Civil Society @ Crossroads:

 

The initiative Civil Society @ Crossroads since June 2011 has inspired a process of providing more insights into how civil society contributions in different regions of the world can be understood, supported and enhanced, thereby enabling a fresh understanding of trajectories of civil society from local contexts, as well as trans-nationally. It was a joint initiative of PRIA, CDRA (South Africa), EASUN (Tanzania), INTRAC (United Kingdom), PSO (the Netherlands) and ICD (Uruguay) which aimed to initiate collective reflection and systematisation about the future of civil society around the world, in particular its roles, capacities, contributions, limitations and challenges.

+Objectives

The objectives of the project were to:

  • collect and share local stories and experiences of civil society from the ground up, which are documented (in oral histories, written pieces, audio-visuals, videos, cartoon, media reports etc.) from the perspective of practitioners, change-makers, actors and participants in these stories; and

  • facilitate critical reflections in an inclusive and bottom-up manner with a view to developing fresh systematisation of civil society, its roles, space, challenges, opportunities, capacities, resources, etc.

+Geographical spread

Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and the Philippines in Asia; Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania Uganda and Zimbabwe in Africa; Argentina, Chile and Uruguay in Latin America; Greece, Ireland, Russia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in Europe.

+Key components

  • Undertaking country level research and reflections to investigate how civil society organisations are changing their strategies, roles and external relationships in response to the ensuing socio-political and economic changes in the respective countries and to look at what new capacities, opportunities and challenges are emerging for civil society organisations in the changing contexts

  • Undertaking analytical research on recent citizen eruptions/movements to investigate the context and triggers for these movements, the relationship between these movements and institutionalised CSOs, the resources and support these moments garner, the interface between state institutions and these movements, and the impact these movements have on the ‘democratic space’ of civil society

  • Publishing research reports, case studies, reflections in printed and audio-visual formats

  • Organising and participating in national, regional and international events to disseminate the emerging findings and insights with a range of actors globally

+Key outputs

  • Publication of eight country stories on civil society from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Cambodia, India, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Russia

  • Publication of 14 citizen eruption stories from 13 countries – South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Greece, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the Latin American regional story

  • Reports of five reflections (three national and two regional) through round tables and conferences from the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, East Africa and Latin America

  • Publication of a knowledge synthesis document titled Civil Society @ Crossroads: Shifts, Challenges, Options? for practitioners, policy-makers and protagonists

  • Translations of the summary of the synthesis document in eight languages including Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Hindi, French, Khmer, Swahili, Spanish and Portuguese

  • Publication of a short film titled ‘Civil Society @ Crossroads’ that stimulates reflections

  • Publication of comic strips (10 Episodes) on Civil Society @ Crossroads – A South African Story

  • The findings from research and reflections were shared in ten international events organised by international civil society and academic organisations and networks

  • Publication of a special issue of the journal Development in Practice

Year/period

2011-12

Client

PSO, The Netherlands