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Home»Governance»State-society relations»Civil society & social movements

Civil society & social movements

Trends in Conflict and Stability in the Indo-Pacific

Literature Review
  • Iffat Idris
January 2021

This report looks at trends in conflict and instability in the Indo-Pacific region, focusing on climate change effects and a number of civil liberties. The Indo-Pacific region is both highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and already facing significant security risks and challenges, many of which will be exacerbated by the impact of climate change. There are ...» more

Faith-based organisations and current development debates

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
June 2020

This report provides a brief synthesis of the role of faith-based organisations in civil society. Faith-based organisations (FBOs) became more prominent in donor agendas, international development and academic research in the 1990s. There has been an increase in the number of FBOs from the 1980s onwards in response to neo-liberal policies in many countries, which resulted in ...» more

Responding to popular protests in the MENA region

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
April 2020

This review looks at government responses to violent protests in a selection of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Focusing on the 2011 Arab Spring protests, it finds that the initial response of most regimes was violent repression – Tunisia where the president stepped down, and Morocco and Jordan where the respective monarchies promised reform, are the only ...» more

Support for civil society engagement in peace processes

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
December 2019

There is a widespread acknowledgement of the importance of civil society engagement in peace processes (Inclusive Security, 2013; Peace Direct, 2019). This is reflected in the wide range of interventions being carried out by various donors to support such engagement. This review looks at the effectiveness of interventions specifically aimed at supporting civil society groups ...» more

Civil Society and Accountability in Rwanda

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
February 2019

Donors became interested in government accountability after the release of the World Development Report in 2004. Subsequently, the World Bank and international donors supported interventions that were designed to increase transparency which in turn was expected to promote accountability in developing countries. The limited evidence from impact assessments of such interventions ...» more

What is Civil Society, its Role and Value in 2018?

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
January 2019

Civil society is widely understood as the space outside the family, market and state (WEF, 2013). What constitutes civil society has developed and grown since the term first became popular in the 1980s and it now signifies a wide range of organised and organic groups including nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), trade unions, social movements, grassroots ...» more

Youth initiatives supporting citizen engagement with government

Helpdesk Report
  • Anna Orrnert
March 2018

There is a large volume of literature on youth participation in development, including on the benefits of involving young people in local, national, regional and global governance initiatives. Although not as voluminous, there is also a significant body of work on youth participation in civic life, though much of this focuses on issues of education and employment (Oxfam 2016) ...» more

Civil Society in Authoritarian Regimes

Helpdesk Report
  • Dylan O’Driscoll
February 2018

This rapid review synthesises findings from rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references on the role of civil society in promoting social accountability in authoritarian regimes and the ways donors can support them. The main geographic focus of this report is East Africa, with a secondary focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. In the African context civil society is best ...» more

Social capital in Yemen

Helpdesk Report
  • Becky Carter
June 2017

Social capital in Yemen is informed primarily by tribal affiliation, particularly in rural areas and in the north. Other important sources including faith based institutions, local community solidarity initiatives, civil society organisations and support from the diaspora. While social capital has been eroded due to political, social and economic changes in recent years, the ...» more

CSOs supporting accountability in cash transfer programmes

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
November 2016

Cash transfer programmes, like most social protection programmes, are vulnerable to fraud, errors, corruption and misuse of funds, which undermine their achievements.  Civil society organisations (CSOs) have supported, or provided, accountability mechanisms in countries around the world: working to improve transparency to help citizens hold authorities accountable; checking ...» more

Social movements

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Alina Rocha Menocal
September 2016

Social movements as contentious politics Social movements are large, often informal groupings of people who come together against power holders around a common cause, in response to situations of perceived inequality, oppression and/or unmet social, political, economic or cultural demands. At their core, social movements are not about “polite debate” or “invited spaces” of interaction between…» more

Social movements

Topic Guide
  • Aditi Bhonagiri
August 2016

Social movements express social, cultural, political or economic concerns locally, nationally or transnationally, and they are found in both democratic and repressive states. A variety of actors use social movements to champion a cause and direct, promote or resist change. This topic guide introduces some of the key literature and debates on social movements and collective ...» more

Power, politics and popular mobilisation

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Patta Scott-Villiers
May 2016

In his book, the Rebirth of History (2012), Alain Badiou observed that “we find ourselves in a time of riots”. Paying attention to contemporary popular uprisings allows us to take the pulse of the street; homing in on people’s grievances and desires, how they conflict and temporarily converge, and how they counter or correspond with…» more

State-society relations and citizenship

Topic Guide
  • Huma Haider with Claire Mcloughlin
April 2016

State-society relations, citizenship and socio-political cohesion are areas of great importance to statebuilding and peacebuilding and are crucial to an integrated approach. State-society relations are defined by DFID as ‘interactions between state institutions and societal groups to negotiate how public authority is exercised and how it can be influenced by people. They are ...» more

Effectiveness of UK civil society sector in building support for international development

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis and Isobel Wilson-Cleary
November 2015

A priority for the development community in donor countries is improving understanding of public attitudes towards international development and support for aid. UK civil society organisations (CSOs) have used a variety of strategies to build support for development. Available evidence on their effectiveness suggests some success in short-term popular mobilisation national and ...» more

CSOs holding governments to account

Helpdesk Report
  • Claire Mcloughlin
November 2015

This report summarises interventions by more than 30 civil society organisations (CSOs) to increase government accountability in varied sectors and contexts. CSOs use a wide variety of different media to gather information from citizens, which they then use to press for accountability. Their strategies and tactics for engaging with local and national government ...» more

Restricting space for civil society

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
August 2015

There is consensus in the literature reviewed for this rapid query that the space for civil society to act has been increasingly restricted in the past decade. This is a global phenomenon – occurring in different ways and not in all countries – but in all regions of the world. It is occurring in all regime types – not just authoritarian countries. However, at the same time, in ...» more

Social mobilisation in urban contexts

Helpdesk Report
  • Sumedh Rao
May 2014

Suggestions for improving urban social mobilisation include: Self-help groups: Creating community groups for expectant mothers, for example, or certain types of workers, can provide a basis for social support. These can used as a basis for social mobilisation to enable the public to demand and gain access to services. Issue-based targeting of individuals and groups: This ...» more

Elected women’s effectiveness at representing women’s interests

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
May 2014

This rapid literature review collates evidence on women’s actions and interactions in parliaments in Africa. The literature mostly focuses on Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania (Bauer, 2012). There are several consistent findings from African countries, which enables drawing together key lessons: Effectiveness at representing women’s interests: The presence of ...» more

Citizens’ role in political settlements

Helpdesk Report
  • Sumedh Rao
October 2013

Political settlement literature focuses predominantly on elites, with citizens often seen as passive beneficiaries or potential spoilers. However, emerging literature on the role of civil society in peace processes identifies roles that citizens have played and can play, in creating and maintaining what are essentially political settlements. This report outlines the concept of ...» more

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