DAAD Masters Degree
Deadline: 31 July 2021 (annual)
Study in: Germany
Next course starts Sept/Oct 2022
Brief description:
The DAAD Helmut-Schmidt-Programme Masters Scholarships for Public Policy and Good Governance Programme offers very good graduates from developing countries the chance to obtain a Master’s degree in disciplines that are of special relevance for the social, political and economic development of their home country at German institutions of higher education.
Participating Programmes in Host Institutions:
The scholarships are awarded for selected Master courses at German institutions of higher education listed below:
• Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg: MA Analysis and Design of Social Protection Systems (Blended-learning)
• University of Duisburg-Essen: MA Development and Governance
• Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt: Master of Public Policy (MPP)
• Universität Magdeburg: Peace and Conflict Studies (MA)
• Hochschule Osnabrück: Management in Non-Profit Organisations
• Universität Passau: Development Studies (MA)
• University of Passau: Master of Governance and Public Policy
• University of Potsdam: Master of Public Management (MPM)
The courses have an international orientation and are taught in German and/or English.
Number of Scholarships:
Not specified
Target group:
The scholarship scheme is open to candidates from Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa; Latin America; Asia and the Pacific, Western, Central, South-Eastern Europe; Eastern Europe, Central Asia & South Caucasus; and the Middle East and North Africa. See the list of eligible countries.
Scholarship value/inclusions:
DAAD scholarship holders within the Helmut-Schmidt-Programme are exempted from tuition fees. DAAD pays a monthly scholarship rate of currently 861 €. The scholarship also includes contributions to health insurance in Germany, appropriate travel allowance, a study and research subsidy as well as rent subsidies and/or allowances for spouses and/or children where applicable.
Prior to their study programmes, all scholarship holders will also receive a 6- months German language course.
Eligibility:
The most important selection criteria are:
• Higher education degree obtained with above average results (top third of graduates)
• Language certificates (requirements vary depending on the respective course of study)
• Political and/or social involvement (see above ‘Target group’) is considered an advantage
• Evidence of internships and/or professional experience is also taken into account positively
• A conclusive account of the applicant’s academic and personal motivation for the study endeavour in Germany and for choosing and prioritising the courses of study
• An account of the applicant’s perspectives upon returning to their home country or region
The following groups are not eligible:
• Applicants who obtained their most recent higher education degree more than six years before submitting their application.
• Applicants who have resided in a country that is not included in the DAC list of developing and emerging countries for more than 15 months at the time of the application deadline.
All Master courses have further additional requirements that must be fulfilled by the applicants at any case.
Application instructions:
Please submit your applications for the selected master`s courses and for the DAAD scholarship to the respective universities only (not to DAAD). You must indicate that you are applying for the DAAD Helmut-SchmidtProgramme (Master’s scholarships for Public Policy and Good Governance). The application period at all 8 universities lasts from 1 June – 31 July 2021.
It is important to read the 2022 Announcement and visit the official website (found below) to access the application form and for detailed information on how to apply for this scholarship.
Website:
Official Scholarship Website: https://www.daad.de/
NAME ONAH SAMSON IFEANYI
COURSE- ECO 362-DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS II
REG NO- 2018/251515
DEPARTMENT-_ ECONOMICS
LEVEL – 300L
Informal sector – definition and meaning
The informal sector, also known as the underground economy, black economy, shadow economy, or gray economy, is part of a country’s economy that is not recognized as normal income sources. People who work in the informal sector do not declare their income and pay no taxes on them. The term includes illegal activities, such as drug pushing and smuggling. It also includes cleaning car windshields at traffic lights or doing construction work, i.e., legal work.
This sector includes situations where people must work without receiving any pay. It also includes sectors in which individuals work and in exchange receive something other than money.
Unlike the formal economy, economists do not include the informal sector’s components in GDP computations. This means that countries are probably richer than official statistics suggest. GDP stands for gross domestic product.
Informal sector – features
The informal sector generally has the following features:
Easy Entry: people who wish to join can usually find work.
Unstable: in this sector, job security simply does not exist.
Industrial Relations: there is no stable employer-employee relationship.
