Is civil society victim of past role?

Since its emergence as a critical actor in the governance and development sphere, several decades ago, civil society has become accepted in most modern democracies. They will be found providing humanitarian aid, supporting provision of health services or education, advocating against female genital mutilation and fighting for democratisation in others.

At the international level, we have moved from the traditional position where international relations were the preserve of states to a recognition that non-state actors have an important contribution to make in such fora and in shaping development of international law.

However, what was accepted a few years ago is increasingly ‘coming under threat both nationally and internationally. This past week I came across this reality in a regional meeting discussing the role of civil society in conflict management in the greater horn of Africa.

There was heated debate during the conference on what the definition of civil society is, what kind of civil society exist in the horn of Africa region and whether they really have a role in conflict management.

One participant even quipped that at the heart of a conflict, it is the military and states who will step in to resolve the conflict. It is only later that civil society can come in.

If the above was happening in a meeting dominated by government representatives from the Horn of Africa region, I would not be surprised. That it was raised at a forum largely of academics intrigued and surprised me in equal measure. Here I was taking it for granted that there was universal acceptance of the relevance of civil society being met with debate pointing to the opposite direction.

After my initial shock, I began to interrogate the sentiments further. Being out of Kenya made it even easier to have a candid reflection. I compared it to the sentiments that I hear about civil society in the country but that easily get dismissed. For one who has engaged with and continue to have engagements with civil society, I normally take it that civil society is misunderstood. However, it may be time for the entire role and contribution of civil society to be interrogated.

I am a firm believer that for any society to progress requires the contribution of its varied shades of organisations both in and outside government. I have seen and continue to see firsthand the very positive contributions that civil society makes to the development of societies. However, society’s understanding and assessment of civil society has morphed over the years.

As one participant intimated in the forum last week, we now have various types of civil societies. Governments have formed their own civil societies, opposition politicians too have or are members of civil society, civil society members dabble in politics. Thus, when one speaks about civil society, their assessment is not based on ones daily dealing with a critical aspect of their mandate as discussed earlier in this piece but mainly those who dabble in politics.

Several years ago, we had a long and heated discussion with a friend of mine as to whether civil society can be non-political. He was categorical that it is untenable to expect non-partisanship and non-political engagement from civil society. I disagreed then and still think that the challenges that civil society face relate to how they handle political questions.

When you have members of civil society taking partisan political sides, they move away from their defined role and join active politics. It is then impossible to be judged in any other lens except the political lens. Second relates to impact. It is important that the work civil society does gets judged by those they impact on. These people need to see, feel and fully appreciate their work.

Listening to the group of intellectuals debate both about how to define civil society and what they actually can and cannot do in society, I quickly raised that as opposed to civil society being on the defensive or dismissive of such sentiments, it should provide ground for introspection and readjustment if necessary.

The view must be to ensure that those who doubt the relevance of civil society can appreciate the work they do. This requires more than self-praise by civil society.

The challenges facing society are complex and cannot be solved by Governments alone, however well-meaning. This justifies the involvement of nonstate actors be they civil society, private sector, faith-based organizations or trade unions. Modern developments have brought challenges to the nature and operations of each of these groups. Improvements are necessary in how they all operate, including civil society. This does not mean that they are no longer relevant nor is it a ground to ignore the legitimate questions that get raised on their work and outputs.