Community-based Organisations

Community-based organisations (CBOs) are grassroots civil society organisations. The majority of these groups are based in rural areas. CBOs bring community members together to provide services in areas such as health, education and social welfare. These include micro-credit groups, village development committees and community clinics. Many CBOs are faith-based, and most of their activities are financed by the community.

One of the biggest advantages of CBOs is that the community is directly involved in the planning and implementation of their projects. CBO members are more likely to understand the situation in their own communities. This local knowledge means that CBO activities often address the concerns and needs of the community better than other actors. On the other hand, the lack of funding and expertise limits the impact that CSOs can have.

Non-governmental Organisations

What Is an NGO?

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are nonprofit organisations that operate independently from governments. They may operate at a local, national or international level. They work on public interest issues such as public health, the environment, human rights and development.

Many NGOs provide services that are not adequately provided by governments. For example, if a government does not have the capacity or resources to deliver health care to rural areas, this service could be provided by an NGO. Because they are concerned with areas in which government performance is lacking, they often criticise government policies. This means that their activities can be quite political.

Many local NGOs can reach populations and/or areas that the other political actors cannot. These NGOs often have better local knowledge and networks than state actors. This helps them to provide goods and services in areas that the state cannot or will not work. These include isolated and war affected areas that government workers find difficult to access or are unwilling to go to.

The Activities of NGOs

Service (or operational) NGOs work directly with beneficiaries by providing services such as emergency relief, development assistance, medical aid or food to people who need them. Examples of these NGOs would include Metta Development Foundation and the Myanmar Red Cross Society.

Advocacy NGOs campaign via the media, education and through directly engaging with political actors to call for social change. They focus on issues such as human rights, social justice or environmental protection. Examples include Rakhine Coastal Region Conservation Association, Karen Environmental and Social Action Network and Earth Rights International.

Some NGOs combine both operational and advocacy roles. For example, the international NGO Oxfam provides services such as clean water and sanitary health for refugee populations but also campaigns on issues affecting communities such as poverty and women’s rights.

Most NGO funding comes from private donors, from their own fund raising campaigns (individual donations), and sometimes (for larger NGOs) from government agencies, development banks (e.g. World Bank or Asian Development Bank) or the United Nations (UN).

However, government or international funding sometimes raises questions about the independence and “non-governmental” nature of some NGOs. This is because NGOs that rely on funding from other political actors are often less independent. These governments or international organisations that provide funding can influence NGOs and determine the people and issues they focus on.

Social Movements

Like CSOs, social movements are groups of people who join together to take part in social action to address social problems. However, there are some important differences between social movements and CSOs. Firstly, social movements are often bigger than individual CBOs or NGOs. They usually focus on large social issues such as environmental destruction, women’s rights or land rights. Social movements attract many different organisations because they focus on issues that affect large sections of society.

Secondly, social movements are less organised than most CSOs. Because of their size and diversity, they are more like alliances than organisations. They do not usually have clear leadership, main offices or other features of NGOs.

Social movements generally focus on advocacy rather than providing services. They often try to influence government to make laws or policies that address the issues and concerns of that movement. Like many advocacy NGOs, social movements are closely related to the idea of social activism.

Many social movements want to do more than just influence the government. They rely on grassroots support and bottom-up power to create social change. Social movements have often been associated with the idea of civil disobedience and social justice. They often use direct action strategies such as demonstrations and occupations.

Different Kinds of Social Movements

There are two main kinds of social movements: issue-specific movements and generic movements.

Issue-specific Movements

Certain events or issues create so much popular support or anger that social movements grow up around them. Narmada Bachao Andolan, in India, is a good example of this kind of movement. The movement started with the specific issue of the creation of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River. The movement’s objective was to stop the dam from being constructed to protect the people who live there. It grew into a bigger movement that opposed other big dam projects and policies of the government that supported them. These kind of movements usually have a clear leadership and a higher level of organisation, but do not often last very long.

Generic Movements

Compared to single-issue movements, generic movements generally last longer and focus on broader issues. The environmental movement and the women’s rights movement are examples of generic movements. Environmental movements protest against many kinds of unsustainable policies and actions. Likewise, women’s rights movements put pressure on the government to create or change policies that address different issues faced by women.

Generic movements represent many different actors who share the same goals and values. For example, the environmental movement is a label for a large number of individuals, CSOs and issue-specific movements. All of these have separate organisations, independent leadership and often have different views on the kind of social change they want to achieve (McLaughlin 2013: 130-138).