Blogs

• European Youth Event 2018: from reflection to action

  By Elena Ceban, Center for Intercultural Dialogue

  Imagine a space where over 8000 young people would come together to discuss, debate, share their opinions on political, social and cultural issues and have a dialogue with policy makers on how the life of young people can be improved. This space is the European Youth Event, a festival held every two years that celebrates youth participation in one of the most beautiful ways possible. It brings together youth from all over Europe and beyond for a 2-day marathon of discussions, sessions, workshops, musical/theatre/circus performances, rap battles, games and simulations, all with the purpose of bridging the gap between youth and policy-makers, and collecting fresh and innovative ideas on how to improve the life of Europeans in all aspects, whether economic, social and labor-related, environmental protection or political participation. The event is held inside and next to the European Parliament, which means that for 2 days the whole space around the European Parliament turns into a vibrant hub of energy, laughter, good vibes, music and positivity.

  This year´s edition of the EYE revolved around the motto: "The plan is to fan this spark into a flame" (Hamilton, My Shot), and covered the following topics: keeping up with the digital revolution, calling for a fair share, working out for a stronger Europe, staying alive in turbulent times and protecting our planet.

  It was amazing that so many young people could benefit from the opportunity of sharing the same space with decision-makers and learning more about how their ideas can shape the future of Europe. What was even more incredible was that the programme was shaped by the young people themselves! In a complex procedure that starts way before the event, youth organisations and youth groups are invited to apply with an idea for a workshop or activity that covers one of the topics mentioned above. This feature creates an amazing diversity of methodologies used for the proposed activities, and the participants get the chance to meet and learn about the work of multiple national and international youth organisations from Europe.

• Every single person is a potential activist today 

  Civil society actors and leaders from around the world gathered from 30 May to 3 June 2022 at the World Justice Forum in The Hague, the home of the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, and online to share insights and recommendations on three important priorities for strengthening justice and the rule of law.

  "Every single person with a phone is a potential activist today," @LysaJohnSA of @CIVICUSalliance at the #WorldJusticeForum's "Recommendations, Commitments, & Investments in the Rule of Law" plenary. pic.twitter.com/eY8jLvGgXi

  — World Justice Project (@TheWJP) June 2, 2022

  The forum, which focused on fighting corruption, closing the justice gap, and countering discrimination, served as an ideal platform to collectively address the declining state of civil society. I had the privilege of participating in the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Legacy conversation with Sherrilyn Ifill and the Recommendations, Commitments, and Investments to Advance Justice and Rule of Law plenary.  

  Throughout the conference, immense emphasis was placed on the constant threats to and continuously shrinking civic space. Our research from the CIVICUS Monitor shows that, currently, only 3% of the world’s population live in conditions of open civic space, where their governments broadly respect and promote the democratic freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression and allow their citizens to participate meaningfully in the decisions that affect them. Data from the CIVICUS Monitor also shows that in the last year, the top two violations in relation to civic space were the detention of protestors and the intimidation of human rights defenders. This points to a trend of a lack of investment in and strengthening of institutions that are meant to defend human rights and the people that speak on behalf of human rights.  

  In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, we are witnessing a number of states, and international institutions, particularly in European democracies, divert funding and resources away from institutions and mechanisms that are devoted to defending human rights and strengthening civic space. Not only does this pattern of behaviour display a negative vote against democracy, but it contributes to the continuous fall of trust in public institutions, and not enough is being done to challenge the lack of investment in civil society from those in power. At this point, the fight for democracy rests solely on the shoulders of individuals who are constantly putting their lives at risk to fight against the worldwide decline of civic space.  

  While international and public institutions have the power and resources to address the humanitarian crisis that faces us, their abstinence from actively investing in and protecting civil society displays a glaring lack of moral empathy for those on the ground.   

  In light of these global challenges, the panel discussions at the World Justice Forum brought forth much-needed insights and recommendations to rebuild and strengthen civil society and the rule of law with respect to the three main priorities of the forum.  

  One of the key recommendations from the World Justice Forum’s Outcome Statement highlighted the need for states to create enabling environments for innovation and for civil society to operate. During the pandemic, we witnessed some of the most significant protest movements despite extreme COVID-19 restrictions; this indicates that people are able and willing to mobilise regardless of restrictive laws intended to silence dissent.  

  The #WorldJusticeForum brought participants from 116 countries together to learn & collaborate on advancing #EqualRights, #AntiCorruption, #OpenGov & #AccesstoJustice. But the Forum is not just a conference—it's just the beginning of action, as told in our final statement. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/QqWVNB45Kp

  — World Justice Project (@TheWJP) June 2, 2022

  Conversations during the forum also pointed to the dire need for people-centred approaches. A practical example is citizen assemblies whereby people-driven resolutions are prioritised at international levels. Access to information and access to solidarity mechanisms also play a vital role in enabling people on the ground to advocate for fundamental rights, and states must invest in creating spaces for citizen participation.  

  A stronger effort needs to be taken to ensure that institutions are open to scrutiny and to being held accountable. Too many a times do we witness leaders making promises of a better tomorrow on international stages but do not hold open dialogues with and remain accountable to those who elected them. This includes extending open standing invitations for UN experts to visit and provide recommendations to affected countries.  

  There is a need for norms, narratives and investments that will help stimulate larger segments of trust and support towards civil society from a wide range of state and non-state actors. Concrete examples of how this can be done are available from CIVICUS’ work on reviewing approaches to civil society sustenance and resilience, including in the context of the pandemic.  

  In the 2020 Sustainable Development Goals, we said that this would be the Decade of Action, it is actually the Decade of Agitation, and governments that wake up to this sooner will be wiser because every single person on the planet with a phone is a potential activist today.  

