Non-Governmental Organizations working in Viet Nam on Disaster Management In the context of this web site, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) is an organization that works - in any capacity - with relief assistance. The NGO’s can be divided into two main categories, namely the international NGO’s (working in the international field, even though they may not be an international organization in the true sense of the name) and the local NGO (working within its own country). NGO’s are in principle autonomous and are independent of governments (hence the name), and are financed by private individuals or groups. Financing, however, has changed in recent years. The modern tendency for NGO funding goes towards receiving more and more funding from governments (usually their own governments) or Inter-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), e.g. the European Union. Whether or not this affects the autonomy greatly depends on the individual NGO and the possible strings attached to the funding. The NGO community is becoming increasingly important in the humanitarian world. The period from around 1980 till the beginning of the nineties has rightly been called the decade of the NGO’s. In the years after World War II, the amount of international NGO’s began to soar (from 832 in 1951 to 9398 world wide in 1981). These NGO’s include all aspects of relief work, In the eighties the number of international NGO’s have nearly doubled to 16208 world wide in 1990. Of these about 500 are involved directly with humanitarian work. NGO’s work in all areas of the humanitarian field and provide the greatest international capacity to implement relief on the ground. Therefore it is important to inter-relate with them as there is valuable information and help to be found (and given). It is usually the case that one or more NGO’s are actually physically in the area of an emergency before, during and after the impact, and will therefore have hands-on information and experience of the issues. NGO’s also tend to specialise in one or two fields, or to direct their efforts towards one needy population group. They usually offer skilled staff, rapid deployment capacity (if they are not already in the area), operational flexibility, and resources that might not otherwise be available in an emergency. The number of local NGO’s has also accelerated in the past years. These can be helpful in a variety of ways, especially because they are known locally and they themselves know the area, the culture, the population etc. In many cases they work together with international NGO’s, the UN and others, They are assets that can be helpful not just with giving information, but also as implementing partners. Please submit a brief description of your NGO and the project(s) to the Disaster Management Unit.
This page is maintained by the Disaster Management Unit, UNDP Project VIE/97/002 Building A9, 2 Ngoc Ha Street, Ha Noi, Viet Nam. Tel: (84-4) 733-6658, Fax:(84-4) 733-6641, Email: webmaster@ccfsc.org.vn Leave a comment? | Number of visits:181878