Civil
Society Initiatives for Governance and PRIA’s
Role in the Process
The
Concept of Civil Society
The idea of
'civil society' has achieved prominence in political
and developmental discourse over the past two
decades, particularly in connection with successive
waves of democratisation, beginning in Latin America
and Eastern Europe, and spreading across the developing
world. In normative terms, civil society has been
widely seen as an increasingly crucial agent for
limiting authoritarian government, strengthening
popular empowerment, reducing the socially atomising
and unsettling effects of market forces, enforcing
political accountability, and improving the quality
and inclusiveness of governance. Reconsideration
of the limits of state action has also led to
an increased awareness of the potential role of
civic organisations in the provision of public
goods and social services, either separately or
in some kind of 'synergistic' relationship with
state institutions.
However, general notions of 'civil society'
have often been overly optimistic and have
disregarded the ambiguities and conflicts
inherent in real civil societies. Moreover,
the potentially positive impact of civil society
is hard to realise in countries where states
are strong and civil organisations still weak,
especially amid political conflict and economic
decline.
Definitions
of 'civil society' are bewilderingly diverse and
the differences between them are often rooted
in alternative social and political philosophies
which are hard to reconcile.
In
the current analysis of civil society in poor,
emergent, transitional and industrialised societies,
one can discern two underlying understandings
of the term - the political and the sociological
conceptions. The political conception of civil
society is rooted in the Anglo-American tradition
of liberal-democratic theory which identifies
civic institutions and political activity
as an essential component of the emergence of
a particular type of political society based on
the principles of citizenship, rights, democratic
representation and the rule of law.
The
sociological conception of civil society is more
practical, that of an intermediate associational
realm situated between the state on the one side
and the basic building blocks of society on the
other (individuals, families and firms), inhabited
by social organisations with some degree of autonomy
and voluntary participation on the part of their
members.
Roles
of civil society
We
thus expect the roles and activities of various
civil organisations to vary widely. We can distinguish
several distinct roles which each specific organisation
may or may not perform:
•Representation
of the interests of specific groups in relation
to government and to other sectors of society; •Mobilisation of social
actors to increase their consciousness and impact; •Regulation and monitoring
of state performance and the behaviour and actions
of public officials; •Developmental
or social action to improve the well-being of
their own or other constituencies.
Civil
organisations also vary in the nature and range
of their objectives. Some of them have explicitly
'systemic' aims in the sense that they seek to
make an impact on broad political and social structures
and processes: for example, by changing an authoritarian
into a democratic regime; by deepening the democratic
character of an existing democratic regime; changing
socio-economic circumstances by improving equity
or stimulating particular kinds of developmental
action which improve the well-being of poor and
excluded people. Others may have relatively wide
social aims, seeking to represent and improve
the condition of other social groups beyond their
own personnel or membership. Still others may
be concerned with more limited goals, seeking
to maximise the narrow interests of their own
members without concern for, and sometimes at
the cost of, external organisations and groups.
Civil
Society and Good Governance
The
contribution made by civil society to good governance
is essentially concerned with the means by which
organised interests seek to influence and engage
with state institutions to promote public good.
In doing so, they usually help to bridge the relations
between public officials and ordinary citizens.
The
contribution of civil society through civil society
organisations to good governance may be summarised
under four headings: public policy and decision
making; enhancing state performance; transparency
and information; and social justice and the rule
of law.
A.
Public Policy and Decision Making
Civil
society organisations can play a vital role in
mobilising particular constituencies to participate
more fully in politics and public affairs as most
of these are comprised of influential and socially
dominant groups’ Influential and socially
dominant groups are better able to organise themselves
and, by virtue of superior resources and social
status, are able to exert considerable influence
over public policy. They can form and support
intermediary organisations to represent and articulate
their interests in an effective manner.
These
organisations are often the best agents to articulate
and advocate for people’s interests and
their democratic aspirations. They can greatly
influence development discourse and formulation
of new public policy by the government and even
the legal regime at times.
