Studies and Scientific Researches. Economics Edition No.
14, 2009
The role and importance of Non-Profit Organizations
Nicoleta Ciucescu,”Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau, Romania
Abstract
In a complex and challenging background of the whole country, and the NGO sector also, the
non-profit organizations are established with the aim of providing public services to
communities where they operate, making them as an intermediary between citizens and
authorities.
In any democratic society these organizations are meant to serve different types of needs and
interests of the community, from both a strategic perspective and ethics, that those which are
not covered by other categories of institutions and organizations, mean time providing a
framework for civic participation, where citizens may participate to the public life.
Keywords
institutions, interests, public life, flexibility, public services
Introduction
In the last years the NGOs in Romania have regained their identity and had a major
impact on the modernization of society. They have created, defined and promoted a
self-image, forming a group and also having a place and a role in the Romanian civil
society. Thus, NGOs have recently taken over, amid a crisis of state resources,
functions and roles which in the past were the exclusive power of government,
becoming a very important factor in promoting the values of democracy and the new
relationships established between state and society.
NGOs are characterized by functional dynamics of methods because their running is
directly influenced by the community needs and the specific ways of interacting with
the civil society.
The Role Of Non-Profit Organizations In Today’s Society
Regardless of how NGOs are called - "non-commercial organizations", "non-profit
organizations", "NGOs", "associative commercial sector, "civil society", "the third
sector", "non-profit association", "organizations without lucrative purpose" etc. - all
have a single definition. They are willing parties, in their own right, established by the
free will of the citizens who are associated on common career interests and/or other
interests aiming to achieve shared civil, economic, social and cultural rights and not
obtaining profits.
The mobility of non-governmental organizations mirrors the community capacity to
respond rapidly to its needs. NGOs direct to the community the resources that the
government does not have or can not collect.
Also, the lines of actions analysis of nongovernmental organizations may be relevant
for the problems solving by the public administration. The NGOs play an important
role in highlighting issues that might pass unnoticed by the public authorities and in
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helping them to solve problems by using their human resources, local data and their
organizational capacity, even monitoring their activities.
NGOs can offer tangible solutions to the community problems more efficiently and
involving less costs than the public administrations in areas such as social work or
management of social welfare institutions.
The main ways of influencing the NGO sector are:
1. Encouraging the officials and the government agencies to accept some variants of
solving the problems, which are successfully used in the sector.
2. educating and informing the public of the rights provided by law and the increase
of their awareness of these aspects.
3. active participation in adjusting the official programs to the needs of the
community, expressing the public opinion and taking into account the specific
conditions of the area
4. co-operation with official agencies.
5. influencing the local development policies of national and international
institutions.
6. supporting the governments and donors to develop more effective development
strategy through strengthening the institutions, increasing the level of professional
qualification of their personnel, training their staff in order to acquire a good
management capacity.
NGOs are sometimes perceived as "alternatives" to the solutions proposed by the
public administration. The population of a community can not choose the
development policy developed by the government or by the NGOs because NGOs can
not launch such an offer. It is unlikely that the NGOs can solve the problems of the
local communities by their own efforts, the lack of resources being the main cause.
The NGOs may find optimal ways and solutions for solving social problems but these
ones can be completed only if they have an impact on the development of the whole
community. The public administrations and NGOs can not provide competitive
solutions but complementary solutions which can lead to the co-operation between the
two bodies.
Functions, Principles and Policies
Non-governmental organizations have often demonstrated their effectiveness in
identifying and solving the community social problems, in attracting and enhancing
the value of human and financial resources, in estimating the efficiency degree of the
public policies:
- raising the quality standards of the public services
- more efficient management of the public assets
- increased profits of the public services;
- better preservation of the public property
- optimizing the administrative costs
In the context of an increasing demand for public services there is the need of more
diversified services than those provided by the government. Therefore, the public
authorities have to choose between improving and diversifying their offer or
contracting these services.
If we keep in mind the other countries experience we can say that the contracting of
these services is more profitable for economic efficiency reasons. In the context of
constraints related to their redistributive function and the politic responsibilities
regarding the management of public budget, which is limited, NGOs may contract
public services.
Contracting services by NGOs would be more beneficial taking into account the non-
profit distribution feature which generates in the case of non-profit contracts, more
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confidence from the beneficiaries and contractors than in the case of profit-oriented
contracts. These services contracting can be made by companies, NGOs or by both.
In this situation the main object of the services contract between the public authorities
and the NGOs will be an objective set by the authorities and the service provider
(NGO) will carry out that goal, considered by the authority being of public interest.
The services contract between the public authorities and NGO is the agreement by
which the public authority orders the achievement of an objective or service which it
will pay for and the NGO binds oneself to perform the object of the contract.
The concession contract is the legal framework of public services contracting from
Romanian public authorities. The Government Decision 1228/1990 makes no
particular references to the concession of services to the nonprofit sector neither for
the purposes of its exemption from such activity, nor for the purpose of encouraging
the purchase of services by this sector from the public authorities.
The nongovernmental organizations also have other roles:
- Counterweight to state power and the private sector, such as the consumer protection
associations which educate and protect the citizens (consumers) in their relationship
with commercial entities.
- They offer the framework for citizen participation to the community life despite of
two major difficulties faced when trying to increase the involvement of mass
authentic government policy, namely:
- decentralization of decision areas at the state level;
- the absence of the skills and values needed for the participation.
Participation in the activities of NGOs requires member involvement in decision
making processes which develop their appropriate skills and the ability to exercise
the role of homo politicus.