  ---

  Lysa John is the Secretary-General of CIVICUS. She is based in South Africa and can be reached via her Twitter handle: @LysaJohnSA. 

• Every Voice Counts: UN Puts Spotlight on Children as Human Rights Defenders

  By Lena Ingelstam and Ulrika Cilliers, Save the Children, Tor Hodenfield, CIVICUS, and Beatrice Schulter, Child Rights Connect

  Many children want to defend their rights and the rights of others and when children speak out things change.

  Every day, millions of children take action and influence laws, budgets, service delivery and the realization of their rights as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. They speak out on poverty, education, health, violence, the environment, discrimination, and many other things. Children are human rights defenders when they take action and promote, monitor and defend children’s rights and the rights of others.

  The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides all children with the right to act as human rights defenders, rights which are reinforced in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

  “I believe we are all human rights defenders in our own way. Some of us in small and quiet ways because that’s how we feel and all we can give to the world and some in large ways. The impact may be big or small but we all fight for what we believe in.”
  Child participating in Child Rights Connect & Centre for Children’s Rights Survey

  92 per cent of children who participated in a new survey by Child Rights Connect and the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s University, Belfast, see themselves as human rights defenders. But children face serious challenges when promoting and defending their rights and the rights of others. In the survey, children identify four main barriers:

  • Adults do not take children seriously. They do not see children as competent and children’s views are not respected.
  • Children do not feel safe; 70 per cent of children are concerned about violence when they act as human rights defenders.
  • Children lack information; 40 per cent of children agree that one of the main challenges they face as human rights defenders is the lack of information about rights.
  • Children sometimes struggle to act due to lack of time, money and ability to travel to meetings.

  Children from the most marginalized and deprived groups often face additional challenges when they want to take action and promote and defend rights.

• Faire partie de CIVICUS nous a permis de défendre les droits des prisonniers au Burundi

  English | Spanish  

  A l’occasion des25 ans de CIVICUS, SABUSHIMIKE Mamert, Président del'Association des Amis de la Nature (AAN) et chargé de la communication et du plaidoyer au sein de la Coalition du Burundi pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme, exprime comment faire partie de CIVICUS -l’Alliance Mondiale pour la participation des citoyens – a permis à son association d’avoir un impact pour l’amélioration des conditions des prisonniers au Burundi et le respect de leurs droits. @mamertsabushim   

  Faire partie de l’Alliance Mondiale pour la participation des citoyens (CIVICUS) est une innovation importante et une très bonne chose pour moi, pour les membres de mon organisation : Association des Amis de la Nature et pour certains prisonniers du Burundi.

  J’ai reçu de nouvelles connaissances en plaidoyer grâce à CIVICUS, qui ont été à la base de l’amélioration des conditions de vie, d’hygiène et d’assainissement des prisonniers du Burundi, particulièrement dans la principale prison du pays MPIMBA qui enfermait 3664 détenus en janvier 2018 avec une capacité d’accueil de 800 détenus.

• Four Practices to Strengthen Youth Activism

  2021 Reflections By Elisa Novoa, Enhle Khumalo and Leonardo Párraga  

  Thanks to the richness and power that the CIVICUS Youth communities hold, the CIVICUS Youth coordination team learned andbuilt up our practices in 2021 around: 

  1. How to run a genuinely inclusive recruitment process by shifting the decision-making power 
  2. How to bring onboard new members and transfer information in an effective way 
  3. How to create opportunities and spaces for networking and visibility 
  4. How to create a culture of peer accountability and solidarity

  The following series shares the learnings and reflections encountered by the CIVICUS Youth team during 2021 while engaging with our different youth communities. We want to show the challenges and possibilities of meaningfully engaging young people to promote stronger civic spaces.

  BACKGROUND

  The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic left many learnings for civil society practitioners working to foster a culture of collaboration and solidarity among like-minded people and groups. The CIVICUS Youth coordination team is one of those groups of practitioners that aims to strengthen youth civic participation following innovative, dynamic, and peer-support approaches. The following reflections include experiences about creating aculture of accountability, inclusion, and resilience with a membership of3400+ young civil society actors from 150 countries. CIVICUS youth communities are based in multiple time zones, work on diverse topics and have a wide range of different needs and expectations, adding extra layers of complexity to our youth engagement practices. 

  The two central communities ofCIVICUS Youth are theYouth Action Team (YAT) and Youth Action Lab (YAL). YAT serves as a leadership body setting the agenda for the CIVICUS Youth members and interfacing with the CIVICUS Secretariat and Board of directors advocating for meaningful youth engagement in the alliance. The second one, theYouth Action Lab (YAL) exists to test models and approaches to better engage and support young individual activists and youth-led collectives or movements with non-youth focused organisations. The YAL offers financial and in-kind resources to make their activism more effective, resilient, and sustainable. In 2022, a new community of Young Ambassadors will be launched to bring all these learnings from youth power to national youth networks.

  SERIES

  In the first quarter of the year, we startedrecruiting the 2021 cohortsof the YAT and the YAL with a one-month gap and two different objectives and target audiences. One group is formed by young activists belonging to national or regional networks of young people - primarily well-established or registered – (Youth Action Team). The second one is integrated by outstanding and brave individual activists from unregistered associations, collectives, or movements who have not received funds so far and have not participated in an international forum before. 

  In the second quarter, we continuedonboarding the successful young candidates(11 from the YAL and 13 from the YAT). Due to travel restrictions, these processes happened online using simultaneous interpretation and communication platforms such as Zoom, e-mail, WhatsApp and Google Drive. 

  In the third quarter, we focused onnetworking opportunities among the groups and external stakeholders to grow their networks and visibility. These efforts used different virtual event formats and dynamics adapted to the specific objectives of each meeting and audience. 

