The term GONGO had become established by the late 1980s,[1] and it was suggested that it was first introduced by a group of Indonesian non-governmental organizations.
For example, the post-WWII West German Minister of Intra-German Relations funded a large number of organisations in the 1950s, including "Eastern Bureaux" (Ostbüros) of political parties, churches and trade unions as well as students' and lawyers' association, setting up what observers called a "shadow administration" to pursue its geopolitical aims during the Cold War.
[3] Most contemporary attempts to understand GONGOs have come from studies of authoritarian contexts, where these organizations have proliferated as a deliberative strategy by the state to have a (corporatist) mechanism that feeds directly into a grassroots civic space.
It is thus unsurprising that the current theorizing on the nature of GONGOs primarily highlights their role in undermining liberal democratic values.
[8][9][10] This control is often not seen in a positive light, as it compromises the spirit of an NGO by introducing hidden actors and withholding the government's intentions from the public.