Irrespective of whether INGOs duplicate each others' activities, INGOs with complementarity programmes, preoccupations, common positions, or common operational problems have considerable difficulty in linking together in some coordinated activity of other than a token nature. The absence of powerful inter-INGO federations with a common position considerably weakens their ability to act under certain circumstances and makes it easy to out-manoeuvre their separate actions and difficult to support their common position.