  In the fourth quarter, we saw the outcomes of the efforts put intotrust and community building through group evaluation and check-in sessions. Activists were being very transparent about their progress, challenges, and availability to continue with the teams, and we saw expressions of team solidarity and peer support without the intervention of the Youth coordination team. 

  We hope you enjoy reading about our experiences. These would not have been possible without all of you – members, partners, friends in the non-for profit and justice seeking groups and organisations. 2022 will be a year of showcasing the inspiring work, achievements and struggles members of the Youth Action Lab faced in 2021. Hope to see you there and have the opportunity to meet them or connect with them again.

• Ganar espacio desde la raíz

  Escrito por Analía Bettoni – Instituto de Comunicación y Desarrollo

  En su reciente artículo The revolution will not be televised: Can NGOs learn to adapt? , Dom Perera, investigador del CIVICUS Monitor plantea que si bien en los últimos 25 años ha habido un crecimiento explosivo en el número de organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG), su papel en generar un cambio social se cuestiona. Su actuación se ha puesto en tela de juicio desde la propia opinión pública, mientras que gobiernos en muchos países imponen a menudo restricciones al trabajo de las organizaciones.

  El artículo plantea que, en este escenario hostil, sin embargo, los movimientos sociales están mejor posicionados. Esto se puede deber por ejemplo a que son creados y dirigidos por las propias personas que reclaman, tienen mayor flexibilidad y motivación para adaptarse, no se plantean objetivos de largo plazo y sus estructuras flexibles permiten sumar aliados en los momentos que se necesita, permitiendo la movilización, adaptación y participación de forma rápida.

  En 2012 la investigación La Sociedad Civil en la Encrucijada (Civil Society at a Crossroads), un estudio comparado de casos en todo el mundo presentaba como resultado una serie de desafíos para la sociedad civil organizada en total consonancia con estos estudios más recientes.

  De acuerdo con este estudio, en todos los continentes, las asociaciones formales, como los partidos políticos, sindicatos y ONG no estaban siendo capaces de proporcionar una voz colectiva a las necesidades de las personas. Éstas eligen unirse en movimientos sociales, que surgen como “explosiones” ciudadanas desconectadas de los ámbitos formales o más tradicionales de la sociedad civil. Estas movilizaciones ciudadanas logran convocar a las personas a través de formatos tradicionales como las marchas, las protestas, las ocupaciones, pero también a través de otras formas más innovadoras como el teatro callejero, el arte, la canción, la poesía, la música, el baile entre otras, como lo han demostrado los movimientos estudiantiles o de mujeres. Por el contrario, las organizaciones formales como las ONG, se fueron convirtiendo paulatinamente en estructuras jerárquicas, con modelos de gestión y eficacia institucional (similar al empresarial) en la búsqueda de la sostenibilidad de sus proyectos y estructuras, lo que las llevó en gran medida a desconectarse de sus raíces o de las personas para las que trabajan o representan.

• Gender and inclusion in civic space

  Just after International Women’s Day this year, Amal Clooney, accomplished international human rights lawyer, addressed the UN. She and survivor-advocate Nadia Murad are calling for justice and accountability for the so-called Islamic State’s acts of genocide against the Ezidi community of Iraq. Time magazine was more interested in focusing on the lawyer’s baby bump.

  Disappointing? Yes. Surprising? No.

  It’s just one more in an endless string of examples demonstrating what a very long way we still have to go. And that's the case whether we look at the civil society sector, or politics, or the legal profession, or the media, or just about any sector or field.

• General Operating Support for Local Organizations Represented Just 1% of International Giving by U.S. Foundations Over Five-year Period

  By Lauren Bradford and Inga Ingulfsen 

  

  From 2011 to 2015 U.S. foundations awarded a total of 35.4 billion dollars for organizations or programs based outside the U.S. International giving grew by 29 percent over the five-year period and reached an all-time high of $9.3 billion.

  These figures are drawn from The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations, a report jointly published by Foundation Center and Council on Foundations earlier this month. It’s the tenth in a series of joint research published by our two organizations since our first report on international grantmaking in 1997. (You can access the whole series here). While philanthropic funds are dwarfed by official development assistance – the $9.3 billion in international grants awarded by U.S. foundations in 2015 was equivalent to about a third of the $31 billion in U.S. official development assistance that year – we know governments alone can’t achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that foundations are among the key civil society partners that will be instrumental in driving progress. We also know U.S. foundations provide critical support to civil society groups globally, including in countries with challenging legal environments for cross-border giving (more on this below). We therefore hope CIVICUS members and their extended networks will use our data and analysis to inform their strategic efforts and partnerships with U.S. foundations to strengthen civil society worldwide.

  Here are four key takeaways for civil society advocates around the world on international giving by U.S. foundations:

• Global Citizenship Education as a Sustainable Development course: My first class

  By Claudia Cassoma, writer, student in special education and teaching and CIVICUS member
  

  Considering Sustainable Development as the program of study, the major, perhaps the end goal; let's look at Global Citizenship Education as the required course and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the elective ones.

  On 3 October, I attended my first ‘class’ on Global Citizenship Education. It was held at the lavishly elegant Les Atéliers des Tanneurs, in Brussels, and wAas conducted by Bridge 47, a network of experts on the seventh target of the fourth Sustainable Development Goal, quality education. The classroom was filled with minds from different points of the world thirsty for knowledge. I did wish it was a little more culturally diverse; nonetheless, I loved that from the very beginning I felt inspired. From The Leap Manifesto, Maya Menezes opened the meeting with a simple sounding yet highly potent line that left me thinking ‘til the end. In her words, to change everything we need everyone. I held that in the muddle of my mind as I lived through that remarkable experience.

