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Belarusian NGOs can be classified according to various criteria.
One of them is the NGO’s legal status. In accordance with existing legislation, national, international and local NGOs undertake their activity and so do national NGO unions (associations). Depending on its legal status, an NGO distributes its work over a defined area and therefore has defined opportunities.
Other criteria include the region where the an NGO’s work is undertaken, in as much as usually, every region of Belarus has it’s own particularities ensuing from the social climate of the region. It should be mentioned however, that in all oblasts, general trends in what the public demand of NGOs remain consistent. The preferred fields of Belarusian NGO activity in each region constitutes a place which is increasingly exposed to the influence of social risk factors.
Another criterion is the orientation of the NGO’s work. Although, the chartered orientations of NGOs are extremely diverse, the basic trend(s) of each organisation can normally be highlighted. This is what the Belarusian Ministry of Justice uses to classify NGOs. The National NGO: “United Way” has isolated 22 basic areas of NGO activity (refer to the NGO data base for more information). Using this classification, it’s possible to further divide NGOs into classes. For instance, it is possible to classify charitable organisations according to the following:
1. The nature of an NGO’s target group allows us to divide it into either what is known as an organisation for social good or an organisation for mutual good (i.e. whose goal is to satisfy the interests of its members or of a limited group of people);
2. An NGO’s instruments of activity – organisations which collect and distribute funds for charitable purposes (charities which receive and distribute foreign humanitarian aid are classified amongst them) and specialized establishments (consultation or rehabilitation centres, shelters etc.) that constantly provide aid to beneficiaries etc.
The NGO, in spite of its directions and kinds of activity, often runs into limiting regulations which specifically limit the scope its activity including its social interests and opportunities for being acknowledged in society.
Of no small importance are the “principle groups” (organisations for people with disabilities, youth, children, women, ethnic minorities, forced immigrants etc.) Social demand for NGOs is most felt in this sphere and with socio-economic groups that experience the most difficulty in adapting to this period of extreme economic, industrial and social developments. It should be pointed out, that often it is not only so-called youth NGOs which work for young people, but also organisations involved in fields such as: ethno-cultural, sport-based, cultural-educational, ecological which appear at first sight to be more closely affiliated with the initiatives and work of a more grown-up level than of this social group. 7.78% of all Belarusian NGOs focus on young people (such a focus is normally indicated in the name of the NGO or in the NGO’s charter) as their main group. On analysis of NGOs, people with disabilities represent a prominent socio-economic group that NGOs work with. In Belarus, 7.03% of all NGOs work with such people. In Minsk, there are fewer NGOs concerned with issues surrounding this socio-economic group than in other regions. 3.37% of all NGOs in Belarus are for women, i.e. they unite women and/or they deal with problems which directly affect the female section of society. There are more than twice as few womens’ organisations than organisations whose work is with the above social groups – this can be linked to the traditionally weak social activity of women in our society.
The very existence of target groups in an organisation’s development strategy is also a typology criterion. The work of the majority of NGOs is focused on a defined target group.
The existence of the above criteria are fundamental, but not exhaustive, and enable us to represent the general structure of the CSO sector in Belarus.
Kusmenkova Tatsiana
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