Civil Society

A deliberative wave for development?

Development Matters Civil Society, New social contract ,

By Ieva Cesnulaityte, Policy Analyst, Open Government, OECD

Citizen-centred and citizen-led policymaking is no longer an abstract vision. Polarisation, populism, and low levels of trust in governments, have prompted academics, practitioners, politicians, and policy makers to reflect upon innovative ways of breathing new life into democratic institutions. And some of the tools being rediscovered and applied today, such as deliberation by a representative group of citizens, date back to ancient Athenian democracy.   

A new OECD study shows that public authorities from all levels of government are increasingly turning to citizens to tackle complex policy problems. They are doing so by convening groups of people representing a wide cross-section of society to learn, deliberate, and develop collective recommendations. The OECD ’s Open Government team has been looking into citizens’ assemblies, juries, panels and other representative deliberative processes as ways to meet citizen demands for more open governments and more agency in shaping public decisions.

A landmark among these processes is the Irish Citizens’ Assembly (2016-2018), which involved 100 randomly selected citizens who deliberated over and provided recommendations for five important legal and policy issues, including the 8th Amendment of the Constitution on Abortion. More recently, 150 randomly selected citizens, representative of the French population, met for seven weekends over six months last year, to form the French Citizens’ Convention on Climate. They had a mandate to define a range of measures that will enable France to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) in a socially just and equitable way.

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Can civil society survive COVID-19?

Development Matters Covid-19, New social contract , ,

By Elly Page, Senior Legal Advisor, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and Simona Ognenovska, Research and Monitoring Advisor, European Center for Not-for-Profit Law Stichting (ECNL)

As the world confronts new waves of COVID-19 cases, civil society should be wary of a parallel surge of new emergency laws and measures that restrict fundamental freedoms. According to our COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker, 146 countries enacted 385 measures in response to the pandemic that affected human rights, during the initial waves of the virus from January to September 2020. While some may have been a necessary and understandable reaction to a public health crisis, many overreached, exacerbating existing challenges to civic space. In particular, existing barriers to foreign funding for organisations have remained in place during the pandemic, limiting their ability to provide support to vulnerable populations during the crisis. The onslaught urgently requires an international response to roll back restrictions and increase support for embattled civil society.  

Our Tracker, based on information from our worldwide network of civil society partners, reflects ways that governments’ responses to COVID-19 have affected civic space, and suggests ways that OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members could respond. These suggestions are timely as the OECD-DAC takes further steps to develop a DAC policy instrument on enabling civil society.

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Implementing the SDGs: why are some civil society organisations being left behind?

Development Matters SDGs , ,

By Vanessa de Oliveira, Task Team on CSO Development Effectiveness and Enabling Environment

Civil society organisations (CSOs) are widely recognised as important partners in the implementation and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But to what extent is civil society really engaged and involved in SDG processes or consultations at the country level?

A new Task Team study undertaken by the International Institute of Social Studies points to a lack of diversity in the types of civil society organisations engaged in these processes. Organisations that are part of the aid system – typically urban, often international or based in donor countries – are at a clear advantage.Similarly, another study (the 2018 Monitoring Round of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation) found opportunities for civil society organisations to be irregular, unpredictable and lacking the involvement of a diverse set of actors. The latest OECD study on Development Assistance Committee members and civil society also echoes these conclusions: dialogues between donors and CSOs are more likely to take place at the donors’ headquarters, and lack general good practice standards like setting a joint agenda.

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