scholarly journals An Assessment of NGOs and Civil Societies Advantages and Disadvantages to Africans Post of the Independence Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 639-647
Author(s):  
Mengesha Robso Wodajo ◽  
Tănase Tasențe ◽  
Teshale Aklilu Gebretsadiq
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
International Level ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Independence Era ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Civil Societies

The aim of this paper is to identify the major advantages and disadvantages of NGOs and Civil Societies in the post independent Africa. A note I want to give is the terms 'advantages' and 'disadvantages' should be understood in a sense that the paper is not evaluating the works of NGOs and Civil Society Organizations but pinpointing their benefits and side-effects to Africa. For that reason, the terms advantages and disadvantages can be interchangeably used by ‘benefits’ and ‘side-effects’ respectively. Another case I want to notify is the types of NGOs and Civil Society Organizations/Civil Societies that will be discussed throughout the paper are the entities found at the international level; not the national or local ones. This is due to the fact that the NGOs and CSOs(which were/are steered by the Western Europe and the USA) at the international level had/have the lion's share influences in the Third World in general and Africa in particular. Ultimately, although the topic of this paper is wide, it is presented in a short and precise volume, henceforth, all each of the advantages and disadvantages are not listed but few of them. So, I hope this small book will be used to produce a larger volume on the same topic.

scholarly journals Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) and Electioneering Process in Nigeria (2015–2019)

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110067
Author(s):  
Babayo Sule ◽  
Usman Sambo ◽  
Abdulkadir Ahmed ◽  
Muhammad Yusuf
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
Election Monitoring ◽  
International Donor ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Donor Agencies ◽  
Civil Societies

Civil society organizations have played a pivotal role in democratization process in Nigeria since the advent of the Fourth Republic. They have greatly helped in the success of the 2015 and 2019 General Elections through pre-election, during election, and in post-election monitoring and advocacy. This article, therefore, examined the role of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR) in improving the election in Nigeria during the 2015 and 2019 General Elections. While many civil societies flourished recently in Nigeria, their role toward democratization and facilitating credible election remain insignificant until in the 2015 and 2019 General Elections where their activities helped immensely the process of a credible election. A Civil Society as the Third Tier of Government framework was adopted as a theoretical explanation of the context of the work. The research used a qualitative case study method of data collection where informants consisting of members of NCSSR, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and academicians were selected for the interview and Focus Group Discussion. The total number selected was 16 from the three identified categories. The research discovered that the NCSSR aided the process and fairness of the 2015 and 2019 General Elections through proper monitoring, civic voter education, active collaboration with electoral body (INEC), and collaboration with international donor agencies through what they called “Civil Society Situation Room” which consist of more than 60 registered civil societies. The research recommends that civil societies should be empowered with constitutional backing and independent funding to enable them carry out their responsibilities adequately. Also, the article recommends that the electoral body (INEC) should liaise more and cooperate with civil societies to enable them conduct good and credible elections in future.

Do members make a difference? A study of Transnational Civil Society Organizations

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kotzian ◽  
Jens Steffek
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
International Level ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
Transnational Civil Society

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play an active role in European and global governance, and many commentators see them as a link that connects the international level with citizens. But not all CSOs active at the international level do have a substantial number of members. The question we investigate in this article is to what extent membership distinguishes these CSOs from other transnational actors. To what extent do member and non-member CSOs differ in their roles and activities? Is it plausible to argue, as it quite often happens, that CSOs with members are more legitimate than others? On the basis of a survey of 60 exemplary CSOs we find that membership CSOs neither differ substantially from non-member CSOs in their political behavior, nor do they differ in important aspects of legitimacy, such as transparency or efforts to include beneficiaries.

scholarly journals Global Authenticity, Local Authority: Epistemic Power, Discursive Geographies, and the Creation of Civil Society Knowledge Networks

2021 ◽  
pp. 209-232
Author(s):  
E. Fouksman
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Knowledge Networks ◽  
Epistemic Communities ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Creation

AbstractHow do networks of civil society organizations spread and contest ideas around the globe? This chapter focuses the ways practitioners within development-focused civil society organizations use spatial discursive practices to label, organize, defend, and undermine the spread and application of ideas. In particular, I look at the way members of civil society organizations defend and promote ideas as authentic and/or authoritative, navigating the need to have their knowledge and practices accepted both by beneficiaries and elite international epistemic communities. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork with two multi-sited case studies of civil society organizations, ranging from global foundations in the USA and Switzerland to their national and regional NGO partners in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan. Actors in both of these networks defend a varied array of ideas that underpin their ecological interventions through invocations of local particularity and global expertise. This chapter thus addresses the ways epistemic communities are formed and knowledge is produced and legitimized via discursive geographies and identities.

