Non-Government Organization - Assignment Example

NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANISATIONS Name: Institute: Instructor: Date: What do you understand by the term Non-Government Organization?  Any non-profit organization is classified as non-governmental organization (NGO). This is because they are usually made by voluntary groups, which have different aims but supportive one. These groups are usually set into two levels that is international or national level or local level (Andreas Rasche, 2010). Different types of services are performed by the NGOs people who have the same agenda of encouraging people to participate in politics trough providing information, humanitarian functions monitor and advocate policies, present citizens’ problems to the government. Some of the Non- governmental organizations deal with specific issues such as health, environment or human rights. They use the early warning mechanism to serve through providing scrutiny and knowledge to implement the international agreement (Andreas Rasche, 2010). According to their set goals and responsibilities they have in certain institutions there might raise some differences in their relationship with the agencies and offices. Compare and contrast the approaches taken by several non-government organizations to a particular social issue. Anti- corruption organization is one of the Non- governmental organizations. This organization fights against the corruptions that are prevailing in the governments. For example, there are jobs in the country, which are socially corrupt, and the creation of these organizations is to deal with these people who are encouraging corruption and eradicate it. For instance, we have the political corruption (Csd, 2000). Generally, corruption in politics is described as a burrier to democracies growth and its sustainment whereby, credibility, accountability and legitimacy are lost. As stated by the World Bank in few years back, “general corruption weakens the legitimacy of governments, especially in democracies”. Some of the social issues under corruption include the following and will be discussed one by one; the misuse of the national wealth, unequal distribution of wealth, destruction of fair market competition among many others. Unequal distribution of wealth is one and among the major issues in corruption whereby the people who are occupying the leadership seats have made corruption to be a normal thing to them. In most cases the leaders grab to themselves the reaches in the country such as the wealthy lands, they come in to position of the large companies and industries (Development, 2005). When they take all this wealth to themselves, they ensure that they shut anyone who tries to make a follow-up of the grabbed property through assassinations. In some cases, the government volunteers itself to follow these cases but in the process a lot of money is spend hence the government ignoring the average citizen needs. All in all some cases end up being dropped and this is also done through corruption. The national wealth is also misused whereby, the money the government owns through taxes may be sometimes stolen by the ministers in certain ministries and if questioned they give fake excuses. If they realize that they are almost being caught they use money to bribe the officials who are after their cases of corruption in order to keep it secret (Donileen R. Loseke, 2003). Not all people are involved in the misuse of the government wealth but only the top officials in the government. The corruption causes retarded economic growth to the government thus pulling it back in terms of industrialization. The Non- governmental organizations have also have the responsibility of corruption in the fair market competition, which discourages investment, and this is mainly by reputable and large firms. Furthermore there are some consequences of corruption as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) states them as follows; there would be reduced international assistance effectiveness, interference of growth in the economy, there might be payment of bribes to escape customs and taxes which might loss revenue tax and lastly there would be talent misallocation because instead of the qualified people in job applications to be given the position they qualified for, they are overtaken by the individuals who were connected for the same job through bribery (Europe., 2005). The report written by the IMF further states that, despite the presence of the anti- corrupt organizations, there are some people who are honest enough and they have the capability of avoiding being employed in the public sectors (Development, 2005). Other areas, which it exposes them for being vulnerable to corruption, are the large-scale projects than small and scattered ones. However, due to corruption there have been infrastructures that are poorly built, because during the constructions the contractor might be bribed not to report to the management the amount of money which was budgeted for and has not been used in the construction. The social service delivery is affected by corruption and the UNDP as one of the Non- Governmental Organizations has examined the effects whereby they cause an increase in poverty. According to this organization, the public service price is increased by corruption and it lowers the quality (Ian Scott Smillie, 1998). However, the social service delivery may be minimized if the budget of the government focuses on issues which are more important to the politically connected and the wealthy people. In addition, the average household might be required to pay for services which are supposed to be offered freely thus undergoing the burden of paying these bribes. All in all, the Anti- corrupt organization has come in whereby they have decided put efforts in stopping the corrupt from corruption in the following ways; They have decided to make reforms through promotion and hiring whereby, there should be reduction of the number of officers who are seniors and through this the corrupt officials will be easily sported and displaced by the faithful ones (David Lewis, 2009). They also improvised a new way of recruiting people in companies which is merit based and this will largely replace the bribery system. They would also ask for salary increment, which will stop the desire to get more from the officers especially the police officers. Literacy is one virtual requirement, which is lacked by many people. To stop illiteracy, people in the country need to be educated on the importance of faithfulness and know what services they