Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are major players in development aid today. Good governance is both a growing concept and concern in all institutions which is believed to be of major importance and should be applied at all levels of operation; be it strategic planning, accountability, administration and human resources. Knack and Keefer (2003) find that the quality of institutions is crucial to growth and development.

In order to better understand the importance and implementation of good governance in NGOs, it is a pre-requisite to acquaint oneself with the definitions of the two terms. Charnovitz (1997) posits that NGOs are groups of individuals organized for various reasons that engage human imagination and aspiration which are set up to advocate a particular cause or to carry out programs on the ground. Governance, on the other hand, is an inclusive term and involves formal institutions of decision-making. It can be regarded as constituting an aspect of good governance.  It may be referred to as an aspiration or ambition, which assumes that the process of governing meets certain standards, as explained in the World Bank’s policy research working paper on Governance Indicators (Kaufmann and Kraay, 2008). Kaufmann et al. (2000) defines governance as the traditions and institutions that determine how authority is exercised in a country.

According to the presentation on “Good Governance in NGOs” by Mr.Dana Chengan, this concept brings significant contribution to the promotion of trust in the organization, improvement in the quality of decision making, the ability of weathering a crisis and ensures financial and resources stability. It also helps in the enhancement of service delivery and communication within the organization.

Good governance can be implemented in the system of NGOs by being in line with the 8 principles of the latter; that is, participation, following the rule of law, accountability, transparency, responsiveness, consensus, stragtegic vision and, effectiveness and efficiency.

• Participation

All members should have a voice in decision-making that represent their interests. Such broad participation is built on freedom of association and speech, as well as capacities to participate constructively.

• Rule of Law

Legal frameworks should be fair and enforced impartially, particularly the laws on human rights.

• Transparency and Accountability

Transparency is built on the free flow of information. Processes, institutions and information are directly accessible to those concerned with them, and enough information is provided to understand and monitor them. NGOs should promote this concept especially when dissipating information about their decisions, decision making process, in their strategic planning and recruitment processes.

• Consensus Orientation

Good governance mediates differing interests to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interests of the group and, where possible, on policies and procedures.

• Effectiveness and efficiency

Processes and the institution should produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources.

• Strategic Vision

Leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development, along with a sense of what is needed for such development. There is also an understanding of the historical, cultural and social complexities in which that perspective is grounded.

Simply put, the implementation of good governance in any institution, whether it is an international NGO or a national NGO one, can only be possible if these eight principles are adhered to. However, it is worth noting that there are both internal conflicts and external factors that may influence the correct procedures of implementing good governance in any institution.

NGOs, Non-governmental organisations are made up out of free will without having profit as an aim. It represents the voice of those who cannot be heard, in other words, it represents people who cannot identify ways to speak up their opinions on certain situations and bring about a change.

Good governance is an ideal where a myriad of qualities are needed: transparency, accountability, honesty and much more. Good governance should be a process where the majority of the population is engaged. The NGOs put forward good governance through civil society actions focusing on empowerment and involvement.

How to have more involvement of citizens which ultimately lead to democracy? A concept that may help to achieve democracy is respecting everyone’s opinion by reaching a consensus –consensus is the best solution as it respects each individual’s opinion.

Transparency is the action of sharing information openly. It is the sharing of information to all people who are concerned in various ways and special ways of deliberating information should be made such that illiterate people or handicapped people may have the information. The information put forward should be relevant, accurate and complete. Transparency is also considered pertinent for controlling corruption in public life.It will show to the government how  lack of transparency can lead to inefficiencies .

The NGOs coming with new laws or projects should act in an equitable manner which will make the society trust it more. This can be achieved by setting up of laws and by-laws; allow the society to participate in these discussions and allow them to have their say/opinion. A good society is one which ensures that all its members do not feel excluded, and therefore want to participate. This requires that all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being. Everyone should feel concerned irrespective of his or her position in the social strata.

Accountability has a great role to play in good governance. Accountability has many forms, including accurate reporting of financial data, the publication of annual reports. Who is accountable to whom? This question depends on whether decisions or actions are pronounced internally or externally within an organization. Generally, an organization or an institution is accountable to those who will be affected by its decisions or actions. Accountability cannot be enforced without transparency and the rule of law. Accountability requires both transparency and the rule of law. It is to be noted that answerability comes along with accountability, whereby the citizens are able to demand that the state justifies its actions.

Last but not least, public sector actors should be held accountable. Both the private sector and civil society have a role as “watchdogs” to promote government accountability and as they monitor such issues, the organizations must share information with important stakeholders or the general public and also, engage government counterparts in constructive conversations.

