Academic literature on the topic 'Consumers protection NGOs'

The regulation of microfinance services is likely to have a wide-ranging influence on the microfinance sector, particularly on institutions and their clients. This paper reveals the impact of a specific regulatory regime, the “Microcredit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006”, enacted by the Bangladesh government to monitor and supervise nonprofit nongovernment organizations (NGOs). We analyzed survey and interview data provided by clients of both nonprofit microfinance institutions (MFIs) registered under the Act and nonprofit institutions that are unregistered, all lending only to women. Client-level analysis using fixed effects for specific MFI membership is applied, focusing on the role of regulation by comparing protections as consumers of financial intermediations in terms of financial literacy, awareness, and status of clients of registered and unregistered MFIs. We found compelling evidence of a positive association between the financial status, financial literacy, and financial awareness of clients of registered MFIs, but not unregistered MFIs. These findings support the need for MFIs to implement consumer protection measures and inform their consumers about key issues to achieve improved client outcomes.

Corruption and environmental degradation are interrelated challenges. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the relationship between corruption and the environment can be seen in the continuing corruption that exists in the country's forestry industry. The article focuses on key actors, values and interests across geographic and institutional spheres who contribute to corrupt incentives in PNG. The PNG government, foreign corporations, customary land owners, NGOs, multilateral organizations, even foreign governments and consumers; all play a role in the PNG context. These actors and their motives must be understood and harnessed to reduce corruption and improve environmental outcomes in PNG. To balance power dynamics and incentives among these actors requires the use of multiple legal and political tools: political pressure, international law, domestic legislation, aid and technical assistance, education and enforcement of existing legal frameworks are all components of the solution. The concept of an experimentalist governance framework for environmental protection is valuable in this context, due to its fluidity, responsiveness and adaptability in complex environments with multiple stakeholders.

The successful strategy for water protection by biological wastewater treatment results in a sludge production of about 20 to 40 kg dry matter per population equivalent and year. In the context of regional material fluxes, sewage sludge has a low resource potential and a low pollution potential despite the fact that it can be characterised as a sink, concentrating wastewater compounds. The mass flow of nutrients (N, P) in the sewage sludge is comparatively small as compared to the losses of nutrients in agriculture. The most valuable element in the sludge is phosphorus, as the availability of phosphorus for the production of low-cost mineral fertiliser is limited. The most economical means of P-recycling is agricultural sludge application, which can also be seen as the option with the lowest loss of all valuable compounds of the sludge, and the lowest increase of entropy. The reliability of this disposal route for the treatment plant operator depends on several major pre-requisites:reliability in regard to hygienereliability in regard to long-term soil protectionpublic acceptance (politicians, media)acceptance by all parties involved in sludge application and its consequences (farmers, farmer unions, land owners, food industry, food trade, retailers, consumers, consumer associations, NGOs, etc.) Only the first two prerequisites can be based on scientific research and risk assessment. As a consequence, only for these two aspects can quality criteria and adequate procedures be developed and introduced into a legal framework and quality assurance procedures. The latter two pre-requisites must be addressed in terms of sociology, psychology and political science and have a strong educational aspect.

The world must be developed according to the needs of people, but with the obligation of sustainable development as a comprehensive process that depress all aspects of life, at all levels.Sustainable development is about making models in a qualitative way to meet the socio-economic needs and interests of citizens, while eliminating or significantly reducing the impacts that threaten or harm the environment and natural resources.Sustainable development of mankind leads to a sustainable society in which man has good control of the planet and responsible custodian of heritage for future generations.Sustainable development is without a doubt, as a result of the coming dramatic changes requested in all areas of life of every individual. Changes are related to the change in our spending habits (which in itself is already hard enough) and the change of consciousness in the fields of economics, politics and society.Companies that are self-conscious to environment with potential for business and profits, also realize a significant contribution to environmental protection. These successful companies not only sell products to its customers and thus gain profits, but in the corporate commitment to make decisions for the care of their surroundings. In contrast to conventional producers, the most successful green companies direct their customers, or in advance know what needs to be made and the buyer offers an environmentally friendly product. Green companies are ready to address concerns about the natural environment.Green marketing is the primary segment of social marketing, because it covers the protection and preservation of the values necessary for survival, existence and development of man as a human being, reflecting the practical support the implementation of the philosophy of sustainable development of mankind.Green marketing presents important opportunities for industry and economy of the Republic of Serbia. Therefore Serbian companies must re-define the roles of business and products, as well as joint work with government agencies, consumer groups and NGOs. Serbia is becoming aware of environmental issues, but for green marketing businesses, companies, consumers and government still do not pay enough importance.

