Government-organized non-governmental organization
A government-organized non-governmental organization (GONGO) is a non-governmental organization that was set up or sponsored by a government in order to further its political interests and mimic the civic groups and civil society at home, or promote its international or geopolitical interests abroad.
History
The term GONGO had become established by the late 1980s,[1] and it was suggested that it was first introduced by a group of Indonesian NGOs.[2]
Goals
A GONGO can be created for any sound political or social purpose, however, in reality, it would be functioning as a mechanism of the government to further its domestic political interests and realize its economic and foreign policy objectives. Sometimes, GONGOs are created to solicit international aid, or mitigate specific humanitarian issues.[3] Though not necessarily confined to the developing countries, most often, GONGOs are set up by undemocratic governments to maintain some level of control of the GONGO's personnel, purpose, operation or activities.[4][5][6] This control is often not seen in a positive light, as it compromises the spirit of an NGO by introducing hidden to participating actors and the public non-disclosed government's intentions.[4][7]
Examples
- International Union for Conservation of Nature
- Red Cross Society of China[8]
- World Without Nazism (WWN)[9]
- Nashi[10]
- National Endowment for Democracy (NED)[4]
See also
References
- ^ Brown LD, Korten D. 1989. The role of voluntary organizations in development. IDR Work. Pap. No. 8. Boston: Inst. Dev. Res./Boston Univ. Sch. Manage.
- ^ Radhamany Sooryamoorthy, K. D. Gangrade, Ngos in India: A Cross-Sectional Study, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 0313319545, ISBN 9780313319549
- ^ Natalie Steinberg. Background Paper on GONGOs and QUANGOs and Wild NGOs. World Federalist Movement Institute of Global Policy, 2001.
- ^ a b c Naím, Moisés. Democracy's Dangerous Impostors, The Washington Post, 21 April 2007.
- ^ F. Ching. Is it an NGO, or a GONGO?: New Chinese body rebuts US report on human rights, Far East. Econ. Rev., 1994.
- ^ F. Wu. Environmental GONGO autonomy: unintended consequences of state strategies in China, The Good Society, 2003.
- ^ Jennifer Hsu and Reza Hasmath. The Local Corporatist State and NGO Relations in China, Journal of Contemporary China, 23 (87), 2014.
- ^ China's Nonprofit Sector: Progress and Challenges
- ^ James Kirchick. Anti-Nazi Group Secretly Helping Kremlin Rebuild Russian Empire, The Daily Beast, 02.08.2015.
- ^ What is a Gongo, Global Politics in a Changing World: A Reader, p. 222.
Further reading
- Cumming, Lawrence S. GONGOs. In Anheier, Helmut K, and Stefan Toepler. International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Berlin: Springer, 2010.
- Naim, Moises. What is a Gongo. In Mansbach, Richard W, and Edward Rhodes. Global Politics in a Changing World: A Reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Cengage Learning, 2009.
- Sharma, Aradhana. Logics of Empowerment: Development, Gender, and Governance in Neoliberal India. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
External links
- Definition for a GONGO, The New York Times, October 29, 2010.
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