George provided an insight about how good governance prevails in the governmental system in his country, Japan. A country and its people needs laws, regulations and acts to influence its citizens’ codes of conduct positively. However, George explained that good governance can be practiced out of good faith and education of the population. People need to acknowledge and abide by the established rules, not because of fear of the system, but by holding on to their beliefs. In this way, showing trust to their own self brings as much trust and confidence into their judicial, governmental systems and civil society. However, as much as this argument is morally sound, it is debatable as to how can one rely only on their good faith so as not to indulge into actions going against the rules of law; since good faith, education and rules & regulations can be argued to be interlinked.

The Honorable Mr. Osman Mohammed, parliamentary member of the Opposition party explained about the practice of good governance in Mauritius. Owing to a well established welfare state and a good judiciary system where laws, acts and regulations have been catered for; Mr. Mohammed showed strong confidence in the Mauritian governmental system by quoting the Mo Ibrahim Index and Freedom Index. He also explained that the Mauritian government adheres to its rules of law supported by a strong judicial system, has in place independent bodies to promote accountability and good governance principles. There is no doubt that the democratic government literature for a fair bit of time emphasized the need to develop and instill independent and robust institutions. Mauritius did very well at that level and created a host of institutions whose independence and autonomy were constitutionally guaranteed. However, it is inevitable to ask how efficient and effective these institutions in discharging their duties and responsibilities are. It is high time that we move away from governance as a number crunching and institutional creating exercise to one which is about real accountability to citizen. After all, state legitimacy and good governance do not depend only on regular elections but a functioning of institutions which articulate well with citizen engagement.

The intervention of Mr. R. Appayah was very stimulating in the sense that it touched the core issues that are actually crippling the Mauritian institutions. Mauritius is far from being the picture perfect example as evidenced by the successive high profile corruption related events as well as the growing patronage and cronyism causing many of the Mauritian brains to mitigate to greener pastures; clearly pointing that the country is currently undergoing bad governance where corruption cases are coming to surface and there is a lack of effective rules of law to remedy the situation. Moreover, the fact that there is a deliberate collusion between politicians, certain public servants and a section of the business world; it is crowding out the population who often has to pay a heavy price for the corruptive practices or in-competences of a small clique. It is of paramount importance to find an answer as to how to change the rhetoric around transparency and accountability into meaningful and tangible actions.

NGOs are accountable to their communities (stakeholders); good governance is the basic form of accountability; good governance has a formal structure, good governance involves the separation of governance and management, NGOs are mission-based organisations; NGOs promote the highest professional and ethical standards; NGOs exercise responsible resource management and mobilization; and NGOs are responsible to the communities they serve. The guidelines then provide practical advice on implementing these principles.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are legally constituted corporations created by natural or legal people that operate independently from any form of government. The term originated from the United Nations, and normally refers to organizations that are not a part of a government and are not conventional for-profit businesses.

Good governance refers to government agencies’ conduct in implementing innovative policies and programmes to increase the quality of public service with the ultimate aim of increasing economic growth. This paper investigates good governance in Indonesia, with a focus on its implementation by regional / local government. There is no single and exhaustive definition of “good governance,” nor is there a delimitation of its scope, that commands universal acceptance. The term is used with great flexibility; this is an advantage, but also a source of some difficulty at the operational level66. Very often the term “good governance” is connected to the public affairs and way to manage public resources. Governance is a decision making process and their way of implementation. It’s not only about making “correct” decisions, but about the best possible process for making those decisions. In practice good governance is used in many sectors and areas of activities and to describe interactions between different groups of society.

Good governance and human rights are mutually reinforcing. Human rights principles provide a set of values to guide the work of governments and other political and social actors. They also provide a set of performance standards against which these actors can be held accountable. On the other hand, without good governance, human rights cannot be respected and protected in a sustainable manner. The implementation of human rights relies on a conducive and enabling environment. This includes appropriate legal frameworks and institutions as well as political, managerial and administrative processes responsible for responding to the rights and needs of the population.

A non-governmental organisation should help in implementing a good governance strategy as it brings many benefit to the society. People are more likely to have confidence in their local government if decisions are made in a transparent and accountable way. This helps people feel that local government will act in the community’s overall interest, regardless of differing opinions.
It also encourages local governments to remember that they are acting on behalf of their community and helps them to understand the importance of having open and ethical processes which adhere to the law and stand up to scrutiny. Elected members and council officers will feel better about their involvement in local government when good governance is practised.

Councillors will be more confident that they are across the issues, that they can trust the advice they are given, that their views will be respected even if everyone doesn’t agree with them, and that the council chamber is a safe place for debate and decision making.

Good governance creates an environment where elected members and council officers ask themselves ‘what is the right thing to do?’ when making decisions. The most significant contribution of councillors to the planning process is when they establish the strategic framework in which decisions get made. Their participation in the development and review of municipal strategic statements, local planning policy frameworks and local other policies allows them to shape the vision for the municipality and how it will look in the future.

While speaking of good governance we also refer to the matter of electing non corrupted people and avoid a corrupted society. While giving much importance to good governance. The NGO should be able to handle the different roles allocated.