Lesson video

Hi all, my name's Mrs. Tomassi and I'm gonna be working through review on your citizenship lesson today.

Hopefully you've got everything you need, you're settled, you're good to go.

If that's the case, then we'll get started.

Title of today's lesson is: How Do NGOs Work with International Agencies.

Now this forms part of the unit on synopticity, how to different ideas and concept in citizenship interconnect.

By the end of lesson today, hopefully you'll be able to explain how different NGOs might work with different international agencies.

There are three key words in this lesson today.

So if you look out for 'em, they'll be in bold and if you need to, you can refer back to them here.

The first is non-governmental organisation.

That's an NGO.

It's a non-profit, voluntary group of citizens who work on a local, national or international level to achieve an aim.

They're not controlled by the government but will often work closely with them.

The next key word is United Nations.

You'll probably see that referred to as the UN.

This is an international organisation comprising of most countries in the world, which aims to promote peace, security, and international cooperation.

The final key word is collaboration, working together towards an outcome or to produce something.

So we have three learning cycles today.

The first one we're gonna make a start with is what do international agencies do? Jun says, "What are international agencies?" Now have a think about this.

What do you think that they are? So these are groups of different countries that work together to solve global problems, maybe promote peace, encourage cooperation, promote human rights, support fair trade and development.

Now international agencies will tend to focus on one of those issues or maybe a few.

It doesn't mean that all of them work on all of those things.

They might have different aims. Jun says here, "How many international agencies exist?" What do you think? Have you got any idea? Could you think of maybe some examples of some? So there are actually many different.

Now they can be categorised under different things as well.

So you've got intergovernmental organisations or non-governmental organisations, which are NGOs.

Now some of the major international agencies include like the UN, the WTO, which is the World Trade Organisation, the European Union, the EU, the North Atlanta Treaty Organisation, which is known as NATO and the Commonwealth.

Now you'll find a lot of them are really known by their acronyms. Probably will hear them as WTO, EU, NATO.

And this shows you what they also stand for as well.

Jun says here, "Do you know what each of the agencies do?" Have a think through some of them.

Do you know what their main roles are or maybe their aims, what they're about? Andeep says, "I know that UN plays a key role in peacekeeping, maintaining peace and security and solving global problems such as poverty and climate change." Jun says "Yes, and NATO is different because it's a military alliance that protects its member states." This goes back to what we were saying earlier.

Each of the different organisations plays a different role and are set up for different reasons.

So we'll have a look at what each of them do now.

So the UN is there to promote peace, security, human rights.

It is the largest international agency, organisation as of June, 2025.

It's made up of 193 member states.

You've got the WTO, can you think of what they do? So they're all about international trade and resolving disputes between countries regarding this.

The EU is a political and economic partnership between European countries and it's promoting cooperation, trade, shared laws amongst other things.

NATO, like we saw there that Jun described, its a military alliance and focused on collective defence and security.

And then the Commonwealth is a voluntary group and it's made up mostly of former British colonies working together on things like democracy development and cultural ties.

So again, this shows you here how each of them play different roles.

Can you list at least three international agencies? How did you get on? Hopefully you got at least three of them.

Obviously there are more that exist and you know about, great.

These are the ones that do tend to crop up more in terms of the GCSE exam.

So do they all have the same roles? We kind of started talking about this.

So what do you think? They don't.

They are mostly there to solve global problems, but their roles differ depending on their focus and purpose.

So to give you an example, like we saw with the UN, it's to promote peace, security and human rights worldwide.

Whereas the WTO is more about trade and ensuring trade flows as smoothly and freely as possible.

These agencies may collaborate.

So remember that was our key word.

They might work together on different issues, but they still have their specific roles and their areas that they focus on.

So maybe think about it like different departments in places.

They're each gonna have their own roles, but they might come together and some areas might cross over and they might talk and communicate about them.

True or false, all international agencies have the same roles.

That's false.

Why? International agencies have different roles depending on their focus.

For example, the UN promotes peace, whereas NATO focuses on military defence.

So we're gonna move on to the first task for today's lesson.

Can you pick one international agency and create a revision card that clearly explains what it is, its main role and include an image or a symbol to help you remember it? Take your time.

Now with this, obviously tailor it to yourself.

So if you are quite a creative person and you learn better through that way, you know you might have colour coding system, you might have images that you use to portray things.

You might also, if you are just using it as like a flashcard, you might want less writing on it.

But if you are somebody that prefers more detail, then you might want it written in full sentences.

Obviously tailor it to a way that you can then utilise to support you when preparing for the GCSE exam.

So take some time, when you're ready, unpause and we can have a look through the feedback together.

How did you get on? Now, it's up to you what international agency you picked.

And actually, if you really like the style and it supported you, you could always go back another time and do the other international agencies as well to help you the remember the differences between each of them.

But for now, if you just pick the one, you could have done something like this.