State Regulation of Organized Civil Society in Hybrid Regimes: A Systematic Assessment of Cross-National Variations in the Regulation of Civil Society Organizations in Seven Post-Soviet Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-149
Author(s):  
Serik Beimenbetov
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Comprehensive Assessment ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Systematic Assessment ◽  
Relative Differences ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Civil Societies

Abstract How do the post-Soviet countries differ in their regulatory approaches to organized civil society? This study provides a systematic and comprehensive assessment of relative differences and similarities in the regulation of civil society organizations in seven post-Soviet countries: Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. Empirically, the study offers a regulatory index that makes it possible to map and compare relative differences and similarities between these countries’ regulatory approaches to civil society. The findings show that post-Soviet authoritarian countries do not use similar levels of repression against organized civil society. The study provides an account of how different political configurations explain relative differences in the extent to which post-Soviet authoritarian countries repress their respective civil societies.

scholarly journals The Tale of Two Civil Societies: Comparing disability rights movements in Nicaragua and Uruguay

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Meyers ◽  
Elizabeth Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
International Rights ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Civil Societies

<p><span>The UNCRPD is unique amongst international rights instruments because it empowers civil society organizations to represent the rights-bearers themselves&mdash;persons with disabilities. As such, DPOs in the Global South have become a major concern for UN agencies and international NGOs who believe that grassroots disability associations need political advocacy training in order to take up their role as rights advocates. These expectations contain implicit assumptions regarding civil society-state relations and the existence of governmental capacity. The authors, however, hypothesize that not all civil societies will fit the rights advocacy model due to the political culture and public resources available within their respective, local communities. Disability movements in Nicaragua and Uruguay are compared and contrasted. In Nicaragua, a disability rights coalition dismisses many international expectations in favor for continuing to follow traditional civil society expectations to provide services. In Uruguay, a long history of high levels of social spending and disability organizing enabled DPOs to successfully advocate for progressive laws. The deaf community, however, decided to implement their own, separate advocacy strategies to ensure a fairer distribution of public resources. The authors conclude that rather than top-down civil society training, the international movement should allow local organizations set their own priorities.</span></p>

scholarly journals Muslim Immigrants, Public Religion and Developments towards a Post-Secular Finnish Welfare State

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Martikainen
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Public Religion ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Nordic Welfare State ◽  
West European ◽  
Global Economics

The article addresses the question whether, with Finland as the case, the Nordic welfare state is undergoing profound change under the influence of neo-liberal global economics and new forms of governance. The article starts with a critique of Nancy Foner and Richard Alba’s (2008) comparison of the position of Muslims in the USA and Western Europe and claims that their comparison does not take into account more recent changes in the ways how West European states deal with religion. Instead the article argues that state-religion relations have been influenced by the neo-liberal restructuring of society and it presents an alternative way to look at state-religion relations. It is claimed the societal location of religion is now better understood within the context of civil society rather than an institutional sphere of its own.

Trust: A National Project

2015 ◽  
pp. 138-146
Author(s):  
N. Rozinskaya ◽  
I. Rozinskiy
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
National Project ◽  
Low Level ◽  
General Trust

This article deals with the genesis of general trust and social capital in contemporary Russia, which faces the external pressure. The low level of general trust is noted, its economic, social and everyday life implications are considered, an explanation of Russia’s lower than in western Europe level of trust is provided. Considering society’s level of trust and social capital as externalia, the authors conclude that there is a necessity to "produce" trust intentionally. Promotion of collective charity is proposed as a mechanism of such "production". It is stressed that in order to activate the potential of trust in a society, there is a need for ideological and symbolic basis linked to its history. Russian People’s Unity Day, understood as the birthday of Russian civil society, is proposed to be used in this respect.

The elimination of violence and terrorism in Iraq strategy

2019 ◽  
pp. 375
Author(s):  
Mona Ali Duaij ◽  
Ahlam Ahmed Issa
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The State ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Terrorist Organization ◽  
The Media ◽  
Causes Of Crime ◽  
Religious Aspect

All the Iraqi state institutions and civil society organizations should develop a deliberate systematic policy to eliminate terrorism contracted with all parts of the economic, social, civil and political institutions and important question how to eliminate Daash to a terrorist organization hostile and if he country to eliminate the causes of crime and punish criminals and not to justify any type of crime of any kind, because if we stayed in the curriculum of justifying legitimate crime will deepen our continued terrorism, but give it legitimacy formula must also dry up the sources of terrorism media and private channels and newspapers that have abused the Holy Prophet Muhammad (p) and all kinds of any of their source (a sheei or a Sunni or Christians or Sabians) as well as from the religious aspect is not only the media but a meeting there must be cooperation of both parts of the state facilities and most importantly limiting arms possession only state you can not eliminate terrorism and violence, and we see people carrying arms without the name of the state and remains somewhat carefree is sincerity honesty and patriotism the most important motivation for the elimination of violence and terrorism and cooperation between parts of the Iraqi people and not be driven by a regional or global international schemes want to kill nations and kill our bodies of Sunnis, sheei , Christians, Sabean and Yazidi and others.

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