NGOs and a new solution

Where does the future of the world’s problems lay? Can we continue to rely on the world’s governments for a solution to all of our problems? Jessica Mathews, the author of “Power Shift,” does not seem to think so. She points out that the world’s problems are changing. We are now faced by a series of “nontraditional threats, […] -- terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, ethnic conflict, and the combination of rapid population growth, environmental decline, and poverty that breeds economic stagnation, political instability, and, sometimes, state collapse.” These new threats cannot merit the same action plans that their predecessors once merited.

As a result, NGOs appear to be the new solution. Mathews strongly believes that “internationally, in both the poorest and richest countries, NGOS, when adequately funded, can outperform government in the delivery of many public services. Their growth, along with that of the other elements of civil society, can strengthen the fabric of the many fragile democracies. And they are better than governments at dealing with problems that grow slowly and affect society through their cumulative effect on individuals—the "soft" threats of environmental degradation, denial of human rights, population growth, poverty, and lack of development that may already be causing more deaths in conflict than are traditional acts of aggression.”


Maybe this is true. Perhaps the NGOs are the solution to our new problems. Never before have we encountered problems like we have today and will have in the future. Relating back to the TB topic, the issues resulting from MDR-TB are new. We have no way of relying on the drugs of the past to cure today’s illness. In fact, using these drugs would only worsen the problem. We cannot resort to past methods of intervention because clearly they failed miserably. It is because of these past interventions that we have the problem not being able to treat people with the Multi-drug resistant form of TB. So yes, maybe, hopefully, NGOs can bring about a solution to the problems our previous leaders have caused.