Scale: all operations are small scale.
Skills: in the majority of cases, it is unskilled work. The skills needed for this type of work are gained outside of formal education.
People who participate in the informal sector are not typically classified as unemployed. The type of work ranges from unpaid family labor to self-employment and includes street vendors, junk collectors, shoe shiners, car cleaners, car watchers, gardeners, etc.
Wide range of activities
The informal sector covers a wide range of activities that combine two main groups, whose reasons for being in it are quite different:
Coping Strategies: also known as survival activities. Individuals and families work in an economic environment where opportunities are extremely scarce.
These include unpaid jobs, temporary jobs, casual jobs, subsistence agriculture, and holding multiple jobs simultaneously.
Deliberate Strategy: the rational behavior of entrepreneurs who do not wish to pay taxes and want to escape state regulations.
They want to avoid labor regulations and other institutional or government regulations. They do not want to register their business or pay tax. Some of these activities are criminal.
The informal sector plays a controversial and important role. It provides jobs, reduces unemployment and underemployment, and probably helps combat malnutrition in many parts of the world.
However, it is typically low-paid, and job security is non-existent.Even though it bolsters entrepreneurial activity, it does so to the detriment of regulation compliance, particularly labor and tax regulations.Its role in most countries increases during a recession and declines when the economy is healthy and growing.
Non-governmental organizations NGOs, are usually non-profit and sometimes international organizations independent of governments and international governmental organizations (though often funded by governments) that are active in humanitarian, educational, health care, public policy, social, human rights, environmental, and other areas to effect changes according to their objectives. They are thus a subgroup of all organizations founded by citizens, which include clubs and other associations that provide services, benefits, and premises only to members. Sometimes the term is used as a synonym of “civil society organization” to refer to any association founded by citizens, but this is not how the term is normally used in the media or everyday language, as recorded by major dictionaries. The explanation of the term by NGO.org (the non-governmental organizations associated with the United Nations) is ambivalent. It first says an NGO is any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group which is organized on a local, national or international level, but then goes on to restrict the meaning in the sense used by most English speakers and the media: Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to Governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information.
NGOs are usually funded by donations, but some avoid formal funding altogether and are run primarily by volunteers. NGOs are highly diverse groups of organizations engaged in a wide range of activities, and take different forms in different parts of the world. Some may have charitable status, while others may be registered for tax exemption based on recognition of social purposes. Others may be fronts for political, religious, or other interests. Since the end of World War II, NGOs have had an increasing role in international development, particularly in the fields of humanitarian assistance and poverty alleviation.
The number of NGOs worldwide is estimated to be 10 million. Russia had about 277,000 NGOs in 2008. India is estimated to have had around 2 million NGOs in 2009, just over one NGO per 600 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India. China is estimated to have approximately 440,000 officially registered NGOs. About 1.5 million domestic and foreign NGOs operated in the United States in 2017.
The term ‘NGO’ is not always used consistently. In some countries the term NGO is applied to an organization that in another country would be called an NPO (non-profit organization), and vice versa. Political parties and trade unions are considered NGOs only in some countries. There are many different classifications of NGO in use. The most common focus is on “orientation” and “level of operation”. An NGO’s orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, improving health, or development work. An NGO’s level of operation indicates the scale at which an organization works, such as local, regional, national, or international.
The term “non-governmental organization” was first coined in 1945, when the United Nations (UN) was created. The UN, itself an intergovernmental organization, made it possible for certain approved specialized international non-state agencies — i.e., non-governmental organizations — to be awarded observer status at its assemblies and some of its meetings. Later the term became used more widely. Today, according to the UN, any kind of private organization that is independent from government control can be termed an “NGO”, provided it is not-for-profit, non-prevention, [clarification needed] but not simply an opposition political party.
One characteristic these diverse organizations share is that their non-profit status means they are not hindered by short-term financial objectives. Accordingly, they are able to devote themselves to issues which occur across longer time horizons, such as climate change, malaria prevention, or a global ban on landmines. Public surveys reveal that NGOs often enjoy a high degree of public trust, which can make them a useful – but not always sufficient – proxy for the concerns of society and stakeholders
You answered this question under the wrong heading so you have zero score
Ozoemena Chukwuebuka sabastine
Reg no:2017250816
Course title:Eco 362 development economics ii
Assignment on informal secTOR and non Governmental organization (ngo).
