The decades starting with the 1990s witnessed the proliferation of a new kind of sector among the various agencies and governmental departments engaged in public service. This sector was the Non-Profit or the Non-Governmental Organizations or the NGO, that mushroomed all over the world to fill the gap between the governmental agencies and the public.

The rise of the NGO’s coincided with the awareness among governmental and multilateral bodies like the United Nations that the problems of the 21st century were too complex and too diverse for the government to handle them alone. Hence, there was a need for an intermediary, which would be focused on a specific aspect of the gamut of issues and hence would be able to concentrate its energies solely on the issue rather than being general like the government.

The point here is that the NGO’s comprise of experts in particular fields and hence, they can devote their expertise and energies to solve the intractable problems, which the government cannot because of the red tape as well as the fact that many government officials are administrators first, and experts next. This was the reason for the NGO’s attaining a prominent place in the pantheon of agencies that were tasked with solving the problems of the world.

The intention behind the creation of the NGOs was that in places where the government was either doing a bad job of service delivery or the government could not reach for whatever reason, the NGOs could step in and act as the medium between the official sector or the governmental sector and the people.

The term Non-Governmental Organizations was coined to describe these entities.

Further, the fact that the increasing complexity and multiplicity of problems that confronted the world meant there was a need for a quasi-official entity to step in and help both government and society.