B.
Transparency and Information
Civil
society organisations are thought to contribute
to better governance by facilitating transparency
and increasing the accessibility of information
about the making and implementation of government
policy. Activities from within civil society to
promote these goals include the discovery, publication
and dissemination of information about items of
legislation, legal provisions, public expenditure
allocations, the implementation of policy and
programmes, and special enquiries. Such information
may be directly published and circulated by groups
within civil society, or distributed through new
or existing media outlets.
Efforts
to enhance transparency in government may contribute
to poverty reduction by helping citizens monitor
the delivery of development resources and stop
the appropriation of resources by bureaucrats
and local elites. This suggests a more activist
role for civil society, in which civic actors
back up information and dissemination activities
with mobilisation and public advocacy work
C.
Enhancing State Performance
The
quality and effectiveness of public services and
expenditures are integral to good governance.
Civil society organisations can contribute here
by working directly with the government in shaping,
financing and delivering public services in a
variety of ways. These can take the form of strategic
partnerships in which civil society organisations
work closely with state institutions in designing
and providing health and educational services,
by mobilising funds from among client groups and
other sources, by providing services directly,
and by monitoring quality and coverage. In some
cases this can create the basis for synergy, in
which state institutions acquire greater legitimacy
and improve their performance by developing responsive
working relationships with civil society that
draw on reservoirs of social capital built up
in local communities.
Effective
state-society partnerships arise in the context
of a particular set of institutional and political
conditions which may be context-specific and not
easily replicable.
D.
Social Justice, Rights and the Rule of Law
The
fourth area where civil society can make meaningful
contribution to good governance is in the field
of social justice, rights and the rule of law.
There are two main dimensions to this:
•The
advocacy role of specialist human rights organisations
in pressing for the implementation of existing
laws, plus fresh legislative initiatives and institutional
reforms to promote universal human rights and
constitutional guarantees.
•
Protective role of civil society in sheltering
individuals threatened by repressive states, defending
their rights through the official legal process,
for example by providing paralegal services to
groups of citizens who do not have ready access
to the courts.
PRIA’s
Role in Strengthening Civil Society
PRIA
has been one of the pioneering organisations to
promote practices, innovations and discourse on
civil society strengthening for the last 25 years
at the local, provincial, national and international
arena. Its interventions to mobilise and strengthen
civil society in India date back to the early
80s
The
promotion of the concept, philosophy and practice
of Participatory Research involving grassroots
civil society groups on the issues of land, water
and forest was a remarkable beginning in the history
of Indian civil society . Capacity building of
numerous civil society groups on participatory
development and learning was truly extraordinary.
One of the flagship programmes, launched by PRIA,
popularly known as Training of Trainers (TOT)
on Participatory Training Methodology (PTM), proved
to be the first structured learning ground for
many members of civil society leadership of today.
It provided an opportunity to prepare hundreds
of social activists who contributed enormously
to the emerging voluntary sector in India. The
TOTs on PTM were a wonderful blend of modern management
theories of group development and organisation
building as well as sensitisation required to
work with the most marginalised people in society.
The programme strengthened the capacities of intermediary
civil society organisations to evolve strategies
and methodologies for grassroots community group
formation on local development issues.
As
the debates on "people’s participation"
got crystallised in the development circle, PRIA
undertook training programmes on Participatory
Development with special focus on the methodologies
and issues. As many bilateral, multilateral and
other international donor agencies started supporting
development projects, it became clearer, that
the policies, institutions and programmes of these
agencies and that of national and provincial governments
needed to be influenced. PRIA took leadership
to stitch together a broad coalition of civil
society organisations at the national and global
levels to engage in policy dialogue with the bilateral
and multilateral agencies. The leadership that
PRIA provided to form and nurture an ‘NGO
Working Group on World Bank’ is a true testimony
about its vision and capacity.