An informal economy (informal sector or grey economyis the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government.Black market sellers offer watches for sale to US soldiers in Baghdad in.Informal economy: Haircut on a sidewalk in Vietnam.Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countries, it is sometimes stigmatized as troublesome and unmanageable. However, the informal sector provides critical economic opportunities for the poor and has been expanding rapidly since the 1960s.Integrating the informal economy into the formal sector is an important policy challenge.In many cases, unlike the formal economy, activities of the informal economy are not included in a country’s gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP).However, Italy has included estimates of informal activity in their GDP calculations since 1987, which swells their GDP by an estimated 18% and in 2014, a number of European countries formally changed their GDP calculations to include prostitution and narcotics sales in their official GDP statistics, in line with international accounting standards, prompting an increase between 3-7%.The informal sector can be described as a grey market in labour.Other concepts that can be characterized as informal sector can include the black market (shadow economy, underground economy), agorism, and System D. Associated idioms include “under the table”, “off the books”, and “working for cash”.NGO is an acronym for nongovernmental organization, which refers to any organization that is not created, operated, or unduly influenced by government or business. NGOs are created to serve some social good, the welfare of society.NGOs are a key part of civil society, the so-called third sector:
1.Government
2.Business
3.Civil society
Each NGO tends to have a focus or mission of either:Advocacy.Providing services that help to fill gaps in services provided by government and business.This informal paper is designed to define and give a brief overview and introduction to NGOs. It is not intended to be an all-encompassing handbook or guide for creating a new NGO. The Wikipedia article contains a fair amount of additional detail.Some other key facets of NGOs:NGOs are usually nonprofit organizations, unless they are too informally organized to have a formal legal charter.Technically, all organizations outside of government and business are NGOs, but the usual practice is to refer only to non-traditional organizations as NGOs, excluding religious institutions, labor unions, professional associations, philanthropic foundations, political parties, youth organizations, clubs, educational institutions, etc.Advocacy of an NGO is typically for change of some sort, but they can also advocate for maintaining the status quo when important common social assets or public policies are perceived to be under threat.Activists and social advocates are the primary moving and motivating force behind NGOs.NGOs are the heart and soul of any large-scale grassroots activism.NGOs can be international in scope, but may be strictly national, regional, or local as well.NGOs are a global phenomenon, not limited to the U.S.NGOs can range in size from very small local groups to larger national groups and very large international groups.NGOs may be formally organized under nonprofit charters or may be informal organizations or unorganized groups, especially in other countries.Staffing for NGOs can vary from purely voluntary to completely paid professionals, or any combination between those extremes.Funding for NGOs is generally from private donors, but may be from philanthropies or even government grants as well.
Purpose of NGO
NGO has its own mission or purpose, such as:
Advocacy
Governance reform
Anti-corruption
Economic opportunity — when the entire national, regional, local economy, or opportunity for an entire segment of society is lacking or struggling
Any form of injustice or inequitable treatment Services, especially for marginalized social groups Civic engagement — to fill gaps when government and business are not adequately engaging with citizenl advocacy.
Advocacy NGOs most commonly campaign for:Change Justice,fighting any form of injustice or inequitable treatment Opportunity Public policy Governmental reform Anti-corruption
Human rights of oppressed individuals and groups.
Their first task is to raise awareness, but their main objective is to effect change through the grassroots pressure they bring to bear on government officials and business executives, as well as persuading their fellow citizens of their cause.
Although political parties may advocate for the same things, NGOs are commonly formed when established, traditional political parties are perceived as failing to adequately advocate either in the areas of interest or with the intensity of the founders and members of the NGOs.
