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Strategic Objective
Strengthen and Protect Civil Society, Recognizing the Essential Role of Local Capacity in Advancing Democratic Governance and Human Rights
Strategic Objective
Overview
For more than 200 years, the State Department has focused its diplomatic engagement on other governments – and done so successfully. But since the late 20th century, international relations have not been about ties between governments. The growth of new democracies, shifts in culture, rise of the middle class worldwide, and advances in technology have resulted in the diffusion of power from governments to citizens. Even in autocratic societies, leaders must increasingly respond to the opinions and actions of their people. Today, international relations are increasingly about the links between societies rather than governments.
Civil society can be a catalyst for social, political, and economic progress. Civic groups mobilize people and resources to fight disease and hunger. They work to strengthen rule of law and promote accountability and transparency. They are also critical to economic development, because in our global economy, trade and investment flow to countries that give citizens the freedom to create and develop new ideas. Labor organizations are essential to set a floor on labor standards in a globalized marketplace. Strong civil societies uphold universal human rights and provide care to victims. Political systems that protect universal rights are more stable, successful, and secure. For the United States, strengthening and protecting civil society is not just a matter of good global citizenship; it is a more effective and efficient path to advancing key foreign policy objectives.
In September 2013, President Obama launched a “Stand with Civil Society” agenda aimed at bolstering civil society throughout the world and pushing back on the growing restrictions on it. As part of this agenda, the White House established an interagency process to coordinate overarching U.S. government policy on opening and safeguarding civic space.
The State Department and USAID continue to make efforts to strengthen and protect civil society, promote participatory and inclusive political processes, and increase connections between Americans and people around the world – through efforts ranging from public service and educational exchanges to increased commerce and public-private partnerships. As a matter of policy, we oppose restrictions on civil society and engage when governments try to stifle civic activism. Through USAID and State programming, we strengthen the legal environment for civil society, promote politically engaged and informed citizenries, help develop open and sustainable media sectors, and support independent and democratic trade or labor unions. We integrate religious engagement as a crucial element of our bilateral and multilateral efforts to promote religious tolerance, in line with the NSS Strategy for Integrating Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement into U.S. Foreign Policy. We use technology and multi-stakeholder engagement to advance Internet freedom and strengthen civil society’s ability to serve, advocate, and organize. And we provide civil society, independent media organizations, bloggers, and advocates with mentoring, tools, and techniques to enhance their advocacy skills, bolster their information technology capabilities, and protect their security, both online and offline. At a time of budget austerity and growing restrictions on foreign assistance, we also work to foster domestic philanthropy abroad and address legal impediments to charitable giving.
Strategies for Achieving the Objective
The State Department and USAID have developed new capabilities and partnerships that expand our capacity for engagement with civil society, and implement programs and policies to foster vibrant civic ecosystems worldwide. USAID is also working with local grassroots civil society organizations in an effort to increase local capacity.
The State Department is enhancing its people-to-people exchange programs and elevating youth issues as a policy priority. The State Department’s youth policy led to the creation of a Special Adviser on Global Youth Issues and an Office of Global Youth Issues, and has exponentially expanded our outreach to young people around the world via direct engagement by diplomatic posts, exchange programs, virtual classrooms, and social media. Through these efforts, the United States is building ties to young professionals and emerging leaders in a global economy.
The Department of State engages a full range of tools, including diplomacy, foreign assistance and public-private partnerships, to optimize the Open Government Partnership (OGP) as a vehicle to support civic participation and make government more responsive, effective, and accountable.
The U.S. government also funds a broad range of technical assistance programs supporting civil society, including programs that track and monitor legislation that restricts the work of civil society in more than 40 countries. The Department works through the Community of Democracies to coordinate diplomatic responses to actions, including pending legislation abroad, that threaten civil society or could increase restrictions on the freedoms of association, assembly, and expression, online and offline. We also work multilaterally to provide targeted technical assistance to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and partner with 18 other governments and foundations through the Lifeline. Embattled CSOs Assistance Fund to offer emergency financial assistance when civic groups are threatened.
Defending Internet freedom is a central component of U.S. support for civil society, both through diplomatic efforts and the expenditure of over $120 million in programming funds to date. For example, the United States supports the Digital Defenders Partnership, which provides emergency assistance for activists, bloggers, citizen journalists, and common citizens who have been harassed, threatened, or arrested for exercising their human rights online. This Partnership has also invested millions to strengthen civil society’s capacity to advocate for laws and policies that facilitate unfettered Internet access. We support the development of technologies for activists in highly repressive environments and provide training to protect activists in these environments from harm. In developing countries, we strengthen civil society role in Internet policymaking and support their participation in global Internet governance. The Department of State and USAID will continue to strengthen civil society by providing training and offering tools for success while also working with partners in the philanthropic community to encourage domestic philanthropy and volunteerism abroad.
