Including Civil Society Research Articles

Environmental mainstreaming and post-sovereign governance in Tanzania

Tanzania's experiences of development aid partnerships and environmental mainstreaming have been widely praised in recent years, yet the country continues to suffer from considerable problems of poverty, food insecurity and ecological degradation. As such it constitutes an interesting case study through which to examine hypotheses on global environmental governance. Looking specifically at claims that environmental governance is increasingly “post-sovereign”, this article assesses the degree to which environmental management in Tanzania is becoming “non-exclusive”, “non-hierarchical”, and “post-territorial”. It argues that evidence for non-exclusivity is plentiful, given the extent of foreign donor, private sector, and civil society inclusion in governance processes. Rather than the absence of hierarchy, the article suggests the existence of multiple hierarchies produced by both the transnationalisation of environmental politics as well as the complex nature of the Tanzanian state. Finally, rather than a trend towards post-territorialisation, the research suggests that environmental governance should be seen within a longer trajectory of greater state penetration, monitoring, surveillance and intrusion into rural life. It concludes that environmental governance is significantly transforming the Tanzanian state and that this is characteristic of changes in environmental governance worldwide.

Food and health research in Europe: Structures, gaps and futures

BackgroundFood and health research is concerned with production, marketing, choice, regulation and policy for food as it affects health, and the mechanisms and control of diet-related diseases, nutrition and obesity. It covers positive and negative impacts of food on health, as well as issues related to under and over consumption of food. The European Union-funded study FAHRE (Food and Health Research in Europe) has described structures and identified gaps and needs for food and health research across Europe. MethodsFAHRE was conducted by a consortium of partners in 7 European countries, including private and public research organisations, university-based researchers and civil society organisations. National advisers in 32 European countries made reports on the structures of food and health research, and nine experts made reports on food and health research themes. At the end of this phase, a stakeholder conference was held to review and discuss the findings, and from this a Strategic Document was developed and distributed electronically for wider consultation at national level. This report presents the findings of the Strategic Document. ResultsFAHRE proposed that future research using public funding should address the global issue of unhealthy eating, including obesity, which causes preventable disability and disease, reduced working life and increased healthcare costs. FAHRE suggests a move of the focus of research from healthy food to healthy eating, and to overcome the existing separation between food research and health research through a shift of research towards food for health.EU member states have widely differing national systems for research management, and information is poorly standardised for comparisons. There are many research programmes in both food and health, usually managed by ministries of science, but rarely in collaboration with ministries of health. Industry mainly contributes ‘near product’ research: few industry small and medium enterprises are engaged with food and health research, nor are civil society organisations. EU food and health research has been focused within the agriculture research theme, and not sufficiently linked to health research.FAHRE recommends coordination of food and health research through an EU-level Coordinating Agency, with budget and representation from the three EU directorates Agriculture, Health and Research, the member states, and wider stakeholders including civil society and industry. There should be corresponding ‘food and health research agencies’ in the member states bringing together national policy-makers and stakeholders, and directing research funding. Food safety agencies may provide a model for this joint approach. Further proposals include strengthening social and policy research, accessing Structural Funds for research programmes, and more strategic approaches to determining research programmes and funding. ConclusionFood and health research in Europe should move from ‘healthy food’, which concentrates on food as a product, to research for ‘healthy eating’ which is concerned with appropriate intake and reducing disease. Coordination of research on this theme, at European level, and between member states, could deliver major economic and social returns.

The Policy Consensus Ruling European Political Economy: The Political Attractions of Discredited Economics

Abstract Since the Great Recession in 2008 academic economics has come under heavy criticism. But a straightforward alternative is not in sight either. We analyse in this article how the major flaws of applied economics are the mirror image of its attractions to policymakers, mainstream political parties and reform-minded administrations. We first assess what the consensus until recently has been and how it could have been implicated in the crisis. Secondly, we argue, following Hall, that the policy consensus continues to persist because it is politically attractive. The article ends with observations of how the management of the Euro area crisis still shows the attractiveness of the consensus. Policy recommendations: • Introduce greater pluralism in advisory bodies on economic policy to include civil society organizations, such as trade unions, and consumer organizations as well as academic disciplines other than economics. • Review compensation policy for representatives on advisory committees to create a level playing field for experts from civil society organizations and independent consultants with financial sector lobbyists. • Support and back up critical voices in the financial industry and in regulatory bodies against those who defend regulatory neglect and the privilege of rent-seeking for the financial industry.

