What is an intergovernmental agency?

Answer 1

That is a good question. Intergovernmental agencies are found at every level of government and above! An Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) is a central point of contact and action for a number of peer organizations focused on an area of action that is not central (in terms of funding or mission statement) to any of the peer organizations but common to all.

One example is the World Bank. The World Bank is actually made up of five peer organizations whose focus is using financial tools in different subject areas. The five agencies are:

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)

International Development Association (IDA)

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

Together in the World Bank they share information, resources, experience and insights that make the overall mission of each more effective.

Another, more local model, would be Community Resource Coordination Groups (CRCG). CRCGs are usually made up of organizations in a community that will focus on a specific subject area and combine resources as the World Bank does to affect those problems.

In one community the Adult Protective Services Agency found themselves in a tangle of assistance needs for which they had no resources. Elder persons in homes that were substandard or lacked running water or access to food. The agency created a CRCG to combine the information, resources, experience and insights of the local county social services department, the police department, the local mental health agency, and other valuable agencies.

Difficult and stymied cases are brought before the CRCG and all of the agencies resources and insights are applied to the problem.

IGOs can have budgets and staff or as in the local case above just a meeting place. But wherever agencies join together to plug holes between their area of expertise you have an IGO.