Addressing guests at the opening of a three-day CIVICUS World Assembly in Canada recently, World Alliance for Citizen Participation Secretary General, Ingrid Srinath, stressed that world-wide civil society was “on the cusp of history” in its impact on democracy.
Civil society in most African countries, especially Zimbabwe, is facing a daily threat from government, with repressive laws and police brutality being used to curtail their participation in leading the democratic struggle, but Srinath said that it was up to civil society representatives to ensure that it would be a positive change and not a slide into irrelevance and highlighted the need for a vibrant civil society sector to tackle global challenges.
“Worldwide outrage at economic injustice combined with loss of faith in institutions, government, business and media, is fuelling mass uprisings from Chile to China,” said Srinath.
“Together with new ways of communicating, connecting and mobilising, these present an unprecedented opportunity for civil society, as the most trusted sector, to build critical mass and proffer alternative models.”
Srinath added that civil society also faced “grave internal and external threats”, as identified in CIVICUS’ recent global state of civil society report.
“There are disconnections between organised and informal civil society, and between espoused and practiced values,” she said, adding that the CIVICUS report also validated the efficacy of networks and coalitions and the threats to both space and resources.
CIVICUS has worked for nearly two decades to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens' freedom of association are threatened and has a vision of a global community of active, engaged citizens committed to the creation of a more just and equitable world.
Post published in: Zimbabwe News