Non-government organisations or the NGOs have emerged as a parallel system to that of the government to take up the various issues related to socio-economic causes. However, though the cause sector has evolved over the years with the perspective of delivering adequate and timely relief to the beneficiaries, the fact remains that most of the NGO’s, particularly those operating in the field of consumer protection are not effectively managed due to the inadequacy of capacity. To meet the challenges of a competitive market NGOs will not only have to retain their beneficiary-orientation but also adopt a strategic planning approach to capacity building.

The present era of industrialization and globalization has added a lot of comfort and luxury to human life but has also lead to an alarming situation of huge environmental degradation incorporated with all the involved activities. Today, the entire sector in the world economy is facing huge challenge to deal with the environmental problems and their related impacts in their day to day businesses. Not only the business firms have realized the importance of the environment but more than that an immense awareness is seen among the consumers and general public for the same. Due to all these reasons the business organizations have started modifying their activities and strategies so as to ensure protection to our natural resources and environment. In this context the financial sector and especially the banks can play an important role in promoting environmental sustainability. Sustainability is one of the most important factors driving the strategy making process of the business fraternity. Though we have realized very late that any development needs to be sustainable and equitable but the positivity lies in the fact that currently there has been an increasing concern for sustainable development among all the sectors in the economy including the financial sector. In financial sector, the various services that have adopted green business are banks, stock brokerage companies, credit card companies and also the companies of consumer finance. The concern for environmental sustainability has given mass recognition to the concept of corporate social responsibility. The potential benefits of the concept has gained the interest of the regulatory authorities, society, NGOs, employees, customers as well as the international bodies to the issue. In this regard, this concern for environmental sustainability by the banks has given rise to concept of Green Banking. In an emerging economy like India, environmental management needs to be the key focus area of the business fraternity and especially the banking industry being the major intermediary. This would help the firms in the emerging economies utilize their limited resources in an optimum way without harming the natural environment and face the global challenge of sustainability in successful manner. In the present paper green banking and sustainability has been discussed in detail. The paper also highlights on the stages, initiatives, benefits and future of green banking in Indian context. Some case studies in Indian context are also being discussed here in order to understand the importance of green banking in the present times. The paper also discusses about the various organizations and laws and guidelines for environmental conservation and sustainability and Green Banking.

AbstractThis article describes the founding and evolution of a “Thai-style” NGO dedicated to consumer protection. Through a description of the NGO and the career of its founder, the article brings to light features of the evolution of NGO-based advocacy in Thailand from the student uprising in 1973 to the present. The legacy of the 1973 October Generation of activists continues to influence development of NGOs but new emphasis on rights has emerged since the era of constitutional reform in the 1990s. Many NGOs now make use of litigation to attempt to achieve social change, but litigation, like other long-standing methods of advocacy involving reliance on networks that penetrate government itself, reflect the particular opportunities and pathways for change opened by Thailand’s politics.

The purpose of this paper is to review different ways of promoting a sustainable development (SD) mindset to engage employees and management to explore, to explain, to elaborate and to evaluate to become future sustainability leaders. After reviewing literature on sustainable development mindsets, sustainable development goals (SDGs), corporate social responsibility (CSR) and analysis of social dimension policy of 10 China-based listed companies (2006 to 2017) in Bloomberg database with members in UN Global Compact (2004 to 2017), it has been found that employee CSR training policy and consumer data protection policy are not common in selected organizations, except two communications related organizations. And, policies on equal opportunities, health & safety, and human rights are mostly in place. Among 10 selected organizations, Petro China and China Mobile Communications are found with these three policies in place in past 11 years (2007 to 2017). It is suggested that individual employee attributes, knowing and being in relation to social policy, need to be strengthened; perception of tasks, implementing CSR and consumer policies with inspirations on sustainability, need to be maintained in the organizational core activities; and value creation, realising the importance of consumer data protection with design thinking and system thinking in product/ service innovations, need to be enhanced for sustainable development. The findings provide insights for management in developing sustainable development mindset for employees and brand-building for organizations. The ultimate output of the paper is a model for promoting a Sustainable Development Mindset with employee CSR policy/consumer data protection relayed social policy for advancing quality management (QM). Therefore, academics, industry practitioners, NGOs and policy makers shall consider these findings when exploring the applications of UNSDGs related tools to advance quality outputs with brand-building effect in an innovative way.

