2. Defining CIVIL SOCIETY: THE ARENA, OUTSIDE OF THE
FAMILY, THE STATE, AND THE MARKET, WHICH IS CREATED BY
INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE ACTIONS, ORGANISATIONS AND
INSTITUTIONS TO ADVANCE SHARED INTERESTS
Defining ENABLING ENVIRONMENT: IF CIVIL SOCIETY IS
AN ARENA, THE ENVIRONMENT IS MADE UP OF THE FORCES
THAT SHAPE AND
INFLUENCE THE SIZE, EXTENT
AND FUNCTIONING OF THAT
ARENA
www.civicus.org
3. EMERGING INTERNATIONAL
CONSENSUS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF
A STRONG VIBRANT CIVIL SOCIETY
• THE BUSAN AGREEMENT (2011, AGREED BY 160
GOVERNMENTS) AND THE MULTI-STAKEHOLDER TASK TEAM
• THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S 2012 COMMUNICATION ON
RELATIONS WITH CSOS
• THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERS RESOLUTION (62 COUNTRIES)
• DEBATE ON CIVIC SPACE INITIATED BY THE IRISH
GOVERNMENT AT THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS
COUNCIL IN APRIL 2014
• …BUT DISCONNECT AT THE LOCAL LEVEL
4. KEY FINDINGS FROM THE 2013
STATE OF CIVIL SOCIETY REPORT
A KEY ASSET OF CS IS PUBLIC TRUST
E.G. BOGUS CSOS EST. BY CORRUPT
OFFICIALS DAMAGED CS IN BRAZIL
LEGAL BARRIERS TO ASSEMBLY IN
RESPONSE TO PROTESTS IN 2012
(AZERBAIJAN, BAHRAIN, CANADA,
MALAYSIA AND RUSSIA)
CHALLENGE OF UNBALANCED
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INGOS
AND LOCAL CSOS (E.G. CENTRAL
AFRICAN REPUBLIC, GUINEA, NEPAL)
WOMEN'S RIGHTS AS LITMUS TEST
FOR EE
NEW RISKS FOR ONLINE CIVIC
ACTIVISTS
RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS TO
FOREIGN FUNDING (AFGHANISTAN,
ALGERIA, BANGLADESH, BELARUS,
BOLIVIA, CHINA, ECUADOR, EGYPT,
ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, INDIA, JORDAN,
NEPAL, PERU, RUSSIA, SAUDI
ARABIA, SIERRA LEONE, TURKEY,
TURKMENISTAN, UGANDA,
UZBEKISTAN, VENEZUELA AND
ZIMBABWE.)
WITHDRAWAL OF LONG-STANDING
SUPPORT TO DOMESTIC CSOS IN
DONOR COUNTRIES (CANADA,
LITHUANIA, THE NETHERLANDS, NEW
ZEALAND AND SCOTLAND).
5. 2013 GLOBAL TRENDS ON CIVIL
SOCIETY RESTRICTIONS
•
•
•
•
•
•
413 SERIOUS THREATS AGAINST CIVIL SOCIETY
IN 87 COUNTRIES BETWEEN JAN 2012 – SEPT
2013
HEIGHTENED RISKS TO PRO-DEMOCRACY
ACTIVISTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
UNABATED TARGETING OF LAND RIGHTS AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS IN LATIN AMERICA
AND SOUTH EAST ASIA
ARBITRARY SHUTTING DOWN OF CSOS
(CANADA, ETHIOPIA, MALDIVES, SUDAN,
TAJIKISTAN AND ZAMBIA)
REPRESSION THROUGH SHAM TRIALS OF CS
LEADERS (AZERBAIJAN, BAHRAIN, BURUNDI,
CHINA, SAUDI ARABIA, TURKEY, ZIMBABWE)
REPRISALS AGAINST CS ACTIVISTS FOR
SPEAKING OUT AT THE UN (BAHRAIN, CHINA,
6. 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
• 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
9. NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS OF THE
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
• As a complement to the EEI, in depth primary
data gathering on national legal and policy
environment for CSOs
• 5 mandatory dimensions (formation, operation,
access to resources, expression and assembly)
and optional dimensions (internet freedom,
government-CSO relations, CSO cooperation,
taxation, access to information)
• Some overlap with 2 EE focused CSI-RA in W.