As
the voluntary sector started growing in India
and South Asia, PRIA realised the importance of
institutional development of Voluntary Development
Organisations (VDOs). The analyses suggested that
both "practical" and "strategic"
capacity building interventions were required
for the growing voluntary sector. A series of
capacity building trainings, publications and
discourses were organised and promoted for management
of voluntary organisations (including financial
management, laws governing voluntary sector, vision,
mission strategy etc.). In fact PRIA’s manuals
on Voluntary Sector Management and Financial Management
were the only manuals available for reference
in the sector till early 1990s.
The
trainings on Participatory Project Planning, Monitoring
and Evaluation, Process Documentation were pioneering
efforts to fulfill the practical “project”
capacity building requirements of voluntary organisations.
However, the vision of a strong voluntary sector
in India could not be achieved unless the strategic
requirements of the sector were addressed. Training
and consultancy efforts towards leadership development,
strategic planning, governance of voluntary development
organisations, organisation development and policy
advocacy were also undertaken to build the institutional
capacity of voluntary organisations. The visionary
leadership provided to promote national network
of voluntary organisations in India through Voluntary
Association’s Network in India (VANI) was
a revolutionary step. It provided an autonomous
space for civil society organisations to advocate
the issues of voluntary sector and engagement
of the sector with the government and policy makers.
However,
having realised the institutional limitations,
PRIA in the early-nineties promoted several Regional
Support Organisations (RSOs) in states like Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Rajasthan,
Gujarat and Orissa. The Regional Support Organisations,
with the support and leadership from PRIA, dedicated
themselves to build the capacities of grassroots
civil society organisations in their chosen spheres
of interventions. The language, learning materials,
exemplars were contextualised in order to facilitate
learning in a professional manner. By the mid-nineties
Network of Collaborating Regional Support Organisations
(NCRSOs) was promoted in partnership with the
Regional Support Organisations. It was the first
in its kind and functions today as the largest
network of civil society organisations working
to strengthen local governance in India. It was
also realised that the emerging issues and priorities
of capacity building of local civil society organisations
cannot be addressed only through training, hands
on support at the local and national level. The
debates and discussion needed to be taken within
the international development agencies. Again,
PRIA provided the leadership to promote a global
platform called International Forum on Capacity
Building (IFCB) including representatives from
the World Bank, UNDP, European Commission, USAID,
Northern NGOs and Southern NGOs. PRIA acted as
the Global Chair of IFCB from 1998 to 2002. All
major bilateral and multilateral donors provided
financial and intellectual support to this initiative.
In fact IFCB proved to be the pre-cursor to two
major current initiatives on capacity building
undertaken by UNDP (Capacity Development) and
USAID (Impact Alliance).
PRIA’s
interventions on strengthening civil society touched
a new height since 2000. PRIA’s contribution
in conceptualising civil society and governance
through two major studies “Civil Society
in the New Millennium” (supported by the
Commonwealth Foundation) and Civil Society and
Governance (supported by the Ford Foundation)
were remarkable during this period.
PRIA’s
new strategic vision of "Governance Where
People Matter" reemphasised its commitment
to strengthen the civil society for reforming
governance institutions. These civil society coalitions
and platforms have promoted and nurtured more
than three thousands CSOs for undertaking Pre-
Election Voters’ Awareness Campaigns (PEVAC)
before Panchayat and municipality elections in
12 states. The same platforms have also participated
in undertaking capacity building of newly elected
representatives on a massive scale. A study conducted
by PRIA in seven states in India on Capacity Building
Requirements of Civil Society Organisations also
re-emphasised that institutional development interventions
should continue, as small and medium sized CSOs
are not touched by the other existing capacity
building efforts. PRIA’s intervention on
Gender Mainstreaming in Organisations for CSOs
has been one of the current flagship programmes.
PRIA
is also engaged in strengthening citizen leadership
which are envisaged as vehicles for promoting
the capacities of citizen associations and promoting
