScience Alliance. He conducts empirical research in animal welfare, ecology, evolution, neuroendocrinology, physiology, social behavior, and taxonomy and systematics, focusing on freshwater fish of North and South America. His applied research seeks to advance the social and psychological well-being of fish living in aquariums and the management of nonnative introduced species. Email: rgo@cwru.edusilvia panizza is teaching and research fellow at the Centre for Ethics in Public Life, School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, and part of the Horizon 2020 project Policy, Expertise and Trust in Action. She is coediting The Murdochian Mind (Routledge, forthcoming) and working on a monograph on the ethical value of attention for Routledge (Attention, Iris Murdoch, and the Foundations of Morality). Research interests include: moral psychology, animal ethics, environmental ethics, and philosophy of literature. Email: silvia.panizza@ucd.ieelena past is professor of Italian in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She is coeditor of The Italianist Film Issue with Danielle Hipkins and Monica Seger. Books include: Italian Cinema Beyond the Human (Indiana University Press, 2019); Methods of Murder: Beccarian Introspection and Lombrosian Vivisection in Italian Crime Fiction (University of Toronto Press, 2012); and the coedited collections Landscapes, Natures, Ecologies: Italy and the Environmental Humanities (with Serenella Iovino and Enrico Cesaretti, University of Virginia Press, 2018) and Thinking Italian Animals: Human and Posthuman in Modern Italian Literature and Film (with Deborah Amberson, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). Research interests include: environmental media studies, animal studies, posthumanism, and Italian film studies. Email: elenapast@wayne.edujohn rossi, VMD, MBe, is a veterinarian and bioethicist working in the animal health sector. He is a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics and a consultant editor for the Journal of Animal Ethics. Research interests include: ethical theory, veterinary professional ethics, and practical ethics. Email: rossi.john.78@gmail.comstefan sencerz, PhD, is an associate professor of humanities at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, Texas. His research is in the areas of environmental and animal ethics, applied ethics, metaethics, Eastern philosophy, and epistemology. Email: stefan.sencerz@tamucc.edubarry smart is professor of sociology in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. He is a life member of the International Sociological Association, a member of the Vegan Society Research Advisory Committee, and a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. Books include: Facing Modernity: Ambivalence, Reflexivity and Morality (Sage, 1999); Economy, Culture and Society: A Sociological Critique of Neoliberalism (Open University Press, 2003); and Consumer Society: Critical Issues and Environmental Consequences (Sage, 2010). Research interests include: critical social theory and continental philosophy, species being, ethics and morality, and the environmental consequences of late modernity. Email: barry.smart@port.ac.ukjorge torres is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Bern (Switzerland). He currently works on a broader project about environmental thought in Sino-Greek comparative philosophy funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. His articles have appeared in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Apeiron: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science, Ancient Philosophy (forthcoming) and Environmental Ethics (forthcoming). Research interests include: environmental philosophy, ethics, ancient philosophy and biology, and Greek medicine. Email: jorge.torres@philo.unibe.chelizabeth tyson is programs director of Born Free USA and author of Licensing Laws and Animal Welfare: The Legal Protection of Wild Animals (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000). Elizabeth was awarded her PhD in animal law from the University of Essex in 2018 just prior to relocating to the United States to take up her current role. Her doctoral research addressed the efficacy of regulatory licensing regimes as a means of protecting animals in captivity, particularly in zoos, in the United Kingdom. She has worked for almost 2 decades in the nongovernmental organizations sector, focusing in large part on the conservation and care of nonhuman primates and as a campaigner on issues surrounding the captivity of nondomesticated animals. Her publications include: “Speciesism and Zoos: Shifting the Paradigm, Maintaining the Prejudice” in The Palgrave Handbook of Practical Animal Ethics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018); “The Harms of Captivity within Laboratories and Afterward” in The Ethical Case Against Animal Experiments (University of Illinois Press, 2018); “Making It Up As They Go Along: Marius and the Zoo Industry's Inconsistent Approach to Self-Regulation,” Journal of Animal Welfare Law (March 2014); “For An End to Pinioning: The Case Against the Legal Mutilation of Birds,” Journal of Animal Ethics (Spring 2014); and “Regulating Cruelty: The Licensing of the Use of Wild Animals in Circuses,” Journal of Animal Welfare Law (January 2013). Email: liz@bornfreeusa.org

