Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who repeatedly uses the term ‘NGO’ and you had to stop the person to ask ‘What is an NGO’? I must admit, I am one of those persons who take it for granted that because I am familiar with the term NGO, that everyone else knows what an NGO is.
NGO is the acronym for Non-Governmental Organization, but the term is often used interchangeably with other terms such as Non-Profit Organizations, Charities, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and even Faith-based Organizations. In fact there are existing debates about the similarities and differences among them.
It is quite interesting to know that the term NGO was actually coined by the United Nations (UN), for their own purposes, in 1945. While there was no specific definition, the UN stipulated several criteria that NGOs should follow, including: NGOs should not be classified as political parties and should be independent from government, they should not be profit-making and should not be criminal groups or participate in criminal activities (www.un.org).
There has been massive increase in the number of NGOs that have developed in recent years. There is still no specific definition for the term, however a fair conclusion can be drawn that the term NGO serves as an umbrella for many organizations ranging from Transnational Federations like Red Cross to Grass-root Organizations or Community Based Organizations (CBOs). A concise definition that I will use throughout this blog for NGO is “An organization that exists for charitable reasons, offering services to the public for social, environmental or community development; independent of government, with aims that are not political and non-profit in nature”.