A new deal for engagement in fragile states

Well-established but, in fragile and conflict-affected state contexts, routinely overlooked aid effectiveness principles underlie the ‘New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States’ endorsed at the Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. In this sense, the New Deal is not new per se. What is novel is that the New Deal provides entry points to tackle the root causes of the lack of consistent application of aid principles and related practices. The New Deal brings together—arguably for the first time and on a more equal footing—recipient governments grouped under the g7+, OECD donors and other development partners including civil society organisations, for a frank discussion on the challenges of engaging in these difficult contexts. This article traces the genesis of the New Deal, describes its component parts and identifies four key implementation challenges. These are: achieving coherence across OECD countries’ various sectoral policies (trade, agriculture, international development, etc.), working with actors such as Brazil and China, improving donors’ risk management in an era of deficit reduction across many OECD economies, and attaining high-level political commitment for the New Deal and its five Peace-building and State-building Goals, including at the UN.

Civil society or ‘comprador class’, participation or parroting?

This article critically looks at the interfaces between the ideal notions of civil society and participation within the remit of Bangladesh’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) formulation process. On the one hand, the idea of civil society has been likened to a renaissance and is often considered to be the most likely route out of development ‘problems’, particularly in the poor countries. Dominant development discourses have scripted the liberal interpretation of civil society as the only game in town. However, on the other hand, as a consequence of growing criticism on the failure of top-down development approach in the late-1960s, and throughout most of the 1970s, there was a sudden upsurge of interest that ordinary citizens might have a part to play in the development process. A generalized consensus took shape that people’s participation in projects is an important component of development programmes and a means to their success and hence participation has turned out to be a ‘new paradigm’ of development. The PRSP framework, that precepts a romantic marriage between civil society and participation, was foisted by two major International Financial Institutions (IFIs) as a condition of further debt and other development assistance for all poor countries. Participation from ‘all relevant stakeholders’ including civil society was trumpeted as a significant policy shift from previous development prescriptions of these IFIs. This article presents observation from 36 semi-structured interviews with civil society representatives including key people who prepared and finalized the PRSP of Bangladesh and the review of six daily national papers (September 2004 to October 2005). This piece argues that, in theory, participation can be manifested as the ‘key’ for development, but in practice, participation can be an iron hand in a velvet glove. Participation can turn into parroting and often resemble similar views that are ‘expected’ and required to validate external framework. Moreover, through such process of mainstreaming participation, an interest group within the civil society can emerge who has the technical knack of producing development policy according to donor recipe with some flavour of participation. This work therefore asks whether civil society and participation should be used as technologies of social control or as anti-hegemonic and anti-clientelistic forces in order to empowering marginalized members of the society.

Beyond ‘state pimpage’: insights from local leaders on HIV/AIDS prevention in the Dominican tourism industry

The literature on tourism in the Caribbean and elsewhere suggests that state actors are complicit with multinational tourism interests, acting as handmaidens of capital in developing nations. This has been referred to as ‘state pimpage’, the literal or metaphorical sale of local erotic resources for global exploitation. In the public health literature on HIV/AIDS, analysts have suggested that complicit states neglect HIV prevention services due to the presumed negative effects of explicitly addressing the HIV epidemic on the tourism industry, placing the government in direct opposition to local health initiatives. This article interrogates the theoretical assumptions behind the notion of state pimpage through in-depth interviews with policy makers in the Dominican Republic, including civil society, public sector, and private tourism representatives. While state pimpage presumes parity between global capitalist interests and state actions, our participants articulated three aspects of local experience that are inconsistent with this assumption: (1) states are relatively disempowered to impose standards due to the profit motive of tourism industries; (2) those with decision-making power in the tourism industry are disconnected from local health interests; and (3) states are relatively less capable of enacting health services in contrast to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), yet NGOs have little large-scale regulatory power. We suggest that while ‘state pimpage’ provides a starting point for understanding the complicity of certain state actors in global industries, it does not reflect the perceptions of local policy makers and may undercut the kinds of multisectoral action required for positive change in health and prevention services.

