Non-Governmental Organisations as Major Political Actors - Essay Example

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS AS MAJOR POLITICAL ACTORS Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of Non-Governmental Organisations as major political actors in the Global South Introduction In most nations of the world, there is the notion that development is all about politics and that it is the task of politicians to ensure development. Chickering, et al. (2006) however noted that development is a complex phenomenon that cannot be achieved by just a single player or stakeholder. For this reason, there is always the need to have a collective approach towards the achievement of development. In most parts of the world where development is all about politics and politicians, non-government organisations (NGOs) have often been relegated as major political actors in the quest to achieve sustainable development. In this paper, the Global South is used as a case study to critically evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of NGOs as major political actors in the development agenda. Ahead of this, the existing efforts of these NGOs in the Global South will be reviewed. By delving deep into the advantages and disadvantages, it should be possible to conclude with a stand as to whether it is relevant to have NGOs as major political actors in the Global South. The conclusion will be drawn based on the current impact of the activities of NGOs as political actors in the Global South. NGOs as Political Actors in the Global South The American University (2010) noted that “the nations of Africa, Central and Latin America, and most of Asia - collectively known as the Global South - face great challenges and offer real opportunities. These challenges are seen to affect almost all aspects of human lives including health, education, social welfare, infrastructural development, and economics. On the opportunities also, there is a strong potential in the natural and human resource that abound in the Global South. Bauer (2006) however lamented that the approach and collective consensus that should determine how the opportunities will be used to overcome the challenges is yet to be discovered. Because of this, the challenges continue to exist in the premise of opportunities to overcome them. Also writing on the subject of challenges with the Global South, Kasdan (2013) observed that there is a very high level of structural inequality when it comes to the politics of the region. This is because the region is yet to open up to a non-political approach to national development. The situation has been described to be so bad that governance is not differentiated from party politics in most countries within the region. It was in the light of such challenges that massive non-state activity was necessitated in the Global South in the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st century (Porter and Sheppard, 2008). Since non-state activity stated in the Global South, one of the most dominant and active non-state actors have been NGOs. General definitions exist for what an NGO is. But according to the World Bank, NGOs encompass “private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development” (Shah, 2005). Politics on the other hand has been defined as the act and science of influencing people for civic purposes (Jenks, 2009). Relating the two, it can be noted that NGOs have a focus that is reflected in the theories of politics. Because of this there are a number of NGOs who have acted as key political stakeholders in helping ordinary people to achieve meaningful lifestyle in the Global South. As much as some of these NGOs are international NGOs, originating outside the Global South, there are other indigenous Global South NGOs who have also acted as political actors for several years (Chickering, et al., 2006). Misteli (2011) was full of praise about NGOs as political actors in the Global South, stating that these NGOs “have acted as promoters of globalization, as global transmitters of ideas and knowledge, and as influential stakeholders in a wide range of fields, e.g. human rights, health, agriculture, labour, demography, or ecology.” In the remaining parts of the paper, the advantages and disadvantages of the political activities of NGOs in the Global are scrutinised. Advantages Democratization and civil society ideal Once NGOs take the forefront as political actors, much of the comparison is between these NGOs as non-state actors on one hand and government or politicians on the other hand. In this, there are many who see NGOs as promoting democratisation and civil society ideals as compared to state actors (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). This is because for most of these NGOs, they have no personal political ambitions that are focused on the need to claim governance. Because of this, they are free to be people centred and easily preach for all inclusiveness. This is in contrast with some state actors who for the want political power try to bend the rules against the ideals of democratisation to suit their interests. In the assessment of Kasdan (2013), but for the democratisation and civil society ideals of NGOs as political actors in the Global South the number of civil uprisings and political instability experienced in the region would have been more. It is therefore a very big advantage when NGOs are put in the forefront of political activism, knowing that they will serve the interest of the ordinary people on the ground rather the interest of the little few, and therefore defeating the core ideologies of democracy. Growing usage for information, analysis, and action There is no denying the fact that we now live in an information society, where both traditional and digital information are very important for national development. With the right form of information civil organisations and corporate institutions experience the needed growth they want (Reitsma and Kleinpenning, 2005). Sadly though, Rochester (2002) lamented that when political activism is left in the hands of state actors alone, the flow and usage of information becomes highly limited. This is because the state actors often conceal information in order to take undue advantage of their opponents or to cover up their wrongs (Bauer, 2006). Once this happens, the growing usage for information, analysis and action becomes highly hampered. With the involvement of NGOs however, there is much availability of information, knowing that most of these NGOs themselves rely on adequate information to function properly. It has also been observed that the reason it is advantageous to have NGOs engaged in political activism is because these NGOs compete with state actors for information. For this reason, once the NGOs have access to information, they are more ready to make them public, knowing that some of the information exposes public corruption. It is important to note therefore that the information growth that NGOs allow do not remain at the state of being raw data but go on to be analysed, based on which necessary actions are taken. Sustainable Community Development Community development is one of the core components of political activity. In the Global South, the need for community development has been noted to be more pressing than in most other parts of the world (Whaites, 2009). This is because in this region, it is common to find large sizes of poverty driven communities than in the other side of the globe. This means that political activity that is not just focused on community development but sustainable community development is very much needed in the Global South. The difference between NGOs acting as political stakeholders and state actors is that state actors look at development from a holistic and macro perspective, whiles NGOs look at development from a specific and micro perspective (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). In effect, NGOs present the advantage of reaching out to the core poor and very people who have need for development. Once NGOs act as political stakeholders they draw the attention of government to focus on the people who have the real need for development and thus bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. Sobelman (2004) praised NGOs in the Global South as being the number agency of society that has helped in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor in that part of the world. Transparent Political Outcomes The public see politicians as serving them and so the need for politicians to be transparent with all their activities. In the Global South, there is a common notion that politics is for people who are self centred and focus on their personal gains (Whaites, 2009). Because of this, there are several reputable national figures such as academicians, religious leaders, entrepreneurs, and other opinion leaders who would not go into active party politics in the Global South. Meanwhile, most of these people have the needed expertise, network and resources to bring political progress and development to the various countries. It is where this challenge exists that NGOs come in as important political actors in promoting transparent political outcomes that will be make politics lucrative to people who would otherwise not want to have anything to do with politics. Through the platform that NGOs create therefore, politicking in the Global South has been noted as being more decent and attractive than it would have originally being. Because most of the NGOs have agenda that is focused on fairness, their approach to political influence has been trusted to be more transparent and thus attracting public reputation. With such transparent political outcomes, public fairness and interest is promoted, making the public get from politics, what is due them. Sustainable Consumption Globally, the issue of sustainable consumption remains very important and critical for national development. When mention is made of sustainable consumption, the need for there to be a healthy and preservative approach to the use of resources is emphasised (Reitsma and Kleinpenning, 2005). In the Global South, the urgent need for sustainable consumption has been emphasised by Porter and Sheppard (2008) who mentioned areas such as sustainable housing, sustainable labelling, and green purchasing as areas that the Global South lags behind. Probing further, lack of governmental commitment and support was mentioned as the major factor that is accounting for this. Meanwhile, there are very specific NGOs, including World Wildlife Fund and Green Earth Foundation who have been very instrumental players in promoting sustainable consumption in the Global South. By extension, it is of a major advantage to have NGOs as political actors, knowing that they will focus on the sustainable consumption agenda that have been abandoned over the years, despite its immense importance for socio-economic development. Until now, NGOs have served as the major pressure groups who have taken up the role of convincing government on the need to enact policies and frameworks that ensure that the global sustainability agenda is kept alive and this is something that can be described as a step in the right direction (Rochester, 2002). Disadvantages The various discussions about the advantages of having NGOs as political actors notwithstanding, there are a number of ways in which the activities of NGOs have been seen as inappropriate and disadvantageous. Some of these instances are thoroughly analysed below. NGOs as a Weak Third Sector Compared to Governments and Corporations [e.g. in policy formulation] There are those who have criticised NGOs as a weak third sector when they are compared to governments and corporations. What this means is that NGOs do not have much of the governmental and legal mandate to pursue active political agenda. For instance whereas most democratic governments have constitutions that define the arm of government, including the legislature, judiciary and executive, NGOs do