Introduction
Non-government organizations are organizations that are not controlled by government and are non profit making. Their purpose is to provide a service or object in which they are formed for they offer social welfare services to workers and communities in which they operate they play a major role in the society because they determinefamilystructures, family relation and also theeducationsystem that would produce effective man power for them and others. NGO, s has control over political power nationality and even power over borders. (Steve. Witt. (2005)
They also contribute to the needs of the poor, deals with issues of the religion in a given area and hence impact heavily on the attitude and values that a given community adapts to. NGO, s helps in the contribution of the humanitarian affairs that serve the communities interests. NGO, s also deals with national and multilateral policy making and even local actions, . NGO, s provides employment to the citizens and assist in matters of dividing international authority, help to research, assess, report and publicize details on behalf of those accountable to them. (K. Rodman, (1998). They also deal with stability and security issues. Most non-government doesn’t depend heavily on the government for funding but the government may assist them partially with funds. They thus do not involve government representative within their organization and they also don’t involve them in their decision making process. ♫
AREAS OF INEFFECTIVENESS, UNACCOUTABILITY AND ELITIST NATURE OF NGO, S
Non-governmental organizations are supposed to be effective on their objectives and also accountable to those they serve. However, this non government organization have increasingly failed by being unaccountable to those they are supposed to work for, they have continually been ineffective in their performance and they have adapted to elitist nature whereby they segregate themselves from others and only work for their own selfish interest and for the interest of those whose status they consider important to their affairs and has influential power that makes them be treated preferentially this attitude can be termed as a mechanism of elite capture. (Steve. Witt. (2005) ♫
The ineffectiveness, the unaccountability and the elitist nature of NGO, s is evident among much renowned organization and this can be seen to be true when one assesses their performance with regard to the current debate on good governance and civil society. (K. Rodman, (1998).
Roles of good governance
The current debate on good governance and civil society emphasizes on peace building, democratization, qualityleadership, responsibilityand proper civil institutions. NGO, s should assist in helping in peace building in countries in which they are situated, they should be involved in the resolving existing issues in the country for example by helping to find solutions to a countries conflicting issues when they arise, mediating disputing groups when there are ethnic tensions caused by political instability, coming up with measures that will reduce tribalism, nepotism and corruption, help in recovering the economy when the country is experiencing economicdepression, assisting the needy in their surroundingenvironmentfor example when natural disaster arise such as flood, earthquake , terrorist attacks among others,
Stabilizing political turmoil being experienced in that particular country and many other issues. (K. Rodman, (1998). However, the current non-government organization do not engage themselves with this issues on the contrary instead of doing this, the NGO, s have left this in the ruin of government and civil societies. Non-governmental organizations have also in some instances contributed to peace downfall by supporting one side of the worrying groups rather than being neutral.
They tend to favor that group that have influential power and assumes those who are less powerful. This has made them to be unaccountable and untrustworthy and cannot be depended upon by both the government and the members of the societies who would have otherwise depended on them. The management allows political influences when making decisions which imposes a negative impact to all the organization stakeholders and employees who oppose the decision on the basis that they are not consulted and. this causes conflicts, lots of job turn over, redundancy and withdrawal and this leads to job inefficiency. (K. Rodman, (1998).
They have been ineffective with regards to matters of enhancing democratization. This is because they have indulged in politics funding complains and supporting certain politicians who have influence upon them and this has contributed heavily in the reduction of democracy as they do not play their role as pressure group to pressurize the government to observe democracy.
Non governmental organization have also been ineffective to help in matters of maturation of nation’s policy and economy other than participating in development and transformations, this organizations involve in the achievement of their own interest that is; what will benefit them other than what will be beneficial to all who are accountable to them, they pursue their owngoalswithout incorporating the objectives of government and civil societies and this leads to lack of goals commonality hence retarding the government policies such aspovertyand illiteracy eradication.
Leadership
Leadership and quality management are important for any country or institution to have good governance. Non governmental organization are poorly managed because of lack of qualified staff because the recruitment of workforce is based not on technical competence and merit, but on favoritism and thus the management have no proper management skills, the employees under such management thus work with a lot of skepticism and heavy opposition and most of them resist changes and all the rules that the management enforces and this leads to difficulties in implementation of proper practices, policies and procedures that are fundamental in developing strategies that ensures that organizations objectives are met. (K. Rodman, (1998).
