By Ziad Abdel Samad and Kinda Mohamadieh
I. Formation of Conceptions behind Global Civil Society
With the rise of the debates and studies around global civil society, there have been certain basic assumptions used for the explanation of this phenomenon which is becoming influential but also controversial. Many thoughts and positions tend to describe the formation, the role, and the impact of this global force. These efforts aim at exploring the potential of this force as a tool for mass mobilization and awareness, a space for exchange and elaboration of alternatives, and an agent for democratic change.
Among other definitions, ‘global civil society is claimed to be the international transnational analogue of that which is called civil society in a settled domestic democratic society’ . Civil society institutions that are part of the social fabric of such a society are able to play the role of single-minded advocates- organizations with an axe to grind and a social mission to accomplish.
In this line of thought, it can be noted that the progress of democratic systems and spaces has definitely took part in enhancing the role of civil society organizations. The flourishing of the global civil society concept and its realization is often linked to the democratization of the international system. Indeed, in the Global Civil Society report 2004/5, Anderson and Reiff went on to challenge the whole ideological rhetoric surrounding global civil society based on the claim that global civil society is stuck in a system that lacks democratic spaces.
In addition, one of the main discourses explaining global civil society is the rise of processes of economic globalization with all its institutions, legislations, and transnational business bodies. In this context, global civil society is seen as a rising force to protect the rights and interests of the world’s peoples against the narrow interests of the international business community. It is worth noting that civil society has taken on different roles and types of mobilizations in this area. Protests and mass mobilization is the most visible strategy, especially when the street protests in Seattle and other cities contributed to the collapse of the multilateral negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO). But spaces for civil society participation are becoming increasingly available in the international institutions, events, and meetings. Civil society groups are increasingly taking on a consultative role with international institutions and are becoming more capable of addressing the details of highly complicated negotiations schemes, and even presenting and advising governments on alternative scenarios. The challenges remain in how to make these spaces as opportunities to influence economic globalization.
In this context, global democratic governance is one of the main objectives and struggles of global civil society. Democratic governance is essential because it is core for enhancing sustainable development, social justice, and global peace. Global civil society actors struggle for democratic governance, which is based on fair and democratic participatory processes in the decision making of global institutions, and the implementation of their strategies, policies, and decisions. Yet democratic participatory processes necessitate equal and independent participation of national governments and civil society actors at the global level. Hence, the global civil society is supposed to support the national civil society to assure the national governments’ participation reflecting national interests.
Based on the above, this article tends to relate some of these assumptions to the reality of civil society organizations in the Arab region, in a quest for explaining where Arab civil society groups stand from taking part in a rising global civil society. This in turn leads to explain some of the complexities and challenges that a regional networking process faced in the Arab region.
Civil society in the Arab region; where does it stand from the emergence of Global Civil Society?
The above chapter sheds the light on some obstacles and missing factors facing the emergence of a prosperous civil society in the Arab region; the latter being an added-value to global civil society processes.
Among these obstacles are the following:
The emergence and predominance of the strong state
The limited space available for the emergence of civil society
The nature of the priority challenges for civil society in the Arab region
The kind of linkages to the international system and global governance dynamics
Structural and contextual complexities with the role of Arab civil society groups
Lack of common platforms
The emergence and predominance of the strong state in a democracy deficit
The democracy deficit in the Arab states have set high limitations on the progress of the role of civil society organizations, which have been struggling for their right to association and existence instead of developing an advocacy role for social change and development of rights-based policies. Moreover, the breakdown of the labor and popular movements, due to the economic decay abundant in the region, deprived all secular and progressive trends of the broad social support needed to construct vibrant and effective civil societies . This has contributed to the isolation of groups in the region from processes at the international level.
It is worth noting that states in the Arab region are the result of a struggle against the colonial system which replaced the Ottoman Empire after World War I (WWI). This struggle took place during the period between WWI and WWII, leading to the creation of several independent states. This process was paralleled by the emergence of the new state of Israel. This reality that has caused instability in the region as a whole has had negative consequences. Indeed, instead of launching the efforts to empower the newly emerging nation states and invest in development, and social and economic justice, the main agenda of these emerging states was the national liberation as “the mission” to end the occupation in Palestine. Accordingly, there was justification for the rule of “the strong state”; this situation led to the emergence of one-party regimes, closer to be totalitarian and dictatorships, where the militarization of the state and security in its very narrow understanding were the dominating aspects.
