What Are The Roles Of An NGO?

NGOs or non-government organisations have become quite an important part of our world. They support and promote various causes for the welfare of a society as a whole. Different NGOs have different agendas and they try to fulfil them in their own respective ways. Some might work to support human rights, while other might work for animal welfare. But among all the roles that and NGO plays, the most important ones are listed below.

·         Infrastructure- the NGOs help in the development as well as the operation of infrastructure. Most of the community based cooperatives and organisations can easily acquire land, subdivide and also develop it. They also provide infrastructure or construct housing. They operate and maigovernment approved NGOS in Indiantain public toilets, wells, solid waste collection services, etc. Many other economic enterprises which are community based are also developed by them. But for doing so these NGOs will require assistance from governmental agencies or the government approved NGOS in India.

·         Pilot projects- one of the advantages of NGOs is that they can choose any particular place for any innovative project and they can also specify the amount of time they will need for supporting the project in advance. This overcomes many of the shortcomings that the government organisations face regarding this. They can also pilot much larger government projects because of their ability to act much more quickly than the government organisations.

·         Communication- by using interpersonal methods of communication, the NGOs study all the correct entry points by which they can target the community they want to benefit and gain their trust. This way they will also get a good idea about the feasibility of the project they were going to take up. The government benefits from this role as the NGOs can communicate to the government levels dealing with policy-making about the information of the capabilities, lives, cultural characteristics and attitudes of all the people at the local level.

NGOs have the capability to facilitate communication from the government to the people as well as from the people to the government. The people mostly want to inform the government about their problems and their feelings about it and the government in turn inform the people about their plans to overcome the problem.

·         Technical assistance- NGOs together with training institutions can develop a capacity for technical training and assistance which can be used to assist both the government and CBOs.

·         Research- any innovative activities carried out by the organisation needs to be properly shared and documented. An efficient monitoring in a participatory manner will allow the results to be shared with the project staff as well as the people themselves.

·         Advocacy for the poor- most of the top NGOs in India try to influence the government and change their policies for the betterment of the poor. This can be done by various means such as demonstration and pilot projects. They also participate in public forums and help formulate better policies and plans by publicising the case study and research results of the poor population. This way they help the poor people lead a better life.