Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) may focus their efforts on politics and national security, the environment, economics, business and development, health and medicine or social and cultural issues. To find an NGO or IGO that has something to say about your topic:
- Read the articles you find for references to organizations that are involved in the issues related to your country.
- Try to imagine that an organization exists that might have something to say about your topic and then use Google to find out. For example, when considering the topic of Iceland and mackerel overfishing, one might search Google using the terms "fisheries" and "North Sea" and "regulation." The list of search results leads to the European Commission/Fisheries site.
- Try searching the Worlwide NGO Directory or the Duke University NGO Search Engine.
Reports from NGOs and IGOs are often not included in 'normal' academic journal databases. However there are two databases that do aggregate reports and documents from NGOs and IGOs:
- International Relations and Security Network: An open access database that brings together the work of leading think tanks, universities, research institutes, NGOs and international organizations, providing free access to reports, position papers and other documents from international relations organizations; you can search the site or browse by subject or region.
- CIAO-Columbia International Affairs Online: Includes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs.