not have any of such legal backings. As a result of this, when NGOs act as political players, they are only seen as a weak third sector that can hardly influence decisions when compared to governments and corporations (Sobelman (2004). Because of this kind of limitation, there are a lot of people who have thought of NGOs as an excessive stakeholder whose contributions and roles can be taken up by agents of government if state actors are really empowered. As a weak third sector, one would expect that funding and expenses spent on the NGOs could be used to achieve more direct results aimed towards national development. Given the fact that state actors have policy formulation powers and NGOs do not have, it would certainly not be out of place to think that empowering state actors will produce more outright results than if the attention was given to NGOs (Warkentin, 2001). Reliance on Philanthropy May Reveal More Fundamental Issues The national development agenda is such an important and complex objective that costs so much to achieve. This is because national development involves and entails several sectors of the country, all of which must have a relatively same level of attention to make the development agenda whole. Because of this, most NGOs would rather take specific aspects of national development and pursue it to the best of their abilities. But even with this, it is an open secret that the NGOs rely hugely on philanthropy to executive their core duties. Meanwhile, there are several commentators who have argued about the possibility for these NGOs to remain very neutral and unbiased when it is that they are funded by organisations, of which they must defend their interests. Knowing that when acting as political actors, NGOs play the role of pressure groups to alert government on taking decision about issues of public importance, one wonders if these NGOs can expose corrupt and inappropriate acts that go on in organisations that sponsor or fund them. Having NGOs as political actors has therefore been criticised by many, describing it as ineffective for achieving even spread of development, especially in areas that do not come as benefits to particular NGOs. Obstruction to National Development Agenda One major difference between most countries in the Global South and those in the North is that whereas the North have national development agenda that they rigorously follow, most countries in the South only have political party manifesto that keeps changing the political fortunes and agenda of the countries from year to year (American University, 2010). Because the situation in the Global South retards development, a number of countries have put in efforts to also follow the national development agenda phenomenon. Very unfortunately, NGOs have been criticised as political actors that seem to slow down this all important agenda to national development. This is because in most of the cases, the NGOs destruct governments from original national development agenda plan with new issues of social importance that must be completed before doing the next other thing (Warkentin, 2001). This is therefore an indication that when NGOs are used as political actors, they tend to destruct the natural course of national development agenda by pushing individual social issues instead of allowing a nationalistic approach to development. Conclusion The paper has been useful in establishing that sustainable development in the Global South is not all about politicians and governmental institutions. This is because development is admitted to be a very a complex phenomenon with several components that cannot take the work of politicians and governmental institutions alone to achieve. Even though compared to other parts of the world, the activities of NGOs in politics has not been well understood and embraced, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that NGOs have been phenomenal when it comes playing their roles as political actors. The essay has established that once NGOs are made political actors, there is generally a third party considered to be a neutral stakeholder who focuses largely on the interests of the ordinary people with no political gains in mind. Because of this, it has always been possible to experience sanity that is free from political violence when NGOs are put on the forefront of political activism. The essay also acknowledged that regardless of this advantage, there have been instances of disadvantages, particularly in the fact that NGOs hardly agree on a single courses of development. Measuring the impact of the efforts of the NGOs as political actors, it will be concluded that the continual existence of these non-state actors is very much needed. References American University (2010). Centre for Global South. [Online] Available from http://www1.american.edu/academic.depts/acainst/cgs/about.html [May 8, 2014] Bauer P. T. (2006). Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion. 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Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Reitsma H. A. and Kleinpenning J. M. (2005). “The Third World in Perspective” Strategic Assessment, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 55-67 Rochester, M. J. (2002). Between Two Epochs: What’s Ahead for America, the World, and Global Politics in the Twenty-First Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Shah A. 2005). Non-governmental Organisations on Developmental Issues. [Online] Available at http://www.globalissues.org/article/25/non-governmental-organizations-on-development-issues [May 7, 2014] Sobelman, D. (2004). "Four Years After the Withdrawal from Lebanon: Refining the Rules of the Game", Strategic Assessment, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 132-173. Warkentin, C. (2001). Reshaping World Politics: NGOs, the Internet, and Global Civil Society. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Whaites A. (2009). States in Development. UK Department for International Development: London Read More