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NGOWatch

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NGOWatch was non-profit organization that monitored activities of non-government organizations (NGOs) and their impact on public policy. It operated between 2003 and 2007 as a collaborative project of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. It closed in 2007. The work of NGOWatch was well financed and had over 160 NGOs listed.

NGOWatch focussed on government funding of NGOs. "In recent years, NGOs have become more prominent, more visible across a broader spectrum of interests. Governments and international organizations increasingly rely on NGOs to implement aid programs and deliver development assistance, channeling millions of dollars through these organizations and arguing, in effect, that NGOs have the capacity to address social and environmental problems with greater efficiency than government agencies. Today, thousands of internationally operating NGOs deliver billions of dollars of assistance annually, and the U.S. government gives a large share of its aid funds through NGOs," they stated.

Launch

To coincide with the launch of NGOWatch, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) co-hosted a conference called “We're Not from the Government, But We're Here to Help You - Nongovernmental Organizations: The Growing Power of an Unelected Few,” with the right-wing think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs in Australia. The list of speakers included: John Fonte from the Hudson Institute, Gary Johns and Mike Nahan, from the Institute of Public Affairs, Fred Smith, from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and David Riggs from the Capital Research Center that runs GreenWatch.

Results of NGOWatch activities

In September 2003, the Christian Science Monitor reported how “Spurred by conservative rumblings over the growing clout of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the Australian government is taking a closer look at such groups' activities at home and abroad”. The article noted how the investigation “could potentially cut off some charities from further government access, funding, or tax breaks, experts say”

The month before, in July 2003, the Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello released draft legislation threatening to remove tax exemption status from NGOs if they were deemed to be more involved in political lobbying and advocacy than in community work. It was a move widely condemned as a bid by the Government to silence its most strident critics .

The result is that suddenly the two primary sources of funding for NGOs - tax deductible donations and government grants or payments for carrying out consultative work - are under simultaneous attack.

Just as conservative groups argue that philanthropic foundations that fund social justice or environmental programs have strayed from their founders donor intent, so too they seek to portray NGOs as having strayed from their original objectives. "Many groups have strayed beyond their original mandates and assumed quasi-governmental roles. Increasingly, non-governmental organizations are not just accredited observers at international organizations, they are full-fledged decision-makers," they complain.

Comments

Inter-Press Service journalist, Jim Lobe, sees the project as part of an attempt to curb NGOs ability to influence governments and international negotiations. "Having led the charge to war in Iraq, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an influential think tank close to the Bush administration, has added a new target: international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)," he wrote.

Canadian writer Naomi Klein commented: "The war on NGOs is being fought on two clear fronts. One buys the silence and complicity of mainstream humanitarian and religious groups by offering lucrative reconstruction contracts. The other marginalizes and criminalizes more independent-minded NGOs by claiming that their work is a threat to democracy. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is in charge of handing out the carrots, while the American Enterprise Institute, the most powerful think tank in Washington, D.C., is wielding the sticks," she wrote.

NGOs formerly on the Watch List

Some NGOs are currently linked and have NGOWatch profiles.

Notes

  1. About NGOWatch NGOWatch
  2. J. Kremmer (2003) “Australia Scrutinizes Influence of Nongovernmental Groups”, Christian Science Monitor, 5 September, p.7.
  3. Attack on covert project for IPA Brendan Nicholson and Gary Hughes, The Age, 2003-08-10
  4. NGOWatch info NGOWatch dead link 2007-11-14
  5. Bush to NGOs: Watch your mouths Naomi Klein, Globe and Mail, 2003-06-20 paid subscription required to view article 2007-11-14

See also

Further reading

This is a republication of a commentary column that first appeared in the Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail.
subtitled "Nongovernmental Organizations: The Growing Power of an Unelected Few"
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