Non-Governmental Organizations and Development Service Provision: A Conceptual and Empirical Review

Globally, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are seen as a significant driving force behind delivering development services. There is universal consensus within the development community that development service delivery will be incomplete without the involvement of NGOs. Thus, many NGOs across the globe complement governments' efforts in development service delivery, a situation that has occasioned a rapid rise in both the volume and scale of operations of NGOs. Nonetheless, there is a growing debate regarding the conceptual intentions of NGOs. While some scholars believe that NGOs effectively provide development services, others have suggested that development service delivery does not constitute a critical component of NGOs' agenda. There is also the issue of whether or not the approaches NGOs employ in development services are participatory enough. While some scholars opine that participatory development communication approaches characterize NGOs' development services, others maintain that participation is merely rhetoric value within the NGO sector. These contending views risk an obliteration of the continuing relevance of NGOs in development discourse. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the place of NGOs in development services and the approaches NGOs employ in contemporary development practice. The authors posit that NGOs occupy a central place in development service provision but concede that NGO operations in development services are not without challenges. The authors argue further that NGOs’ role in development services can better be appreciated based on a thorough understanding of the role of participatory development communication in development service provisions. The paper presents a review of the relevant conceptual and empirical literature on NGOs' activities in development services and concludes by identifying lessons that should engage the attention of key stakeholders.

Project-Think and the Fragmentation and Defragmentation of Civil Society in Egypt, Palestine, and Turkey

By drawing from authors’ fieldwork in Egypt, Palestine, and Turkey, this article critically examines perceptions of project-think among civic organizations in the Middle East. As a managerial rationality, project-think has four key components: (a) a prioritization of discrete needs and discrete groups, (b) an orientation toward funding, (c) a focus on short-term and measurable results, and (d) the positioning of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as career ladders. Through unpacking these four components, we find that project-think is perceived to contribute to the fragmentation of civil society by fracturing social issues, dividing the NGO sector, isolating organizational energy, and complicating relations between groups. Simultaneously, we demonstrate that, civic actors use various strategies to circumvent the perceived impacts of fragmentation. By mapping these intertwined meanings and experiences of fragmentation and defragmentation, this study contributes to debates concerning the political effects of managerialism among civil society in the Global South.

Pathways of Resilience and Recovery from Trauma for Cambodian Young People

The majority of trauma and resilience research in Cambodia has focussed on survivors of the Khmer Rouge. This qualitative study set out to discover what protective factors promote resilience in young trauma survivors who are at least one generation removed. A Grounded Theory approach offered a guiding resilience framework that shaped 40 interviews: 26 participants comprised of Cambodian young people (ages 18-30) who had experienced significant early childhood trauma and 14 key informants from the Cambodian Child Protection non-governmental organization sector. Data from the young people was collected through the use of three instruments: semi-structured interviews, a narrative timeline of events and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. These instruments were used to explore factors relating to recovery, resilience and wellbeing among the Cambodian young people. Key informant interviews were conducted to help understand how the Child Protection sector assists recovery from trauma in Cambodia. Analysis of the participants’ oral narratives sought to uncover, understand and explain the phenomena of resilience and factors contributing to their recovery, in a post-Khmer Rouge contemporary Cambodian context. According to the young people, key factors contributing to their recovery included emotional regulation, faith and spirituality, opportunities for education and employment, social connectedness and meaning making.

