Global InformationNGOs in West Africa information
In this article, NGOs in West Africa will be divided into three categories: African national NGOs, African international NGOs, and non-African international NGOs. NGOs stand for non-governmental organizations.[1] These organizations are mostly non-profit and mostly work independently from the government, they have specific aims that range from human rights, finance, health, education and more.[2] There are many non-governmental organizations in West Africa, (West African Sahel includes: Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal) and much activity between these countries, organizations and the rest of the world.[citation needed]
The history of non-governmental organizations starts most prominently after colonization. Due to land redistribution, new labor laws and the reconstructive government under colonial rule, NGOs started gradually overtime to protect the well-being of indigenous west African inhabitants, but data and recordings of these instances are quite limited.[3]
Most data on NGOs in the Sahel begin in the 1970s. Due to the independence movements, climate issues, economic issues of the time, and civil rights movements in the United States, led to a dramatic introduction of foreign powers in the Sahel.[3] The combination of the oil embargo by the Middle East and The Great West African Drought had mixed effects in the Sahel. With the Niger River that ran very low leading to a migration of farmers, nomads etc., into major cities; foreign powers soon provided economic relief and humanitarian aid to the Sahel, ranging from American, German, Soviet and NATO organizations.[3] This proved to be a part of a larger relief effort that was heavily influenced by the Cold War and the Arms Race. Foreign governments provided a majority of emergency aid but overtime foreign government involvement became foreign voluntary agencies which eventually solidified as NGOs that took on the mantle of providing aid.[3]
African born NGOs later started developing to an international scale in the 1980s and 90s, growing to a point of African International recognition and solidarity. These groups were formed mostly due to the sudden push for democratization, economic, or climate issues, like ECOWAS and GAWA.[4]
- ^ "Non-governmental organizations". African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
- ^ "Non-governmental organizations". African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
- ^ a b c d Mann, Gregory (2014). From Empires to NGOs in the West African Sahel: The Road to Nongovernmentality. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Hearn, Julie (November 2007). "African NGOs: The New Compradors?: African NGOs: The New Compradors'". Development and Change. 38 (6): 1095–1110. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00447.x.