So this one's based on the United Nations and it's got there in brackets, UN, to help remember the acronym as well.

It's an international organisation founded after World War II, made up of 193 countries and created to promote global peace and cooperation.

The image there is the flag to help the link of remembering what it is and the main roles have just been bullet pointed, just to quickly grab your attention.

So you've got maintain peace and security and protect human rights.

Hopefully you've tailored your revision card and it suits you.

If you are ready, we could move on to the next learning cycle.

So we've had a look at international agencies, what they do and some of them.

We are now gonna look at how NGOs and international agencies cooperate.

So quick recap, what our NGOs, 'cause we've also kind of mentioned them earlier in that learning cycle briefly as well.

They are non-profit organisations and they operate independently from governments.

They work at different levels to achieve their goals.

Can you think what these levels might be? So some are at a local level, so supporting local areas.

Some are national, so that's across the country.

That's like the British Red Cross.

And then can you think the last one? It's gonna be international, so they're working across multiple countries to tackle global issues such as Anti-Slavery International.

Now yes, these can cross over as well.

So just because an NGO is local doesn't mean it might also be supporting work at a national or international level as well.

They work alongside international agencies.

This includes the UN.

How do you think they might work alongside them? So how do they link? Now they can support in many different ways.

So they could be providing research, they could be publishing reports, recommendations, advocating for policy changes and they might also attend international meetings.

What we are gonna look at now is some examples to show you how NGOs are linked to some of these international organisations.

Before we do that, let's just check that understanding of what they are and how they interconnect.

So what is one way NGOs influence international agencies? A, running governments.

B, enforcing international law.

C, writing reports and providing research.

D, they do not influence international agencies.

It is C, they can write reports and provide research.

So let's look at some examples.

We've got an international NGO there.

Can you see which one it is there? That's Amnesty International.

Then the other side, we've got the United Nations.

Now these two organisations cooperate with each other.

How that happens is Amnesty International will submit detailed reports on human right violations as part of their role as an NGO.

Now they would submit these to the UN bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council.

These can then be used as evidence when the council assess human rights records in countries.

This evidence is helpful to the UN to identify abuses and then pressure governments to improve human rights protections.

So this shows here how the NGO is using their skills and then providing the evidence to the international organisation that has that power to assess and pressure the governments so they can support each other here.

We'll have a look at another example as well.

So you've also got Anti-Slavery International and you've got the EU.

So the Anti-Slavery International has actively engaged with EU to advocate for stronger corporate accountability.

It's also helped shape global policy by supporting the development of something called the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

What this is saying is basically that it requires companies to identify and address human rights abuses in their supply chains.

So even if the company itself might abide by human rights, it's them taking accountability and identifying addressing that that doesn't happen even down the chain, maybe if they receive their materials from another country or if there are other countries involved as well, and this includes forced labour.

So the NGO here is Anti-Slavery International and they have a lot of the knowledge and expertise to be able to advise the EU on these policies and what should be included in it.

Fill in the blanks with the correct NGO and International agency.

So you've got blank works with the, by submitting reports on human rights violations to help shape global policies.

Then you've got blank has supported the, with the development of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which requires companies to tackle forced labour in their supply chains.

What's the NGO and the international agency? So the first one is Amnesty International that works with the United Nations.

And second is Anti-Slavery International has supported the EU, which is the European Union with the development there.

We'll move on to the second task now.

So can you explain how NGOs support international agencies in influencing global policies? Use an example to support your answer.

We did have a look at some examples in this learning cycle.

Obviously, if you already know your own and you could include them as well.

So take some time.

If you unpause when you've got your response and we can have a look through some feedback together.

How did you find that? Now you could have said something like this: So NGOs support international agencies by providing research and expert knowledge that helps shape policies.

For example, Anti-Slavery International works with the European Union by supplying evidence about forced labour in supply chains.

They also advocate for stronger laws such as support in the development of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

This collaboration helps the EU create rules that require companies to address human rights abuses, influences global policies on corporate responsibility.

Now starting to see how they cooperate.

We are ready to move on to the final learning cycle, which is why the NGOs and the international agencies collaborate.

So we can see how they do it, but why is that important? So Jun says, "Why do they need to work together? Big NGOs and international agencies have enough power to make change themselves." What do you think about this? So through collaboration it means that NGOs and international agencies can combine their strengths and expertise.

So if you ever think there's something that you are really good at and also someone else is really good, that's great, you're both there.

But if you put your ideas together, it can help to improve it even further.

It's the same thing here.

It's this idea of working together can combine those strengths, it can influence policies, raise more awareness, and it can help to ensure accountability.

Everyone's on the same page and ready to make that change together.

So Jun says, "How do the strength and expertise differ between NGOs and international agencies?" Well, what do you think about this? I mean, we looked at some examples in the last learning cycle.