The ECI as a Democratic Innovation: Analysing its Ability to Promote Inclusion, Empowerment and Responsiveness in European Civil Society

This article analyses the effect of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) in the EU's participatory model. It considers first its origins in the process of participation of civil society in the Convention to point out the importance of considering the debates on participation in the last decade. It then builds on the expectations of other papers in this special issue that the main users of the ECI will be a constituency of civil society organisations so far weakly involved in European affairs and focuses mainly on the ECI's innovative effects on the relations between the European institutions and organised civil society. The article analyses whether the ECI may make the EU participatory model more inclusive, empowering and more oriented towards the public sphere than it has been so far. It finds that the ECI may make European civil society more diverse, representative and oriented to the public sphere, although it is not clear that the initiative grants them a more salient role. In this sense the financial, organisational and political costs associated to the initiative seem more important than the potential gains it offers, although it is also expected that the ECI will become a sufficiently salient tool in political terms to be neglected by the EU institutions.

ASEAN and Environmental Governance: Strategies of Regionalism in Southeast Asia

Most studies of regionalism in Southeast Asia pay little attention to environmental concerns as part of the region's empirical dynamic. In contrast, this article examines the ways in which governments have come to “govern” environmental issues at a regional scale under the auspices of ASEAN, against the backdrop of debates about the political topography of Southeast Asian regionalism. The framework adopted here brings together analyses of the public space of formal regional governance arrangements, the inter-subjective space of regional identity building, and the private space of regional social practices. Underpinning this is the question of whether moves to supposedly “flatter” forms of regional governance have been accompanied by for more democratic or participatory forms of regionalism. I conclude that regional environmental structures under ASEAN are more akin to “invited spaces” and have generally failed to offer effective channels of communication for, or democratic representation of, a wider range of stakeholders, including civil society groups and local communities.

Civil Society Inclusion in Global Governance: Insights from Climate Politics

A somewhat unique feature of the global climate negotiations is that most governments allow representatives of civil society organizations to be part of their national delegation. It remains unclear, however, why states grant this access in the first place. While there are likely to be benefits from formally including civil society, there are also substantial costs stemming from constraints on sovereignty. In light of this tradeoff, the paper argues for a ‘contagion’ effect in order to explain this phenomenon. States, which are more central to the broader network of global governance, are more likely to be informed of and influenced by other states’ actions and policies toward civil society. In turn, more central governments are likely to include civil society actors if their counterparts do so as well. This argument is tested with data on the participation of civil society organizations in national delegations to global climate negotiations between 1995 and 2005. To further uncover the underlying mechanisms, the paper also provides an analysis of survey data collected at the recent UNFCCC negotiations in Durban in 2011.

El control del tabaco, estrategia esencial para reducir las enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles

Nearly two-thirds of all deaths globally are caused by noncommunicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes). The UN General Assembly approved Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of non communicable diseases and recommending five priority interventions: 1. Tobacco control (the most urgent and immediate), 2. Salt reduction, 3. Improved diet and physical activity, 4 Reduction of hazardous alcohol intake, 5. Access to essential drugs and technologies. The Assembly recognizes the fundamental conflict of interest between tobacco industry and public health and recommends the implementation of WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and MPOWER strategies. The full implementation of FCTC could prevent 5.5 Million of death in the next 10 years in low and middle income countries. All these recommendations are feasible to implement considering the willingness of Governments, the infrastructure available, the capacity building existing and the participation of all sectors, including civil society and the community as a whole.

