Influence of Non-Governmental Organizations and Intergovernmental Organizations on Global Governance - Essay Example

INFLUENCE OF NGO’s AND IGO’s ON GLOBAL GOVERNANCE A non governmental organization (NGO) is an organization which is neither part of the central government nor a profit oriented business. It is an organization which is set up and funded by ordinary citizens. In some cases, NGO’s are funded by governments and other organizations. However, their main funders are volunteers. The activities carried out by NGO’s vary depending on the nature of the formation of the NGO. Some are know for their charitable status based on their activities to the needy societies. Some of the activities that NGO’s undertake include human rights activities, environmental focus and development activities. According to the UN, NGOs are private organizations that are set up with non profit motives and which are independent from government control and whose activities are not criminal and that they are not opposition political parties. Their objectives are not short term and their operations are not finance oriented. They have very high degrees of public trust and they devote themselves to issues such as malaria prevention, disease control, climate change and other current trending issues in the global arena. On the other hand, intergovernmental organizations (IGO) are organizations primarily composed of member or sovereign states or of other intergovernmental organizations. They are established by a treaty, a statute that acts as a charter creating the group. It is made up of atleast three states in their membership. The process of treaty formation involves the coming together of lawful representatives or governments of several states go through a ratification process giving the IGO an international legal personality. This enables them to work in an international field. They therefore can undertake their operations in the member countries to the treaty without any hindrances. Some of their functions include collecting of information and monitoring trends, delivering of services and aid, providing forums for intergovernmental bargaining and the adjudicating of disputes. Common examples of IGO include the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the European Union (EU) Global governance is also referred to as world governance. It is a social movement towards political integration of the actors towards solving the problems which affects more than one state or region and when there is no power of enforcing compliance. It is a continuing process through which conflicting or diverse interests may be accommodated and cooperative action may be taken. It is made up of any formal and informal arrangements that people and institutions have agreed to and which they have perceived o be affecting all of them. LIBERALISM The nature of liberalism is optimistic that people are good and that peace can be preserved through overall state cooperation. The liberalism theory advocates that injustice, aggression and war are all products of inadequate or corrupt social institutions. All these can be eliminated through collective and multilateral actions and institutional building. The expansion of human freedom is a core liberal belief that can be achieved through democracy and market capitalism. Liberalism values institution or international order because they think that people like states are rational and want to check their interests first before other things. For as long the central power are held by institution, states can trust each other and cooperate with each other for the sole purpose of mutual interest. The main aim of the formation of the League of Nation was the belief that it would serve as a world government so as to keep international order, maintain peace and promote closer cooperation in both politics and economies of different countries. Liberalism acknowledged that states are key actors but states should be performing based on freedom and democracy. The best results witnessed from the adoption of the liberalism theory were the financial crisis in early 1970s. Despite the seriousness level of the crisis, most of the non state actors such as International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and Bretton Wood did not collapse. This was due to the fact that the states cooperated and hence did not collapse. The driving force then was the slogan that “unity is strength ’’. They hence worked with each other in order to survive. Further more, another similarly good case study was the term Prisoner’s Dilemma in which the lack of communication channel would result to the occurrence of a lose-lose policy. FUNCTIONALISM Governance is the belief that needs contribution from both state and people to fulfill the needs and demands of humanity. States should put difference concepts aside and start working with each other so as to focus on the issues affecting them as a whole. INTERNATIONAL REGIMES It is important for states to think about morality and benefit as well as human security as a whole. As long as states understand that they are forming frameworks that are serving for the best interest of everyone, the states would join that framework. Liberalism believes that social cooperation is a root to political and security cooperation. A good reference to this is the formation of the European Union (EU). COLLECTIVE BENEFIT GOODS People are rational to increase the proceeds and profits they earn. Collective goods try to manage the uses of scarce resources. According to the developers of the liberalism theory, the rational human beings have capacity to improve their conditions through the creation of a society. This leads to the formation of perpetual peace among different democracies. They also continued to state that free trade could lead to the creation of interdependencies. This includes among others; collective security and the formation of international institutions. The however pointed out that it is not only about states and the relations between the states but also about transnational relations. According to them, the interconnection of activities helps in the creation of values that are common and also it helps in identifying people from different states and thereby paves way for the creation of international peace. Over the recent years, interdependence between people has been fostered through trade, investment and through people to people