Fostering civil society

Nurturing citizen movements
Reclaiming power of civil society
Strengthening non-governmental leadership
Advocating activity by the non-government sector
Encouraging non-governmental organizations
Promoting non-government associative activity

Description

Encouraging and incorporating popular participation and good governance as a vehicle for building sustainable societies.

Context

Non-government activities can significantly contribute to the welfare of society. Their contributions may not only be essential but may need to be strengthened in order to tackle issues such as global sustainability.

A definition of civil society was set out in decision GCSS.VII/5 of the seventh special session of the Governing Council/Global Ministers of the Environment Forum. Civil society encompasses major groups, namely farmers, women, the scientific and technological community, children and youth, indigenous people and their communities, workers and trade unions, business and industry, non-governmental organizations as well as local authorities.

Implementation

There are many emergent citizens' efforts to redefine the relationship between citizens and ruling states. Unlike the revolutions of the twentieth century which involved contests for state power, these revolutions seek to secure from the state the right of all people to govern themselves within the borders of their own communities. Their goal is to reclaim the power of civil society that distant corporations and governments have co-opted.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development – also known as the Earth Summit – legitimized NGOs as vital players in the environment and development dialogue and marked a turning point in their efforts to become part of international policy-making. UNCED marked the largest gathering – and the widest range – of NGOs ever to attend a UN event. More NGOs than in any previous conference were formally accredited and recognized as legitimate spokespersons for citizen concerns, in effect becoming the emissaries of civil society.

The decision to hold a special dialogue with environmental NGOs during the 1998 Århus European Environmental Ministers Conference marked a recognition of their essential role, and the commitment of European governments to strengthen lines of communication between governments and NGOs, including in international fora. The conference recognized the new role played by NGOs in the Conference; appreciated their leadership in organizing and taking responsibility for the NGO session, and in actively participating in Conference preparations. The Conference encouraged European governments to to provide practical and financial support to environmental NGOs, noting at the same time that part of the role of such groups can be to question government policy.

The International Council of Voluntary Agencies held a global forum inter alia to identify NGO modalities and strategies to promote the development of strong, viable and active civil societies.

Civicus is a global organisation dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. Formally organised in Barcelona, Spain in 1993, Civicus was borne out of discussions among the Independent Sector, the Council of Foundations in the US and the European Foundation Centre who were seeking to develop a framework so non-profit organisations throughout the world could work together. At present, Civicus has a membership of 507 organisations and individuals in over 92 countries.

Claim

In order for NGOs to fulfil their role as guardians of civil societies which can be strong, viable and active, they should be guided by a necessary set of ethics and recognize that poverty, being a political issue, places them on the side of the struggle for justice.

Building a global civil society requires a new level of networking and communications among citizen groups in every country. We need simple, user-friendly electronic communications in order to keep in touch with each other at the grass roots and coordinate local affairs and campaigns for a people-centred, sustainable focus of development.

It is time for a very different global dialogue. Specifically, it must be grounded in the experience and aspirations of those who have borne the major consequences of the failure of twentieth century institutions and who remain in contact with the living systems of the planet. The time for negotiating with our own governments' bracketed language has ended. It is time for citizens groups to take the next step – engage from the grassroots in building true citizen agendas for change. Much of the leadership is coming from those who have the least to lose and the most to gain from creating just, democratic and sustainable societies for the twenty-first century – from those who have the least stake in the flawed assumptions of the past. When the people lead, their governments will follow.

Non-governmental organizations influence the shape and outcome of the Earth Summit. They spoke on behalf of the voiceless. They made a principled stand for the poor and the dispossessed – and for the ecosystems and creatures that make up our planet's natural wealth. In an era when the gap between haves and have-nots is growing wider, when societies everywhere are spending nature's bounty faster than it can be replenished, and when human numbers are set to double, these are new voices of profound significance, heralds of a changed world. The non-government sector is the third force pushing governments and business to do right, making its sometimes unruly way into global councils and multilateral negations. Non-governmental organizations bring a message that is an indispensable part of development toward sustainability.

The success of society is measured as much by its ability to create social capital as market and public capital. But in the old dynamic of market versus government, the community was shunted to the margins of the political debate. In the new model, the civil society becomes the middle kingdom between market and government and the most important leg of the political stool.

Civil society counts when it embodies positive social capital and values equality and justice. The politics of liberalisation, rolling back of the state, cuts in social expenditure, rampant consumerism and individualism, undermine this. How do we strengthen civil society so that the structure and balance of social and economic relations are altered? The answer may lie in the formation of strong horizontal and vertical political linkages to facilitate collective action that challenge the global and national systems which circumvent and undermine the struggles of the poor and the working class. Every NGO needs to struggle. If they themselves begin struggling and fighting for a cause, we are on the road to the construction of a civil society and social capital formation that really counts. Over time a social movement will evolve through the organic aggregation of this progressive social capital formation.

The first step to altering the structure and balance of social and economic relations in favour of the working class and the poor, is the scaling up of the organisational activity and practice of every civil society formation. This will entail advocating for the enforcement and expansion of social rights, calling for more radical redistributive measures and actively giving voice to and supporting local struggles as the first steps in linking the political actions of the poor.

All informed citizens need to work together, to do what they can at the micro level, and help build a civil society at the macro level that can sustain these social institutions that are critical to development (Amartya Sen).