Civil Society Participation and EU Children's Rights Policy

Since 2006, the European Commission has embraced the promotion of children's rights inside and outside the Union by including civil society organizations in the European Union's (EU) policy processes. This article critically examines the impact of the participation of child rights’ organizations on the policy processes regarding the EU child rights agenda. It is argued that a ‘bifurcated’ pattern of civil society engagement has emerged in relation to EU internal and external policy dimensions: While Commission external services developed a structured and inclusive relationship with children's organizations, Directorate General Justice, on the other hand, has ended up disengaging the same stakeholders. It is argued that the ‘bifurcated’ pattern of civil society engagement entailed the adoption of divergent policy frames on children's rights at the Commission level and limited the Europeanization effects at the domestic level. Last but not least, the fallout of civil society stakeholders regarding EU internal policy has undermined the Commission's capacity to translate the abstract principles contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into concrete measures that would really make a difference on the ground to children's lives.

China's evolving AIDS policy: the influence of global norms and transnational non-governmental organizations

China is moving towards greater rule of law and more accountable governance, including civil society participation. China's AIDS response has moved from denial to pragmatic policy. This change has come both through global influence and domestic pressure and led to adoption of many international norms for prevention, treatment, and care, sometimes in conflict with cultural attitudes and political positions. Connections between China's AIDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and transnational civil society organizations have contributed to transfer of new norms and approaches. Policies on sex worker rights, NGOs’ role in governance, legal protection from discrimination, compensation for some infected by medical procedures, and intellectual property rights for essential medicines have begun to change. Advocacy and expert input from domestic NGOs connected to global groups have played a role. This paper argues that these soft power processes accompanying globalization are creating inroads even in China regarding universal human rights and protection of citizen's interests.

Opening the Doors to the WTO Dispute Settlement: State Preferences on NGO Access as Amici

Abstract: Greater access and inclusion of civil society is a possible means of increasing participation in international governing processes and thus enhancing the democratic legitimacy of global governance. Yet, opening the doors of an international organization to civil society is often controversial. At the core of such controversies are costs and benefits that may arise from the inclusion of civil society. The aim of this article is to explore the opening of international organizations’ doors to civil society actors, emphasizing state’s preferences. To explore state preferences on civil society’s access, this article looks at the WTO dispute settlement process and amici submissions, and asks: what factors shape states’ preferences to allow civil society actors access? Drawing from a unique dataset on state preferences on amici submissions to the WTO’s dispute settlement process, I argue that state preferences are shaped by the capacity to manage costs of civil society access.

Associations of Immigrants in the Third Sector in Andalucía: Governance and Networking Issues

This article presents the findings of a research project on the internal and external governance of associations of immigrants in Andalucia, Spain. It is divided into three descriptive, interpretative parts. The first lists and analyzes the sociocultural motives behind initiatives for the formation of associations of immigrants, including initiatives related with the transnational context, initiatives stemming from a sense of solidarity and altruism, and initiatives arising from the need to coexist with and become integrated into the host society. The second part of the article focuses on the types of activities such associations organize, their resources and their strategic management practices. The third part looks at the ways in which associations are connected with the third sector in Andalucia, with particular reference to two dimensions of the issue, inter-association relationships and community participation. The findings throw some light on the accountability, institutional support, and networking needs of associations of immigrants. A series of suggestions is also presented concerning points generally linked with the concept of associative governance, such as good management practices and the concept of participatory governance as mechanisms for including civil society in policy and program design.

A human rights-based approach: A gate to development of African women's land rights?

The global competition for African land is at a historical peak. Local effects of large-scale land acquisitions depend on multiple factors, but women's rights and livelihoods are generally very fragile due to historical and contemporary injustices. Good land governance is important for turning the land acquisitions into equal and equitable development opportunities. The human rights-based approach promotes good governance by adding strength and legal substance to the principles of participation and inclusion, openness and transparency, accountability and the rule of law, and equality and nondiscrimination. By empowering rights-holders and enhancing duty-bearers' capacity, international development cooperation can lead to wider and more gender-balanced inclusion of civil society in negotiations of large-scale land acquisitions and greater adherence of duty-bearers to the rule of law. This is especially important in African countries with large amounts of land and weak legal and institutional frameworks to protect rights, especially those of women.

