International NGO's and Measurement of Impacts - Research Paper Example

 International NGO's and Measurement of Impacts Introduction Non-governmental Organization (NGOs) refers to those organizations that are not under control of governments. NGOs are very independent; do not make profits, and non-partisan. This therefore implies that Non-governmental organizations are not out to challenge governments either politically or through narrow concentration on human rights. The word non-governmental organization came into use in the year 1945. This was because of need of United Nations to distinguish between rights of participation of intergovernmental specialized agencies and those for international private organization (Lewis Kanji, 2009). Many of international NGOs are charitable and development oriented. Therefore, NGO are distinct entities with many special requirements and needs that differentiate them from profit making organizations. Most of support of NGOs comes from individuals willing to commit their energy and time to make difference in communities (Lewis, 2006). This implies that Non- Governmental Organizations are heterogeneous in their nature. This paper will look at management of Non-governmental organizations, challenges, activities, methods to measure impacts. Management of International Non-governmental Organization Many of major international Non-governmental organizations work within main international organizations in Geneva. Geneva serves as headquarters of major international Non-governmental Organizations. Many of international organizations work across fields such as trade and development, environment, education, health, and human rights. Management of international organizations is independent from any form of government (Lewis, 2010). NGOs are not part of government and therefore not conventional to for profit making. The mandate of non-governmental organization is to drive development that transforms societies and nations all over the world. Non-governmental Organization requires sound management in order to carry its activities in most efficient way. Non-governmental Organizations are privately set up with sufficient autonomous in their activities. To get its activities done, international NGOs have sound management through creation of Boards. The board of international Non-governmental Organizations comprises of leaders who have similar interests in terms of developments. To increase effectiveness and productivity, Non-governmental Organizations strives to bring together leaders and organizations to the board. The principal aim of these organizations is to build capacity through training and develop governance and management tools. Capacity building ensures that organization achieves its objectives with effectiveness. It also improves the performance of International Non-governmental Organizations. Capacity building in INGOs encompasses training and development forums, granting funds to projects, and networking with local nonprofit organizations (Lewis & Kanji, 2009). Good and efficient International Non-Governmental Organizations Board is the basis its successful management. The board should familiarize its constituents of targets with the activities of particular Non-governmental organization. The Board should also understand and help the public to know the organizational structure of International Non-Governmental Organizations. In addition, the mandate of Non-governmental Organizations board to help in assigning responsibilities among the team members within Non-Governmental Organizations. The Board devises strategies and policies for the NGOs. It does this according to the scope, principle, and purposes, which directed the formation of that particular Non-governmental Organization. The Board of Non-governmental Organization performs different functions. To start with, it sets guidelines of operations, budgets, work plans, policies, and program support. Second, it helps in international Non-governmental organization to work effectively through setting criteria for membership, selecting review panels, and groups to support. The board does this through putting into place monitoring framework (Sabral, 2011). In addition, the board conducts periodic and independent assessment of NGOs performance and financial accountability of activities in which they are involved. Third, the board of International Non-governmental Organization represents views of NGOs in many capacities. This can be within the community in which the NGO operates in relation to other outside organization. This entails coordination with outside agencies, mobilizing resources, and advocate mandates of Non-governmental Organization (Lewis, 2010). In targeting different intended groups, International Non-governmental Organization delegates this role to its board. Non-governmental Organization uses the Board as a platform to address concerns of the groups they target. This implies that the presence of the board in the fields is paramount for sound decision-making. This is because the board has a firm grip with affected people and can listen to them in order to come up with alternative and viable solutions (Lewis Kanji, 2009). The board encourages communities to participate in designing, implementation, and evaluation of programs and policies at all levels. Communities provide insights into appropriate and equitable allocation of resources. This helps the board to concentrate on issues that are crucial to the community. All members of Non-governmental Organizations board participate fully in conferences that require their presence. Activities of International Non-governmental Organization International Non-Governmental Organizations involve themselves in numerous activities that aim to improve lives of people. Most of the activities of NGOs entail alleviation of humanitarian crises through promoting grass root developments. This means that NGOs complement individual government effort even though they do operate under its control. Thus, not-for-profit making organizations are instrumental for tools that foster growth on nations especially the marginalized groups. International Non -governmental Organizations are very swift, flexible, and adaptive than the efforts of individual governments. According to Horton & Roche (2010), International Non-governmental Organizations mediate many activities of different nations. These activities include social services, environment, law, international activities, business, and international associations. For instance, they provide funds to establish many businesses in developing economies such as Latin America, Africa, and Asian countries. Non-profit making organization mobilize resources through donations of funds, materials, and volunteer human resource in order to sustain their programs and activities. Some of principal activities in