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The Role of NPOs in International Society: Remarks
by Kenneth Jay Giunta
Introduction
My name is Kenneth J. Giunta and I am the acting president of Interaction, a Washington-DC-based coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Thank you for inviting me to speak on the role of NGOs in international development, which I will speak to from my perspective as head of Interaction.
Interaction is the nation's largest coalition of American private voluntary organizations that operate abroad in the areas of humanitarian assistance, disaster response, refugee resettlement, economic development, gender equity, child survival, population, reproductive health and international health.
We are a diverse coalition, boasting 165 members, many famous around the world and familiar to you such as CARE, the Red Cross and Project Hope. The basic, founding premise of Interaction is that we are all strengthened if we can find our common ground and speak, whenever possible, as one voice. When we have been able to do this, Interaction's voice is quite powerful, and that goes without saying. If one were to total the combined budgets of all 165 members of Interaction derived from private sources, the total would exceed $3 billion. On top of that, the combined totals of those members that receive government funding, (and not all of them do) exceeds $1.5 billion. This $4.5 billion is a substantial piece of U.S. public and private foreign assistance. The collective strength of this coalition provides interaction, and thus, its membership with access to key policymakers and decision-makers on Capitol Hill (what we call our Congress), the executive branch and in private corporations and multilateral institutions.
In attempting to respond to the subject of my remarks, I'd like to share the work of Interaction and its members in the areas of U.S.-Japan cooperation, public-private partnerships and accountability.
The role of NGOs
NGOs can speak to―and speak for―the poor, the disenfranchised, the minorities and others in society to make sure that the needs and desires of the people are heard by and responded to by development institutions on a national and international level.
NGOs also serve an important role as "watchdogs"―pointing out where governments and corporations need to improve their performance, providing an important role of checks and balances in a democratic society.
However, NGOs need support to do their work. In the United States, some 40 percent of foreign aid (ODA) is provided through or to NGOs, either those in the United States or in the developing countries. The United States has learned that to achieve our goals of peace, democracy, good governance, health, prosperity and environmental conservation, NGOs need to be made a part of the process. NGOs are, in essence, essential to the successful implementation of human-centered development assistance.