Whose Agency: The Politics and Practice of Kenya’s HIV-Prevention NGOs, Megan Hershey

Reviewed by: Whose Agency: The Politics and Practice of Kenya's HIV-Prevention NGOs by Megan Hershey Brad Crofford BOOK REVIEW of Hershey, Megan. 2019. Whose Agency: The Politics and Practice of Kenya's HIV-Prevention NGOs. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 224 pp. $69.95 (cloth). In Whose Agency, political scientist Megan Hershey uses a mixed-methods research approach to argue that local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Kenya are highly adaptable and thus able "to thrive within the interplay of donor, state, and religious demands" (20). She balances discussion of academic works on NGOs with examples from participant-observation, interviews, focus groups, and surveys in nuanced and engaging ways. The first chapter summarizes the literature on NGOs and program evaluations of HIV-prevention programs as well as key terms and methodologies for the remainder of the book. Hershey focuses on local NGOs, as opposed to international NGOs or community-based organizations. She measures NGO success through its direct reach ("the number of individuals who attended a training program"), indirect reach ("the number of individuals with whom trainees shared HIV-prevention information"), the number of individuals obtaining HIV tests as a proxy for individual behavioral change, and the use of participatory approaches (15–17). She uses four case studies of local NGOs in Nairobi, Kenya: two each that operate in universities or informal settlements and two each that are faith based or secular. She conducted participant-observation and staff interviews at each site over a period of six weeks or more, surveyed youth in the NGOs' target areas, and interviewed youth who participated in the NGOs' programs. In chapter 2, she provides background information for future chapters, with a brief history of the NGO sector and HIV/AIDS contexts in Kenya. She discusses the settings of the four case studies: the Kibera and Mathare informal settlements, the University of Nairobi, and Daystar University. Chapter 3 details the four local NGOs Hershey studied, including their locations, work cultures, and programs. It includes survey results relating to the organizations' direct reach, indirect reach, and effects on behavior (as reflected in HIV testing rates) in their target areas. Hershey finds "NGOs are effecting real behavior change in addition to reaching people directly and indirectly" (70). The next chapter describes how the NGOs conduct their training and how they adapt "to attract and meet the needs of their target audiences," as by providing a small financial incentive in informal settlements or making the training entertaining to compete with other activities available to university students (90). Interestingly, Hershey finds that a lower percentage of survey respondents in informal settlements attended HIV training sessions, but those who did so shared the information more widely, reaching as many as twenty-six people per trainee. In chapter 5, Hershey focuses on participation, including "whether local NGOs were responding to community members' needs and whether these community members were meaningfully incorporated into the decision-making [End Page 97] process as participants" (91). She finds that the NGOs in informal settlements incorporated more participation into their processes, such as involving local youth groups, although neither they nor their university-based peers incorporated ideal amounts of participation. She attributes this to poor internal communication within the NGOs and donor restrictions, which may lead NGOs to prioritize the donor's desired outcomes over the community's participation or preferences. The following chapter examines the role of religion. Hershey reports that "faith is not a key element of NGO programs" for either the religious or secular NGOs, since religious NGOs downplay faith to align with donor restrictions and attract participants, while secular NGOs include some religious practices, like prayer, to boost their legitimacy in local contexts (123). There is thus no difference in programs, but there are nonetheless some differences in the NGOs' cultures, their approaches to networking, and their employees' perceptions of their own and their organizations' work. In chapter 7, Hershey discusses the relationship between HIV/AIDS NGOs and the Kenyan state. After providing a brief history of the state's response to HIV/AIDS, she argues that NGOs have "carefully cultivat[ed] positive relationships with the state in order to access more resources with which to better serve their communities...

