Organizational, Informational and Electronic networking
of Nongovernmental Organizations

An Annotated Bibliography of online documents.

Hari Srinivas

Title and AuthorExcerpts
Get Connected: How to use electronic networking to strengthen partnerships
Tim France, UNAIDS
Modern information technology (IT) and 'electronic networking' in particular can strengthen your organization by boosting its knowledge base and its ability to share information and experiences with strategic allies and other partners in your field. The extraordinary value of electronic networking lies not so much in the growing volume of information being exchanged each day but in the fact that it brings people together to build and shape partnerships, and a joint programme of action on common themes.

The Internet and Rural Development: Recommendations for Strategy and Activity
SD Dimensions
In order to facilitate the implementation of project activities related to the Internet and electronic knowledge and communication tools, this Report addendum provides eight suggestions for projects.

The Internet Society and Developing Countries
George Sadowsky
... cannot link

Predictors for success in networking projects
in INTERNET TOOLKIT FOR MANAGERS, World Bank
This section provides some practical suggestions to help maximize potential success of networking by recognizing "vital signs" that can predict success or failure early. In many cases major investments in Internet connectivity have been wasted due to insufficient assessment of the readiness of the organization. Even before the assessment of technical and equipment issues it is vital to examine success predictors that can shape the outcome of the project. Those discussed in this section have more to do with organizational issues than with equipment, for while equipment is important, it is far less important than organization, planning, morale and other human behavior issues.

Barriers to the evolving global network: Networking issues in Vietnam
Frieda Wiebe
This presentation will focus on libraries and information sharing in developing countries, with particular reference to Viet Nam. Many of the issues pertinent to Vietnam are similar to those faced by other countries of the Pacific Rim. In order to devise a plan of action for information sharing, it is necessary to understand some of the problems faced by countries of the region.

Networking in Africa: An Unavoidable Evolution Towards the Internet
Jean-Yves Djamen, Dunia Ramazani, Stephane Soteg Some
The Internet is an indispensable tool that African countries may utilize for: (1) regional integration, (2) participation in world activities, and (3) a complete mastery of their development. This paper proposes a scenario for the evolution of the infrastructure of data transmission available in some African countries through the Internet. The study includes the following countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Niger, Senegal and Togo.

Electronic Global Networking and the NGO Movement
Shelly Preston
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was unprecedented in bringing together people from all walks of life, cultures, political systems, and environment-development experiences. International networking and mutual understanding of common problems or national predicaments are bound to flourish as a result. As electronic communication becomes more available, a basis of international consolidation and reciprocal respect also will become more firmly established. This article explores the communication dynamics of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at the Rio Summit.

Computer Networking for Research, Education and Development in Zimbabwe
Tim Buxton
Zimbabwe has shortages of teachers and up-to-date educational materials for the tremendous numbers of students enrolled in its schools. A major ingredient in the solutions to all these problems is the use of computer-based information transfer via telephone network links and CD- ROM's. The fledgling current state, the future trends and great promise of these technologies as applied to research, education and development in Zimbabwe is the topic of this paper.

Decentralization: Acid test for NGOs
ECDPM Programme Highlights 1996
Decentralisation processes are flowering in many Third World countries. But if they aren't supported by strengthening of capacities, they will soon perish. NGO's, both southern and northern, can play a key role in this process.

A Perspective from an International NGO
Hugh Goyder
International NGO's have a mixed experience of partnership. While the concept of partnership remains valid, most NGO's face real difficulties in making the concept fully operational. True partnership implies a compatibility of vision, aims, and objectives between the two sides which is all too rare in practice.

Participation Sourcebook: Intermediary NGOs
"Bridging institutions" can provide links among the poor (and their community organizations), their governments, and the World Bank. Focus is laid in Chapter IV of the Sourcebook on one particular sort of intermediary institution: nationally or internationally based NGOs

Why should NGOs go on the Net?
Anuradha Vittachi
A One-page document: The Internet is the perfect medium for NGOs to get their message out. Why? Because it is low-cost, fast, easy to update, worldwide, relatively democratic - and two-way.

International Networking: The Role of Southern NGOs
Julie Fisher
This paper focuses on that part of the alternative change strategy directed by Southern NGOs as they increase their international networking with each other. To understand and define these South-South parameters, however, we need to touch on the relationship between South South and North South networks and on the spillover of the alternative change strategy into the other typologies of global change.

The Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP)
Raul Zambrano
Access to adequate sources of information for both decision makers and members of civil society is key for the understanding and implementation of sustainable development. However, for a variety of reasons, access in developing countries is limited and finding information on crucial topics is difficult. The Sustainable Development Networking Programme is a UNDP initiative that addresses these issues.

