NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an organization that is not officially part of a government, but it designed to interact with or in some cases in the absence of government activity in specific arenas. Since NGOs are not affiliated with specific governments, they often do not limit their activities to specific political borders. Many NGOs have an international focus, but will organize themselves to have specific chapters or sub-organizations within individual nations.
One of the first large scale examples of an NGO in NationStates is the International Red Cross Organization. Although the IRCO was created by the United Nations' the IRCO resolution, the organization has evolved beyond the original scope of the UN resolution and now works to coordinate humanitarian efforts through associated NGOs.
Types of activities
Since NGOs are not officially incorporated parts of governments, most NGOs are primarily focused on working on advocating for specific policies around a specific type of activity or in aiding governments to distribute resources and promote communication around these same activities. One of the most common types of NGOs within NationStates are humanitarian aid based organizations. Most of these NGOs are established within a specific country, but also work out formal and informal agreements with other NGOs. The most notable of these organizations it the IRCO.
Another frequent example of NGOs are international policy groups that maintain a separate but active presence in the United Nations. The various United Nations Associations are an early example of these sorts of NGOs. Since these groups are not officially part of a government, they sometimes advocate for positions contrary to the official positions of the nations in which they are based.