which International Organizations involve themselves with include community health education and promotion, tackling emerging crises in health, alleviating community social problems, and environmental issues (Lewis Kanji, 2009). Other roles of International NGOs comprises of financial consulting, training people of important skills, giving target populations loans, advocating for women rights. In addition, Non-governmental Organizations embrace development projects such as construction of schools, infrastructure, cultural centers, and provision of expertise to promote growth of individual economies. The NGOs can organize fundraising activities. International Non-governmental Organizations persuades people to dedicate their time to tackle certain issues that are beneficial to societies. International Non-governmental Organizations operates upon principles of volunteerism to achieve its targets. They involve the target group in all its activities. Non-governmental Organizations conducts collects information about the issue that it intends to solve (Lewis Kanji, 2009). Financial Management of INGOs International Non-governmental Organizations have sound management system of finance. To begin with, they have prudent methods of keeping their records. Record keeping in Non-governmental Organization embraces accountability of all transactions that takes place within and from outside. Financial management team ensures that all details of different transaction get into the books of accounts. Second, INGOs have proper internal control system of finances. This encompasses many things such as employing competent staff, conducting auditing annually, and monitoring the spending of money (Sabral, 2011). Third, International Non-governmental Organizations prepare accurate budgets to guide to estimate amount of money that it require to utilize in their activities. Financial team in Non-governmental Organizations identifies activities, which they have planned according to priorities. Budgeting process captures lists sources of revenue and total cost of projects NGOs plans to execute within a specified period. Finally, INGOs write and reviews financial reports that sum up expenditure and income over a given period (Lewis, 2010). Challenges of International Non-Governmental Organization International Non-governmental Organizations faces many challenges. This is despite their records of good performance in alleviating human suffering through humanitarian intervention and development projects. To start with, International Non-governmental Organizations experiences government interference when executing its government operations. Political disturbance of INGOs retards their efforts to extend social services to the target group. The actions of individual governments contradict development philosophy of non-governmental Organization, which embraces minimum state intervention in their business. In addition, poor structures of government disrupt close-knit relationship between communities and Non-governmental Organization. This creates grave problems in the operations of INGOs. Moreover, political disruption of Non-profit making Organization deters the interests and services of potential donors and other humanitarian Organizations. Political intrusion may entail setting conditions that are difficult for Non-profit Organizations to fit. The requirements of individual governments may also not be in line with organizational structures and accountability systems. This makes implementation of programs of their target group hard (Horton & Roche, 2010). Second, some political system may restrict political space for International Non-governmental Organizations to operate. This is violations of freedoms of associations, assembly, and speech. Different governments approach the increasing influence of Non-governmental Organization with a domestic focus. This affects the efforts of Non-governmental Organizations to persuade the individual governments to set up independent structures such as judiciary, sound budgets for social services, upholding environmental standards, and enforcing laws of labor. Restricting NGOs space for their operation retards greatly their efforts to alleviate poverty and other social burdens. Third, Non-governmental Organization faces inadequate human resources. This is because most of non-profit Organizations depend on volunteers to formulate and implement their programs. Many of the volunteers do not receive anything while others get incentives. These incentives are very small to sustain these employees under different conditions in which they offer their services. In addition, International Non-governmental Organizations lose donors, which retard their programs and activities. Some of volunteers in international NGOs withdraw their services thereby spelling doom to the activities of Non-governmental Organizations. Moreover, Sabral (2011), argues that Non-governmental Organizations find it difficult to obtain sufficient, continuous, and appropriate funding for their projects. It is very taxing to acquire donors to fund different projects. Sometimes priorities of donors may shift interventions of NGOs. Lack of enough funds affects sustainability of intended projects. Lastly, International Non-governmental Organizations faces leadership challenges. These challenges are very different from the ones of private sector and governments. Issues such as social change of missions of NGOs, increased pressure for transparence and accountability have affected performances of International Non-governmental Organizations. Leaders increase competition for funds from potential donors. This scrambling for funds leads to poor coordination of leaders and staff in Non-governmental Organizations. New technologies also confront leadership in International NGOs. This is a great challenge because leaders do not know how to its impact and role which the new technologies may have in their organizations (Welch, 2001). Measurement of Impacts The role of International Non-governmental Organization in developmental projects has changed over years. NGOs are very crucial contributors in complementation of official agencies and individual government. In the light of importance of NGOs in enabling target groups to grow, measuring their impacts of their work is a prudent move. Measuring of impacts of Non-Governmental Organizations entails assessing performances of Non-Governmental Organization. This method helps NGOs to determine whether they have accomplished their mission in target population. International Non-Governmental Organizations utilizes management performance systems to determine their accomplishment. This method looks at how communities have benefitted from Non-Governmental programs and projects. The evaluation team of NGOs evaluates the impacts of their activities through visiting sites in which