These emerging states largely restricted the role of local societies and forbid the emergence of independent civil society institutions, leading to limitations on forms of democratic participation. It is worth noting that, to a certain extent, Arab societies supported these regimes with the assumption that this was the way to achieve the people’s aspirations for economic growth, development and national liberation. Yet, the more the prevalent model of the Arab states failed in meeting the challenges - whether in accomplishing national liberation by ending the occupation of Palestine, or in achieving economic and social justice and development - the more they tended to limit freedoms and restrict democracy. (This was the case in several countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen)
Where democracy lacks, there is a need for a more active role of civil society in the struggle to open more space for participation, change and respect of diversity and human rights. Consequently, the lack of democracy per se is an important agenda for the civil society to struggle against. Furthermore, the struggle for democracy encompasses a wider agenda including social and economic along with political and cultural challenges. Claiming space for participation brings along the test for presenting alternative visions and perspectives for change. This situation challenges civil society in the elaboration of alternatives or at least features for alternative policies and strategies.
Moreover, the lack of democratic practices in Arab societies can be linked to the threats to national identity, deriving from:
On the one hand, foreign occupation in Palestine and parts of other countries such as Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza in 1967; and the lack of security due to the fear from the Israeli expansionist tendencies reflected in the willingness to establish the “Greater Israel in the Middle East”
On the other hand, the nationalistic tendencies that called to over-pass the belonging of a nation-state for a wider pan-Arab belonging across the region
These two factors constituted a permanent feeling of threat to national security and national sovereignty in the Arab states.
When analyzing the state of democracy in the region, it is also important to take into consideration the rise of “Islam as a solution”. Establishing Islamic regimes was denounced by the ruling elites and the popular mass due to the mistrust in the nature of the Islamic movements (Political Islam) and their objectives in the region. Consequently Islam and democracy are seen as two antagonistic paradigms.
All of the above mentioned factors can also explain why the space for tolerance and respect for differences and diversity remains highly limited and tension-full, while clashes and even civil wars are prevalent in many Arab countries.
Space for the emergence of civil society
The theories of global civil society assume that civil society becomes the advocate for the people of the world in the time when transnational forces, whether economic or other, are taking advantage of the current erosion of national sovereignty and while global governance processes are still weak . This approach assumes availability of space for civil society’s role to rise while there is lack of state power on certain policy-making areas. However, in most of the Arab region, the role of the state has been dominating the policy-making scene and the issues behind sovereignty have been used at its worst , often exploited to protect regimes that oppress their own people.
Earlier, the link between the tendency towards strengthening the power of the state and limiting the spaces for freedom and democracy was highlighted. Yet, empowering the state in the Arab region became a way to protect the narrow interests of the ruling elites instead of achieving the goals of sustainable development and social justice. The main agenda of these elites became their own safety and security instead of national security. This was always paralleled with a strong repression over civil society. In this context, the prevailing stream among civil society remained accommodating -and not challenging- the regimes in their struggle against foreign threats and those deriving from the emergence of religious tendencies, more specifically the Islamic movements.
Consequently, the space available for civil society organizations in the Arab region is questioned; are civil society groups proactive in enhancing and gaining more space and influence in their societies or are they simply operating in the spaces made available to them by national governments? In light of this, are civil society groups moving away from mechanisms of enhancing democracy and democratic governance through linking up to citizenry while becoming an elitist force that is more accommodating to the states’ agenda than fighting for the priorities and justice of local communities?
Moreover, national sovereignty as it is understood by the ruling regimes in the Arab region, led governments to accuse civil society organizations benefiting from foreign financial support of threatening national sovereignty. In this regard, the dominance of faith-based donations mainly directed to charitable programs and organizations weakened them and forced them to look for financial support and aid from foreign donors; the lack of grants provided by the public institutions to civil society groups is also a reason that contributed to their weakness.