Areas of advocacy include:
* Social justice
* Economic justice
* Racial justice
* Environmental justice
* Human rights
* Gender rights
* women and girls, especially education, economic opportunity, and participation in government
* Marginalized social groups
* Worker treatment and rights
* Immigrant treatment and rights
* Rule of law
Governance reform
Fair and equitable legal justice system
Public policy
Educating people in life skills, such as healthy living practices, family planning, and participation in governance
Development aid — facilitating infrastructure projects
Sustainable development — ensuring that development respects the needs of society and the environment
Activists
Activists of all stripes are the primary founders and workers of most NGOs.
Grassroots
NGOs epitomize grassroots activism and advocacy, in opposition to or complementing established and recognized authorities, NGOs are founded by individuals and groups who don’t have nominal official power in society in order to pursue social objectives that normally would have required official positions of power.
Change
The most common theme for NGOs is advocating for change, to move society forward to a more progressive, inclusive, and equitable social structure.
Maintaining the status quo
Despite the prominence of advocating for change, there are also numerous reasons for NGOs to advocate for the exact opposite, to maintain the status quo, such as when important common social assets or public policies are under threat, such as:
*Environmental conservation
*Environmental protection
*Historic preservation
*Preserving neighborhoods
*Preserving public open space
*Anti-discrimination laws
*Food regulation and safety
*Safety regulation
*Education requirements and subsidies
*Housing subsidies
*Energy regulation
Health care requirements, subsidies, and regulations
Accessibility for the disabled
Sustainable development
Granted, in many of these areas additional change may also be desired, but fighting efforts to roll back socially-valuable policies is a key role of NGOs.
Services
Government and business provide a wealth of services, but not all needed services are provided by them or affordable to everyone. NGOs help to fill both of those gaps, in areas such as:
*Poverty alleviation
*Health care and related services
*Family planning
*Education
*Housing
*Legal aid
*Disaster aid
*Recreational and athletic opportunities
*Environmental conservation and protection
*Hybrid NGOs
Most NGOs tend to have a strictly advocacy or service orientation, but some are hybrids.
For example, Amnesty International, simultaneously advocates for human rights and leads actions to gain freedom for individuals and groups who are oppressed around the world.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is another example of a hybrid NGO, combining advocacy with action.
That said, there is a gray area between advocacy, action, and service — some degree of action is really an extension of advocacy rather than being a service per se.
Nonprofit organization
NGOs are by definition nonprofit organizations, although not necessarily organized officially in a legal sense.
Technically all nonprofit organizations would be classified as NGOs, but from a more idealistic perspective, an organization needs to have a strictly social purpose for society as an integrated whole rather than a merely personal, business, recreational, partisan political, or religious motive in order to warrant being categorized as an NGO. Otherwise, they should more appropriately be considered as merely an adjunct to the entity whose interests they are pursuing.
Organization
Technically, a group is not a true organization per se unless it has some legally recognized organizational status. In the case of NGOs, they would nominally be nonprofit organizations such as those granted tax-exempt status by the U.S. IRS under section 501(c).
An informal group would not normally be considered an organization per se, but for the purposes of discussions of civil society, an informal group which acts in a coordinated manner with shared objectives, values, principles, and organized operations is effectively an organization even if not legally recognized as such.
Governmental entities working with NGOs may have more strict requirements for NGOs, such as the UN requiring that consultative status will only be granted to NGOs which have an established headquarters, constitution, and executive officer. Far from informal.
Other government entities such as the National Endowment for Democracy are less strict, especially for groups working in challenging countries, but still require at least some semblance of organizational structure, such as a board, even if not formally organized from a legal perspective.
Informal NGOs
A group needs to have some semblance of formal organization to be safely considered an NGO, such as at least some minimal sense of coherent guiding principles, values, objectives, and organized operations.
For example, Black Lives Matter considers itself a chapter-based national organization although it is not formally organized in a legal sense.
Movements
Can a movement be considered an NGO? Possibly… it depends, to the degree that there is some of organization.
For example, Black Lives Matter is a movement with some minimal sense of organization.
Business front groups
Businesses will sometimes create NGOs which appear to be independent and may be funded by multiple sources but are in reality simply front groups for the business. These nominal NGOs promote and advocate for the economic interests of the business, rather than for society as an integrated whole. They should more appropriately be considered as merely an adjunct to the business whose interests they are pursuing.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a front for the Koch brothers is a prime example.
