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"Injustice, Action, and Social Change"

Our Three Favorite NGOs

(First appeared in The Stanford Daily, 3/9/2005)

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has described non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as “the conscience of humanity.” NGOs address every issue imaginable and they operate in every country in the world.

Non-profit multi-national organizations range in size, structure and purpose. But they are all mission-driven, broadly representative and full of the potential to catalyze massive systemic change. They’re present on both sides of every conflict, and they’re not risk-averse.

Below are our three favorite NGOs — who they are, what they do and why we think they’re so great.

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Despite what Adam learned in philosophy class, Descartes is not the only good thing to come out of France. In 1971, a group of French doctors founded the first non-military NGO to specialize in emergency medical assistance. They call themselves Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), but we know them as Doctors without Borders.

MSF is different from other international health and humanitarian aid NGOs because it acts as a witness “and will speak out, either in private or in public about the plight of populations in danger,” according to MSF’s Web site.

Part of the organization’s mission is to “alleviate human suffering,” so it is willing to go to great lengths to protect life and health in the communities it serves by raising awareness of the issues, concerns and crises that MSF volunteers encounter.

According to its mission, MSF offers assistance “without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation.” It is unfortunate that other large aid organizations, such as the International Red Cross, have not adopted this same set of guiding principles. Where there is a medical need, MSF is there — no matter where you’re from, what you’ve done, what you look like or who you’re fighting for.

We’re not the only ones who think they’re great: The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded MSF the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. (Most people seem to be over the whole Rigoberta Menchu thing by now.)

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According to the World Bank, almost half of the people in the world today are under 25 years old, and nine out of 10 of these young people live in developing countries without proper access to food, water, education, shelter or healthcare. If the children are our future, what does it mean when 90 percent of children suffer from malnourishment, disease, lack of education, violence and political unrest?

Save the Children is a group that attempts to address these issues. It is a leading international relief and development organization working in more than 45 countries to provide communities with “a hand up, not a handout.”

It was started in 1932, when a group of citizens gathered in New York to respond to the needs of populations who had been hit by the Great Depression. Save the Children’s approach is to work with families to define and solve the problems their children and communities face by “utilizing a broad array of strategies to ensure self-sufficiency.”

Today, this organization’s empowering initiatives are innovative and efficient, earning it the 1993 National Volunteer Action Award presented by former President Bill Clinton.

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In 1978, in the midst of the Cold War, Human Rights Watch (HRW) was founded as Helsinki Watch to monitor the observance of Soviet countries with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords.

In 1988, the several “watch” committees that had formed around the world officially banded together to form HRW. There are a lot of think tanks out there, and a lot of advocacy groups, but HRW is a rare, efficient hybrid of the two.

Human Rights Watch researchers conduct fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses around the world. Then HRW publishes the findings in books and reports, generating local and international media attention that “helps to embarrass abusive governments in the eyes of their citizens and the world,” according to HRW’s Web site.

Human Rights Watch then takes the next step and meets with government officials across the world to urge changes in policy and practice.

In order to maintain independence and accuracy, HRW does not accept governmental donations, neither directly nor indirectly. Their steadfast dedication to the pursuit of justice and truth has brought some of the world’s worst human rights violators to the scrutiny of the international public.

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International advocacy networks have immense potential and power. For instance, NGOs have been invaluable in the struggles for women’s suffrage and the collapse of apartheid. MSF, Save the Children and HRW are three prime examples of successful NGOs that are truly changing the world. They have created innovative ways to mobilize resources and band together communities with only one common denominator: The need and pursuit of systemic change.

Wow, great article. How can I read them all?

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