should get for free. The education can be offered through literacy programs which are organized by the anti- corruption organization. Through the conduction of the programs they will be able to know when they are being corrupted and they will be able to prevent the corruption from prevailing in the society (Csd, 2000). Through accountability and monitoring, corruption is eradicated by ensuring that for instance, if there is a budget set it is strictly followed. The only way for making sure that the budget is followed without any corruption is by keeping a record of any money used. The records should also be under supervision of a faithful person thus being reliable ones (Donileen R. Loseke, 2003). With this being followed, the government wealth will not be misused and it will be equally distributed among the citizens. There will be no more corruption in the market compaction, there will be more investments for the country, and there will be improvement of the economy of the country. In addition, there will no easy escape from paying the taxes and the country might restore its relationship with other countries (Centre, 1993). Another Non- Government Organization is the red- cross organizations. This organization has always been facing challenges while collecting blood from the citizens. There have also been other challenges in attending the people who really need some blood transfusion for better health. Some of the challenges are based on the humanitarian prime disaster, which is generally very huge in the organization (McAllister, 1993). However, most of the Red Cross Organizations are engaged in responding to the local fires or blood drives although they count on the disasters that happen in most cases and create attention to its donor contribution and its press. In the previous year in the U.S. there were many disasters on fire which ranged at 99 percent and the one percent was on the large scale disasters. Overall, there is annual convention for groups in the Red Cross sector whereby they socially interact and have exciting affairs on the calendar of social event. There has been frequent debate in the Red Cross but not very much contacted or much pronounced. However, in the major disasters the Red Cross has been noticed not to be responding in the right time. These major disasters are either great fires or earthquakes which cause a great impact in human life if not assisted (McAllister, 1993). However, when people discovered that when money is collected to support the people affected by these great disasters would go for other purposes the Red Cross Organization go into trouble but this was discovered to be a local story which is large. It is gossiped that, the Red Cross has brought to itself the current problems it is facing and since there is large requirement of efficiency and accountability, the organization has its right time to reinvent itself. The main problem that is shallowly discovered is that the organization might be having too much bureaucracy, too many people or too many layers (OECD, No Longer Business as Usual Fighting Bribery and Corruption: Fighting Bribery and Corruption, 2000). The organization might also be facing an ill- effects which is of a monopoly virtual that is long- standing and as the nation is relieved from the disaster agency after being conferred by congress. There were conclusions made against the critics made on the Red Cross organization that it is careless because the excuses they gave on the use of the donors money does not satisfy the citizens, therefore there are more suggestions on the use of the excess money whereby they are being requested to introduce new programs to exhaust the money. However, some of the solutions for the problems encountered in Red Cross organization are discussed as follows: - At first, the Red Cross has taken their time and come up with the decision of incorporating technology in their work in order to reduce or prevent the mistakes it makes when collecting blood. One of the main and frequent errors made by the member of Red Cross is the habit of not asking questions to the donor as he or she is donating the blood which would help in revealing the reasons for them not to donate (Development, 2005). For example, an interviewer fails to ask donor whether he has visited areas which are prone to malaria. However, by improvising the new technology, the donor should now answer online questionnaires, whereby all questions are well answered. There should also be prescribed procedures and strict ones as the blood is being collected and this will help in preventing the frequent blood collection errors. For instance there should be persistent cleaning of the tools used during the collection of the blood before any use (Europe., 2005). Then after the cleaning, the tools must be dried up to prevent contamination of the collected blood. For improvement, the Red Cross has begun using electronic devices that help in cleaning and drying and other steps not mentioned. The failures of the units that are being used to collect blood are being improved gradually through assigning supervisors for a full time. The Red Cross as an organization has accepted the opinion of the public for the required changes for the better of the organization. In addition to the previous given information, there are some steps which could help the Red Cross organization as follows; a careful examination of structure, staffing, accountability, governance, charter and the relationship between local and national branches as well as the agencies of the government (Linda A. Mooney, 2010). They have resolved their problem for laziness through ensuring that the areas they did not reach due to large disasters they are now reaching them. In addition, the external governance for the organization has been abolished. There is also request of more studies to the people operating in the Red Cross despite that the organization is doing good hence there is enhancement of more changes can be made. Since majority of them seems not to do know how to handle sudden disasters, they are willing to learn on how to handle these sudden disasters thus perfecting themselves in their jobs (McAllister, 1993). To ensure that they achieve what they have planned for in this year, they only examine themselves thus knowing how far they are and the much needed from them to reach for the set goal. Through the self-examination, the organization has managed to achieve some changes they had set as their target. For more improvement, they have created a warehouse and the facilities required have already been stored after the