they have initiated development projects. In addition, monitoring and evaluation team interviews people to ascertain the level of their satisfaction on a particular project. This data enable International NGOs to assess whether their activities have yielded or they have been a total failure (Shoham & Havey, 2004). Second, International Non-Governmental Organizations conducts in-country analysis and debriefing. This entails collecting appropriate information of their operations in different parts of the globe. NGOs evaluation and monitoring team surveys based on individual nations. The survey looks at INGOs organizational attributes, amount of utilized resources, and strategies, which International Non-Governmental Organizations used in their target groups. Monitoring and evaluation team complies and analyses the objective information about its activities according to individual countries. The team then uses this information to debrief key stakeholders of international NGOs. These reports are very crucial because management of INGOs use them to devise sound decisions. International NGOs employ this data to determine whether to withdraw or continue with their missions in a given area (Lewis Kanji, 2009). Third, measuring of impacts of International Organizations entails looking at the amount of resources, which they have spent on target groups. This involves looking at financial reports to ascertain whether the targeted projects received the right share of funds. Information on resource utilization helps International NGOs to re-assess the needs of target audiences and to revise programs in order to meet the goals of International Non-governmental Organization (Lewis, 2010). Data from financial records is sufficient for International Non-Governmental Organization to use it in evaluation of the effectiveness of resources it invested in its development projects. Fourth, International Non-Governmental Organizations involves target population in all its evaluation activities. The people in the grassroots are very crucial in getting facts about developments. This is because understand the goals of International Non-Governmental Organizations since they were among the time that conceptualized the projects. The people in the ground provide evidence based reports on how INGOs have helped people. Likewise, the people can reveal the challenges, which they have met when implementing the activities and projects of INGOs (Shoham & Havey, 2004). Fifth, International Non-Governmental Organizations employ research institutions, which help them to carry activities such as auditing and evaluation of performance of their projects. The auditing team looks at the records of accounting to ascertain where the funds were utilized in the rights way. The auditing team and research firms explores whether all transactions much with what is in financial records such as cashbooks. This is the reason why International Non-Governmental Organizations emphasizes good record keeping of every transaction. Moreover, International Non-Governmental carries bank reconciliation monthly to make sure that they tally with that in the cashbook. Further, International Non-Governmental Organizations employ qualified finance staff to ensure that there are no flaws in terms of expenditure of funds (Welch, 2001). Lastly, International Non-Governmental Organizations uses sound budgeting and financial reporting in all their activities. The sound budget identifies and directs the spending and sources of income of International Non-Governmental Organizations. The forecasting, which is in budget enables International Non-Governmental Organizations to compare it with its real spending in identified projects and programs. Briefing of how the International Non-Governmental Organizations have spent money endeavors to achieve accountability and transparency (INTRAC, 2001). This ensures all the activities of non-governmental organizations are in line with their objectives and purposes. Conclusions International Non-Governmental Organizations are instrumental in development of many countries all over the world. They carry out many roles such as humanitarian and social ones. Most International Non-Governmental Organizations work towards improvements of local groups at grass root levels. This has made them become indispensible tools in developing nations. The efforts of the international Non-Governmental Organizations have led to substantial growth in countries where they have established activities and projects. International Non-Governmental Organizations have put sound measures in order to assess their impacts. Most of the assessment methods and impact evaluation employ in-country briefing. This entails using both local and INGOs personnel to evaluate their activities in different regions of the globe. Local people are very crucial in evaluation of impacts of many programs that International Non-Governmental Organization fund. This is because they are involved in those programs at grass root levels since their inception. Local people provide important facts about the progress of INGOs programs (Lewis, 2010). International Non-Governmental Organizations use this data to determine the number of programs that has benefitted the intended targets. This information is very important for International Non-profit Organization to improve their services. The sound monitoring and evaluation strategies have enabled International Non-Governmental Organizations to be prosperous in many regions where they have their programs. References Cingranelli, D. L. and Richards, D. L. Measuring the Impact of Human Rights Organizations. Retrieved on June 14, 2012, from, http://128.226.6.231/dlrnew/pubs/ngo.pdf Horton, K. & Roche, C. (2010). Ethical Questions and International NGOs. New York: Springer. INTRAC. (2001). NGO Policy Briefing paper. NGOs and Impact Assessment. Retrieved on June 14, 2012, from, http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CGMQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.samea.org.za%2Findex.php%3Fmodule%3DMediaAttach%26func%3Ddownload%26fileid%3D50&ei=A0fZT6q4Os6GhQeKzKTZAw&usg=AFQjCNF7HxJXcfhHzkV6P_yFNnnWabsfug&sig2=kbnKAYQQJiCsZa6r8RbW4Q Lewis, D. & Kanji, N. (2009). Non-Governmental Organizations and Development. New York: Taylor & Francis. Lewis, D. (2006). The Management of Non-Governmental Development Organizations. New York: Taylor & Francis. Sabral, F. D. (2011). Corporate Governance: International Journal of Business in Society, Vol. 11, No.4, pp. 415–426. Shoham, J. & Harvey, P. (2004). Measuring the impact of Humanitarian aid. A Review of Cuirrent practice. Retrieved on June 14, 2012, from, http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/docs/281.pdf Welch, E. C. (2001). NGOs and Human Rights: Promise and Performance. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. Read More