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COPYRIGHT 2007 Professors World Peace Academy
This article reflects on the role played by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in furthering human security from the view of political economy. "Political economy" takes into account the economic, political, cultural and historical factors that contribute to the growth or the decline of NGOs. Being specialized, NGOs often demonstrate comparative or absolute advantages over government agencies in their delivery of goods and services. However, NGOs working in less developed countries face a variety of challenges. The most serious of these are political. Authoritarian rulers can view NGOs as a potential base for opposition to their regime and often take measures to hinder their efforts. NGOs have also created their own problems. When the integrity of any NGO is compromised, it impacts on other NGOs' abilities to survive economically and politically, especially in authoritarian states.
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Although the role that NGOs can play in promoting peace may remain limited because of the complexity of the roots of conflict and the nature of the actors involved, (1) it is clear that NGOs are assuming a more central role in this area and in advancing human security, including the realization of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Francois Fouinat, who has served as Executive Director of the Commission on Human Security, points out:
The concept of human security represents a questionable paradigm (2) in understanding security and humanitarian requirements. Traditional security paradigms have focused on the state as the referent of security, and mainly the state's ability to counter external threats. In the human security conception, the individual is the primary referent of security. This people-centered approach broadens the focus from security of borders to lives of people inside and outside those borders. (3)
This article attempts to assess the role of NGOs and the challenges that they face from the perspective of political economy in furthering human security. International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) are identified in ECOSOC resolution 288 (X) of February 27, 1950 as "any international organisation that is not founded by an international treaty." (4) NGOs emerged as players on the international scene following World War II. The phrase "non-governmental organization" gained currency through Article 71 of Chapter 10 of the United Nations Charter that provided for a consultative role for organizations that are neither governments nor member states and referred to an entity that fell into that category as a "non-governmental organization (5)." Article 71 clarifies that ECOSOC "may make suitable arrangements for consultation with non-governmental organizations which are concerned with matters within its competence. Such arrangements may be made with international organizations and, where appropriate, with national organizations after consultation with the Member of the United Nations concerned." (6) The vital role that NGOs play in promoting in sustainable development was recognized in Chapter 27 of Agenda 21. This conference marked a watershed moment when the UN recognized the need to allow NGOs to play a larger role in promoting sustainable development as well as other United Nations-sponsored initiatives. With Amnesty International, the International Campaign to ban Landmines, and Doctors without Borders numbering among the NGOs that have recently been honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to reduce human carnage and defend human rights and dignity, NGOs have come into the public's attention as potentially important independent vehicles that can assist in conflict resolution and in promoting human security.
NGOs have served both as a "voice for the weak" as well as in mediating role for the major powers vis-a-vis adversaries that increasingly are non-state actors such as Hezbollah or Al Qaeda. The exact role that NGOs are to play in local and international politics remains a topic of debate. In February 2003 the United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan appointed Fernando Enrique Cardoso, former President of Brazil, to chair the Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations. In the 83 page report that the twelve member panel submitted to the Secretary General on June 7, 2004, numerous recommendations were made to facilitate participation of NGOs at the UN and to allow for greater development of NGO activity in Global South countries. In its rationale for expanding NGO activity, the Commission highlighted the distinction between "representative democracy" and "participatory democracy," noting that "traditional democracy aggregates citizens by communities of neighbourhood (their electoral districts), but in participatory democracy citizens aggregate in communities of interest." (7) NGOs represent one of the most evident examples of such participatory democracy and can facilitate changes in public policy.
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NGOS IN CONTEXT
The study of the work, growth and role of NGOs can be approached through numerous disciplines including sociology and management; however, such work can also be assessed on the basis of looking at NGOs in the context of political economy. Susan Strange, one of the pioneers of the modern study of international political economy defines "political economy" as "the social, political and economic arrangements affecting the global systems of production, exchange and distribution, and the mix of values reflected therein." (8) "Political economy" is also understood more succinctly by Strange as the relationship that exists between "States and Markets." (9) In The Political Economy of Hunger, Jean Dreze and Amarya Sen propose a broader approach to the discipline:
The meaning of the expression 'political economy' is not altogether unambiguous. To some, it simply means economics. It is indeed the old name of the discipline, common in the nineteenth century, and now rather archaic. To others, political economy is economics seen in a perspective that is a great deal broader than is common in the mainstream of the modern tradition. In this view, the influences of political and social institutions and ideas are taken to be particularly important for economic analysis and must not be pushed to the background with some stylized assumptions of heroic simplicity. Political economy thus interpreted cannot but appear to be rather 'interdisciplinary' as the disciplines are not standardly viewed.... It does not, of course, really matter whether political, social, and cultural influences on economic matters are counted inside or outside the discipline of economics, but it can be tremendously important not to lose sight of these influences in analyzing many profoundly important economic problems. (10)
The latter definition of political economy would seem particularly applicable to the present study of NGOs. Civil society, as the womb of NGOs, is necessarily shaped by the "political, social, and cultural influences" of the times. The political and the economic positions espoused by civil society can transform or modify the political economy of a society, as evidenced by the Birmingham Bus Boycott of 1955-56 led by Dr. Martin Luther King that contributed to the end of segregation and to the opening of new political and...
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