Non-governmental organizations popularly referred to as civil society are legally constituted bodies that operate independently from the government. There are close to 40,000 internationally operating NGO’s in the world with many more operating within many countries borders.
NGO’s largely focus on humanitarian work in areas where governmental reach is minimal. According to the World Bank, they are organizations that champion the rights of the poor, protection of the environment and undertake community development.
According to Kim (2002), the growth in the number of NGO’s has made them significant players in social welfare development (p 2). These organizations mainly depend on government funding and they ensure their independence by not nominating government representatives to their boards.
Kim (2002) further says that these are actively engaged in local, national, regional and international issues sometimes in collaboration with government s. in some cases however, they may work against government. These organizations play different roles and many functions within the larger context of the civil society.
According to Kim (2002), there is no universal agreement on the functions of these organizations. Their role in the community through civil society is ambiguous as well.
However, there is some level of agreement of the functions that these organizations play in the society. Civil society functions can be described as specialized given that they do not focus on many issues as governments do.
Before the roles and functions of these organizations are tackled, it is important to understand their scale of operations, their fields of operation and the activities that they carry out. Their scale of operation as noted earlier includes local national, regional and international.
In some cases in may include Southern and Northern, (Kim, 2002 p 14). NGO fields include human rights environment, anticorruption activities, international aid, refugee relief, poverty eradication, women and youth affairs, economic justice and consumer protection.
The activities that they carry out to ensure the fields are well served include advocacy, monitoring, campaigns, funding, policy formulation and service provision. The activities capture the roles that they play. However on a larger scale, their function ca be summed as acting as; social providers and monitoring advocacy and criticism.
Roles and functions
Social service providers
NGO’s largely act as alternative service providers where national authorities have been unable or willing to provide services (Kim 2002, p11). The size of government and the bureaucracy that is involved in planning and delivery of services may overwhelm it resulting in the failure to deliver critical services.
NGO’s sometimes work in partnership with governments where authorities delegate service delivery to the organization due to their extensive reach of the grassroots. Many governments have increasingly adopted the approach of delegation of government services to NGO’s especially considering that they delivers with a personal touch.
Governments have also realized there is an element of cost effectives in using NGO’s to deliver services to the people. NGO’s mostly use volunteers, an approach no government can take. NGO’s therefore ensure growth of volunteerism while they come up with new ways of doing things at the grassroots.
Tandon (1991) asserts that NGO’s have boosted socio-economic development considering they promote the core of the society through funding of small organizations, evaluating service and delivery of social services (p 14).
Advocacy, Monitoring and Criticism
According to Tandon (1991), Many NGO’s are involved in advocacy work (p 10). Some vulnerable groups like the disabled, women and workers rarely have resources they need to champion their needs. NGO’s provide the help needed to champion the needs of such groups to ensure equity in access to employment and resources as well as rights.
NGO’s and civil society are also involved in monitoring activities in the societies where they serve. More often than not monitoring and criticism go hand in hand. When procedures are not followed or when things are done in accordance with the laid down structures, civil society normally acts as the whistle blower.
According to Kim (2002), NGO’s propagate social change by monitoring and criticizing the government and market leaders when they carry out policies that are not beneficial to people. There are cases where issues that must be tackled may be diplomatically sensitive.
NGO’s comment on such issues with little restriction because they are regarded as impartial. Their role has become so important that in some countries people tend to trust the civil society more than the government for delivery of services. The fact that civil society is designed to be non-profits rids it of much corruption and malpractices that is characteristic with business and government.
Somehow, the role of NGO’s can be described as subtly political considering they are always focused on checking the excesses of the government and market leaders. This explains the sometimes-frosty relationship these two groups have.
Conclusion
It is therefore safe to conclude that civil society is the people’s advocate where people are marginalized and cannot afford to take on authorities for delivery of services. Civil society also helps in ensuring adherence to the laid down procedures are respected to human rights and dignified living.
References
Kim, H. (2002). Impact of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their limits and opportunities in relation to social development and civil society, making particular reference to examples from a selected country or countries. Essay for Issues in Social Policy Analysis Module SLSP 5112. Nd
Tandon, R. (1991). Civil Society, The State & Role of NGO’s. IDR Reports, Vol 8, No 3 1991.