The exponential increase on the internet of indecent images of children (IIOC) has been followed by a transformation within criminal justice. The scale, nature and rapid technological evolution of such crimes—often of distant initial geographical origin—requires collaborative justice and harm reduction arrangements with internet companies and NGOs. The diminished reach (declining criminal justice interventions) and power (even in identifying crimes for intervention) of state authority with the current collaborative model, however, has resulted in inadequate social regulation and policing in response to IIOC crimes on the surface web. There is a considerable risk that the Online Harms White Paper proposals to establish overarching government authority to generally reduce harmful conduct will not fully resolve problems that go much wider than the technological, commercial and consumer protection on the surface web issues emphasised in that document. Only political choices about funding and fundamental rights compliant legislation can (a) prevent the hollowing out of criminal justice capacity and capabilities to deal with IIOC offenders and (b) ensure an essential compatibility and consistency in police operational ability—including the access sought to anonymised communication data via an encryption key—and legal principles when dealing with IIOC crimes across all levels of the internet, including ‘the dark web’. These issues are examined as a case study in civic epistemology about the influence of neoliberalism in technologically focused policy making.

Este artigo é fruto de reflexões produzidas a partir de duas pesquisas já finalizadas. Nele adotamos, principalmente, as abordagens teóricas da mobilização do Direito ao trazer o caso de duas organizações não governamentais (ONGs) — o Instituto de Defesa do Consumidor (IDEC) e a Assessoria e Serviços a Projetos em Agricultura Alternativa (AS-PTA) — na luta contra os transgênicos. Para McCann (1991), a grande contribuição desta agenda foi trazer aspectos de atores não tradicionais do Direito para os estudos envolvendo a busca da sociedade pelo Judiciário. Ambas as associações estudadas possuem significativos recursos de mobilização e certo acesso às arenas estatais. Desde a chegada dos transgênicos no Brasil, pautaram o debate, ainda que diante de grande fechamento institucional à participação e deliberação sobre o tema. Concluímos que houve adoção de estratégias diferenciadas que compuseram essas lutas e que, partindo da perspectiva de Rutch (2004), há demarcação de diferenças entre aliados. Para ele, nem toda aliança se dá entre atores com objetivos específicos e estratégias iguais. A mobilização do Direito se mostrou essencial para repertórios de ação coletiva dessas organizações e seus parceiros, não correspondendo somente ao Direito ligado às cortes, mas também à formação de frames e adoção de estratégias que constroem significados e motivações.Non-governmental organizations mobilizing the law against genetically modified organism (GMOs): strategies, alliances and frameworks This article is the result of two studies already finalized. Our mainly theoretical approach is the mobilization of law by two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) — Instituto de Defesa do Consumidor (IDEC, Brazilian Consumer Protection Agency) and Assessoria e Serviços a Projetos em Agricultura Alternativa (AS-PTA, Consultancy and Services for Projects in Alternative Agriculture) — in the fight against Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). According to McCann (1991), the great contribution of this agenda highlighted aspects of non- traditional law actors for studies aimed at learning the social use of the judicial system. Both organizations have significant resource mobilization and access to certain state arenas. Since the arrival of GMOs in Brazil, they guided the debate over this issue even when institutional participation and deliberation on the subject have been restricted. We concluded that there have been different strategies that made up these struggles and, starting from Rutch perspective (2004), there are differences in the way the alliances were established. Per this author, not every alliance occurs between actors with the same objectives and strategies. The mobilization of law proved essential for collective action repertoires of organizations and their partners, not only in court decisions, but also in the formation of frames and the adoption of strategies to build meanings and motivations.

