Office of Democracy & Governance: Civil Society
 The independent, non-governmental realm of citizen activity is termed civil society. As the nexus for participation in governance, civil society is essential in a democracy for political expression and influencing government policy choices.
In the broadest sense, all support to NGOs, be they agricultural cooperatives, women’s health care associations, or business associations, can be considered support for civil society development. Hopefully, in the long-term, such support will help build the broad base for democratic development. However, given the scarcity of funding for democracy programs, USAID has chosen to target that funding to organizations that enter the public policy arena, the so-called “politically active” or advocacy civil society organizations (CSOs).
The Agency supports these CSOs whose advocacy efforts give voice to citizens and expand their influence on the political process. Strengthening civil society is increasingly seen as a way to counterbalance the exercise of excessive authority by governments and economic and political elites, and as a way to encourage more open dialogue about public policy matters too often decided behind closed doors. A vibrant civil society can even provide recourse to justice through the work of human rights groups, especially in post-conflict situations.
To design civil society development strategies, the DG Office first identifies the major issues of democracy and governance in a country, then assesses the prospects for the development of reform agendas addressing those issues. The role of civil society becomes important in advancing the reform agenda through advocacy: informing public opinion, mobilizing constituencies and coalitions for reform, and engaging government and political parties in policy debate.
Leading CSO candidates are human rights and pro-democracy groups, professional associations, religious institutions, labor unions, and think tanks. A critical component of any civil society strategy would include a focus on enhancing a free and independent media. Often, service delivery-oriented NGOs become active in civic or political affairs on policy issues of special interest to them or in times of national crisis.
As the DG Office sees it, USAID’s efforts to strengthen civil society are organized into five focus areas: creating a legal framework (often called an enabling environment) to protect and promote civil society; increasing citizen participation in the policy process; increasing the financial viability of CSOs; enhancing the free flow of information, especially through support for independent media; and promoting democratic political culture. Trade and industry associations are becoming more active in pressing for good governance as part of democratization, while religious organizations and labor unions have long been at the forefront of campaigns for human rights and social reform.
The DG Office is also interested in the role of civil society constituencies as participants in economic reform. In Ghana, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, for example, the DG Office is exploring whether national economic consultative bodies (composed of representatives from business, labor, and government)on the reform process.
The DG Office makes a distinction between programming which supports civil society writ large, and civil society programming which fits into a democracy strategy. The focus is not how to encourage the growth of civil society organizations for their own good, but how to encourage elements of civil society to play a role in promoting certain kinds of democratic change. Similarly, USAID has undertaken civic education programming around the world on the assumption that democracy requires citizen participation and participation requires knowledge about one’s rights and responsibilities. Research initiated by the DG Office suggests that civic education programs must be linked to tangible opportunities for participation, not just theoretical lessons in democracy.
In the Dominican Republic and Kenya, for example, USAID has offered support to a variety of CSOs to help gain citizens’ access to the political system. The DG Office input has focused on how supporting civil society organizations contributes to specific reform goals: in the Dominican Republic the goal was fair elections, while in Kenya the goal continues to be constitutional reform.
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