We understand civil society as the sum of individual and collective initiatives of citizens for pursuing common public good. An empowered civil society is fundamental pre-requisite in ‘making democracy work for all’. As the traditional form of representative democracy is increasingly creating hiatus between the institutions of governance and the citizens, the role of civil society is becoming para
mount in bridging these gaps and making these institutions participatory, transparent, accountable and responsive. Since its inception PRIA has assimilated multiple meanings and conceptual constructs of civil society. This has been particularly useful not only in acknowledging the diversity of forms and purposes of ‘individual and collective initiatives’ but also actively supporting and strengthening them. The concept of civil society as a ‘space independent of the state and the market’ has been helpful in fostering self-assertion of collective citizenship. Appreciating civil society as ‘voluntary sector’ provided opportunity to strengthen the voluntary efforts and co-construction of development solutions by the people both independently as well as in partnership with the state and the market. Understanding civil society as ‘associations’ has encouraged organising citizens and their associations not only to safeguarding democratic space but also to holding the governance institutions accountable. In the past three decades, PRIA has contributed to:
• Training of more than 5000 intermediary NGOs on human and institutional capacity development in India and elsewhere;
• Organising and providing capacity development support to more than 50,000 citizen leaders from the most marginalised communities in India of whom at least half are women;
• Organising, developing capacities, and mentoring of more than 10,000 community based organisations in India;
• Providing direct support and building coalitions of more than 4000 intermediary CSOs to work on democratic governance;
• Enhancing spaces for civil society engagement with global governance institutions and influencing their policies by catalysing global and regional coalitions;
In the current context, PRIA’s endeavour to strengthen and empower civil society locally and globally will have the following distinctive yet indivisible expressions:
Defending dissenting voices:
The growing discontents of citizens against democratic deficits in the institutions of governance and their expressions in public life through various citizens’ movements in recent times demand fostering deliberation, dialogue and reflections on part of both the representatives of democratic governance institutions and civil society. PRIA will undertake participatory research, reflection and action by convening multiple stakeholders with the objectives of making civil society more responsible and governance institutions more responsive. The preliminary reflections arising out of Civil Society @ Crossroads project will be deepen further through these future interventions. Promoting citizen participation and social accountability:
At the heart of democratic governance lies the ability of citizens to interrogate the state collectively. In continuation with our past efforts PRIA will promote active and responsible citizenship through social accountability and participation. The consolidated lessons from the projects like Deepening Local Democratic Governance through Social Accountability in Asia, Democratic Accountability in Local Governance and Global Charter on Right to Citizen Participation in Local Democratic Governance (in collaboration with LogoLink) will be applied but also innovative approaches and tools for civic engagement and social accountability will be pursued in future interventions. In addition to promoting social accountability approaches vis-à-vis state institutions, new interventions will also be formulated to demand accountability from the business corporations. Special attention will be given to promote the participation of youth. Strengthening civil society engagement with global governance institutions:
In an increasingly globalised world and simultaneously with the rise of the south civil society engagement with the global governance institutions and new global compacts like BRICS, IBSA and G-20 are becoming increasingly as important as engaging with the local and national governance institutions. As India is poised to play important global role buoyed by its acquired economic and strategic power, engagement of Indian civil society is crucially important to democratise the Indian foreign policies. PRIA will facilitate showcasing of Indian civil society capacities, contributions and global linkages through a series of studies on Trans-national Role of Indian Civil Society Organisations and Contributions of Civil Society Organisations to Social Policy Making in India. PRIA will pursue a two-pronged approach: first, enhancing capacities of indigenous civil society organisations through knowledge generation and dissemination, and second, fostering and convening dialogues between the representatives of these global and national governance institutions and civil society. Lessons learnt from PRIA’s recent initiative on BRICS-Civil Society Engagement will inform our future interventions. Civil society engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives
Indian Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are gaining momentum. Though individual philanthropy has a long tradition in India, the history of CSR is more recent. Philanthropy and CSR both have the potential to contribute meaningfully to alleviating poverty, promoting sustainable development and reforming governance institutions. The recently introduced law on mandatory CSR by the business corporations has opened up vast opportunities. However, the current approach of most philanthropic and CSR initiatives being captive to the idea of ‘welfare’ and ‘do-gooders’ may not be sufficient to realise this potential. Civil society with enormous experiences on various pathways to inclusive development can significantly contribute to these philanthropic and CSR initiatives in actualising these promises. However, most civil society and CSR initiatives are operating in isolation in the absence of an appreciation towards partnership and also due to lack of dialogue and bridging leadership. PRIA in partnership with progressive CSR initiatives, industry associations like FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM and NASSCOM etc. will undertake a series of strategic interventions including the proposed study on Envisioning Corporate Social Responsibility: Future Strategies, Capacities and Partnership. The study finding is expected to open up conversations on civil society partnership with progressive CSR initiatives. Human and institutional development support to civil society organisations:
PRIA will share its years of experience on enhancing effectiveness of civil society organisations by providing training, coaching, mentoring and technical support on the themes of participatory training methodologies, organisation development, strategic planning, leadership development and participatory monitoring and evaluation. On request, PRIA will undertake evaluation studies and help organisations and programmes to design learning oriented PME. The lessons learnt from the recent initiatives like Designing Learning, Monitoring and Evaluation for Networks of Urban Poor, Evaluation of Citizens Against Corruption Programme, Independent Mid-line and End-line Evaluation of Non-State Actor Component of Demand for Good Governance Project, Institutional Development of SLMIO – Afghanistan, Designing Governance Structures and Processes of HomeNet South Asia, Institutional Assessment of Afghan Aid etc.
