Posts with the tag
“International Civil Society Centre”

Never waste a good crisis

12th March 2025 by Wolfgang Jamann

The decisions of the new US administration to freeze aid and abolish USAID has sent shockwaves through the system. USA is the largest bilateral ODA (Official Development Assistance) donor, and this decision is already having significant impact, both within the US (job losses, cutback on domestic programs) and abroad (communities not receiving medical aid, local NGOs having to cease operations, fragile and poor countries expecting significant economic impact). 

Other donors have taken similar steps – the Netherlands has cut aid by 30%, redirecting funds to projects that directly contribute to Dutch interests. Belgium cut aid by 25%, while France reduced its budget by 37%. Swedish SIDA has linked its foreign aid strategy closer to Swedish interests and prohibits the use of their funding for political advocacy in ODA countries. Most recently, the UK has decided to reduce foreign aid by 40% while raising defense spending. Germany’s new government might be next in line, having to raise military spending significantly and possibly preparing financially for larger numbers of Ukrainian refugees. 

Linking aid cuts to increasing military funding is only one, yet problematic, relationship. We can also see the increasing instrumentalization of foreign aid to security, external policy, and economic interests of donor countries. Furthermore, the ‘value-based’ or ‘rights-based’ development cooperation is under direct attack by those who are propagating a regressive and chauvinistic world view, in which NGOs and civil society are seen as principal opponents. 

Acknowledging that the victims of these developments will be first and foremost the poorest and most vulnerable of this world, we also need to understand the long-term impact on the ‘sector’. What do these developments mean for civil society, and for ICSOs in particular? 

Five weeks after the first Executive Orders by President Trump, some consequences can already be drawn. 

  • It can safely be assumed that globally, there will be less foreign aid available for a long time to come. 
  • Aid will be more closely linked to geopolitics, global trade relations, security concerns and few immediate global threats (though the latter might be questionable, thinking of the ambivalent actions towards pandemics). Climate change and biodiversity loss might receive even less attention.  
  • Aid might be ‘regionalised’, for example, focused on immediate spheres of influence of big donor countries (e.g. US aid may be focused on Central America)  
  • Aid might be focused on alleviating humanitarian crises, particularly high-profile ones.  
  • Institutions (the UN, other multilaterals, but also NGOs) will be in defence over their value, legitimacy, effectiveness and the difference they make. 
  • The ‘localisation’ agenda might get new, unexpected pushes in the direction of cost cutting, local ownership and local financing / fundraising.  
  • Recipient countries might take this as a call for greater self-sustainability (positive scenario) or leave the most vulnerable communities behind (negative scenario). 

(I)CSOs are in the middle of this. The values on which their work rests are under attack. As institutions they might be singled out by anti-rights actors. Their business models are threatened, particularly those NGOs who take significant government funding. And the legitimacy of international actors is under scrutiny, from many sides. The push to ‘localise’ and shift power comes from Southern civil society, and Southern and Northern governments alike.    

Disrupt and innovate,’ has been the slogan of the Centre since its inception. When there’s disruption, and resilience is low, things will have to change. It is clear that there are some fundamental shortcomings in the sector, in spite of the many good deeds that have been delivered through the aid system  for the time it has been existing. Here are some ideas on how to make use of the crisis. 

  • Aid flows from North to South increase (or perpetuate) dependency. Can there be more radical support to those who want to overcome such dependency, e.g. through supporting local fundraising, transferring power of decision-making in project planning, positively sanctioning self-funded initiatives, investing in institution building, creating solidarity funds? 
  • (I)NGOs have an overriding concern for their organisational success. Can they develop the ambition (and practice) to work themselves out of the job? What would this mean for defining leaders’ success? 
  • Accountability over funds is the holy grail for those who don’t want to shift decision powers. Can we prioritise non-monetary accountability dimensions? And can we lobby donors to adjust their expectations? 
  • There is duplication throughout the sector. Should there not be many more mergers, job-share, cross-sectoral collaboration? Can we be more rigorous about added value provided? 
  • Social business, social impact investing, effective philanthropy, must not be seen as distinguished from CSO work. Are we intentional enough about such initiatives, and about bringing corporates into our ecosystem? 
  • The international aid system is expensive. Country office structures and expats living and working in the global South are costly, they narrow development spaces for local talents, and undermine just tax systems. Can we work more with local staff capacities and service providers? 
  • In many cases, partners are implementers or sub-contractors. How do partnership relations be re-defined and re-lived to change who is in the drivers’ seat? 
  • There’s been more and more calls for system changes, to bring the sector from its head onto its feet. Will leaders (and governors) of civil society organisations take this as a positive challenge? And do they believe in the quest for a change of the international aid system? 

The above are just a few areas where more serious discussion and actions are needed. The sector has already developed several promising initiatives, like RINGO, the Pledge for Change, and the Dynamic Accountability Framework, which may need a significant push for commitment. What could other areas be where leaders in the sector invest collectively, to make good use of the crisis at hand? 

Let us know! 

Wolfgang Jamann

Executive Director

International Civil Society Centre

Dr. Wolfgang Jamann is Executive Director of the International Civil Society Centre. Until January 2018 he was Secretary General and CEO of CARE International (Geneva). Before that he led NGO Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and the Alliance 2015, a partnership of 7 European aid organisations. From 2004-2009 he was CEO & Board member of CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg and President of the CARE Foundation. Previously, he worked for World Vision International as a regional representative in East Africa (Kenya) & Head of Humanitarian Assistance at WV Germany. After his Ph.D. dissertation in 1990 he started his career in development work at the German Foundation for International Development, later for the UNDP in Zambia. As a researcher and academic, he has published books and articles on East & Southeast Asia contributing to international studies on complex humanitarian emergencies and conflict management.


