CIVIL SOCIETY

ENABLING

ENVIRONMENT

What is

CIVICUS?

About CIVICUS • Founded in 1993 to strengthen citizen action and

civil society around the world

• Membership alliance of CSOs and citizens, with members in 120+ countries

• Based in Johannesburg (+Geneva, London & New York)

• 3 Strategic Priorities: Influence, Connect, Enable

• Key activities include influencing international processes, generating knowledge, campaigning against restrictions

• Funded by mix of development agencies, foundations and member contributions

Understanding

civil

society

The State of Civil Society Report

• CIVICUS’ annual flagship

report

• Wide range of diverse

contributors from CIVICUS’

global network

• About civil society, by civil

society

• Theme: Reimagining global

governance

@CIVICUSalliance #StateofCivilSociety

http://civicus.org/socs2014

The era of mass protest has not

come to an end

• In 2013 and 2014 struggles for economic justice and democratic rights spread to new locales, including Brazil, Cambodia, Malaysia, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

• Many of the large-scale protests took place in large middle-income countries, largely with formal electoral democracies.

• Protests were not necessarily driven by the poorest or most voiceless.

Main drivers of protests • Protests highlight a deep

dissatisfaction with and the rejection of politics and economics that serve and entrench elites.

• Formal politics is inadequate. People have few practical opportunities to influence the decisions that affect their lives.

• Social media and word of mouth were critical to the organisation of some of the major protests, but social media makes protest organisers easily identifiable.

Restrictive legislation curbing civil

society

In the past 14 months, proposed restrictions include:

o narrowly circumscribing permissible activities (Indonesia, Israel, South Sudan, Sudan); UK?

o restricting foreign funding (Kenya, Israel, Pakistan, South Sudan); Plus Russia, Egypt & India

o introducing complex registration requirements (Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Ecuador, Zambia, Russia);

o limiting media freedom (the Gambia, Kenya, Turkey, Ukraine);

o introducing homophobic legislation (Nigeria, Russia, Uganda);

o impeding the right to protest peacefully (Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Uganda)

Map: Legal restrictions on CSOs

introduced or proposed since April

2013

Measuring the conditions for civil society: The 2013 Enabling

Environment Index

What is the EEI? • PURPOSE: A TOOL TO GENERATE DEBATE AND DIALOGUE

• GLOBAL COMPOSITE INDEX DEVELOPED USING SECONDARY DATA THAT SEEKS TO UNDERSTAND THE PROPENSITY OF CITIZENS TO PARTICIPATE IN CIVIL SOCIETY

• BROAD VIEW OF CIVIL SOCIETY AS AN “ARENA” AND EE AS “CONDITIONS THAT IMPACT ON THE CAPACITY OF CITIZENS TO PARTICIPATE AND ENGAGE”

• INCLUDES DIMENSIONS OF NON-ORGANISED FORMS OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN DISCUSSIONS ON EE

• RANKS GOVERNANCE, SOCIO-CULTURAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

• COVERAGE OF 109 COUNTRIES

*

*

HIGHEST RANKED COUNTRIES LOWEST RANKED COUNTRIES

The ranking

The limitations of the index

• THE “CANADA” QUESTION (I.E. THE RANKING OF COUNTRIES): THE EEI CURRENTLY LOOKS AT LONG-TERM FACTORS THAT CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR HEALTHY CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT AND IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF THE CURRENT STATE OF CIVIL SOCIETY

• LACK OF DATA ON CSO LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND FUNDING FOR CSOS: CIVICUS ACKNOWLEDGES THE NEED FOR GATHERING IN-DEPTH PRIMARY DATA AT THE COUNTRY LEVEL

CSI-RA and EENA

Civil Society Index – Rapid Assessment

Enabling Environment National Assessment

CSI-RA: dimensions

• Focused: one to three dimensions

• 8 dimensions & menu of indicators 1. Enabling environment for civil society

2. Power relations between civil society actors

3. Level of institutionalisation

4. Perception of impact

5. Civil society resourcing

6. Network and connections within civil society

7. Citizen participation and activism

8. Practice of values

Enabling Environment

National Assessments • Aims at measuring the legal, regulatory and policy

environment for civil society at a national level • Enabling Environment Index (EEI): lack of data on

the legal and regulatory environment • Action-oriented research projects: research report

+ advocacy Plan • Research methods: desktop review, interviews and

focus group discussions • National partner, expert advisory panel, National

Consultation • Collaboration CIVICUS and ICNL under Civic Space

Initiative

EENA dimensions

• 10 dimensions – Mandatory dimensions (5)

• Formation

• Operation

• Access to Resources

• Expression

• Peaceful Assembly

– Optional dimensions (5) • Internet Freedom

• Government-CSO relations

• CSO Cooperation and Coalition

• Taxation

• Access to Information

EENA: some findings

• Laws and regulations formation: liberal versus more restrictive regimes (Lebanon vs. Uganda, Zambia)

• Restrictive laws: NGO Laws (Zambia, Cambodia) • Practice: importance of political environment,

corruption, rent-seeking • Government-CSO relations: challenge (example

Cambodia) • Funding: downward spiral, restrictions foreign

funding • Internet freedom: new area for restrictive legislation

(Cambodia) • Non-legal barriers: corruption (Cambodia), religious

and political environment (Lebanon), drugs trafficking (Mexico)

Responses and global

campaigns

• Awareness raising campaigns

• International media

• EU process- Council of Europe Code of Good Practice on Civil Participation

• UN process- Human Rights Council, UPR

• Opening up global governance

Oli Henman: oli.henman@civicus.org