Anchoring the Peace: Civil Society Actors in Peace Accords and Durable Peace

Is peace more likely to prevail when the peace accord includes civil society actors such as religious groups, women's organizations, and human rights groups? This is the first statistical study that explores this issue. The article develops key claims in previous research regarding the role of civil society actors and durable peace, and proposes a set of hypotheses that focus on legitimacy in this process. The hypotheses are examined by employing unique data on the inclusion of civil society actors in all peace agreements in the post–Cold War period. The statistical analysis shows that inclusion of civil society actors in the peace settlement increases the durability of peace. The results further demonstrate that peace accords with involvement from civil society actors and political parties in combination are more likely to see peace prevail. The findings also suggest that inclusion of civil society has a particularly profound effect on the prospects for overall peace in nondemocratic societies.

Civil Society Organizations in Latin America as a Democratic Anchor for Long-Term Social Development

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the “social capital” theories that link civil society and democracy. Using data from the Civil Society Index for 44 countries, we find that not only this relationship exists, but that civil society is also positively correlated with human development. Using a simple regression analysis, we discover that democracy has an impact on human development through two essential components of civil society. Therefore, we conclude that all three are part of a unified system where strengthening one reinforces the other two. In addition to these findings, we also investigate the current state of civil society in Latin America and whether it shares common characteristics among its countries. We find evidence that organized civil society in this region is underdeveloped and that its countries are very diverse in their civil development. Thus, we conclude that-even if developing a more professional and democratic civil society could lead to better human outcomes- we will not find single recipes to achieve this vital goal. For this reason, we finish the paper focusing on the case of Mexico to highlight how the analysis of local information can provide some early suggestions on how to improve civil society there. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of the current conditions of civil society in Mexico, we conclude that lack of trust, lack of diversity, and a small government support are their main deterrents. To overcome these barriers, we propose five potential solutions: (1) targeted accountability, (2) inclusion of civil society in the national curriculum, (3) limit on government support per organization, (4) government credit risk sharing, and (5) professionalization programs.

Women, Peace, Security, and the National Action Plans

Twenty criteria are used to analyze sixteen national action plans that focus on women, peace, and security. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, a base for the national plans, highlights the terrible consequences of violent conflict on women and girls as well as the important role of women in all peacebuilding processes. Suggestions are made for those developing or revising plans and include addressing the relevant points from four UN Security Council resolutions (1325, 1820, 1888, and 1889); specifying all processes and timelines; and including civil society participation in all phases of a plan's development; implementation, and assessment.

Civil society: a revived mantra in the development discourse

There is an assumption that the inclusion of civil society in governance processes promotes democratic performance and contributes to ‘good governance’, in the sense of pluralism, accountability and transparency. This paper refers to the governance process of the water utility in Accra involving the private sector, and examines the validity of the assumed roles regarding the inclusion of civil society in the governance process. For the purposes of this study, civil society is defined as ‘non-state and non-market organisations that can, or have the potential to, champion democratic governance reforms and act as agents for political and socio-economic change’. Contrary to assumptions made about the inclusion of civil society, the analysis herein shows that the inclusion of civil groups in the governance process of the water utility led to hostile and undemocratic processes and to weak indicators of ‘good governance’. The main concern of the key actors was centred on how to build consensus around the privatisation programme of the water utility. ‘Managing consensus’, however, is an inappropriate planning measure. It is argued here that the focus should rather be on how to design governance structures and arrangements, mobilised by legitimate and committed political leadership, to build and enhance the capacity of governance processes.

Revisiting the Role of the President during Caretaker Government in Ensuring Credible Free Elections in Bangladesh

The holding of free, fair, and credible elections in Bangladesh remains a big challenge. In an effort to ensure credible, free and fair elections, the Constitution was amended, known as the Constitution (Thirteenth Amendment) Act 1996. This provided some extraordinary powers to the titular President without mechanisms of proper accountability. This paper critically analyses the provisions of this amendment, particularly the role of the President. We argue that this innovation in holding election is itself unconstitutional. In light of the experiences from the events leading to the declaration of emergency, the role of the President during the caretaker mode needs to be re-examined. It argues that formal provisions of the constitution through important but successful enforcement of constitutional provisions, including holding free and fair elections, largely depends on political culture and the willingness of the political parties, including civil society, to abide by those formal provisions along with their spirit.