  As we continued “unlocking the power of 4.7.” and deciphering the role of “Global Citizenship Education in achieving sustainable development” I was thinking about the most impactful way to deliver my own presentation. Yes! On the very first day of class I already had a presentation due. Being placed under the “changemakers” session was a responsibility I did not take lightly. I went in insisting on delivering nothing less than a true “story of impact”. I had an idea of what I wanted to say; however, as I got to observe the room and listen to all of those brilliant minds, that idea started conflicting with the question I had during my preparations: What exactly is ‘Global Citizenship Education’ and why does it matter to me as educator, humanitarian and as citizen of a country that barely knows the SDGs?

• Going forward hopeful: Reflections and farewell from outgoing SG of CIVICUS

  Spanish | French 

  As my time at CIVICUS draws to a close, I wanted to say a proper farewell to those who matter most at CIVICUS – the alliance of members and partners - who make this organisation unique and so special. The last six years have been a wonderful mix of change and constancy, of frustration and fulfillment, of pride and humility.

  The markers of dramatic change are many. Our annual income has risen from around $3m to over $13m. This year, we will issue $2.5m of subgrants, to smaller, Southern organisations. Our staff team is more diverse than ever before and our technological capabilities far beyond those that I encountered upon my arrival.

  Other things, I am pleased to say, have remained reassuringly constant, not least the fact that we remain proudly headquartered in Johannesburg. And, perhaps most importantly, that we have retained, I hope, the same professional, yet humble, approach to serving civil society that has been a feature of CIVICUS since its beginnings. I tried to label it being ‘profumble’ but it didn’t seem to stick with colleagues 😉

  Of course, the last six years have also held their fair share of frustrations and setbacks. We could have been more strategic and intentional in the way we’ve grown, particularly in terms of our geographical footprint. We’ve talked a great deal about democratising the international system, as well as about the SDGs, yet our programmatic work does too little to reflect or support these goals.

  My tenure at CIVICUS has also coincided with a period in which the crackdown on civic space has solidified into a persistent, pernicious, truly universal phenomenon. The space for civil society is shrinking, not by accident or in accordance with the natural ebb and flow of social change, but by design. Our democracies – we, the people – are under siege.

  But I do not move on from CIVICUS convinced that we are living in dark and dangerous times. Quite the opposite: I go forward hopeful.

  For, wherever I have been, I have encountered not just frustration with broken politics, but a desire to shape better democracies; to satisfy an unquenched thirst for participation; to re-imagine democracy for a new age. It is this hunger – a hunger for the power to better our own lives, to better our communities and countries – that civil society must look to satisfy.

  But, if we are to have any hope of succeeding, we will need to embrace radical change. Neither the market, nor state alone can mend our social fabric, or rebuild our ailing democracies, but nor can we assume that civil society organisations, in their current form, will be at the vanguard of driving social change in the 21^st century. Those that are – and will become – our most influential civic formations are those that are already reshaping, reinventing and renewing themselves.

  If civil society can find new dynamism in its shifting shapes and come together to stand united in the push back against shrinking space, then we will be ready to take on what I have come to see as our three major challenges.

  Our common, digital future

  The first will be to reimagine our rights for a digital world. Nowhere are our freedoms being more fiercely contested than they are online. The handful of corporates that dominate cyber space, convinced as they are of their pioneering role as digital saviours of our ailing world, are fiercely anti-regulation. But we need to find ways of promoting better behaviours online and supporting a fairer, more transparent structure. We need to work out how our legal and social norms apply in digital spaces. We need to get the rules and the governance right.

  Any new rules cannot be solely state-led, nor can they be led by the private sector alone. Governance of the digital space will need to be a truly multi-stakeholder initiative. Without conscious, purposeful struggle, the digital era won’t only fail on its promise to emancipate citizens; it will achieve the very opposite. [By the way, please do let me know in this area – the High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation I sit on will report in April 2019]

  Reimagining democracy

  Our second major challenge is to reimagine our democracy, as we outlined in our latest report Democracy for All: Beyond a Crisis of Imagination. We – as civil society – need to be rethinking our ideology of power, rethinking our democracies, in such a way as to enable people to reclaim their voice and sense of agency. We need to be experimenting, engaging those who are most under-represented in our existing system in designing new prototypes.

  It’s a process that urgently needs to happen at the global level as well. Many of the decisions that affect our lives are taken in the headquarters of remote, opaque, inaccessible institutions, cogs in a system that privileges a few, powerful states—and often corporations—over the interests of people.

  We need institutions of global governance that offer recourse to protection and support when authorities at the national level abuse their power. We need them now more than ever.

  And so, we must develop new forms of global consultation, we must insist upon more direct citizen participation in key decision-making, we must demand more transparency, so that trusted – and therefore, more effective – global institutions can form part of a reimagined democratic system.

  Redrawing sectoral boundaries

  Finally, we cannot reimagine our democracy until we reimagine our economy. Modern capitalism has concentrated power and wealth to an absurd, immoral degree.

  We need to find ways of enabling people to reclaim their sense of economic agency. We need to repurpose technology to create services equivalent to those offered by today’s corporate monoliths, without the extreme levels of exploitation, extraction and inequality.

  Civil society enjoys a freedom that neither the state nor market can lay claim to. Sitting beyond those sectors, we are free to reimagine the rules and dynamics that govern their systems. This constitutes perhaps the most fundamental challenge for CIVICUS. We cannot afford to simply defend ‘our sector’, nor can we fall prey to the fallacy that these sectors – state, market and civil society – are as neat or eternal as many make out. The future is going to be blurry and hybrid, and I hope CIVICUS can be ahead of the curve, helping others to navigate these changes.

