PLANNING FOR THE 1960s IN THE 1970s : PART III

a) Implications for the future of nongovernmental organization. International nongovernmental organizations are mentioned in none of the reports considered, with the exception of the SATCOM Report — a non-UN national body. Nongovernmental organizations are mentioned in passing in the Capacity Study but the references are so vague that it is not clear what sort of NGOs are meant or whether they are international or national. The Pearson Report only mentions nonprofit bodies, again without specifying whether they are national or international. In the case of international NGOs this is somewhat strange. Individual Agencies have made a point, in the past, of calling on these bodies in resolutions and recommendations to collaborate on specific programmes, including that of the Second Development Decade. Is this to be construed as merely a public relations effort, or a ritual inclusion of the phrase « and international nongovernmental organizations », as one NGO observer remarked ? For from the UN reports it seems quite clear that they serve no function in the Second Development Decade. And yet how is this to be related to this address of the UN Secretary General to a Conference of NGOs in May 1969 : «...let me express . my very sincere thanks to all of you, not only for your magnificent work for the United Nations and the peoples of the United Nations, but also for your consistent understanding, cooperation and support, and your very sincere spirit of dedication and devotion to the principles of the Charter...the United Nations owes all of you a deep debt of gratitude. » (quoted in Campbell, Persia. United Nations report; do NGOs have a role ? International Development (Society for International Development), vol. II, September 1969, p. 34)