Communication, Information, Media and Networking Treaty: Role of Communication and Information
NGONet
The right to communicate freely is a basic human right and a necessity for sustainable development. Access to information is essential to informed decision-making at all levels. As Chapter 40 Agenda 21 declares, "in sustainable development, everyone is a user and provider of information considered in the broad sense that includes data, information, appropriately packaged experience and knowledge".

Promoting Strategic Partnerships between the GEF and the NGO Community
GEF-NGO Workshop
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been active participants in the GEF since its inception, but the GEF community has not taken full advantage of their tremendous potential for helping the Facility to accomplish its mission. In November 1995, the NGO community, in collaboration with the GEF Secretariat, established a GEF-NGO Working Group to review GEF-NGO relationships and recommend guidelines for developing strategic partnerships.

Relationships between international non-governmental organizations and the United Nations
Andrew Rice and Cyril Ritchie
International non-governmental organizations have a constantly growing role in national and international life, whether in promoting democracy, guaranteeing freedoms and rights, saving the environment, or promoting sustainable development ... The paper is an attempt to explore how these two key groups of actors on the international scene have worked together -- or occasionally not worked together -- over the past 50 or so years.

NGO Strategic Networks: From Community Projects to Global Transformation
David Korten
As we broaden our perspectives we realize that the deepening poverty, environmental devastation, and violence we see in the villages where we work are not local phenomena. They are pervasive and global the result of systemic forces that cannot be resolved by action at the village level alone. There is a pressing need for coalition building at national and subnational levels to combine resources within the NGO sector toward the definition and pursuit of a shared vision of national development.

The 1992 Rio Summit and Beyond
Shelly Preston
This article explores the communication dynamics of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With the advent of electronic information as a medium for communication among NGOs, citizens from around the world were able to access and share information related to the planning and substance of UNCED. The article also examines the right to access information, the concept of "information sovereignty," and illustrates some of the ways in which citizens from all localities can participate in efforts to shape a sustainable future for the world through global communication.

The Impact of NGO Development Projects
Overseas Development Institute
Between 10% and 15% of all aid to developing countries (over $6 billion) is channelled by or through Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Although emergency assistance accounts for a significant (and in recent years rising) share of total NGO aid flows, the majority of NGO aid is currently provided for development projects and programmes, which are the focus of this Briefing Paper. It examines the evidence of their impact, discusses methods of assessing that impact and reviews the ways that donors and NGOs approach the issue of impact assessment.

Practical Options in Using the Potential of International NGO Networks
Anthony Judge
The problems identified in this paper have not been ordered in terms of different possible perspectives, nor in terms of their implication for different stakeholders. In fact each of the problems can usefully be examined for any such possible implications. The paper also identifies some areas for innovative response to the complex of problems hindering full use of INGO networks. In fact examination of what can usefully be done, namely what has not yet been done, serves to highlight other aspects of such problems.

Participation and Intermediary NGOs
World Bank ESD
NGOs can be effective intermediaries in World Bank funded projects which depend on participation and capacity building at the community level. Successful collaboration depends on identifying an organization with appropriate characteristics, and involving its staff in decisionmaking from as early as possible in the project cycle. Steps must be taken to ... strengthen NGO capacity, encourage cooperation between NGOs, and support communication between NGOs and government.

NGO Priorities and Concerns for the 1997 General Assembly Special Session
Tom Bigg and Peter Mucke
The purpose of this paper is to try to highlight some of the priorities and concerns raised in a variety of reports available from a wide spectrum of NGOs and official sources. This may help to identify some of the critical areas which could be priorities for NGO activity in preparation for the General Assembly Special Session next year. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and the paper is a draft which is open for consideration and revision.

ECHO Coordination of NGO Work
APRODEV Discussion Paper
The international relief "system" is extremely complex. Main players in this system include donor governments, UN agencies, international agencies such as the Red Cross, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and military forces. This great number of actors is at once a resource and a problem. Many recent relief programmes have been characterised by a lack of coherence, both among UN agencies and among NGOs.

Nongovernmental Organizations, the United Nations, and Global Governance
The end of the Cold War, the growing emphases on human rights, and the increasing understanding of various economic and technological linkages suggest a growing role for both intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). If the somewhat international organizations were included, the number of INGOs would be close to 5,000. It is not surprising that as their numbers and activities have grown, so too have their ways of relating to the intergovernmental system, and more especially to the United Nations system. It is these relationships that will be the subject of the workshop.

NGO's Poverty Treaty
Poverty is the state of deprivation of essential elements necessary for a human being to live and develop with dignity physically, mentally and spiritually. In order to build a democratic world based on social justice and ecological equilibrium poverty must be tackled trough real changes in development models, international relations and local political structures.

Additional Resources:
Selected Reports, Papers and Studies on International Organizations and NGOs
from the Union of International Associations (UIA)


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Comments and suggestions:
Hari Srinivas - hsrinivas@gdrc.org