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If states, markets and NGOs fail to bring about change and social justice, then who will?
Can citizens come up with new perspectives on social change? Are civic driven changes a potential solution to global political problems? They might. In fact they are...
The CDC initiative supported by some of the largest development and peace organizations in the Netherlands started from a conviction that the mix and nature of today’s global problems requires a wider range of solutions than those coming from government and market. A missing story is one of people themselves acting as citizens to change the society they live in, not as needy beneficiaries, participants, political clients or economic producers and consumers, but as agents of their own future. Finding out what such a story might look like has been the guiding objective for the core group of ten internationally recognized practitioners, analysts and writers. But the CDC story arising from their work is a starting point for a much bigger task. This is to take forward the challenge of promoting a public debate about the role of citizens - from all walks of life and active in civil society organizations and other spheres - to explore ways in which international cooperation can embrace a different approach to development. The innovation of this CDC story does not lie in finding an unknown magic ingredient for social change. What is ‘new’ is to be found in trying to look through the eyes of citizens to gather and join up experiences of bringing about change that are scattered around the landscape of aid.
Civic driven change in West Asia
What can an organisation like Hivos do in repressive regimes like Iran and Syria? Does Civic Driven Change (CDC) offer opportunities or new insights for developing strategies in those countries? These are the questions Maaike van Adrichem poses in her research paper on Hivos programme in Syria and Iran: From civil society building to civic driven change?
ICT & Citizens Agency
Since the late 1990s, the prospect of using ICT (Information Communication Technologies) to improve accountability, transparency, access to information, and monitoring authorities has attracted general optimism. However, early hopes that e-initiatives would be the panacea of all the problems have given way to more modest claims. An aspect that has not received much attention so far is the use of ICT in support to citizen agency; to involve and inform communities and interact with and influenc...
The Practice of Civic Driven Change (22 June)
There is increased interest in change processes in which citizens play a central and initiating role. The Civic Driven Change (CDC) framework offers an opportunity to further elaborate on the potential of active citizenship for triggering change in all walks of life: at the political level, in civil society, as well as in business. This workshop to be held on 22 June in The Hague, will provide a platform for practitioners to share and discuss their experiences on innovative citizen-led change...Date: 22 June : Location: Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Kortenaerkade 12, The Hague
A concise guide to the basics
The world is not working well. For more and more people, life is unfair and insecure. In fact, for years now the global future has looked less rather than more politically certain, financially stable and ecologically viable. CDC introduces novel ideas about citizen efforts that can turn this alarming reality around.Twaweza
Twaweza, meaning “we can make it happen” in Swahili, is a ten-year initiative (2009-2018) that seeks to enable people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to improve their quality of life through a bold, citizen-centered approach to development and public accountability.Deep Democracy
The Broker devoted a special report to the Civic Driven Change Initiative (Issue 10). It also created a platform for discussion on CDC on its site. The responses thus far to the special report have helped to launch a public and international conversation with far-ranging implications for the work of democracy building and development.About CDC
The Civic Driven Change Initiative is a process of thinking, writing and debating to arrive at and communicate a perspective of change in societies that stems from citizens rather than states or markets. It is supported by a number of Dutch non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that value the potential of creating a strong civic narrative which extends beyond local conditions and circumstances. The narrative in the form of a publication as well as policy briefs were presented during a seminar...