Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are leaders in helping developing countries to improve human security and growth as nations. They are urged to break the stigmas of "donor and recipient" relationship and view themselves as partners in development -- not "leaders." NGOs should not be the next philanthropic pretense for domination and exploitation. Their purpose is to create an atmosphere where people learn from each other. We must reconize that each nation has its own cultural heritage, and not impose our own values and ideals. Focus must not be just on aid: trade is even more vital Notes for remarks by Lewis Perinbam, Senior Advisor of the Commonwealth of Learning, to the Annual General Meeting of the British Columbia Council for International Cooperation., October 15, 2001.
I owe much to the volunteer sector. It's how received my apprenticeship in life as well as in international development. I learned, as Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th century French political philosopher, observed after he visited the USA over one hundred years ago, that "the health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of the functions performed by its private citizens. Nowhere are those functions more evident than in voluntary organizations." They are the wellsprings of our open democracy. They distinguish it from totalitarian and other systems where citizens are regimented or centrally controlled. They are the guardians of our freedom and of our democratic heritage.
One of the most significant characteristics of the second half of the 20th century is that it became the "people's century" -- when people participated in their own development and in shaping decisions that affected them. And non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played a notable part in this …
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