External factors, including competing U.S. geopolitical priorities, budgetary constraints on our foreign assistance, austerity measures by partner governments, and a lack of political will from like-minded partners to engage systematically, could impede our progress in advancing this objective.
Read Less...Progress Update
In 2014, an increasing number of governments inhibited the free operation of civil society and cut off CSOs ability to receive funding from legitimate sources, including foreign funding. In some cases, these restrictions arose out of the implementation of laws, regulations, and administrative measures that were being inappropriately applied; in other cases, the laws, regulations, and administrative measures by authoritarian governments were themselves problematic. This closing space for civil society is increasingly becoming a global development challenge. Governments have also become increasingly adept at sharing “worst practices” for cracking down on CSOs. The United States and a growing number of like-minded governments continued efforts to address this problem through President Obama’s Stand With Civil Society initiative, which mobilizes international like-minded partners to work together to combat increasing restrictions to civil society globally.
Although efforts to assist CSO are extremely important, successes have been rare and fragile. Libya's fledgling government consulted closely with civil society during the creation of its draft NGO law, but increasing recent governance and security challenges, particularly threats to civil society actors as well as administrative measures, have overshadowed the legislation process. One area of success – in terms of promoting consultative lawmaking - has been the recent passage in Burma of the Association Registration Law (ARL), which lays out regulations for the formation and registration of local and international NGOs. Through a combination of diplomatic engagement and foreign assistance, the U.S. government helped support the ARL’s public consultation process, which has been lauded by outside observers.
In September, President Obama deepened U.S commitment to Stand with Civil Society by issuing a Presidential Memorandum directing all U.S. agencies engaged abroad to strengthen and protect civil society. The Department has worked through the White House’s Stand With Civil Society interagency process to: (1) produce a menu of options for posts facing existing and prospective threats to civil society; (2) identify, in consultations with the regional bureaus, countries where the United States might intensify its efforts; and (3) set up an intranet site to which posts can share information on both the challenges they are facing and opportunities that exist despite those challenges. The Department also greatly increased the number of accredited NGOs which can participate at the UN.
OGP has grown from eight participating countries in 2011 to 65 countries today and over 2,000 commitments that affect over 1.5 billion people. However, government engagement of civil society as partners in developing and implementing transformative open government reforms has varied among OGP’s participants. The Department will utilize the full range of tools available to encourage participating countries to fully engage civil society in developing national action plans that meaningfully advance transparent, accountable government. We will also support the implementation of a one-year pilot Rapid Response mechanism that addresses when participating countries fail to uphold the values and principles of inclusive, transparent, and accountable government.
The Department is committed to providing core funding for the Community of Democracies (CD) to strengthen the architecture for global diplomatic action when governments are considering new laws, regulations, or administrative measures that restrict civil society in a manner inconsistent with their international obligations and commitments. This funding will also help CD facilitate expert consultations and dialogue with civil society representatives from repressive environments. We are also supporting an effort that enables CD governments and organizations to pool resources and co-finance projects that strengthen civil society and democracy worldwide—the CD-UNITED. The State Department continues diplomatic and financial support for Lifeline: Embattled CSOs Assistance Fund, a multilateral initiative in which the United States participates. Looking forward, additional U.S. funding to Lifeline will augment emergency assistance available to CSOs under threat and deliver more coordinated diplomatic engagement in priority countries.
Responding to the President's Stand with Civil Society agenda, USAID has: (1) expanded the CSO Legal Enabling Environment Program to work on improving the legal environment for civil society, and to respond to threatening restrictions; (2) provided critical mentoring to civil society organizations on how to assess and manage their digital security risks; (3) explored developing a new, innovative model to support civil society in restrictive environments through regional hubs; (4) partnered with USAID Regional Development Mission in Asia to develop a new Nonprofit Management Program at a Thai University; and (5) supported innovation grants, scale-up, and research to empower citizens to engage with government to voice their concerns and demands, and enable governments to respond through Making All Voices Count, a $55 million partnership with the United Kingdom, Sweden Omidyar Network, and the Open Society Foundation.
The Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) program is a regionally-focused effort that empowers citizens in the Middle East and North Africa to develop more pluralistic, participatory, and prosperous societies. In FY 2013, MEPI provided assistance to over 800 CSOs engaged in community activism and made 91 grants directly to local organizations throughout the region. Through these awards, individuals across the region volunteered in their communities, identified issues of public concern and presented these to public officials.
