Will you know what take place in Dakar, Senegal next month?World Social Forum 2011.Contact:http://fsm2011.org/en/links-2011 Introduction Fifty years after the founding of the United Nations, transnational associations --commonly referred to as international non-governmental organizations or INGOs -- have become major players on the international scene. The emergence during the past two decades of these organizations is one of the most striking global phenomena of the late 20th century. Although still inadequately recognised by some scholars of international relations, INGOs have become a significant third force in international systems, paralleling, although not yet equalling, the expanding role of inter-governmental organizations in the political sphere and the rapid globalization of business in the economic sphere. As the UN Secretary-General himself has recently said, "NGOs are an essential part of the legitimacy without which no international activity can be meaningful". INGOs are the transnational organizational manifestations of what is now increasingly called "civil society" -- which, in the words of UN Under-Secretary-General Nitin Desai, is "the sphere in which social movements organize themselves around objectives, constituencies, and thematic interests". Civil society, thus defined, is itself composed (in the language of Agenda 21 of the UN Conference on Environment and Development) of "major groups" who reflect those various interests. The new importance of INGOs is derived specifically from several significant changes in human society. These changes include:1) the enormous expansion of non-governmental organizations at local and national levels, particularly in the countries of the Third World but also in the transtition states of the former Soviet bloc. The gradual process of development and the accelerating process of democratization have steadily liberated human capacities from long-standing economic, political and social constraints. Just as, in the economic sector, private enterprise is becoming increasingly important, so in civil society newly empowered citizens are organising themselves spontaneously and massively to promote their individual and common welfare.2) At the international level, the United Nations has entered a period of growing importance, fostered, on the one hand, by the end of the Cold War and, on the other, by the growing realization that national governments by themselves can no longer cope with a growing array of global problems such as preserving the integrity of the natural environment, eradicating diseases, controlling narcotics and many other threats to human security and well-being. Step-by step, therefore, the intergovernmental organizations which comprise the UN family are being asked to take on new responsibilities. The concept of "global governance" (although certainly not yet "global government") is now widely accepted.3) An integral part of these changes has been the impressive breakthroughs in communication technologies in recent years. Immediate and direct contact among individuals and their organizations anywhere in the world is now feasible, and there is every indication that instant accessibility to all kinds of information will continue to spread rapidly.These three elements - the growth of citizen organizations at all levels of society, the imperative need for global action on global problems, and the remarkable ease of instant communication - have been major building blocks in the expansion of non-governmental organizations at the global level and have led