Non-governmental organization and building community

Abstract

The Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) community encompasses a wide range of organisations and performances within and across many different countries in the world. The structure of NGOs ranges from small groups of a village-like size to a very large international level organisation. The activities of these organisations is spread across various sections such as funding, economics, technical, leisure, humanities, etc. and their performances are dependent on the individual NGO as well as the country and sector in which the NGO works. The NGO community has dramatically grown in member size in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres after industrialised governments supported NGO activity with funding. However, there are constraints in NGO activity due to funding arrangements, as well as different perspectives between Southern NGOs, Northern NGOs and governments. A 'critical' case study (embedded) is applied to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), as it is one of the well-known NGOs. The MSF's Activity Report: 'July 1998-June 1999' is used to analyse its activities and the collected data are examined according to the five dimensions of the study framework Community Building Practice. With reference to the literature review and the results of the case study, the influence of funding on NGO activity, the autonomy of Grass Roots Organisations (GROs) and the professionalisation of international NGOs will be discussed.