It is worth noting that weak civil society that is reliant on foreign aid will be more exposed to the threats of adopting and implementing the agenda of foreign donors that are not necessarily in compliance with the national agenda and priorities. This might be due to the lack of experience and knowledge about local sensitivities, traditions and realities. The danger around civil society organizations, from Southern and former communist-ruled countries, becoming monopolized by western-styled and western-funded NGOs have been debated in several articles . However, an aware and capable civil society empowered by a clear vision and concrete mission, strategies, and policies, with internal good governance, will be able to preserve focus on local priorities and resist any kind of foreign agenda.
Priority challenges for civil society in the Arab region
Arab governments have often tried to keep their people concerned with struggles around sovereignty and identity, while keeping social and economic concerns as a secondary priority. Although these anxieties have been shaping the international system, they have not been a priority to the region as a whole, including both governments and peoples. This is clearly reflected in the reports published by the international institutions, mainly the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program .
Choices facing local civil society organizations became highly antagonistic; they question the identity, in its national, pan-Arab, and even Islamic dimensions. Other related strategic choices in the region include choices regarding the role of the state, the relation between the public and the private sectors in light of the transition from a dominant role of state to an open market economy. In addition there are some queries on the objectives of foreign investments and their contribution to the development process within the condition of the dominant rental and cliental economic model in most of the Arab countries
Moreover, although, transnational economic powers have been invading the region as in other developing countries, civil society organizations in the Arab region are still not taking any significant role within the global movement struggling in that regards. Here, the lack of interlink between political, economic, social and cultural agendas in the region, and the dominance of the political discourse within the framework of a weak political movement, contributed to the weakening of the civil society organization’s role
In this context, issues of peace and security remain the central challenges for the Arab civil society organizations. It often dominates other threats that are considered priority issues in other regions and are forming the basic grounds for common fights and missions that bring global civil society together.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is at the core of peace, security, and stability concerns in the region, has become an identity forming issue and a religious challenge. Political motives particularly those related to the Palestinian national struggle provided the main impetus for mobilization in the Arab region of the anti-globalization movement and accordingly of global civil society .
Moreover, the Iraqi problem started to rise as a conflict with a global dimension since the early nineties, with the beginning of the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on the country. Decades of sanctions led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its occupation, which in turn became a source of an internal conflict threatening the stability of the whole region. This case was also another main topic raised by the Arab civil society, reflecting the unfairness, bias, and double standards of the international community when it comes to its role in the region.
In fact, the participation of Arab organizations in the World Social Forums (WSF) is more focused around the Palestinian, and most recently the Iraqi causes, than any other issues; it is the issue they find themselves most concerned with and the easiest for them to relate through with organizations from other regions.
Linkages to the international system and global governance dynamics
People in the region have been frustrated with the current international order and double standards in the implementation of international laws, and see no space or capability in investing towards the change of this system. Accordingly, perceptions of global civil society in the Arab region are influenced by a sense of alienation which is rooted in the Arab relationships with the present international system .
The invasion of Iraq raised another dimension of the problem related to the ability of foreign interference to change the reality in the region. This issue was always a subject of an internal debate among civil society. The challenge deriving from this dilemma was mainly among the need to use the foreign support in order to change powerful regimes controlling societies and the ability to conserve local agendas and priorities.
It is worth noting that the global community has rushed to push initiatives concerning political changes in the region in response to the rise of violent tendencies in several Arab countries, which have been linked to the rise of terrorism globally. However, the main reason for these violent tendencies is directly related to peace and security, the double standards in implementing international laws, and the degraded social and economic realities. The international community interfered through launching the so called “war on terror” as a strategic military choice, marginalizing other types of interventions tackling the root causes of terrorism. This in turn strengthened violent tendencies and marginalized the capacities of local societies, particularly civil society organizations and social movements, and limited their potentialities to be effective actors in deterring violence.
Structural and contextual complexities with the rise of the role of civil society groups in the Arab region
Civil society in the Arab region is referred to as the “indigenous sector” (Kandil 1994). The use of this terminology reflects the nature of societal relations, which is dominated by tribal, clan, family and religious ties and links. In several Arab countries, these relations are more important than the relation of the citizen to the state . Besides being a main contributor to the production of “social capital,” which is those bonds of trust and reciprocity that have been found to be critical preconditions for democracy and economic growth , civil society organizations are also a result of a healthy relationship among communities and between them and the state.
