Institute of Development Studies

Is civil society equipped to face multiple, linked global crises?

26 August 2010

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must learn to build coalitions that link local, national, regional and global civil society in new ways if they are to address the failings of multilateral governance, argued John Gaventa at one of the world's largest gatherings of NGOs and other civil society groups earlier this month.

Presenting research from his new book Globalizing Citizens: New dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, edited with IDS partner Dr Rajesh Tandon, Dr Gaventa contended that civil society may be inadequately prepared to respond to the complex and interconnected crises of global economic slowdown, climate change, fiscal shortfalls, and rising energy and food costs that are having enormous impacts on people living in poverty around the globe.

Civicus World Assembly

The discussion took place as part of the Civicus World Assembly, which brought together over 500 civil society, donor and government representatives in Montreal. The theme of the event was Seeking Out Solutions: Economic Justice.

According to IDS research on the impacts of the crises, the poor are being squeezed by increased pressure for productivity at the same time as their needs are greatest. As a result, some families are turning inwards, looking after their own at the expense of wider social solidarity. Some are also spending less on food and schooling, with damaging consequences for long-term development.

Together with IDS Fellow Naomi Hossain, Dr Gaventa posed the question, 'Is Civil Society Equipped to Face Complex Global Crises?' at a Civicus workshop sponsored by the Montreal International Forum (FIM) Forum for Democratic Global Governance and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Platform HD 2010, and connected to the IDS project Reimagining Development.

Beyond the 'silo approach'

The theme of the workshop was how civil society organisations could go beyond their traditional 'silo approach', that focuses on single issues such as food, water or climate, and develop more cross-cutting networks that can better address interlinked global crises that we are now experiencing.

Findings from Globalizing Citizens, suggest that civil society organisations also need to work across levels - from local, to national, to regional, to global, in order to address the interrelated nature of the challenges facing the poor.

'In this interdependent world', the authors write, 'more effective forms of citizen engagement will not be realised by a focus on one arena or layer of political authority alone. Rather, more promise is found in new forms of engagement which recognise the layers of authority and employ strategies that build citizen solidarity vertically and synergistically across them.'

The findings also highlight new risks: as civil society organisations seek to be included in global deliberations, there is evidence that these new global forces can be a source of even greater exclusion for already marginalised local voices.

A commitment to representativeness

Dr Gaventa said that the urgent need for new global engagement must be tempered by a strong commitment to representativeness and legitimacy on the part of those who claim to speak for the poor.

Bharati Sadasivam, Deputy Director and Officer in Charge of UNDP's Civil Society Division, chaired the Civicus workshop. She said: 'It is increasingly clear that while governments are still the paramount authorities at the national level, they cannot alone resolve today's global problems. Civil society, whose influence in the global arena has been transformed by the forces and logic of globalisation, is integral to the future vision of a revitalised multilateralism.'

Some participants, however, remained sceptical. They said that though there is goodwill to build vertical coalitions, the economic crisis has had its own impact on their organisations. As a result, and like the poor, civil society may be forced to prioritise short-term survival over longer-term solutions.

Globalizing Citizens, is the latest in the Zed Book series Claiming Citizenship, published in cooperation with the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability, based at IDS.