Date
26-Feb-2018 to 26-Feb-2018 |
Location
PRIA, New Delhi |
Format
Institutional |
PRIA was founded on the belief that citizens and their associations need to be empowered towards socio-economic development and deepening democracy. Over its 36 years, PRIA has been produced innovative capacity enhancement tools, methods and products that have been extensively utilised in India and beyond.
PRIA has worked in partnership with many organisations to build capacities of civil society organisations. Institute of Development Research (USA), founded by Prof Dave Brown & Ms Jane Covey, along with PRIA offered many such innovative products and services for human and institutional development of governments, students, donors and NGOs, which have been scaled up in India and beyond through a collaborative platform.
On February 26, 2017, we convened a half day interaction to review this history and identify opportunities for the future. Long-term PRIA partners -- RDT, CYSD, SPARC, Unnati, Lok Jagriti Kendra, SSK and IDR -- attended. Each partner shared their journey of building and sustaining civil society organisations (CSOs). Reminiscences of commitment and passion for participatory development led to discussions on the current atmosphere in which CSOs have to undertake their work, and possible areas for collaboration. Some important issues were raised, which included:
- There is lack of conversations/convergence of actions among civil society.
- CSOs choose whom to work with. Their language and grammar, when they speak about their work, does not find resonance with the government, which is often critical of civil society efforts nowadays.
- The challenge is how to convert this critical feedback into constructive, dialoguable communication between multiple stakeholder. For civil society to be effective, we need to talk to each other.
- Federation-alliance model does not work well in India (SDI works better in 33 other countries, said Sheela Patel, Founder of SPARC.)
- CSOs need to make connections with young people, and be concerned with what young students are learning and not learning.
- Today, there is a culture of beneficiaries, with too many government committees at local level and party cadres. The struggle to build a sustainable organisation which serves communities is not visible.
- Society is polarised, not only in India but across the globe. Globalisation (workers losing their jobs), automation, Internet revolution, climate change and increased income inequalities are some of the reasons why society is polarised.
- Building inter-sectoral collaborations can bridge tensions across sectors/levels/organisations. Civil society can play a crucial role here. There is a need to catalyse NGOs and how they can be managed.
Everyone agreed that they are privileged to be able to do their work and be recognised as civil society practitioners. We should not take this privilege for granted.