In the Arab societies, there is a weakness of the notion of citizenship. Accordingly, we witness that the third sector (civil society) in the region is dominated by welfare and charitable understandings, and is mainly involved in service provision and social assistance and welfare. The focus on services’ provision and the lack of a flourished role in advocacy limits the capacities of civil society organizations in the region to take part in social change and policy-influencing dynamics.
This could explain why many global campaigns often lack contacts and effective counterparts in the Arab region. The sector suffers increasing limitations put on non-governmental organizations, lack of emergence of effective social movements including peasants, students, and women movements, in addition to neutralization of the role of unions which are being co-opted by the government.
Moreover, the inconsistency of development processes and lack of development policies in the Arab countries, in addition to the impact of war and instability on those processes, is a challenge facing the consistency of the work of civil society organizations in the region. In addition, the lack of a democratic culture among civil society organizations themselves, due to structural problems in the emergence, vision, and mission of these groups, forms an obstacle for their civic efforts to bring greater democracy and participation to society at large .
Common issues, debatable conceptions, and lack of common platforms
The rise of global civil society is built around having common interests, fights, goals, and messages in addition to global forums at which leaders develop shared social agendas. Yet in the Arab region, civil society remains weak on creating national and regional common platforms which necessarily limits their ability to take an active part in global platforms.
Among other issues, religion is a dividing issue among civil society in the region. Since the failure of the liberal and socialist projects in the last century in accomplishing independence and establishing the modern nation–state in the Arab region, religious tendencies and movements have risen as alternative providers of change and social justice. Yet, the role of religion and its relation with the state and civil society remain an issue of debate and often divide as mentioned earlier. This is a major debate in the current spheres of civil society institutions and is increasingly creating an obstacle for the emergence of a more coherent and effective role for civil society institutions in the Arab region.
In the new paradigm of global civil society, the religious dimensions are discussed as genuine variables. The fact that religious actors are present in the global arena including the World Social Forum confirms that the ‘religious’ can no longer remain rigidly contrasted with the ‘civil’ .
In the Arab region, religious tendencies are diversified with a wide range of agendas. Some of them recognize the democratic political processes as ways for change. Even though many of them are involved in the political process in several countries of the region, they do not hide their willingness to establish the Islamic system as a solution. Thus, they struggle for the Islamic system which is not seen by many other actors among civil society organizations as a democratic system that could lead to constructive and substantial participation. Moreover, many of these tendencies believe that violence is a way for change, which can explain the military clashes and conflicts in several countries. (Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and most recently in Tunisia)
On the issue of democracy, many nationalistic tendencies, some of them with leftist backgrounds, are not convinced with the western model of democracy that is currently being pushed into the region through various reform initiatives. These stands lead them to reject any form of partnership and coordination with foreign actors. It also leads them to accuse any calls for democracy of holding foreign agendas and supporting foreign interferences. Although these nationalistic forces are secular, however they do not mind partnering with the existing Islamic groups in their struggle against what they refer to as “colonial and hegemonic western tendencies”. It is worth noting that both, Islamic and nationalistic tendencies are the dominant forces among the Arab civil society.
This was obvious throughout the experience and efforts to organize the Arab Social Forum. In fact these efforts were strongly restricted due to the above mentioned antagonistic and complicated tendencies among civil society. Diversity could be a factor of strength and richness to the process of organizing the social forum, yet the lack of experience and mainly the lack of tolerance among Arab civil society organizations was behind the inability to manage these differences. The inability to accept differences and to launch a public debate about strategic choices is a factor preventing the strengthening of social capital and the rise of social movements in many Arab countries.
An important area for future examination would be how different global agents negotiate across the secular-religious divide and how they achieve an overlapping consensus. Together with clashes in cultural understandings and perceptions, these questions and divides are increasing worldwide. However, does this negatively impact the rise of the processes of global civil society or does it strengthen it? Answers to this question could shed light on commonalities and differences among trends of global and Arab civil societies.