contact. Some of the reasons that make democracies not to go to war with each other are the existence of peaceful conflict resolution mechanisms, common moral value and the existence of interdependence. In global governance, IGOs play a crucial role in persuading the states to act, coordinating the efforts of different groups within the countries, providing the different skills in diplomatic matters to secure agreements and ensuring the effectiveness of programs. Many different achievements have been made by the IGOs in the achievement of international trade agreements, cease fires in wars, governments’ agreement to revise their development strategies to meet the internationally set guidelines and in organizational reforms. The IGOs must respond to the new challenges and crisis, provide the policy options for the member states, change their missions and formulate new tasks and procedures. Some of the resources at the disposal of the IGOs include money, food, weapons and information. This enables them to effectively carry out their work effectively. These resources facilitate the control and the strengthening of global governance. IGOs hence help determine the kind of world that is to be governed and hence set an agenda for global governance. In addition, IGOs can often claim expert authority on the basis of the specialized understanding and expertise that it possesses in the secretariats. This knowledge and expertise also help shape the way some organizations behave. Through this it is able to control global organizations and hence assists in global governance. According to study, IGOs are not just tools for the states to use. They are also very important actors that have the power to influence world events and even in some cases they have the authority and autonomy to act. NGOs are also very important tools for governance. They have exercised their importance from not only the local but to also the global arena. Some of the activities undertaken by the NGOs include among others; population control, women empowerment, healthcare and focus on environmental conservation. Over the years, NGOs have become key sources of information and technical expertise on a wide variety of international issues ranging from the environment to the human rights and corruption. They are crucial actors in monitoring the states’ and corporations’ implementation f human rights and environmental regulations. The common trait between IGOs and NGOs is their focus in the promotion of global unity measures. This makes them to be good agents of liberalization which also advocates for the common unity of related parties in an effort to achieve a common objective. These two actors play on the advantage that they are able to communicate with and are able to travel to all corners of the globe to promote collaboration, tap expertise and to disseminate knowledge new to the global arena which is advantageous to the concerned parties. They have an upper hand in that they are very flexible. This aspect lacks in most of the other traditional organizations. The various actors in global governance cannot be analyzed in isolation from one another. Each of them plays a key role in an effort to deal and curb the problems and the issues affecting the global society. In some instances, they compete with each other for the scarce resources, legitimacy and to gain an international standing. However, in most cases, they work closely with each other and complement each other. These two actors have helped develop the process of globalization. Globalization refers to the process of international integration arising from the interchange of ideas, world views, products and other aspects of culture. Is also refers to the intensification of world wide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring in different distant locations. It is characterized by close interrelation between people, countries, continents and cultures from different parts of the globe. It is the leading factor leading to global development. Some of the leading key aspects of globalization include; a. International trade This refers to the exchange of capital, goods and services across international borders and territories. b. Trade agreements The establishment of free trade areas has become an essential feature of the modern governments to handle the preferential trading arrangements with the foreign and the multinational entities. c. International tourism This refers to the increase in the number of tourists visiting other countries other than their home countries hence leading to increased international relations d. International sports There has been an increase in the number of world wide sports which have led to increase in world relations. Some of this includes the world cup, the Olympics games and many more sporting activities. CONCLUSION The above listed factors are factors that lead to the development of the theory of liberalism. As earlier stated, liberals focus on individuals as the primary actors. The state is however the most important collective actor. This is because it observes the moral and the ethical principles and holds free and fair elections. Cooperation according to the liberals will not only be possible bus it will also grow as the various actors learn from the multiple interactions between them. It advocates for a way that the actors adhere to the common norms and to the common rules. Liberals are supportive of both the international organizations and the international law even though they admit the difference between international and domestic law. They term international law as one of the main instruments for maintenance of international law and order. As illustrated above, the non governmental organizations and the intergovernmental organizations have very much influence on global governance. This has been explained in the liberal approach which advocates for togetherness and unity as the best strength to create lasting global unity and peace. Both the non governmental organizations and the intergovernmental organizations lead to the creation and the fostering of lasting peace and hence all play the role of the most crucial actors in global governance. They should therefore be advocated for and their continued presence be encouraged. This is due to the fact that their continued presence is for the common good of the globe at large and for the simplification of the global governance process. Read More