For some intergovernmental agencies, the number of INGOs which are in some way engaged in activities relevant to their own programmes constitutes an administrative, or even political, problem. As such, efforts are to limit contact with them in order to simplify the already difficult tasks of operating the agency. Clearly this determines the attitude of IGO secretariat personnel and delegates, and the content of the policy recommendations and documents that they generate for national governments. It restricts the number of linkages between IGOs and INGOs, and prevents IGOs and governments from recognizing the potential of the INGO network and the manner in which its activities can be facilitated and the consequent benefits for governmental programmes. The inability of such agencies to recognize that INGOs are first and foremost a social phenomenon and only incidentally an administrative problem is also an indication of the inability of such agencies to comprehend the nature of the international community within which they attempt to function (for example, the inability of UNESCO to recognize the usefulness of social studies of national and international INGOs - after 30 years of consultative relationship with them through a designated administrative unit).