Regarding the global level, there is a claim that assumes that civil society organizations in the Arab region lack common interests and threats with international groups, thus causing a limited participation of the former in global civil society dynamics. However, the anti-war movement rallied behind causes that originate from the struggle of people’s of the region, whether in Iraq, Palestine, or Sudan. Considering that, we ought to question whether Arab civil society groups’ role, contribution, and leadership in this movement was limited due to the lack of common interests or due to other structural limitations stemming from the nature of the civil society groups themselves, including their vision, policies, strategies, and work mechanisms used.
This leads to another very important question regarding the relation between resistance, armed struggle, and the anti-war movement. This question is not only shaping the global anti war movement but it is strongly dividing the Arab civil society. It is worth noting in this regard that the resistance against foreign occupation is legitimate and approved as a non-contested right of people to self determination. But the question is what do we understand by foreign occupation? Is the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza considered foreign occupation, but not in the 1948 territories? What concept can be used to justify this reason? Is it the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181; issued in November 29, 1947? Can the Palestinians recognize the State of Israel without being recognized by Israel as an independent and sovereign state themselves? Are the multinational forces in Afghanistan not considered as foreign occupation because their presence was justified by a UN Security Council resolution, which deprive the Afghani people from their right to resist? Isn’t the presence of the American army and its allies in Iraq foreign occupation? Whatever, does the struggle against foreign occupation justify targeting civilians and civil objectives? Does fighting foreign occupation mean targeting all political and economic interests around the world, which explain the 9/11 attacks beside others in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and else where? All these are questions that often divide civil society in the Arab region.
We can conclude that a combination of factors influence the prosperity of civil society in the Arab region as a force that can actively be part in a rising global process ; this includes the lack of democracy, the lack of an adequate legal framework, restrictions imposed by the ruling regimes and the highly centralized systems, in addition to restrictions stemming from cultural and social realities all. Moreover the very low indicators of development, the prevalence of illiteracy, the lack of communication and transportation contributes to the weakening of civil society and lack of progress on developing and empowering its role for change.
The above mentioned challenges highly affect the environment where the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) operates; the following are the main strategies that ANND is undertaking in order to face these challenges and to enable civil society to improve its role and to increase its impact in the regional and global policy making scene?
In the following part of this paper, we will try to go through the role and the activities of ANND in the region and at the global level in trying to respond to some of the challenges explained above.
II. The Experience of ANND; networking in the Arab region
The previous chapter clearly underlined how a combination of factors hinder Arab civil society organizations from joining the rising trends of global civil society, from developing goals, building networks, and proposing strategies for common work among organizations in the Arab region itself. This reality reflects itself in the daily work on any networking initiative that emerges in the region.
Often Arab groups lack a coherent and organized participation in international affairs and summits; this can be obviously the result of the following three reasons:
- First, the numbers of participants are limited; this is due to many factors including limited financial capacities as well as the limited interests and lack of experience and knowledge
- Second, competition often deters coordination among them, which is due to the antagonistic positions on several issues in addition to the lack of tolerance and the lack of democratic culture and practices
- Third, their positions remain on the passive front with no clear, targeted, and aggressive change agenda.
This can also be clearly reflected in the limited numbers of Arab organizations with consultative status with international agencies, such as the United Nations Economic and Social Commission among others.
In fact, the initiative behind the establishment of the ANND was taken in light of the preparations for the 1995 Summit on Social Development. Given the lack of coordination among Arab groups participating in the Summit, and the inability to take active stands in regards to the agenda of the Summit, a group of Lebanese and Tunisian organizations initiated a coordination process that ended up with a consensus on the need for a consistent coordination body to emerge in the region.
ANND is a regional network that aims at letting the voice of Arab civil society organizations be heard at the international foras, enhancing mobilization of civil society both regionally and internationally, thus presenting more space for coalition-building and coordination, such as is the case through the WSF and the Euro-Mediterranean Civil Forum. Moreover, there has been increasing attention towards the Arab region in general, specifically concerning issues of democracy and reforms, human rights including the rights of women, the participation of civil society, and solidarity campaigns especially with Iraq and Palestine. These create additional spaces for civil society to influence policy-making. In this context, ANND perceives that the increase of spaces with the rise of global civil society could offer a brilliant opportunity for the voicing of Arab protests against injustices seen to be inflicted upon the Arab region by the present international system .