This also has led to poor selection of policies and allocation of resources. The leadership style in current non-governmental organization is that of authoritative and bureaucratic which ignores human elements due to impersonality of interpersonal relations. This style of leadership imposes rules, norms and procedures to be followed. The leaders make decisions and demands everyone to follow, they do not allow the other members of staff to be involved when making decisions and they harshly react when the rules they enforces are not properly followed this causes slow development, work delays, inefficiency and frustrations to citizens, employees and any other stakeholders and this reduces the effectiveness of NGO, s as a whole. (Carrie Meyer, (1999),
Corruption eradication is a key issue in good governance especially in Africa. . NGO, s are faced with issues of corruption where they demands bribery to assist in matters they were supposed to deliver to the citizens without demanding any form of payment and this makes them unaccountable to those who rightfully depended on their services. (sH. Englund, (2004) There’s also a lot of misappropriation of funds and lack of proper fund management.
This causes inadequate funding leading to shortage of resources to implement their policies and this can also eventually lead to the liquidation of the organization. When organization funds are mismanaged it causes serious implications, which makes the organization unaccountable and inefficient, which leads them to a step back to transparency andaccountability. This vice has passed on to civil societies and government at large.
Environmental issues
NGO, s engages in activities that are harmful to the surrounding environment. This is by social unethical and unaccountable activities. For example, they may engage in activities that involves emissions of exhaustive gases that pollute the environment or even have technological machinery that produce disturbing noises around the environment they are situated in. They often do not take proper measures and responsibility to eradicate this implication arguing that since they are a non profit making organizations, members of the communities should take care of their environment and the fact that they are in needs of the organizations services they should allow them to deliver them respectfully without dealing with environmental issues. This causes negative impacts to the community and it has hampered the life of the society and animals especially where there is water andair pollution. They can be termed as negligence of the virtue of accountability to the society.( K. Rodman, (1998).
NGO, s has turned into a mechanism of elite capture. They tend to involve only the elite in formulation of their policies. (H. Englund, (2004) There is lack of representation of civil society as a whole and the marginalized social movements are sidelined. Regional consultative of African non-governmental organizations, s and civil society organization lay foundation for the governance forum stressed on role of women in leadership. It has been observed that there is evident gender inequality within these organizations. Few non government organizations in Africa have observed this as few women are employed or hold decision making positions in management of NGO, s. the elites in NGO, s have various skills that they can utilize in government running but they are trapped in the NGO, s. in addition, instead of involving the locals to do various jobs they subcontract them. (Carrie Meyer, (1999),
NGO, s has been ineffective because of selective area of operations. They concentrate in certain areas than the others. This makes those sidelined areas not to enjoy their operations. The NGO, s may not operate in certain areas that have poor infrastructure, lack of effective communications and lack oftechnology. This has led to unequal distribution of resources. The NGO, s have not helped in establishment of proper running civil institutions and instead they leave this role to the government
Conclusion
In order to ensures that non-governmental organizations work effectively and successfully there is need to ensure that there is interactions of workers, formal and informal groups, government itself and any other influential factors to the organization. Democratic involvement by this organization should be considered as it is equally and critically important in enhancing the effectiveness of this organization. (Carrie Meyer, (1999), They should be committed to implement their services to all interested stakeholders successfully. They should also avoid favoritism and avoid authoritative leadership and adapt to other ways of leading that will bring aboutmotivationand morale of workers in the organization. Non governmental organizations should also ensure that they take responsibility and take the necessary actions required of them when their activities imposes harm to the surrounding environment. (Steve. Witt. (2005) They should also ensure that all non-governmental organizations are effective, efficient and accountable and are not expressed as mechanism of elitist capture.
References:
l Steve. Witt. (2005). Changing roles of NGO, s in the creation.
l Sangeeta Kamat. (2002), development hegemony, American university press
l Carrie Meyer, (1999), The economics and politics of NGO, s in Latin American; praeger publisher.
l Maha abreirahman, (2004), the politics of NGO, s in Egypt; the American university press 5H. Teegen(2003) international NGO, s as global institution; Journals of international management
l K. Rodman, (1998). Think globally; vol 12
l Daniel . a. Bell and Jean Marc (2004) university press
l H. Englund, (2004), prisoners of freedom; human rightsand Africa poor.
l S, Goonahlak, (2006). Journal, foreign funded
l Lyal. s. Sunga, (2003), NGO, s involvement in international human rights monitoring
