Pluralising global governance: analytical approaches and dimensions

Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have in increasing numbers injected unexpected voices into international discourse about numerous problems of global scope. Especially during the last 20 years, human rights advocates, gender activists, developmentalists, groups of indigenous peoples and representatives of other defined interests have become active in political work once reserved for representatives of states. Their numbers have enlarged the venerable, but hardly numerous, ranks of transnational organisations built around churches, labour unions and humanitarian aims. The United Nations (UN) system provides a convenient, accessible vantage point to observe some of the most active, persuasive NGOS in the world. During the last 50 years, various UN organisations have felt the direct and indirect impact of NGOS. According to the Union of International Associations, the NGO universe includes well over 15 000 recognisable NGOS that operate in three or more countries and draw their finances from sources in more than one country; this number is growing all the time.' In their own ways, NGOS and intergovernmental organisations (IGOS) grope, sometimes cooperatively, sometimes competitively, sometimes in parallel towards a modicum of 'global governance'. We define global governance as efforts to bring more orderly and reliable responses to social and political issues that go beyond capacities of states to address individually. Like the NGO universe, global governance implies an absence of central authority, and the need for collaboration or cooperation among governments and others who seek to encourage common practices and goals in addressing global issues. The means to achieve global governance also include activities of the United Nations and other intergovernmental organisations and standing cooperative arrangements among states. This introductory essay generally discusses the NGO phenomenon. It proposes a definition of NGOS to serve for the purpose of this issue, although much controversy remains about the concept and individual authors may offer refinements. It also provides a general backdrop of historical, legal and political factors for the study. It offers some analytical detail needed for deeper understanding of the phenomenon, and outlines a set of fundamental factors for studying NGOS. It does not assume that NGOs always or even usually succeed in reaching their goals or, if they do, that the result is beneficial for peace, social or personal welfare, or human rights. The studies that follow all employ the United Nations as a central and reasonably transparent point of observation that has legal and historical underpinnings, and branching activities that reach to the social grass roots. Moreover, NGOS are omnipresent in many aspects of international relations, and they may 0143-6597/95/030357-3 1 ?D 1995 Third World Quarterly