Can you help shape our future priorities? Take a five minute survey now. Survey closes on 8 July.

Institute of development studies
  • Events
  • Explore Research
  • Support IDS
  • Contact
  • Research
    • Themes
      • Social and economic justice
      • Climate and environment
      • Governance and conflict
      • Health and food systems
      • Participation
      • Evidence into use
    • Explore
    • International Initiatives
  • Learn
    • Learn at IDS
    • Considering studying at IDS?
    • Reasons to study at IDS
    • Postgraduate degrees
      • MA Development Studies
      • MA Food & Development
      • MA Gender & Development
      • MA Globalisation, Business & Development
      • MA Governance, Development & Public Policy
      • MA Power, Participation & Social Change
      • MSc Climate Change, Development & Policy
      • MA Poverty & Development
      • PhD in Development Studies by Research
    • Learning for development
      • Specialist short courses
      • Facilitated learning
      • Learning within development programmes
    • Visiting research students
  • News and opinion
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Media centre
    • Podcast
  • Work with us
    • Support us
    • Partnerships
    • Training and organisational learning
    • Jobs
    • Visiting fellowships
  • About
    • Vision and strategy
    • Impact
    • People
    • Governance
    • Alumni
    • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Report and support
  • Research
    • Themes
      • Social and economic justice
      • Climate and environment
      • Governance and conflict
      • Health and food systems
      • Participation
      • Evidence into use
    • Explore
    • International Initiatives
  • Learn
    • Learn at IDS
    • Considering studying at IDS?
    • Reasons to study at IDS
    • Postgraduate degrees
      • MA Development Studies
      • MA Food & Development
      • MA Gender & Development
      • MA Globalisation, Business & Development
      • MA Governance, Development & Public Policy
      • MA Power, Participation & Social Change
      • MSc Climate Change, Development & Policy
      • MA Poverty & Development
      • PhD in Development Studies by Research
    • Learning for development
      • Specialist short courses
      • Facilitated learning
      • Learning within development programmes
    • Visiting research students
  • News and opinion
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Media centre
    • Podcast
  • Work with us
    • Support us
    • Partnerships
    • Training and organisational learning
    • Jobs
    • Visiting fellowships
  • About
    • Vision and strategy
    • Impact
    • People
    • Governance
    • Alumni
    • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Report and support
  • Events
  • Explore Research
  • Support IDS
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Youtube
  1. Research
  2. Publications

Report

Donor Responses and Tools for Responding to Shrinking Space for Civil Society: a Desk Study

Published on 1 November 2019

This report summarises and analyses donor responses to the closure of civic space around the world. It is part of a wider effort within the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to enable joint learning to support SDC offices in dealing with the growing challenges they encounter in restrained or shrinking spaces for civil society.

Through knowledge-sharing and exchange, it proposes to improve the quality of SDC operations by articulating existing internal discussions, promoting reflective practices on the shrinking space for civil society, and advising SDC on how to respond to this trend.

Cite this publication

Hossain, N. and Khurana, N. (2019) Donor responses and tools for responding to shrinking space for civil society: a desk study, Bern: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Authors

Naomi Hossain
Naomi Hossain

Research Fellow

Nalini Khurana

Access this publication

Read full publication online in OpenDocs

Partners

In partnership with
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Publication details

published by
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Share

About this publication

Projects
Democratisation, Decentralisation, Local Governance: IDS-SDC Collaboration

Access this publication

Read full publication online in OpenDocs

Partners

In partnership with
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Related content

Upcoming Event

Pathways to development conference

From 11 September 2025 until 13 September 2025

Publication

Succeeding in the Snakes and Ladders Game of Development in Mozambique: The Role of Collaborative Approaches

IDS Research Report 91

Karin Alexander & 4 others

24 July 2025

Book

Ideologically Motivated Sexual Grooming

Book

Mariz Tadros
Mariz Tadros & 10 others

22 July 2025

Working Paper

Mining Legitimacy: Governing the Politics of Resource-Based Green Industrial Policy

IDS Working Paper 623

Anabel Marín
Anabel Marín
Santiago Cunial

3 July 2025

  • Research
    • Themes
    • Explore
    • International Initiatives
  • Learn
    • Learn at IDS
    • Considering studying at IDS?
    • Reasons to study at IDS
    • Postgraduate degrees
    • Learning for development
    • Visiting research students
  • News and opinion
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Media centre
    • Podcast
  • Work with us
    • Support us
    • Partnerships
    • Training and organisational learning
    • Jobs
    • Visiting fellowships
  • About
    • Vision and strategy
    • Impact
    • People
    • Governance
    • Alumni
    • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Report and support
  • Events
  • Explore Research
  • Support IDS
  • Contact
Institute of development studies
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Youtube
  • Bsky
  • Disclaimer & cookies
  • Privacy statement
  • Accessibility statement
  • Building accessibility
© 2025 Institute of Development Studies

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in .


Strictly Necessary Cookies

3rd Party Tracking Cookies

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Tracking Cookies

This website uses various third-party tracking cookies (Google Analytics, LinkedIn and Meta) to collect anonymous information, such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages, and to also allow our teams to retarget users with relevant content on social media (LinkedIn and Meta).

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Cookie Policy

More information about our Cookie Policy