  Finally, let me finish where I started by saying that it has been a hugely fulfilling privilege to be part of the CIVICUS journey. I feel proud to have been part of a dynamic and diverse community of people. I leave with a conviction that there is something beautiful, precious and powerful about CIVICUS. I also leave knowing that there are some brilliant colleagues at CIVICUS continuing and evolving our work, led by the wonderful Lysa John, and overseen by the best Board in the civil society world.

  I will be watching with great interest to see what comes next for CIVICUS. And I hope that I can work with my new colleagues at Oxfam Great Britain to play our part in strengthening people’s power.

  Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah

• Grassroots action & the right to protest: here’s a look at our annual priorities

  

  Secretary-General Update: August 2021

  In June this year, we presented the CIVICUS Board with our annual plan for 2021/22. The plan reflects lessons we have learnt from civic space trends and challenges in the context of the current pandemic and our resulting intent to invest more actively in initiatives that enable the long-term relevance and sustainability of civil society across the world. 

  On cue from our Impact & Accountability team, this update headlines five aspects of our annual plan that I am most excited about. More information about our annual plan is available here.

  • Championing the right to peaceful assembly

  Large-scale, public protests have defined the civic space landscape in every continent of the world across the past decade. Our work this year will set the stage for multi-year interventions to support people and communities who exercise their right to protest, while actively challenging unwarranted restrictions on peaceful assembly. We will contribute to the creation of enabling international and constitutional norms; develop context-specific mechanisms for the safety, health and wellbeing of those who exercise their right to protest; and facilitate greater connections between protest movements and wider civil society. 

  • Increasing our ability to define & defend civic freedoms online

  As part of our focus on civil society innovation and collaboration, our work this year includes the development of new strategies to support an enabling digital environment for civil society.  We will identify opportunities for civil society to actively monitor and report the misuse of technology to restrict civic freedoms and continue to be propositional about ways in which digital tools and platforms can support the fulfilment of human rights. As a result, we expect to increase the combined ability of the CIVICUS alliance to influence regulatory frameworks that protect and expand the online exercise of fundamental freedoms.

  • Strengthening our peer-to-peer learning, resourcing and solidarity initiatives

  We are excited to launch a number of initiatives aimed at improving how CIVICUS members collaborate and innovate together across a range of platforms. Our new online platform for members now enables secure peer-to-peer exchanges on mutual aims and collaborative projects, thereby unlocking a whole new level of dynamic engagement across the alliance. Our targeted grassroots-led resourcing campaign will allow us to test assumptions and amplify lessons on the shifts needed to make grassroots and national civil society efforts more resilient and sustainable. We will also be paying special attention to innovations in youth-focused civic space monitoring and resourcing in this period. 

  • Deepening our commitment to accountability and inclusion in the workplace

  In the last few years, we have prioritised a number of processes to ensure our workplace reflects our strong commitment to a culture of diversity, inclusion and accountability.  A rigorous review of internal practices and externally benchmarked evidence on sector standards has enabled a number of improvements in our systems related to recruitment, safeguarding, remuneration and benefits. In addition to progressing our commitment to a Fair Share for Women Leaders, we have undertaken an in-depth examination of how racial justice priorities show up in the culture and existing structures of the organisation in the past year. These processes have set the direction for further efforts that will be undertaken in the current year, which includes the progression of a composite and time-bound Racial Justice Action Plan.

  • Delivering an amended Strategic Plan that outlines CIVICUS’ priorities beyond 2022

  In March 2021, the CIVICUS Board approved a ‘strategy amendment process’ aimed at refining our priorities beyond 2022. The decision for a strategy refresh – as opposed to the development of an entirely new strategic plan – was based on the recognition that a light-touch process would help us focus attention and energies on the urgent external challenges and changes that we face at this time. The strategy amendment process draws on outcomes from review and scoping exercises held with a wide range of stakeholders across 2020/21. It will allow us to stress-test our theory of change, update key assumptions and sharpen areas of work that have assumed increased relevance in the context of the pandemic.

  We look forward to keeping you updated on the lessons learnt and outcomes achieved in relation to these endeavours in the coming months. Your suggestions are most welcome and could help us strengthen our efforts!  Please feel free to reach me or any other member of the CIVICUS team with your feedback – we look forward to hearing from you!

  Lysa John 
  CIVICUS Secretary-General
  @lysajohn

• Hacia la construcción de nuestra Política Institucional de Rendición de Cuentas

  Por Gloria Gonzalez Navarro y Enrique Blanco Lozada (Asociación Kusi Warma)

  Los cambios o impactos sociales suelen estar acompañados de adversidades de nuestro ambiente, las cuales evidentemente deben ser enfrentadas con esfuerzo. Esfuerzo que caracteriza a las grandes y pequeñas organizaciones que tienen como objetivo común: el generar cambios positivos.

  Kusi Warma, ONG de Perú que tiene como misión principal dar voz a los niños y niñas en situaciones poco ventajosas, no es la excepción a lo anteriormente mencionado. Es por ello que ha emprendido el emocionante camino hacia la construcción de su PIRC (Política Institucional de Rendición de Cuentas) como parte de la iniciativa Resilient Roots. Para ello el equipo del proyecto tuvo que seguir una serie de pasos iniciales que incluyó talleres de diagnóstico y devolución con la población con la que trabajaría los siguientes meses. Dicha población estuvo conformada por niños y niñas; sin embargo, debido a la relevancia y el papel que representan, también se trabajó con profesores y padres de familia.

  Producto de los talleres se pudo recoger propuestas, tanto de profesores y padres como de los niños y niñas. La mayoría consideró oportuno que se brindara más información sobre el propósito de Kusi Warma en su comunidad, a pesar que muchos ya tenían conocimiento de nuestra misión y objetivos, se sentían interesados en recibir más información e involucrarse más en sus actividades institucionales.