Submitted by Simone Soares (scsoares.br@gmail.com) on 2018-07-10T20:31:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FGV-EAESP_MPGC_TA _Simone de Carvalho Soares (FINAL).pdf: 20661152 bytes, checksum: 2e4bbb5846cde8b99c8c1bfc5d084357 (MD5)<br>Rejected by Simone de Andrade Lopes Pires (simone.lopes@fgv.br), reason: Boa Noite Simone, Ainda há algumas alterações necessárias: O titulo do trabalho na versão final está diferente do protocolo entregue, e não há nenhuma observação do professor sobre a mudança. Precisamos que o orientador, passe na secretaria para fazer esta anotação na ATA ou ele pode enviar por e-mail esta informação. FOLHA DE APROVAÇÃO: excluir a palavra "folha de aprovações" e falta colocar a instituição de cada professor da banca. AGRADECIMENTOS: A palavra AGRADECIMENTO deve ser em letra maiúscula. Por favor, faça as alterações necessárias e submeta o trabalho novamente na biblioteca digital Atenciosamente, Simone on 2018-07-10T23:21:38Z (GMT)<br>Submitted by Simone Soares (scsoares.br@gmail.com) on 2018-07-11T00:57:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FGV-EAESP_MPGC_TA _Simone de Carvalho Soares (FINAL).pdf: 20658654 bytes, checksum: 91fa2d7f7942b2d44193ca9dfbf2cb76 (MD5)<br>Rejected by Simone de Andrade Lopes Pires (simone.lopes@fgv.br), reason: Boa Tarde Simone, Precisei rejeitar o trabalho novamente: Você não excluiu a frase "FOLHA DE APROVAÇÃO". A pagina 5 está em branco. Por favor, reveja o trabalho e submeta novamente na biblioteca digital. Atenciosamente, SRA. on 2018-07-11T21:23:20Z (GMT)<br>Submitted by Simone Soares (scsoares.br@gmail.com) on 2018-07-12T20:01:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 FGV-EAESP_MPGC_TA _Simone de Carvalho Soares (FINAL).pdf: 20658065 bytes, checksum: d7e07716034ccc00f3831291d8ce96ba (MD5)<br>Approved for entry into archive by Simone de Andrade Lopes Pires (simone.lopes@fgv.br) on 2018-07-13T21:56:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 FGV-EAESP_MPGC_TA _Simone de Carvalho Soares (FINAL).pdf: 20658065 bytes, checksum: d7e07716034ccc00f3831291d8ce96ba (MD5)<br>Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-07-16T12:54:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 FGV-EAESP_MPGC_TA _Simone de Carvalho Soares (FINAL).pdf: 20658065 bytes, checksum: d7e07716034ccc00f3831291d8ce96ba (MD5)<br>Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-16T12:54:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FGV-EAESP_MPGC_TA _Simone de Carvalho Soares (FINAL).pdf: 20658065 bytes, checksum: d7e07716034ccc00f3831291d8ce96ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07<br>Este trabalho apresenta uma investigação sobre como as ONGs de Defesa do Consumidor atuam no segmento da alimentação, e as estratégias empreendidas em benefício da maior transparência das marcas dessa indústria no relacionamento com a sociedade brasileira. Três estudos de caso de instituições da sociedade civil organizada são apresentados, todos com características particulares, mas complementares entre si, na condução de suas ações de ativismo e advocacy. A relevância da causa para as ONGs estudadas se justifica pela dimensão que o tema da alimentação saudável vem alcançando globalmente no início do século XXI, estimulado pelos crescentes índices de obesidade da população e o consequente aumento das Doenças Crônicas Não Transmissíveis (DCNT). A questão ultrapassou o âmbito médico e as agendas de saúde pública, ganhando as rodas de conversa e amplo espaço na grande imprensa, transformando-se em uma das principais bandeiras dos Movimentos dos Consumidores no Brasil. As transformações também são verificadas no comportamento dos consumidores, criando desafios e oportunidades para a indústria de alimentos processados e ultraprocessados, que estão sendo provocadas a mudar seus portfólios, com a adição de produtos com benefícios funcionais e quantidades reduzidas de gordura, sal e açúcar. Em suas estratégias de negócio também estão investindo em marcas e empresas do segmento de saudáveis para acelerar a inserção nesse mercado em expansão. Esses movimentos vêm sendo monitorados pelas ONGs estudadas, dada a ampla oferta de produtos que, de fato, não entregam a saudabilidade prometida e confundem os consumidores em suas escolhas alimentares. O trabalho apresenta ainda evidências de que o hiato existente entre corporações e seus stakeholders é fruto da cisão entre ética e negócios na sociedade contemporânea. Os embates políticos, regulatórios e legais travados pelas ONGs ratificam sua relevância neste contexto e demonstram a importância do diálogo qualificado entre partes interessadas para que a integridade nas relações de consumo seja preservada.<br>This contribution presents an empirical investigation about how consumer organizations work in the food segment, and the strategies undertaken in favor of greater transparency of the brands of this industry in the relationship with Brazilian society. Three case studies of civil society organizations are presented, all with particular characteristics but complementary to each other, in the conduct of their activism and advocacy actions. The relevance of the cause to the NGOs studied is justified by the dimension that the theme of healthy eating has been reaching globally at the beginning of the 21st century, stimulated by the increasing obesity rates of the population and the consequent progression in Non- Communicable Chronic Diseases (NCCD). The issue went beyond the medical field and public health agendas, reaching conversations between friends and wide space in the mainstream press, becoming one of the main topics of Consumer Movements in Brazil. Transformations are also happening in consumer behavior, creating challenges and opportunities for the processed and ultra-processed food industry that are being challenged to change their portfolios with the addition of products with functional benefits and reduced amounts of fat, salt and sugar. In their business strategies they are also investing in brands and companies in the healthy segment to accelerate their insertion in this growing market. These movements are being monitored by the NGOs studied, given the wide range of products that do not deliver the promised health and confuse consumers with their food choices. The findings also demonstrate that the gap between corporations and their stakeholders is a result of the split between ethics and business in contemporary society. The political, regulatory and legal clashes waged by NGOs confirm their relevance in this context and demonstrate the importance of qualified stakeholder dialogue to preserve integrity in consumer relations.

