1st Edition
Civil Society Sustainability New challenges in organisational legitimacy, credibility, and viability
This publication focuses on the challenges faced by civil society to remain sustainable in response to major changes in the global political, economic and social environment. Academics and practitioners from all over the world have contributed original articles, practical notes and viewpoints which critically examine the ways in which civil society organisations are affected by and are responding to political and financial dynamics. These include reductions in traditional external aid for civil society activities, but also the growth of new forms of funding through social enterprise, philanthropy, fundraising and contractual relationships with national government. The operating environment for civil society is a central theme, with authors exploring the legitimacy and credibility of different types of civil society organisation, as well as the effects of legislative and regulatory restrictions on their sustainability. The contributions finally examine new opportunities for civil society and the prospects for organisations to emerge that are less dependent on foreign aid funding, that are more embedded in local communities, and that can bring about lasting and sustained social and economic change. This book was originally published as a special issue of Development in Practice.
Editorial
Brian Pratt
1. Unintended consequences: DAC governments and shrinking civil society space in Kenya
Jacqueline Wood
2. Lessons for supporting policy influencing in restrictive environments
Anique Claessen and Piet de Lange
3. Advancing post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals in a changing development landscape: Challenges of NGOs in Ghana
Albert Arhin
4. Non-governmental development organisations’ sustainability, partnership, and resourcing: futuristic reflections on a problematic trialogue
Alan Fowler
5. New routes to CSO sustainability: the strategic shift to social enterprise and social investment
John Hailey and Mark Salway
6. Civil society organisations and the fight for rights in Brazil: analysis of an evolving context and future challenges
Patricia Mendonça, Mário Aquino Alves and Fernando Nogueira
7. The sustainability of Latin American CSOs: historical patterns and new funding sources
Inés M. Pousadela and Anabel Cruz
8. Action for Children: a model for stimulating local fundraising in low- and middle-income countries
Robert Wiggers
9. Gender, diversity, and sustainable civil society strengthening: lessons from Ethiopia
Elsa L. Dawson
10. The state of Arab philanthropy and the case for change
Naila Farouky
11. Civil society versus captured state: a winning strategy for sustainable change
Orysia Lutsevych
12. Russian civil society and development challenges in Eurasia
Charles Buxton
13. Crises in civil society organisations: opportunities for transformation
James Taylor
14. Unpacking civil society sustainability: looking back, broader, deeper, forward
Rachel Hayman
Biography
Brian Pratt is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Development in Practice, and previously founding Director of INTRAC. He has worked for OXFAM both in the UK and Andean countries. His research interests include sustainability and other aspects of the development of civil society, and he has written and published widely on these topics.
Rachel Hayman is Director of Research, Learning and Communications at INTRAC, where she is currently leading INTRAC’s work on the impacts of the changing global political economy on the sustainability of civil society organisations. Rachel’s role at INTRAC focuses on bridging academic research, policy-making and practice.