How to work with Civil Society

Working with Civil Society?

After a proper analysis of the context, one needs to:

Develop a strategy
Identify approaches
Identify who to work with
Select the mechanisms for implementing this strategy
Evaluate the impact of working with civil society

Developing a strategy

Developing a strategy for working with civil society should depend on the donors' goals and priorities. One needs to be clear about one's expectations of civil society before embarking upon programmes. Donors bring their own agendas, values and priorities. Often donors have a long history of engagement sometimes linked to particular foreign policy interests. Donor agencies, and sometimes different sections within donor agencies, have different perspectives on civil society and different expectations of what such engagement should and can achieve. Some agencies view civil society as a force for democratisation, while others may be primarily interested in civil society's role in delivering services as an alternative to the state. These goals influence the choices donors make about working with some civil society.

DFID objectives

The Government White Paper "Eliminating World Poverty - a Challenge for 21st Century" (1997) PDF document (312kb) - committed DFID to new and stronger partnerships with a range of actors - including civil society. The White Paper states the hope that developing countries will be ready to set out their strategies for moving forward towards the achievement of the internationally agreed targets, and share their plans internally so that civil society is consulted about national priorities and can use its voice to strengthen commitment to the implementation of pro-poor policies.

The Secretary of State, Clare Short outlined DFID's position on civil society in a speech in 1999. - "NGOs in a Global Future", Birmingham (1999) . Civil society has a crucial role in development:

helping local people to realise their human rights and demand improvements in the provision of core government services such as health and education
ensuring greater equity in resource allocation, with resources focused on the priorities of the poor and other excluded groups
ensuring that public services are made more accessible to excluded groups

DFID's relations with civil society have been changing in keeping with the major shift in DFID's overall objectives:from working at a project level to a strategic engagement to support achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The focus has shifted from support for development non-governmental organisations involved in service delivery or advocacy, to a much more dynamic look at the role of civil society in pushing for social, economic and political change. DFID has been engaging directly with a wider range of organisations, seeking to support them in their role of helping poor and excluded people to enhance their capacity to organise and get their voice heard, and to demand better services and better access to them. In many African countries DFID has been involved in trying to make sure that civil society is fully involved in the Poverty Reduction Strategy process.

Many DFID offices have developed specific civil society policies:

Cameroon(169 kb)
Nigeria(325 kb)
South Africa(257 kb)

Recently the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has developed a strategy to working with Civil Society PDF document (808 kb) and the World Bank have produced a Guide to Resources for NGOs and Other Organisations of Civil Society(808 kb)