The topic of this thesis is Financing of Non-profit Organisations in Consumer Protection. Its aim was to analyse forms and possibilities of financing non-profit organisations in this area and to compare consumer protection in the Czech Republic and in selected EU countries. The first part of the thesis contains a literary search that defines non-governmental non-profit organisations (NPOs) in general, their visions, functions, aims and position in market economy. Furthermore, it describes the system of consumer protection in the Czech Republic, introduces particular organisations working in this sector and outlines their financial management and fund-raising. Czech consumer sector is compared to consumer sectors of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Slovak Republic. They differ from the Czech Republic especially in tax assignments system and in higher degree of governmental support. The following practical part analyses the forms of financing non-governmental non-profit organisations in consumer protection sector in two ways. The first one examines data from annual reports of three selected consumer protection NPOs. The other one analyses primary data from questionnaires completed by the same selected organisations. The results of the two forms of examination, independent of each other, confirmed the fact that consumer protection NPOs are forced to function with insufficient funding, the amount of which fluctuates year by year, having a tendency to decrease. A tendency to grow can only be observed with a few types of income sources, such as membership fees and private donations. One of the selected organisations makes earnings from its own activities a substantial part of its revenues. On the contrary, grants from Ministry of Industry and Trade show a tendency to decrease in the long term. To support the research, a questionnaire for consumers was analysed in practical part of this thesis. It was aimed to examine consumers´ awareness of activities, importance and funding of consumer protection NPOs and their willingness to financially support these organisations. The questionnaire analysis yielded a clear result that the public is not sufficiently informed of the function and importance of consumer protection NPOs, and this fact brings low willingness to participate on running or financing these organisations in general. To conclude, there is a relation between poor awareness of the public, not able to appreciate the value of NPOs, and long-lasting underfunding of these organisations as the outsiders of public interest. The reasons for this situation can be seen in combination of several factors: development of civil society being interrupted by decades of totalitarian regime, generally low public interest in community activities, lack of information about this part of community life, poor access to information about these organisations, vague conception of NPOs´ Public Relations and their insufficient cooperation with the media, and last but not least, unsystematic governmental support.

Tato diplomová práce reaguje na chybějící poznatky o zkušenostech spotřebitelských a seniorských organizací občanské společnosti (OOS), které se zapojují do řešení problema- tiky předváděcích akcí v ČR. Práce popisuje široké spektrum aktivit OOS přímo i nepřímo působících proti fenoménu předváděcích akcí; přibližuje zkušenosti z odlišných tematických okruhů, na základě kterých identifikuje dvě hlavní témata, která i nadále negativně působí: stagnující či stoupající počty nově podvedených osob a sociální osamělost seniorů. Na základě některých společných rysů obou problémů práce upozorňuje na některé společné kořeny obou problémů, na dosavadní, zpravidla úzkou specializaci ve zvolených oborech a nezbytnost mezioborové a instrumentální spolupráce.

The regulation of chemical substances involves a negotiation between social actors to translate controversial scientific evidence about risks into legal norms. This chapter addresses the discussion elicited by a public consultation on a voluntary regulation guide on silver nanoparticles (AgNP) in workplaces. It examines the comments made from 2016 to 2018 by diverse social actors – business representatives, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and independent researchers – to two successive draft versions of a Recommended Exposure Limit (REL) in working environments with AgNP. The REL is a voluntary guideline on permissible exposure limits elaborated by the NIOSH in the U.S. The methodology used was a qualitative content analysis, structured upon a historical and sociotechnical contextualization of nanotechnologies carried out through literature review. The findings show how different social actors position themselves in the controversy, revealing a pattern of behavior consistent with their position in the research, production, and commercialization of this new nanomaterial. While a group of actors, aligned with the interests of AgNP producers, proposed the restriction of mandatory and AgNP-specific regulation, another group of more heterogeneous actors, identified with the interests of workers and consumers, demanded more scientific and technical information and stricter health protection measures.