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Few days ago took place in Glasgow (UK) the 6th Civicus World Assembly. It was a rich and diverse encounter of social actors from all over the world. ?Acting Together for a Just World? continued to be the core theme of the encounter. Positive outcomes where shared in programmatic, financial and organisational aspects. The words of Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary General are illuminating about the key role that Civicus is playing in the development and strength of civil society.
Many figures in the political class in Britain under Tony Blair "see the third sector as a way of curbing the power of public sector unions".
Most of the analyses written on the participation processes of the first wave of PRSPs have been critical of the superficial nature of the consultations. However, many civil society organisations (CSOs) did mobilise around PRSPs and, in many cases, had unprecedented access to the policy making process. Taking the examples of Bolivia and Tanzania, this paper looks at more detail at the evidence used by CSOs in the PRSP discussions and examines whether the arguments and recommendations made by CSOs were taken on board by the government and included in the final PRSP documents.
A number of common themes and issues emerged from the case studies. The paper concludes with some observations including that the PRSP offers an excellent opportunity for CSOs to engage in the policy process. For many CSOs, this was their first experience of advocacy work on policy issues and the process itself contributed to strengthening their capacities. However, this potential was often not fulfilled and many CSOs felt that their views and recommendations were not listened to or integrated into the final documents. While there are some examples of CSOs having an impact on policy choices, there is an over-riding sense that there is not much of a link between the consultations and the final documents and, furthermore, that many issues are not put on the table for discussion in the first place. The reasons for this are many but include the political nature of policy processes, the influence of donors and IFIs in the PRSP process and the limited capacity in many CSOs to conduct rigorous analysis on highly technical issues.
The nature of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in development work is changing, but how successfully - and leading where? While there is still a strong demand for CSOs to 'sustain the good work' in terms of direct service delivery, there is also a growing need for civil society to participate in policy processes, in order to bring about sustained long-term change. Surprisingly, there is very little systematic research on how CSOs all over the world are influencing policy processes, especially from the point of view of those actually involved in the policymaking process in the South.
This paper was written as part of the Civil Society Partnerships Programme (CSPP) funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and administered by the Research and Policy in Development Group (RAPID) at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London. The CSPP aims to improve the capacity of Southern CSOs to influence pro-poor policy. During its first phase, the CSPP undertook a range of consultations across the world. Workshops and seminars were held in Southern Africa (Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique), Eastern Africa (Tanzania and Uganda), and West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria), South Asia (Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) South East Asia (Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand) and Latin America (Peru, Bolivia and Argentina). Participants at these events were mainly from research institutes, national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and networks, along with a wide spectrum of stakeholders interested in the issue of bridging research and policy - including government officials, international NGOs and bilateral and multilateral donors. In total, approximately 800 members of civil society were in attendance. The events were organised in partnership with Southern policy research institutes in each country.
Discussions of chronic poverty have emphasised the extent to which poverty is chronicbecause of the social relationships and structures within which particular groups of the poorare embedded. In this sense chronic poverty should be understood as a socio-politicalrelationship rather than a lack of assets. In such an understanding, processes of socialmobilisation become central to any discussion of chronic poverty because they are vehiclesthrough which such relationships are argued over in society and potentially changed.full report available at:http://www.chronicpoverty.org/pdfs/63Bebbington.pdf
Calls for greater accountability by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have come from many quarters in recent times, some motivated by legitimate and important concerns, and some not. This paper examines one of the tools often cited for promoting accountability -- the use of law -- as recommended by one particular document -- the World Bank's Draft Handbook on Good Practices for Laws Relating to NGOs.
MOSCOW, Oct. 19 -- Russia on Thursday suspended the activities of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Republican Institute and more than 90 other foreign nongovernmental organizations, saying they failed to meet the registration requirements of a controversial new law designed to bring activists here under much closer government scrutiny.
by Jeremy Seabrook - 16 Nov. 2006 - The Guardian
A prerequisite for development, according to western donors, charity professionals and dispensers of aid, is the fostering of a vibrant civil society. Civil society includes all groups and organisations which, independently of government, unite people in a common purpose; it comprises diverse actors and participants, including faith and community groups, non-government organisations, environmental pressure-groups, trade unions and others concerned with social improvement and reform.
Foreign aid: This kind of 'help' is just no help at allMichael Holman, The Africa Report October 2006
The multi-billion dollar aid industry has largely failed in Africa. Not only have they failed along with others in the aid industry, most nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become part of the problem. Not that they will admit their failure. They refuse to share the blame for the grim record. Instead they have closed ranks - along with UN development agencies and bilateral agencies - and all sing from the same hymn sheet: 'Aid works', they claim. 'Give us even more money and we will complete the job…'
Can we learn to conceive, theoretically and politically, of a ‘grassroots’ thatwould be not local, communal, and authentic, but worldly, well-connected,and opportunistic? Are we ready for social movements that fight not ‘frombelow’ but ‘across’, using their ‘foreign policy’ to fight struggles not against‘the state’ but against that hydra-headed transnational apparatus of banks,international agencies, and market institutions through whichcontemporary capitalist domination functions?James Ferguson, Global Shadows
