Excess of western-based secretariats for international nongovernmental organizations

Nature

Statistics on the location of INGO headquarters show that a high proportion are located in Europe and North America. Because of the political significance attached to the geographical location of INGO offices, this leads to criticism that INGOs are primarily West-oriented, partisan, and therefore suspect.

Counter-claim

This condition is also characteristic of IGOs. It is in fact linked to the relative degree of development of the different continents and to the associated problems and costs of communication and transport between them. It should never be forgotten that the travel costs and times between many developing countries and Europe are in fact less than those between neighbouring developing countries. The unsatisfactory asymmetry is in fact a consequence of the development problem with which many of the INGOs are concerned. It is also linked to the considerable legal problems of establishing such organizations in non-Western countries.