AI Ethics in the Public, Private, and NGO Sectors: A Review of a Global Document Collection

In recent years, numerous public, private, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have produced documents addressing the ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI). These normative documents include principles, frameworks, and policy strategies that articulate the ethical concerns, priorities, and associated strategies of leading organizations and governments around the world. We examined 112 such documents from 25 countries that were produced between 2016 and the middle of 2019. While other studies identified some degree of consensus in such documents, our work highlights meaningful differences across public, private, and NGO sectors. We analyzed each document in terms of how many of 25 ethical topics were covered and the depth of discussion for those topics. As compared to documents from private entities, NGO and public sector documents reflect more ethical breadth in the number of topics covered, are more engaged with law and regulation, and are generated through processes that are more participatory. These findings may reveal differences in underlying beliefs about an organization’s responsibilities, the relative importance of relying on experts versus including representatives from the public, and the tension between prosocial and economic goals.

Social innovation in a post-conflict setting: examining external factors affecting social service NGOs

ABSTRACT While the study of the influence of external environmental factors on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is well explored in the international development literature, the importance of these factors on NGOs’ transformative roles in a post-conflict development setting remains less understood. Nevertheless, external environmental factors could have a crucial impact on NGOs in such a context, especially when NGOs want to integrate a socially innovative approach into the social services they provide. Using survey data of staff members of social service NGOs from post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina (N = 120) and applying resource dependence theory, this study identifies three environmental factors of great importance for NGOs when integrating a socially innovative approach: secured financing, the willingness of service users to participate in innovative services, and the sustainability of the implemented services. By contrast, policy and regulatory frameworks and public institutions’ openness are of moderate importance. Licensing and accreditation, service quality standards, and tax breaks are of even less importance. The results contribute to the understanding of the importance of external factors in the development of social innovations by the NGO sector from the perspective of the post-conflict context.

ЗВІТНІСТЬ НЕБЮДЖЕТНИХ НЕПРИБУТКОВИХ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙ

The article attempts to structure various forms of reporting of non-budgetary non-profit organizations (financial, tax, statistical) taking into account the information needs of users. The urgency of the topic is related to the explosive development of the sector of non-governmental organizations in the economy of Ukraine and, at the same time, the fragmentary nature of research related to the formation of public reporting. It is established that taking into account the latest changes in NP(S)BO 25 “Simplified Financial Statements” non-budgetary non-profit organizations of Ukraine submit only two forms of financial statements to local statistics and fiscal services: Balance Sheet (f.№1-ms) and Report on Financial results (f.№2-ms). In this case, data on income and expenses from f.№2-ms of a non-budgetary non-profit organization must coincide with the relevant lines of the tax report on the use of income (profits), which ensures the comparability of basic indicators of financial and tax statements. The main forms of statistical statements of non-budgetary non-profit organizations are related to labor and its payment, availability and movement of non-current assets, provision of services: Labor report; Report on arrears of wages; Report on wages by professions of individual employees; Report on the availability and movement of non-current assets, depreciation and capital investments; Capital investment report; Report on the work of vehicles; Report on export-import of services. At the same time, other forms of quarterly and annual statements are distinguished, based on the specifics of non-budgetary non-profit organizations, including the Political party's report on property, income, expenses and financial liabilities, which requires audit confirmation and is submitted to the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption. Conclusions are made on the simplified reporting procedure for organizations of the third sector of the economy, provided by domestic legislation, which, at the same time, allows accountants to focus more on management accounting and maximum information support for general management, financial and project management. This highlights the relevance of further research related to the development of forms of internal management statements for the needs of Ukrainian non-budgetary non-profit organizations.