ANND thus used such opportunities to empower and enhance the participation of Arab civil society organizations. This was not only by supporting their participation in global foras, but also in bringing global civil society to the region through organizing various kinds of events and mobilizations. For example, ANND organized the Global Forum on Trade and Globalizaton in 2001 in preparation for the fourth WTO Ministerial Meeting held in Doha in 2001, the General Assembly of the Social Watch in 2003, and the Global Meeting of the Global Call to Action against Poverty in 2006. In addition, ANND supported the organization of the Moroccan Social Forum in Rabat, Morocco in 2004.
All these events and occasions contributed to enhancing and empowering the participation of civil society organizations from the Arab region in the global arena.
III. Cases of ANND’s involvements at the global level
ANND is benefiting from its active participation in global networks, which opens opportunities to exchange experiences and to expand the learning processes. ANND is a proactive member of several international networks, where it aims at shedding the light and bringing the attention to the challenges in the Arab region, with a particular focus on the role of civil society and the difficulties it faces.
ANND is strategically involved in Social Watch, a global network advocating for issues related to development and monitoring the implementation of the UN commitments and goals. ANND actively contributes to the yearly report issued by Social Watch, both at the national and global levels. ANND also translates the global report into Arabic in order to make the information available and to encourage civil society groups to use it as a tool for advocacy campaigns. The process of preparing national reports and the dissemination of the global report in the different countries of the region is a tool to engage additional groups and to raise their awareness on developmental issues and challenges.
ANND is also a member of Civicus; World Alliance for Citizen’s Participation, which contributes to the empowerment of civil society by working on the Civil Society Index and the Civil Society Watch Report. ANND sees in these programs important tools to strengthen Arab civil society and support their struggle for their rights and freedom. Enhancing the participation of additional Arab groups in the world assemblies organized by Civicus is another strategy adopted by ANND in order to strengthen the global engagement of the Arab civil society.
The WSF is another space where ANND carries the challenges of the Arab region and Arab civil society, and shares it with other partners and colleagues from around the world. The WSF can be also a forum for mobilizing more solidarity and a very important learning process to bring along knowledge and sharing of experiences.
As mentioned above, ANND succeeded in organizing a Global Forum on Globalization and Trade in 2001, with the support of the Our World Is Not for Sale, which is a global network that challenges trade and investment paradigms that threatens the interests of the people and the environment. This Forum contributed to enhance the debate around the World Trade Organization and other trade agreements in the Arab region and increased the engagement of civil society organizations with this highly important and challenging topic. ANND is still active in this network and tries to create an interactive debate on trade issues among Arab civil society in a process of advocacy and lobbying on the Arab governments.
ANND acts as a regional focal point for the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP). It succeeded to mobilize civil society in several countries and supported the establishment of national coalitions actively working on issues related to poverty eradication strategies. Two GCAP regional meetings (May 2005 in Cairo and August 2006 in Khartoum) and another global meeting (March 2006 in Beirut) were organized by ANND. These meetings contributed to enhancing the participation of organizations in the Call, and highlighted the potential power of the civil society in the Arab region.
An additional role of ANND is to participate in the Millennium Campaign by promoting the Millennium Development Goals and involving Arab civil society groups in the efforts to monitor and push for the achievement of these goals. Civil society in the Arab region is a potential partner to meet the challenges of development, but this needs the empowerment of civil society organizations and the elaboration of a civil society agenda. That’s what ANND is trying to contribute to work on through the participation in the GCAP and the Millennium Campaign.
The Euro-Mediterranean NGO Platform is another fora where ANND contributed to enhance and expand the participation of civil society organizations from several Arab countries. There is now an ongoing active debate tackling the New European Neighborhood Policy through the Euro-med NGO platforms that have been initiated in various countries of the Mediterranean. The three dimensions of Barcelona process; (1) political (peace and security and democracy and human rights), (2) economic (bilateral agreements and free trade zone) and (3) cultural (cultural exchange and dialogue) make of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership an opportunity for the Arab civil society, particularly in the involved country, to work on a comprehensive agenda in relation to the interlink among these three challenging dimensions. ANND thus sees the Euro-Mediterranean Civil Platform as a space for a real exchange among societies on concrete issues and topics. Through its engagement in the platform, ANND aims at promoting the participation of the Arab civil society and facilitate shaping the future of the partnership.