Maybe you could look back at some of them and think what strengths might the NGOs have and the expertise that might be a little bit different to the international agencies? So NGOs tend to have the specialist knowledge, the grassroots connections and the detailed research.

Their NGO will be set up for a specific cause.

So they'll be passionate about it and they should have people in there that are experts in that field.

Whereas the international agencies might have a broader reach, they might also have broader roles as well.

The NGOs might be quite specific, whereas the international agencies probably might have more resources and political influence as well, depending on how big the agency is.

So by collaborating they can make a bigger difference.

To give you an example, in that case of the Anti-Slavery International in the EU, it was the NGO, so the Anti-Slavery International that provided the expert input and that helped to shape the policy that the EU created.

Jun says, "How can they both influence policies?" What do you think about this? So how can NGOs and international agencies influence policies? So some international agencies make policies and NGOs can influence those policies by providing the evidence and the advocacy to shape them.

Through collaboration again, they can then raise public and political awareness on those urgent issues.

Jun says now, "How do they both hold governments accountable together?" So when we're talking here, actually again, they can play different roles.

So like Amnesty International, being an NGO, shares evidence with the UN.

The UN then used that evidence to hold the governments of the countries to account.

But once again, through collaboration, it's ensured that the policies are followed and global standards are upheld.

So the NGO here found the evidence and recorded that evidence and then that UN used that evidence to hold those governments to account.

So it's allowed for transparency and it makes sure that international effects are more effective.

Check for understanding.

Describe how Amnesty International and the UN work together to hold governments to account.

So how did they connect? So Amnesty International provides the UN with evidence of human rights violations, which the UN then used to hold accountable the governments of countries where the abuses take place.

So if we go over that again, so when we are thinking how do NGOs and international agencies connect and why? It's because they're working together to tackle those global issues.

So this one actually might have further synoptic links as well because some of those issues that they might be tackling could also be discussed at other points in the GCSE exam.

So things like human rights or climate change, because that might be what is connecting the NGOs and agencies together.

The NGOs will bring the expert knowledge and the independent research while the independent agency could provide the global influence and power.

So by working together, remember that's collaboration, this helps to shape and deliver international work.

So it's really important here when we're looking at the synoptic links, to remember that NGOs and international agencies are closely linked through collaboration 'cause they can work together.

Bit of an example there: So like Anti-Slavery International can work with the EU.

Which of the following are reasons why NGOs and international agencies collaborate? A, to compete for government funding.

B, to reduce international cooperation.

C, to influence policies.

D, to combine resources and expertise.

There are two here, it is C and D.

So it's influencing policies and combining resources and expertise.

Now this moves onto the final task for today.

Billy says here, "I work for an NGO and some international agencies are saying they no longer need to with us as they have enough resources and expertise to solve global problems alone.

I know this is not the case, but I'm not sure how to get my point across." Can you help Billy to respond by writing a message that convinces the international agency that collaboration with NGOs is important? Include an example in your response.

So if you take some time, you might wanna think about those links and remember how they connect together, how NGOs and international agencies, how they collaborate, why it's important.

And then you might be able to draught your response.

So if you take some time and then once you've got your response and you're ready, if you unpause, we'll have a look through some feedback together.

How did you find that? Hopefully the key part here is that you've managed to know why and how NGOs and international agencies connect.

So you could have said something like this: Dear International agency, you mean you might have based it on a specific agency as well and that's fine.

So I was surprised to hear that some agencies believe they no longer need to work with NGOs.

In reality, collaboration between NGOs and international organisations is essential for solving global problems effectively.

NGOs like ours provide expert research, raise awareness and offer on the ground knowledge that international bodies often don't have direct access to.

For example, Anti-Slavery International worked closely with the EU to develop the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

Thanks to this partnership, the EU created stronger rules to stop forced labour in global supply chains.

By collaborating, we combine your global influence with our specialist knowledge and grassroots connections.

This leads to smarter policies, stronger actions, and real change for the people who need it most.

We all want a fairer, safer world and we are stronger when we work together to make that happen.

You are sincerely, Billy, NGO Representative.

Did your answer Look something like that.

And really important there, those ideas of showing what the NGOs bring to the table compared to what the international agencies do and why it's important and they can then collaborate and work together.

If you are happy with that, then that brings us to the end of the lesson today.

So we are just gonna go through a quick summary to once again really show where those synoptic links are.

So to summarise: International agencies are groups made up of different countries that work together for different reasons, including to solve global problems, promote peace or encourage corporation between nations.

NGOs are nonprofit organisations that operate independently from governments on local, national or international levels.

NGOs can collaborate with international agencies by providing research and expert knowledge on topics.

It's important for NGOs and international agencies to cooperate because they can combine their expertise to raise awareness and influence policies.

And as I said, that brings us an end of this lesson.

So thanks for working with me today and hopefully you've got these synoptic links between NGOs and international agencies.