The role of a NGO in International Development is an important one. An NGO may run programmes or activities in country, or they may just be involved in lobbying. Either way, an NGO will act independently of their respective governments. They may receive donations from that government, but it should exclude that government from controlling the organisation directly.

NGOs vary in size from one person who may conduct their work unpaid, through to some larger NGOs that may have several hundred people working for them and may have large budgets. In most cases though, NGO are small and poorly funded. Most of the people working for them will be volunteers or poorly paid.

In most countries, anyone can call themselves an NGO. However, most countries have rules that allow NGOs to receive donations and/or foreign donations, with tax reduction or exemption. So if you are donating to an NGO, it is worthwhile checking to see if the organisation is registered for this, otherwise you may find part of your donation going to the government!

NGOs involved in rural development in the developing world will usually have some sort of head office in a larger town or city. They may also have offices that are based near their target area. Often these offices are located in a rural village or town and run on a small budget, in order to keep their costs down. Small NGOs may only have one office.

Regardless of the size of the NGO, a good NGO will have a vision and mission. The vision may be that it wants to eradicate poverty, or that is wants everyone to have clean drinking water. It's mission may be that it is going to work only with smaller NGOs to eradicate poverty, or that it is going to run at least twenty health camps a year.

It should have developed various Strategies to help it operate efficiently and help it to receive donations. For example, it may have created a project to install water pumps in a number of villages. For this it may decide to run an advertising campaign to appeal to donors directly, or it may try and get funding directly from larger agencies.

All NGOs need donations to survive. These donations might be money, food, equipment or expertise. Some of the food and equipment may be donated directly to the target people, or they may be used to run the NGO various programmes and activities. In the case of Micro Finance related NGOs, monetary donations are often passed directly onto the receivers (who are usually local groups who are responsible for administering the loans).

They should have the freedom to operate at a grass-roots level free from any government influences if they desire. They should be able to receive foreign donations.

Please click on the links above to read some case studies about NGOs.