- In the context where the companies, state institutions and the public administration
officials fail to identify and meet a whole wide variety of needs and interests in
society and provide poor public services, the NGOs contribute also to provide public
services and goods. They are not restricted to the profitability criterion (as
companies) and at the same time show greater responsiveness and creativity in
covering social needs. Sometimes, even non-governmental organizations may face
some obstacles carrying out this work, such as those related to collective action
mechanisms.
- The provision of better goods and services compared to those provided by the
public sector, a less bureaucratic administrative structure and the presence of
volunteers are prerequisites for lower costs of production of the goods or services
delivered by the NGOs. It should also be noted that non-governmental organizations
are oriented toward the customer satisfaction, and not toward the compliance of
formal and bureaucratic procedures.
- The NGOs are also facilitators of social integration and political integration and
contribute to groups and individuals integration into society. In societies where there
is a high degree of ethnic variety, non-governmental organizations participate in
promoting diversity, the decrease of ethnic tensions and interethnic dialogue.
- They constitute a framework where the interests and the claims of people can be
expressed. Citizens find in NGOs a framework to express their claims. Sometimes the
pressures from different groups are changed in consistent approaches to influence
public policy.
- NGOs promote the diversity of opinion of citizens and their members, aware of
the existence of different views and interests in society, do not hesitate to criticize
them.
NGOs provide cheaper and better services because they use volunteers, thereby
helping to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of socio-economic activities. In
this respect, a comparison can be made: non-governmental organizations place nearly
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free labor in many areas, such as animal welfare, retraining, environmental protection,
adult education at distance, information spread, while government officials must pay
for these activities.
The NGOs suppose the team work, the transparency and public participation, without
which an administration might not get public support for actions they undertake.
NGOs have made an important contribution to the reform process, even if the support
received from the state was a minimal one and insufficient, compared with its size.
There are multiple contributions of nongovernmental organizations, the most
important being mentioned below.
- They have significantly improved public decisions (for example: correcting and
improving various bills and other regulations);
- They have actively participated in the process of education reform;
- They were the basis for success in international mediation. They contributed to
increasing the positive public image of their country, promoting international
cooperation.
- They have effectively managing the transfer of know-how;
- They have taken over almost entirely the policies of child protection and other
concrete activities related to this domain;
- They represent the indigenous culture and initiate the development of cultural
diversity, preparing the ground for an advantageous interethnic dialogue, for tolerance
and cooperation with national minorities.
The way that organizations act illustrate a model to approach the social issues. It is
not necessarily the only one or the best, but certainly it is very efficient in terms of
investment – effect report. The activities of NGOs do not replace the public
administration activities and NGOs do not carry out the objectives of public
administration.
NGOs are rather reflecting a way of action which is complementary to the
responsibilities of the community administration and are not an appropriate
alternative of the public administration.
An important function of the nonprofit sector is to support the strengthening of social
systems, to give to the citizens the possibility to influence public policies, to criticize
and to monitor the government policy. Public policies are plans, principles, laws and
actions that are developed by decision makers aiming to solve a problem in society, to
resist a threat or to achieve an objective. The public policy refer to the government or
parliament decisions to address development issues that can have effects on the entire
society. They also refer to all measures of a government action program aiming to
induce beneficial changes for the society or for a certain part of the society.
Both NGOs and public authorities should provide direct benefits to citizens and
promote the development during the developing and the implementing the public
policies.
If we consider the decision maker and the coverage area classification criteria, the
public policies that NGOs attempt to influence can be classified as: national, regional
or local and belonging to domestic institutions. The public policies can be classified
into four categories, keeping in mind the roles outlined above :
- Distributive policies, that authorize something or give an advantage (the ability to
build something, etc.);
- Redistributive policies, which specify the criteria of granting or prohibiting rights,
benefits, incomes, etc.;
- Policies aiming to establish behavior rules (e.g. rule of the road);
- Constitutive policies, which mention rules to establish other rules (Code of Criminal
Procedure).
The actors who may be involved in influencing the public policies may be of several
kind:
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Studies and Scientific Researches. Economics Edition No. 14, 2009
- Political actors, internal actors (political parties, pressure groups) and international
actors (European Council, European Union, World Bank)
- apolitical actors, formally constituted organizations (NGOs, unions, etc.) and
informal networks (groups of influence).
We also should also talk about the means used to influence successfully the public
policies:
1. Providing expert advice on a specific problem that local and central authorities
wish to solve, for example, Romanian Association of Humanitarian Law and Human
Rights Association in Romania - Helsinki Committee have contributed to the
completion of the Law on Refugees in Romania.
2. Information campaigns; this method is based on publication or broadcasting on
radio or TV of some messages that aim to make the community aware of an issue
which has to be solved. This means of influencing public policy is based on effective
cooperation with the media.
Serious errors, the distorting of the message, the difficulty of communication, the
need of an accurate information are just some of the elements of the organizational
relationship with the Romanian medias. The relation between public authorities,
NGOs which implement public policies and medias should be governed by
professional standards. Journalists should always apply the journalism rules in writing
a press release, making a database or monitoring.
3. Public policy research, the study of public policies by the political research
institutes, called also "think thanks", plays an increasing role in influencing public
policies.
They inform and educate citizens and play an advisory role for parliamentarians,
members of the Government, local governments.
4. Coalition building (temporary or permanently) to develop public campaigns of
important cause advocacy (lobby and advocacy campaigns).
Conclusions
NGOs play a major role in identifying social problems, in finding solutions, and even
in achieving social objectives in a variety of areas that public administrations can not
cover efficiently or not at all.
These NGOs can be partially or fully committed to do some functions of public
administration, achieving the objectives imposed by it and without replacing the
administration.
NGOs and public administration are complementary and NGOs do not represent an
alternative to the public administration.
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