Guiding Questions

Tags: Worldwide , Knowledge programme
Additional tags: Knowledge Programme Civil Society Building

The Knowledge Programme will focus on the following three main questions.
1. How can we understand the dynamics of civil society formation and the role of local actors in this process?
2. How do external actors contribute to this process?
3. How does civil society building as a process contribute to structural changes in unequal power balances in society?
By focusing on these three questions, the Programme will especially take the issues of gender, authority and leadership, innovation, and sustainability into account because of their cross-cutting importance.

1. Dynamics of civil society formation

Civil society building is seen as an accumulation of historical processes, with both internal and external dimensions, that together determine the density, diversity and quality of civil society. We can use the analogy of archaeological layers, in which each layer adds to the final characteristic of the civil society ‘fabric’. Analysing and understanding civil society dynamics and formation thus implies disaggregating these layers and trying to understand the internal and external processes that affect civil society strength, even though we know these processes are always closely interrelated. Building on the ‘mapping exercises’ of the Civicus Civil Society Index, this research offers the possibility to study the dynamics and complexity of civil society, including various organisational forms, values, ideologies, formal or informal relationships and networks with other civic associations.

Another important aspect of this research is the analysis and understanding of how gender inequalities affect women’s rights, participation and decision-making in civil society dynamics and formation. The research could look at why women’s organisations often face difficulty in maximizing the impact of their work for the benefit of women, focusing on the interaction of the organisation with its constituency, as well as the organisation’s role vis-à-vis the state.

The research will also look at notions of authority and leadership. What is the relationship between civil society associations and traditional or social leaders in various regions? To what extent can leaders represent the interests of the grassroots? How can traditional leaders realise sustainable social changes? Or do local leaders just confirm the status quo and inhibit emancipation processes?

2. Role of external actors in civil society strengthening

The research will address the question of whether endogenous processes of civil society formation can be effectively directed or supported by external processes. Under which conditions and to what extent can external actors play a positive, facilitating role? When attempts are made to fit external processes to local conditions, does it strengthen civil society formation or actually distort and undermine it? The majority of the interventions under the label ‘civil society building’ are actually focused on the strengthening of the partner organisations themselves.The research will explore the intervention logic of the civil society building strategies of a range of donors, NGOs and (local) support organisations by looking at both the explicit (formulated) and implicit (pursued) policies and strategies.

There are also a number of cross-cutting issues related to policies and programmes of external actors that will be covered by the research, such as innovation, gender, and sustainability.

The research could delve further into policy formulation around civil society building. Where do donors and (donor) NGOs detect its innovations in civil society building? What is really new and what are more ‘traditional’ or conventional policies? Are innovations related to themes or rather to particular groups or sectors of civil society? Are innovations found more frequently in some regions than in others?

In terms of gender, we could look at which priorities and interventions have been most relevant in different contexts for women’s empowerment and equality in civil society. What have been the experiences with strengthening the legitimacy, capacity and outreach of the women’s movements at national and local levels? Within the women’s movement it has been identified that there are growing gaps between NGOs based in capital cities and grassroots initiatives in the urban slums and rural areas. The research could analyse how the external support focused on women’s lobby and advocacy work for policy and law reform at the national level has affected the mobilisation and organisation around more local issues and knowledge. What alternative, more creative strategies could be used for support in different contexts to women’s civil society organisations (such as popular education, and broader alliance building with men and women active in other civic movements)?

The research could look at the dilemmas of creating sustainability for organisations involved in more political interventions, such as civil society building, in which there are often very few alternative ways of income-generation (e.g. human rights’ groups or persecuted networks of social organisations). What happens to those organisations after donors withdraw, or will these groups remain dependent on external subsidies? What have been the important lessons from various donor NGOs regarding successful (and/or failed) policies to enhance financial sustainability? Are partner organisations at all able to work on contested or critical issues without external donor support? The research activities could include a number of ex-post evaluations of civil society building interventions where donors have left at least 5 years ago. Is it possible to detect the impact of the civil society building interventions? Is the result visible or at least still tangible? How do stakeholders look back on the intervention? What lessons were learned and which of those lessons were implemented?

3. Contribution to structural changes in unequal power balances

After two decades of prioritising civil society building in donor policies and practice, it is important to rethink what it exactly has generated in terms of structural changes (both short and longer term) in the balance of power in society. After all, many current assumptions on the effects of civil society building urgently need some serious reflection. Have civil society organisations genuinely opened up spaces of participation for excluded groups? How have civil society organisations contributed to the inclusion of marginalised groups? Has empowerment led to improved living conditions or gender equality? Are membership organisations and/or social movements always the primary actors, or rather vanguard groups or NGOs? Is it always a bottom-up process, or does it also have a top-down component? This is an essential element to explore as the assumption is often made that civil society building should be bottom-up and grassroots-led. Can states also contribute to civil society formation? Or is it a matter of levels, meaning that national organisations always take the lead in civil society building over local ones?