  Con la sugerencia y posterior aceptación por parte de la población involucrada, en febrero 2019 se inició el proceso de construcción de la PIRC utilizando el teatro como herramienta pedagógica. Los talleres se llevarán adelante durante 7 meses, incluyendo 4 sesiones y una puesta en escena cada mes. Para esto, cada sesión se dividió en dos, un primer grupo compuesto por niños y niñas entre 10 y 16 años; y otro compuesto por madres de la comunidad..

  El inicio del taller en la Comunidad 12 de Diciembre,realizado el 12 de febrero de 2019, fue bien recibido por los niños y niñas por lo novedoso que era participar de un taller de teatro, experiencia que hasta el momento era totalmente lejana para ellos. Con el pasar de las sesiones el grupo de niños aumentó y lo que inició con 20 participantes terminó superando por poco la expectativa inicial de 30.

  En el caso de las madres, se observó cierta reserva y vergüenza a participar en lo que entendían como “teatro”. Se logró mantener un grupo de 10 participantes activas que abrazaron el espacio íntimo y de libertad que el taller significaba para ellas. Pudimos ver cómo, según ellas, tenían un espacio en el cual escapaban de la cotidianidad de su vida y podían desenvolverse cada vez de forma más natural.

  Llegó el fin de mes y, con ello, la puesta en escena de ambos talleres. Los niños prepararon de forma colectiva un guion que explicaba “Qué es Kusi Warma” y las madres, también de forma colectiva, crearon un guion referente al Día Internacional de la Mujer.

  Aunque la previa se llenó de nerviosismo y un poco de temor a presentarse frente a toda la comunidad, ello pudo ser superado por la emoción que sintieron de poder expresar y transmitir lo que habían creado. Luego de esta primera presentación nos quedamos con la satisfacción de percibir que los niños y niñas de la comunidad tienen una imagen positiva del trabajo de Kusi Warma, dejando claro que para ellos representa diversión, salud, educación y una familia feliz. Del mismo modo, las madres dejaron claro que el impacto de una organización como Kusi Warma en la comunidad es algo que brinda más que ayuda, brinda una voz.

  Es justamente la voz de todas las personas a las que Kusi Warma se dirige, la que queremos escuchar, recoger y transformar en acción a través de nuestra PIRC. Es por ello que en las próximas presentaciones, luego de la puesta en escena, vamos a facilitar un espacio de reflexión y participación a fin de recoger las opiniones del público sobre cómo desean participar en la gestión de Kusi Warma, tanto en sus proyectos como en su organización, y cómo desean que les rindamos cuentas. Este desafío fortalecerá los lazos de confianza y respeto mutuo, lo cual nos hará una organización más resiliente, porque nuestra fuerza y legitimidad estará en la población a la que dirigimos nuestra acción, más empoderada y comprometida, para juntos afrontar las adversidades que se presenten.

• Handy tips and techniques to help you with your next proposal

  CIVICUS invited its member, the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) to facilitate a proposal writing and resource mobilisation workshop for staff in 2019. The workshop offerings included tools and techniques to assist individuals and teams prepare and deliver compelling proposals to donors. As we begin a fresh new 2020, we thought that these easy reference videos will provide you with helpful tips and tools for preparing a winning proposal. These info bites cover;

  1. How to write an effective proposal.
  2. The theory of change: what is it and how does it fit into your proposal writing exercise?
  3. Top Tips for your next winning proposal
  4. The importance of an elevator pitch: making it count.
  5. Red Flags: what to avoid when writing your next proposal.

• Have your say: Feedback channels to hold us to account

  By Tamryn Lee Fourie

  CIVICUS exists to defend people power. With a growing alliance of over 4000 members in 175 countries, we believe that together we are stronger. But, as an alliance, we need EVERYONE (our members, constituents, donors, wider civil society, general public) to tell us how the CIVICUS Secretariat is doing and to hold us to account on how strategies and approaches are implemented. A new and easy way to do this is through the online feedback and complaints form, launched in July 2018. Putting people at the centre of our work, enabling more iterative and participatory programming and allowing faster responses when changes in direction are required – this is what CIVICUS’ new Accountability Framework aims to establish, with your help.

  Accountability, shifting the power

  As part of our mission to strengthen civil society and mobilise citizens to fight for a more just, inclusive and sustainable world, the CIVICUS Secretariat continuously ask ourselves the question - what tools and strategies will help us to achieve the change necessary to achieve this mission? More specifically from an Impact and Accountability perspective, what data and accountability strategies, assets or tools can help us shift this power?

  Through our accountability strategy and data approaches, we strive to see the diversity of those we work with reflected in our data sources (survey respondents, interviews, focus group participants etc.) and provide opportunities for our constituents to capture data on issues that are most relevant to them. We want to develop inclusive processes that not only take into account but shine a light on underlying power inequalities when it comes to sourcing data. We also want the data analysis and outputs, to be consumable, user-friendly and relevant to individual citizens and local decision makers to dialogue and make informed decisions together.

• Here’s what we are achieving through our COVID-19 efforts

  Secretary General's Update

  

  Dear CIVICUS members and allies,

  This has been a particularly tumultuous period for both civil society and the wider world. While the global emergency unleashed by the pandemic makes it difficult to think back to calmer times, this update includes some wider processes relevant to our strategy that have moved forward in the past few months, and a summary of some immediate outcomes that we are achieving through our responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  What are our COVID-19 efforts achieving?

  As with most As with most other agencies across the world, the focus of our efforts has been to ensure a meaningful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our initiatives have accordingly been organised around: (i) Staff safety and support (ii) Coordination with members, partners and donors (iii) Advocacy on civic space and human rights priorities (iv) Acting with others to address wider systemic issues.

