The Role of Development NGOs NGO's, according to the United Nations' official definition, are not-for-profit groups catering primarily to voluntary citizens and which are organized on state, regional , national and international bases with the goal of supporting issues in support of the public good. NGOs are comprised with many task-oriented people who dedicated and persistent in their attempt to unite citizens' concerns. NGOs engage in a number of different roles that include humanitarian issues, policy implementation, as well as bringing policy concerns to international governments around the world. In 2005, approximately 40,000 international charities were in existence around the world and even more within each country. The activities of NGOs to begin involvement as a result of the civil war in Bangladesh in the early 1970s. Today, NGOs have a strong presence in these countries and are often proving to be effective in solving some problems related to development. The country probably has more NGOs than any other country of the same size. In Bangladesh, the NGO community is the largest civil society area across the world. Bangladeshi NGO's have built a reputation for effectively developing structures and other innovative models in diverse areas like non-formal education, health care and micro credit. NGOs also provide important provisions like job opportunities for poor people and stimulate business development on a small scale. Yet, despite the many achievements these NGOs have made, politicians, business community, religious groups and some civil society organizations have brought criticisms against NGO's like the ones in Bangladesh. They critcisze these groups for charging extremely high rates of interest, of acquiring degrees of power and money in society with little oversight, have internal corruption that includes foreign fund laundering and cronyism in local and national political relationships as well as entrance into for-profit business ventures. People also claim that NGOs may be representative of international agency attempts to promote capitalism in economic development but without actually imposing any substantial structural changes on the economy which could protect the lowest players in the capitalism game.. Without structural changes, a continuous cycle of unemployment and poverty will continue. This can lead the already powerless groups of poor people in the society worse off than they were before. The NGOs, in response to these critics ms, will usually flatly deny this and simply attest to the fact that their financial accounts are subject to financial auditors both at home and internationally in order to meet various international regulations on requirements for donors. For countries undergoing development, the role NGOs plays is extremely important. BRAC's role in Bangladesh has covered a range of diverse tasks, including providing food and shelter for displacement victims and victims of famine. Currently, the major issue of BRAC now is a focus on the reduction of poverty. BRAC encourages the promotion of small time industry and self sufficiency through making self-employment opportunities available and offering micro loans, as well as human rights services, education and legal services. What is significant about the BRAC model is the way it shows how NGOs, each with comparative advantages to offer, is able to promote the reduction of poverty for thousands of people. BRAC's activities also is significant because it opens up the possibility for other large agents to participate in the civil society and extend much needed assistance and actions to a government's populations when the government policies are doing little to alleviate the stressors and conditions which face a substantial proportion of their constituents. The activities that BRAC and other organizations promote in these domains are crucial for the provision of essential services in the developing world. NGO's may be lacking in traditional power, but they nevertheless possess a soft power that is akin to a moral authority in society which cannot be very easily overlooked.
References
Todaro, Michael and Smith, Stephen, C.. (2012). Economic Development. New York: Addison-
Wesley