Africa
• Pilot countries: Bolivia, Cambodia and Zambia
10. COUNTRIES WHERE CIVICUS HAS
INITIATED DIALOGUES ON ENABLING
ENVIRONMENT ISSUES IN 2013
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bolivia
Burma
Cambodia
Cyprus
Denmark
Ecuador
Kenya
India
Ireland
Nigeria
Philippines
Thailand
Uganda
United Kingdom
United States
Solomon Islands
South Africa
Switzerland
Zambia
11. THE WAY FORWARD
• EMERGING POLITICAL WILL TO IMPROVE THE WAYS
OF MEASURING THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
• COLLECTION OF PRIMARY DATA ON GLOBAL SCALE
CRITICAL
• RANGE OF ADDITIONAL TOOLS WHICH CAN
SUPPLEMENT THE EEI E.G. ENABLING
ENVIRONMENT NATIONAL ASSESSMENTS
(ICNL/CIVICUS), CIVICUS’ CIVIL SOCIETY WATCH,
CSI-RA
• THE SEARCH FOR THE ULTIMATE TOOLBOX FOR
ASSESSING CIVIL SOCIETY
12. KEY QUESTIONS
Q1: HOW BEST CAN WE PROMOTE THE ISSUE OF THE
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL?
Q2: WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE KEY ENABLING
ENVIRONMENT ISSUES FOR CIVIL SOCIETY IN YOUR
COUNTRY?
Q3: IN EARLY 2014, CIVICUS IS CONSIDERING MAKING
SMALL GRANTS AVAILABLE FOR 8-10 PARTNERS TO
HOST NATIONAL OR REGIONAL LEVEL DISCUSSIONS ON
THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT, IS THIS NEEDED IN
YOUR COUNTRY/REGION?
We believe societies are healthier and people live more fulfilled lives when there are multiple opportunities for self-expression, dialogue and exchange.
Civil society - the arena, outside of the family, the state, and the market, which is created by individual and collective actions, organisations and institutions to advance shared interests
Enabling environment - if civil society is an arena, the environment is made up of the forces that shape and influence the size, extent and functioning of that arena
The Busan Partnership for Effective Development agreed at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea represents a powerful endorsement of civil society as development actors in their own right and affirms the need for governments to upload standards set out in international human rights agreements.
The European Commission’s 2012 Communication on relations with CSOs acknowledged CSOs as the roots of democracy and sustainable development. It says that the international community, the EU included, has a duty to
advocate for a space to operate for both CSOs and individuals.
UN HRC resolution: The resolution, tabled by Norway, received the support of 62 states across 6 continents, and was adopted without a vote. It called on states to ensure that reporting requirements for civil society do not inhibit functional autonomy, and that no law criminalises or places discriminatory restrictions on funding sources.
Public trust in civil society remains a key asset that should be considered part of the enabling environment. On most
available data, such as the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, NGOs (to use the Barometer’s terminology) have consistently scored higher levels of trust than governments, companies or the media, for the past five years.
Many CSOs have long acknowledged we should demonstrate that we are modelling good practice – in effect to mirror internally the enabling environment they would seek for their work externally. We could go further and say that
transparency, honesty, humility, and indeed an ability to admit and report on failure, should be key civil society values,
and a point of distinction between civil society and other realms, such as those of government and business. As such
civil society should be in the vanguard of demonstrating best practice in legitimacy, transparency and accountability, and be confident enough to admit failure when it occurs.
.
In Brazil, ABONG acknowledges that the existence and subsequent exposure of fake CSOs, including bogus organisations formed as front organisations for corrupt government officials, harms civil society itself. In the 2013
edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer declined by a drastic 31 points
Principle: An enabling environment is one where civil society groups have taken – and are recognised and expected to have taken - every effort to be transparent and accountable to their stakeholders, and their legitimacy is considered to
be derived from their endorsement by their stakeholders, particularly those in whose interests they claim to act.
The Enabling Environment Index (EEI) examines the conditions within which civil society work. Using secondary statistical data, it ranks the governance , socio-cultural and socio-economic environments for civil society in 109 countries
The number of countries included in the EEI is determined by data availability. Only countries that have scores in at least 14 out of 17 sub-dimensions have been included in the ranking.
The EEI is the first index that attempts to measure the long-term conditions that affect the potential of citizens to participate in civil society. We hope that the EEI will be used as tool that will generate debate on the space for civil society and raise awareness about the importance of enabling conditions for civil society.
Take a look and see what speaks to you and your context. broad diverse range of subdimensions. Take a minute and absorb
Discover the Enabling Environment Index. Download the EEI report.
Play with the data yourself! Download the EEI data and all available data sources.
See why we selected our data sources. Download the dimensions and indicators table.
Understand how we developed the Enabling Environment Index. Download the methodological note.
