Knowledge & Change Spotlight: When civics go 'governance'

Parallel session: A critical analysis of the role of NGOs in Southern and Eastern Africa

Tags: Africa , Civil Society Building
Additional tags: Civil society building africa , Governance

The ‘spotlight session’ provides a daily preview of key events of our upcoming Knowledge Dialogue. Today we highlight a workshop hosted by the Hivos/ISS Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme. Reflecting on recent research projects in a number of African countries, the programme analyses what has happened with ‘civics gone governance'.

Development analysts have labeled the last three decades as the golden era of NGOs. Donors have enabled and encouraged NGOs to get heavily involved in activities ranging from the delivery of basic services to promoting community empowerment. More recently, NGOs have been pushed to get involved in programmes around good governance. As a result, many development contexts have seen a mushrooming NGO sector. Recent indications for example suggest that in a country like Zambia there are more than 11.000 registerd NGOs.

Typical governance interventions have included participation trajectories around Poverty Reduction Strategy plans, budget tracking, decentralization programmes and programmes around other institutional reforms. So, what have been the results? Judging by a glance at the current development debate, NGOs have lost their magic bullet label. Some critics have even declared the NGO sector morally bankrupt. Grand statements, but often not well substantiated. Solid analyses, especially studies from a 'southern' perspective' have been in short supply.

In this session, the Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme challenges participants to test and debate some of the emerging insights from research projects in Southern and Eastern Africa, which have explored the, relatively new, role of (Southern) NGOs in governance processes. The findings give cause to fundamental questions about the assumptions lying at the heart of governance interventions by civic organisations, about the way their role has played out in practice, and about the interplay between civic organisations and formal political institutions such as parliament. Has the choice for civil society organisations to involve in governance been appropriate? Has it brought citizens closer to the centres of power and has it served their practical and strategic interests? What can be learned about the potential for NGOs to ‘go governance’ and about choices to make for their future position? Ria Brouwers (Institute of Social Studies), Rose Namara, Hermine Engel(Planact) and Simon Kabanda (Citizen's Forum, Zambia) will engage the audience in a discussion to test, complement and consolidate some of the emerging insights from the Civil society Building Knowledge programme on this prominent topic.

The workshop takes place on the 30^th of September, from 14.00 to 15.45. You can register for the Knowledge dialogue here