ASSESSING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN RESOURCE MOBILIZATION AND FUNDRAISING FOR NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN NAROK TOWN, KENYA

Globally, many development organizations both in the public and private sector need resources to help them continue providing services to the community they serve. Specifically, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for a long time have relied on the generosity of donors to support their project activities through grants and donations. The main objective of this study is to examine the challenges and opportunities that NGOs face in the 21st century while mobilizing resources and fundraising in their quest to remain afloat in the ever-changing world. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population constituted 28 NGOs operating in Narok Town. Various concepts from a collection of 35 studies on challenges and opportunities of resource mobilization and fund raising among NGO between the period 2000 and 2018 were assessed and evaluated. The findings of the study were analyzed based on the common themes and contradictions in the results. The study concluded that NGOs should diversify their funding bases, approach local corporate bodies and philanthropists for funding support. Prudent and sound organizational management of NGOs should be adopted in order to maintain their key mandate as alternatives in working for the vulnerable people. Given the expected roles local NGOs have to play in the development of the less privileged communities, all other players in the development process must collectively re-examine their contributions towards the financing of local NGOs. Local NGOs on their part should be able to assess factors that hinder them from enjoying public and corporate support and ensure effective collaboration between them and the public. The study recommends that there is need to strengthen policies that are related to management of NGO so as to promote sustainability. Secondly, measures need to be put in place to ensure that NGOs can respond to current issues. There is also need to support proper networking so as to create sustainable networks within the NGO sector. Lastly, development agencies need to unearth the root causes of ineffectiveness and redundancies in NGOs through organizational capacity assessment and trainings. This study is expected to offer insights on resource mobilization and fundraising to upcoming NGOs, development partners, CBOs, upcoming researchers, the Government, Educationists and students from a global to a local scenario. Article visualizations:

Government-Funded Sustainable Development and Professionalisation of NGOs

This paper addresses the first financial initiative of the Slovenian government for the professionalisation and development of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to promote sustainability in the third sector. The measure was the result of the Non-Governmental Organisations Act, adopted in 2018, and was followed by the Development strategy of non-governmental organisations and volunteering until 2023 (DSNGOV). The state’s contribution to an increased level of professionalisation was welcomed by NGOs because, compared to other EU28 states, which have an average employment rate of 4.18%, Slovenia is far behind, with only 0.82% of its active working population being employed in the NGO sector. In May 2018, the Ministry of Public Administration released invitations to fund projects for the development and professionalisation of NGOs and voluntary service, providing grants for 100 NGO jobs. The final project results were compiled in March 2020, and the findings were evaluated in 29 survey reports in April 2020. The research focused on the occupations for which employees were sought, legal forms of the applicant NGOs and recruitment methods. The results demonstrate that the state measure was successful, as 69% of the funded jobs were sustained. However, most of the retained jobs were filled by those who were previously employed in the NGO sector (84.6%), so the employment rate has barely risen.

Parameters to measure performance of an NGO in India

Over many years in the past, together with inputs, outputs, results, impact and sustainability, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had always been caught in some values. This process requires a complete know-how of how NGOs monitor and measure performance, and what performance components result in good overall economic results, performance, and quality. In this paper we provide an overview of the distinctive concepts and mechanisms for assessing and monitoring overall performance in the NGOs sector.

Who Benefits From Development? Analyzing the Stakeholder Contestations in a Traditional Settlement of Malaysia

ABSTRACT Urban–rural renewal is an instrument not only to manage urbanization but also for sustainable development. In this process, major stakeholders are affected differentially. The case studied here shows how the most vulnerable stakeholders are deprived of benefits in the urban–rural renewal process. Through an analysis of Mantin, a small Malaysian town, the study depicts conflicts among stakeholders. Beyond the traditional stakeholder analysis framework stressing the role of government, developers, and the community affected by development, this research delves into an extended nexus of related stakeholders (the nongovernmental organization sector and media) that complicates the confrontation between the developer with legal right to the land and residents who claim hereditary occupation rights. It also reveals the stance of the government, often neglected in discussions of private–public partnerships. Here, politicians from both opposition and government saw opportunities to gain political advantage from the contest. The result of these stakeholder interfaces was a conflict that dragged on for a protracted period. The events show that the involvement of third-party stakeholders can increase the likelihood of and prolong conflict. Generally, the case also illustrates the failure of top-down policies that can be subverted at local levels.