  Key developments in this regard include:

  • An internal ‘COVID-19 Response Team’ has worked together from the early days of March to ensure continuity of work and context-relevant support systems for staff of CIVICUS. Outcomes of this effort include equipping colleagues to work remotely, moving planned engagements to virtual spaces, negotiating grant deliverables and timelines with key donors and drawing on intelligence from members and peers on responses to a rapidly changing situation. In line with the continued health and economic implications of the pandemic, we have taken steps towards the implementation of the ‘COVID-19 Social Security Protocol’ and have extended our moratorium on travel and in-person events for staff and partners to September 2020.
  • Our first external intervention was to reinforce the need for donor flexibility and responsiveness in line with our focus on civil society resourcing and sustainability. Our Open Letter to Donors was published on 19 March, and followed up with targeted outreach meetings with a range of donor and development networks. In line with this effort, we extended the CIVICUS Solidarity Fund to cover COVID-19 related applications and are continuing to work with our allies in the #ShiftThePower movement to ensure international donors are providing much-needed support to local organisations in the global south in this period.
  • In keeping with our emphasis on the protection of civic space and human rights, we issued a statement urging states to put human rights at the heart of their response on 24 March. This has been followed by a CIVICUS Monitor briefing on restrictions and attacks on civil society that have been recorded since the pandemic was declared. On 16 April, we also launched an open letter to world leaders outlining 12 key actions required to protect civic space and human rights. The letter has received over 600 endorsements in less than a week since its launch, and will inform our advocacy efforts with governments.
  • In accordance with our focus on acting with others on structural challenges, we issued a call for a ‘Social Security Protocol for Civil Society’ on 07 April, in line with the ILO’s COVID-19 policy framework. The Protocol has now been adopted by close to 200 agencies, most of whom are local organisations in the global south with limited resources. This efforts reinforces our broader narrative on the systemic changes that civil society and wider society to act on as part of the effort that is needed to rebuild societies and economies in the aftermath of COVID-19. Our engagement with shaping and supporting international responses to the pandemic through close coordination with UN mechanisms in Geneva and New York as well as the emerging regional platform for COVID-19 policy priorities in Africa.

  Acting on our Mid-term Strategy Review

  We spent a significant amount of energy last year reviewing progress made against our strategy. The Mid-term Strategy Review resulted in 18 key recommendations which were taken forward by a process of deliberation and planning across the Secretariat, Board and membership. Our consolidated management response to the strategy review was published on 17 March 2020, and will inform our annual plans for the second half of the strategy period, as well as the planning process for the next strategy which will be initiated in 2021.

  While recognising that a significant amount of our efforts this year will need to be redirected to respond to the challenges that the pandemic is posing for civic space and civil society, we expect to continue investing energies in areas of work related to the mid-term review that speak to our ability to strengthen the ability of the CIVICUS alliance to organise forces and influence change in newer, more innovative ways.

  

  Improving our Accountability

  Our 11th Annual Accountability Report (for 2018/19) is now online. The feedback received from the Independent Review Panel includes recognition for efforts taken to ensure dynamic accountability, particularly around stakeholder engagement, partnerships, and learning. Recommendations for improvement include strengthening systems to track expenditure towards strategic objectives, as well as the management of our feedback systems. Both of these are areas that we will be paying attention this year.

  We look forward to your continued engagement and insights in the coming months.

  In solidarity,

  Lysa John

  Secretary-General, CIVICUS

  (Johannesburg, South Africa)

• How Accountable are CIVICUS’ Resourcing Practices?

  At CIVICUS, redistributing funds to our members and partners is a crucial way in which we work towards the alliance's strategic goals. This new mini-series from Resilient Roots is looking inwards, capturing how we are striving to be more accountable in our resourcing, and where we must go further.

  Part 1 sets the scene, emphasising the delicate balancing act we must perform in our role as an ‘intermediary’ between institutional donors and civil society actors. Subsequent parts discuss how successfully our resourcing work is informing, listening to, and being directly driven by our members and partners, along with the extent to which it is helping these constituents enhance their own accountability practices.

• How ICSW empowered me to become a better activist

  By Augustine Macarthy, Sierra Leone

  Last month, I had the opportunity to attend International Civil Society Week 2019 (ICSW). It was a turning point for me, as my participation gave me the opportunity to share experiences and ideas with brilliant civil society representatives from every corner of the world. The event built my skills and gave me access to tools and resources that will effectively steer my future work.

  Firstly, this year’s theme, “The Power of Togetherness,” helped me better understand the relevance and impact of collaboration. Building alliances with other civil society actors, stakeholders and community members which will contribute towards a sustainable civil space and strengthen our interventions. Collaboration and co-creation are key in responding to some of the pressing challenges we face as activists.

  ICSW 2019 also helped me realize the scope of the challenges facing civil society in an increasingly restrictive civic space. Activists have it harder than ever: according to the CIVICUS Monitor, nearly six in ten countries globally are severely impeding on people’s freedom to protest, engage in activism and defend human rights. In this context, collaboration is key. Working together will be essential in   ensuring respect to civic space. This event has inspired me to keep the momentum and continue promoting civic freedoms. Human rights are fundamental and universal, and defending them is crucial in order to  initiate changes and address social issues.

  As per the sessions, one that turned out to be particularly useful for me was organized by Bridge47. Under the title “Global Citizenship Education: the Power of Sharing Power,” the event inspired me with new ideas and resources for collaboration. Moreover, this session introduced me to the concept of Global Citizenship Education, a transformative approach meant to develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed for a more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable world. Since I am involved in an education, peacebuilding and youth organization, becoming acquainted with this concept has been a crucial development, and I will definitely use the learnings from this session to improve our strategies.