Civil Society approaches, opportunities and challenges of Shifting Power

3rd March 2022 by Elizabeth Parsons

Communications Manager

International Civil Society Centre


A Beautiful City: How Civil Society needs to reflect, innovate and collaborate to shape the new world order

19th February 2019 by Wolfgang Jamann

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness”.

Charles Dickens’ famous opening of the novel A Tale of Two Cities is as accurate a description of today’s global issues as it was for Europe around the French Revolution. But is this the best or the worst of times for civil society organisations?

Today, many societies are shaken by the failure of established institutions to address global problems like wars, environmental catastrophes or just the worries of ordinary citizens over their future. As a result, people lose trust in governments and media, multilateralism is in the firing line, and the future of democracy is unclear. And admittedly, the world does not look good for those propagating tolerance, humanistic values, global solidarity and human rights.

But every trend has a countertrend.

While populism and authoritarianism seem to increase in influence, they are countered by new and vocal forms of civil activism. Youth movements, like the increasing number of school strikes, fight inertia around climate change on the streets. The rise of illiberal Civil Society has prompted a re-emergence of moral and ethical debates around a “common humanity”. Attacks on human rights and values are being pushed back through acts of solidarity and new empathic narratives. And chauvinistic attitudes and patriarchal patterns give way for liberal and feminist agendas, from the #MeToo movement to explicit feminist governments like Canada or Sweden, aiming at greater equality of opportunities for all.

A key development is that societal trends, good and bad, are exacerbated by the rapidly evolving information technology. Division of society is being amplified by fake news and online manipulation in social media, yet the Internet connects half of the world’s population and provides the greatest imaginable opportunity for global learning, exchange and transparency. And plenty of “technology for good” debates show growing concern and responsibilities in dealing with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The renowned think tank Carnegie Endowment sums it up well: “The world is at a transformational moment, defined by cataclysmic threats and unimaginable opportunities”.

Civil Societies role in shaping the new global world order

Many expect civil society to be the leading force in shaping these opportunities around a new global world order. While traditional civil society organisations have lost some of their soft power, they still form a sector of high credibility, outreach and positive impact on the lives of the people. But there are three important steps that CSOs will have to take to live up to the challenge.

Firstly, they need to reflect on their own way of working, the way they engage with citizens, and how far they are still visibly and convincingly connected with their missions. Legitimacy of international civil society organisations needs to be earned on a continuous basis, particularly when it comes to representing and reconciling minority and majority positions of the people they serve, and of those that support their work. Established power structures within organisations and within the sector need to be challenged. Likewise, those organisation lacking engagement with local movements and imbalanced partnerships with community-based organisations needs to be called out. Civil society must make sure to always keep an arm’s length distance from governments and for-profits, and make sure they don’t become instrumentalised for political agendas. At best, civil society shapes dialogues and collaboration with others outside the sector and drives global solidarity debates and actions, advocating for change when engaging with elites.

Secondly, civil society organisations need to embrace truly innovative approaches towards significant threats that are undermining the wellbeing of future generations. Innovation comes with the need to say goodbye to outdated business models reflecting a false “North-South” power structure, drop anachronistic messaging and . By focusing more on necessary societal adjustments in industrial countries CSOs can address, for example, the failures of the Global North to fight climate change. It requires courage to try and fail, persistence to scale up promising and successful initiatives, and to continue learning within and outside the organisation. It also means stepping aside when others have better ideas, and when a new generation is ready to take on the challenge. It also means powering new societal conversations about critical issues which will affect everyone in future – like what jobs and income will look like in a post-manufacturing, Artificial Intelligence-enabled world. And while digitalisation is a big part for possible innovation in the sector, it is by far not the only means, and one should not overlook analogue, local, citizen-generated and decentralised strategies to tackle threatening problems.

Thirdly, collaboration needs a step change between CSOs and possible allies within and outside the sector. Civil society is the sphere of dialogue, innovation and reinvention. Intersectional partnerships should free resources and multiply impact. Lessons are desperately needed and can derive from looking beyond organisational boundaries, and scanning the horizon for opportunities to join up should be a constant part of CSOs’ work. Territorial thinking or the focus on brands and logos need to be a thing of the past; instead, robust and more effective mechanisms for joint actions of solidarity within and beyond the sector should be developed to counter the organised attacks on civic space worldwide.

The International Civil Society Centre works with social justice, environmental, and human rights organisations who have an immense outreach, delivery power, resources and political influence. It provides room for accelerating the reflection, innovation and collaboration we need, and invites every sector to join its ambitions. In the coming months, we will focus on addressing authoritarian and populist attacks on the values that form the basis for Civil Society’s work, and will provide opportunities to collaborate across sectors towards the aim of a new “common humanity”.

In taking these actions we would be closer to Charles Dickens vision at the end of his book: “I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out”.

 

Wolfgang Jamann

Executive Director

International Civil Society Centre

Dr. Wolfgang Jamann is Executive Director of the International Civil Society Centre. Until January 2018 he was Secretary General and CEO of CARE International (Geneva). Before that he led NGO Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and the Alliance 2015, a partnership of 7 European aid organisations. From 2004-2009 he was CEO & Board member of CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg and President of the CARE Foundation. Previously, he worked for World Vision International as a regional representative in East Africa (Kenya) & Head of Humanitarian Assistance at WV Germany. After his Ph.D. dissertation in 1990 he started his career in development work at the German Foundation for International Development, later for the UNDP in Zambia. As a researcher and academic, he has published books and articles on East & Southeast Asia contributing to international studies on complex humanitarian emergencies and conflict management.