capacity has been increased. Other more improvement is on the increase of the call centers which seems to have doubled. They are also willing to increase the number of the stuff members by recruiting minorities in terms of ethnic and racial as volunteers (Donileen R. Loseke, 2003). This is because in most cases, we will find that a greater percentage, which is almost half of them, comprises of the black and the other half comprises of the other races. However, the small numbers in the other races pull back the organization from overcoming the challenges faced in this organization as they look for ways of serving people diversely. In addition, Red Cross is creating partnerships with other local nonprofits, community groups and churches and this is helping in recruiting other volunteers in these corporations as it is explained by Evans. There is recruitment of organizations, which are local, and they should help the Red Cross to deliver meals and have volunteers to set shelters for them instead of occupying their members (McAllister, 1993). All this hard work is to ensure that there are changes in its culture. They have learned that their leaders should be careful not to make bad reputation of the organization through insensitivity, bureaucracy and arrogance. During the recruitment they look for people who are able to tolerate risks, they are easily adopted those who can be relied on in partnership and those who are less bureaucratic to avoid frequent recruitments. The Red Cross organization leader has been helped by a corporate lawyer who used to examine the way the organization was governing itself to focus on the major question and the relevant one to all the nonprofits. These questions include the size of the board to be created and the persons to be included in the board (Ramsay M. Ravenel, 2004). Unlike today’s situation whereby the board members are mixed, previously, the members of the board were supposed to be eight presidential appointees and they hardly attended the meetings. They were complaining that the effective leadership was hindered by the formation of local chapters by majority of the board members which led it to being dominant. All these reforms were generally made for the purpose of changing everything in to the modern style whereby efficiency will increase and all the interested partied get a chance to join the organization thus making it become more reliable for the citizens (Walter Powell (W.), 2006). This will also create trust to all customers thus, the organization will get more clients in their work. It also had the plan to reduce the board members from 50 to 12-25 and then back again between 12-20 members thus enhancing easy work among them. Other change brought forward by the organization congress were based on the focus the board had on limitation of the strategic failure and exclusive governance and a new office is set up for giving reports annually to the congress explaining the progress of the organization. Furthermore, if all these reforms are kept high, the Red Cross organization will stand a better chance to make its reputation to be among the best ones in the Non- Government organization. As those who were fighting for a change in this organizations witness them happen, the Red Cross members still argue that the biggest problems in these Red Cross organization lie is in a different issue from what we know (Europe., 2005). However, the fact on these organizations is that they will not contact businesses as they normally did. What these organizations have to know is that, they are always watched out and they cannot work independently. This is because the politicians and the public in general are watching hence ready to intervene in case of any problem. Similarities of the two organizations are that; both the anti- corruption organization and the Red-Cross organization encourage education to the citizens and the leaders in these organizations. Secondly, they involve the government in solution of the challenges they face as they try to represent the citizens in the country (McAllister, 1993). The two are interested in the welfare of the citizens of these countries, in solving their problems there is the involvement of the current technology which is enhancing effectiveness in many areas etc. Which organizations have had the most influence in terms of both public opinion and government policy on this issue? The political organizations are the organizations created for the purpose of politics. This type of organization has highly influenced both the government policy and the public opinion. The influence on the citizens is caused by the interest they have in the politician and the willingness they have to support him or her (Abraham, 2011). The politicians also attract the attention of the majority of the citizen for the sake of getting another chance for leadership. However, if they did not serve the citizens in the right way there is a possibility for their funs to loss hope in them hence opting to choose another different person and in order to witness the expected changes in their country. On the other hand, the government policy is has to be kept high to prevent the collapsing of the government. For a government to be able to have its policies there must be a referendum whereby every citizen is entitle to make a choice of the type of a country they need (Andreas Rasche, 2010). Through this the opinions of the citizen are compared and the one which has more votes is voted in thus the government getting its rule and regulations which help in running it. Why? The organization easily influences both the government policy and the public opinion, since it is necessary for every citizen to participate in forming a good government hence they have to give their opinions on the kind of government they require (Abraham, 2011). References Abraham, A. (2011). Formation and Management of NGOs: Non-governmental Organisations. US: Universal Law Publishing, . Andreas Rasche, G. K. (2010). The United Nations Global Compact: Achievements, Trends and Challenges. USA: Cambridge University Press,. Bank, W. (2000). Anticorruption in transition: a contribution to the policy debate. USA: World Bank Publications,. Centre, O. f.-o. (1993). The Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Development Co-Operation. NY: OECD Publishing,. Csd. (2000). Anti-corruption in Public Procurement: Balancing the Policies. Berlin: CSD. David Lewis, N. K. (2009). Non-Governmental Organizations and Development. Chicago: Routledge,. Development, O. f.-o. (2005). 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