  One of the most inspirational stories I heard came from Dessy Aliandrina, Executive Director at Sociopreneur Indonesia. Dessy uses entrepreneurship and innovation to boost the creativity of the young generation in Indonesia. Through education and experimentation, her organization fosters an environment where future entrepreneurial leaders can thrive and create the jobs that are required to solve people’s problems. This is a fundamental undertaking: not only does Dessy help ensure the availability of crucial skills to tackle important challenges, but she also plays an important role in training Indonesian youth to boost their self-reliance and realize their potential.

  Furthermore, my organization Movement towards Education and Youth Empowerment-Sierra Leone was one of the six partners that helped plan the Youth Assembly, which took place the weekend before ICSW in Novi Sad, Serbia. As a planning team member, I had the privilege of working for four months with a group of very bright youth leaders from across the world. We were tasked with designing a program that would strengthen young activists’ skills to become resilient against threats and more effective in responding to other challenges. This not only gave all of us the opportunity to share ideas ahead of the event, but it also enhanced my ability to take action, use my creativity, and improve my communication skills.

  As a young changemaker, I will employ all this knowledge and skills and I will tap into the networks I contacted during the event. My community is experiencing pressing humanitarian crises, and the strategies we develop to respond to them will be largely informed by learnings from ICSW 2019.

  If you would like to connect with Augustine, you can find him on Facebook.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

• How resilient are our pilot partners to civic space threats?

   

  By Soulayma Mardam Bey and Jack Cornforth, CIVICUS

  In recent years, “Resilience” has made its way into international development’s buzzword bingo board. Yet despite its increasing popularity, the concept often remains poorly understood. In this article, and during our upcoming Resilient Roots event at ICSW 2019 (Wednesday afternoon ), we will take a closer look at what this concept means for civil society organisations in the context of closing civic space.

• Human Rights Council Elections 2019

  In October 2019, in New York, the UN General Assembly will elect 14 new members of the 47-member State Human Rights Council.

  Two of the rotating 14 seats are currently open to countries from Latin America and the Caribbean regional group.

  Until last week, only Venezuela and Brazil were standing as candidates for these two seats – which meant that both were guaranteed election to membership.

  This all changed at the beginning of October, when Costa Rica announced that it was throwing its hat into the ring. It is standing explicitly as an alternative to Venezuela, whom it has deemed unsuitable to be a Human Rights Council member because of its grave human rights violations. Now, with three candidates standing for two seats, the election is suddenly much more meaningful.

  At the last Session, the High Commissioner delivered a report on Venezuela which stated that over the last decade, in particular since 2016, Venezuela’s government has implemented a strategy “aimed at neutralising, repressing and criminalising political opponents and people critical of the Government.” The High Commissioner found that a series of laws, policies and practices have constrained civic and democratic space, allowing patterns of violation. The Council adopted a resolution on Venezuela to continue to monitor and report on these serious human rights violations. Many organisations believe that with its current record, Venezuela should not even stand for election, much less be voted in.

  As a current member of the Council up for re-election, Brazil has supported resolutions tackling human rights crises around the world. But since the beginning of the new administration it has seen an increase in violent rhetoric and, over the last year, a curtailment in human rights protections, anti-minorities policies and attacks against Human Rights Council mechanisms. Its influence in the region and beyond, Brazilian and regional and international organisations believe that it could pose a significant threat to multilateralism.

  There have been substantial civil society efforts from within both Brazil and Venezuela to advocate against their respective election to the Council. CIVICUS has members in both countries. Following the lead from our members on the ground, we believe that neither Brazil nor Venezuela should be elected to a seat on the UN’s main human rights body. CIVICUS recommends that states do not cast a ballot in favour of either country in a symbolic gesture to reject both candidates.

  There have always been repressive governments on the HRC – China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example, are among the Council’s current members – and this upcoming three-way fight can almost be seen as a microcosm of this wider dynamic.

  The Human Rights Council is the main intergovernmental body within the UN responsible for addressing human rights violations. As such, we believe that its members have a responsibility to uphold universal human rights and multilateralism. CIVICUS will continue to advocate for that states with poor human rights records, or states which undermine the aims and commitments of the Human Rights Council, should not be elected to its membership, and we call on UN member states to refuse to cast their ballots for those who fall short. This may only be a symbolic gesture, but it is an important one: for the Human Rights Council to adequately protect human rights around the world, it needs to demand more of its membership.

  In the meantime, we welcome Costa Rica’s courage and commitment in standing for membership, and we look forward to working with the delegation in Geneva in our shared vision for universal human rights.

  The other States up for election are:

  African Group:Benin,Libya,Mauritania andSudan (with four seats available)

  Asia-Pacific Group:Indonesia,Iraq,Japan,Marshall Islands andRepublic of Korea (competing for four seats)

  Eastern European Group:Armenia,Republic of Moldova andPoland (competing for two seats)

  Western European and Others Group:Germany and theNetherlands (with two seats available).

  For more information on the human rights records of these states, see ISHR’s ‘scorecards' for each State standing for election to the UN Human Rights Council.

• Human rights must be on the agenda ahead of presidential elections in South Korea

  By Soo Suh, Program Manager at the Asia Democracy Network (ADN) and Josef Benedict, Asia Pacific Researcher for the CIVICUS Monitor

  

  Photo Credit: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images

  Voters in South Korea will go to the polls in presidential elections on 9 March 2022, in what is expected to be the tightest race in 20 years. 

  The two front-runners are Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party and Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party. Lee is a former governor of Gyeonggi province who came to prominence through his aggressive handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his advocacy of a universal basic income. Yoon is a political novice but has gained popularity, thanks to his image as a staunch prosecutor-general who steered high-profile investigations into corruption scandals engulfing aides to former President Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president, and current President Moon Jae-in.