Non-governmental organization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from NGO)
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a group of people from different countr
ies acting together, but not connected with the government of any country. Usual
ly non-governmental organizations are non-profit - that is, they are trying to d
o something other than make money for the people who run them. They include orga
nisations such as 'Oxfam' and 'World Vision'.
Non-governmental organization (NGO) is a term that has become widely accepted as
referring to a legally constituted, non-governmental organization created by na
tural or legal persons with no participation or representation of any government
. In the cases in which NGOs are funded totally or partially by governments, the
NGO maintains its non-governmental status and excludes government representativ
es from membership in the organization.
Government funding of NGOs is controversial, since, according David Rieff, writi
ng in The New Republic, "the whole point of humanitarian intervention was precis
ely that NGOs and civil society had both a right and an obligation to respond wi
th acts of aid and solidarity to people in need or being subjected to repression
or want by the forces that controlled them, whatever the governments concerned
might think about the matter."[1]
Unlike the term intergovernmental organization, "non-governmental organization"
is a term in general use but is not a legal definition. In many jurisdictions th
ese types of organization are defined as "civil society organizations" or referr
ed to by other names.