What is a people's organisation?
People's organisations are defined as
organisations that directly represent
people depending upon land and are accountable
to them. The constituency the organization
represents are indigenous peoples, youth, women,
pastoralists, rural workers, rural community
members, fishers, landless, forest dwellers
and users, peasants and hunter gatherers ,
afro descendants, quilombolas, adivasi and
dalit. NGOs that work closely with people
depending upon land but do not represent
them are not People's Organisations.
Respondents should choose the sector
that best reflects their affiliation.
If no sector presented accurately describes
the respondent's affiliation, the Other
option should be selected.
While non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
can be considered within the broader sector of
civil society organizations (CSOs), we provide
both options to reflect different understandings
of these terms in diverse contexts. The UNDP
defines CSOs as "voluntary organizations with
governance and direction coming from citizens
or constituency members, without significant
government-controlled participation or representation,"
and NGOs "as a subset of CSOs involved in development
cooperation." Organizations that have chosen to
identify as NGOs in LANDex include the Mongolian
Land Management Association (MLMA), the Association
of Senegalese Lawyers (AJS) and the Peruvian Center
for Social Studies (CEPES). Organizations that have
identified as CSOs in LANDex include the Kyrgyz
Association of Forest and Land Users, the Citizen
Observatory in Chile and the Center for Environment
and Development (CED) in Cameroon.