Technically, such groups are NGOs, but this is a gray area. Responsible individuals and groups can reasonably argue that business front groups should not be considered or treated as NGOs, but equally responsible individuals or groups may reasonably disagree.
Political advocacy groups
Groups of likeminded individuals may create political advocacy NGOs to promote particular political agendas while keeping a distance from the individuals or even their identities.
They may advertise and lobby in favor of their preferred political agenda but refrain from making political campaign contributions.
These would be distinct from political parties and political action committees (PACs) to the extent that they do not make campaign contributions.
Political advocacy groups are another gray area where technically they are NGOs, but from a more idealistic perspective they should more appropriately be considered as merely an adjunct to the entity whose interests they are pursuing.
Muddying the water even further, business front groups can overlap with political groups, such as Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a front for the Koch brothers, advocating for both their economic and political interests.
Origin
According to the Wikipedia, the term non-governmental organization originated with the charter of the United Nations in 1945. NGOs existed in various forms before then, well back into the nineteenth century, but the UN seems to have formalized the use of the term non-governmental organization.
The acronym NGO appears to have come into use only in the mid-1990’s, at least according to my online search of The New York Times.
Some well-known large NGOs
Most of the long-established large NGOs are of the service-oriented variety. Advocacy-oriented NGOs tend to be smaller and local. A number of NGOs have national, regional, and local chapters as well as being organized at the international level.
Here are some representative larger and more well-known NGOs, listed in the order they were founded:
YMCA — founded 1844
Salvation Army — founded 1865
International Committee of the Red Cross — founded 1863
National Rifle Association of America (NRA) — founded 1871
Legal Aid Society — founded 1876
American Red Cross — founded 1881
Rotary Clubs, Rotary International — founded 1905
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) — founded 1909
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — founded 1913
Planned Parenthood — founded 1916
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — founded 1920
League of Women Voters — founded 1920
Plan International — founded 1937
Oxfam — founded 1942
The Nature Conservancy — founded 1951
Amnesty International — founded 1961
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — founded 1963
National Organization for Women (NOW) — founded 1966
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — founded 1971
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) — founded 1971
Habitat for Humanity — founded 1976
Human Rights Watch (HRW) — founded 1978
Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — founded 1980
Committee to Protect Journalists — founded 1981
Code Pink: Women for Peace — founded 2002
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) — founded 2006
Civil society organizations (CSOs)
As previously mentioned, NGOs are a key part of civil society. This earns them the categorization of being civil society organizations (CSOs.)
Traditional organizations may be active in civil society as well, earning them the companion categorization of civil society actors. All CSOs are civil society actors, but not all civil society actors are CSOs or NGOs.
The UN considers the concept of CSO to encompass not only NGOs, but institutions, foundations, and associations as well.
Traditional organizations
As mentioned, traditional organizations are not usually referred to as NGOs per se, such as:
Religions
Labor unions
Philanthropic foundations, although they tend to give grants to NGOs
Think tanks
Professional organizations
Trade associations
Industry groups
Standard setting organizations
Political parties
Youth organizations
Clubs
Sports leagues, associations, and teams
Members-only service organizations
Private schools, colleges, and universities (public education is part of government)
As an example, the United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is an independent organization that may superficially look like an NGO, but is very closely aligned and associated with the business sector. It operates more like a trade association rather than for the general welfare of society.
Other non-NGO organizations and groups
Other organizations not considered NGOs include:
Political action committees (PACs)
Government sponsored organizations regardless of how independent they may nominally be
Intergovernmental organizations or treaty organizations and alliances
Revolutionary groups
Rebel groups, freedom fighters
Terrorist groups
Gangs and criminal organizations
Informal and ad hoc activist and protest groups
Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
Governments may agree to cooperate through some agreement or treaty, such as
United Nations
WTO
IMF and World Bank
WHO
Organization of American States
NATO
NAFTA
Regional security agreements, arrangements, alliances, coalitions, or organizations.