ANND consistently works on developing an interactive website that can contribute to providing Arab civil society with the needed resources and information. A website that facilitates the exchange of ideas and experiences among various civil society groups within and outside the region. ANND perceives a necessity in using all available resources, including information and communication technologies, to improve the performance and productivity of civil society. This can help the latter to enrich its experience and improve the outreach to groups with minimum time and efforts. It also contributes to elaborating a strategy for the use of information and communication technologies for the purposes of development.
IV. Analyzing the obstacles: Where do they lie?
The lack of national policies in many areas in the first place and the lack of trust in the ability to affect policies due to undemocratic political systems and regimes lead civil society organizations in the Arab region to de-trust advocacy and policy-oriented work and invest in direct service provision where outcomes tend to be more tangible on the quantitative side.
On the other hand, there is a strong polarization of perspectives on key issues within the Arab societies and especially concerning issues of reform and democratization as well as the role of religion. Yet, an emerging paradox is evident with the accusations to local civil society groups of holding foreign agendas when they struggle for more space for an effective political participation, and they advocate reforms and human rights. Democracy and human rights are seen by some civil society groups as a product of globalization and therefore are rejected. Accordingly, the severe opposition in perspectives on these issues, especially the factor of foreign interference and the position from dealing with resistance and occupation, as explained earlier in this paper, increase the division between organizations and limit cooperation and partnerships.
This reality feeds into increasing the artificial space available to civil society mobilization in the region. Not only do states put limitations on the space available to public participation and make it look very formal, but also civil society organizations are often taking positions that do not support an increase in dialogue and negotiations. On the contrary, it put more pressure on democratic debates . This is mainly the result of the mistrust between the state and the society and the fear of civil society organizations from being co-opted and thus loosing their independence and freedom to maneuver.
In many countries, engaging civil society in negotiations and dialogue with the government is highly criticized and seen as a cooption and dominance by the government over the society. In many other countries, the rejection of participation is from both sides, the government wants to set the frames and the rules of the participation, but also the civil society organizations are in turn negatively responding to this participation. This raises another question about the understanding of the role of civil society organizations and the ways of achieving effective engagement leading to positive change.
The main issue in this regard is the need for the elaboration of a clear vision with alternatives. This will be followed by the creation of national coalitions able to conduct internal open debate on various issues and topics leading to the elaboration of an alternative agenda. Then advocacy campaigns and lobbying can be organized using different means and tools, including also negotiations and active participation and engagement.
The main question revolves around the ability of civil society organizations in the Arab region to actually engage in suggesting alternatives, especially when they are faced with so limited space of maneuver and work on the national as well as regional level. In this regards, it is important to see the rise of global civil society as an additional support and space for their causes.
The more internet use and information sharing, in addition to spill-over from issues of the Arab region on the international politics, the more will civil society groups from the region address global linkages of issues they work on and link up with other actors at the global level.
Accordingly, with the realization of new threats as priority areas of work, new trends of work and networking will be emerging. Moreover, the more civil society organizations in the Arab region realize certain international threats as priority over regional and national problems, the more common platforms and strategies will be shared with global civil lead society. In this process, it is important to work towards limiting the tendency for competition while enhancing the culture of partnership, networking, and fostering complementarities.
This interaction between civil society in the Arab region and that at the global level contributes to enlarge the former’s vision on various issues and facilitate the adoption of a more comprehensive approach to face the challenges and the threats facing the region.
V. Conclusion
ANND is aware of the above mentioned objective and subjective challenges that civil society in the Arab countries is facing. Its regional agenda is therefore aiming at empowering civil society and highlighting the need to engage a proactive agenda with a clear perspective for change.
Although reform agendas debated by the Arab governments and adopted by some of the Arab civil society groups, particularly human rights organizations, is more focused on the political reforms, which is important and is definitely a priority, this should not distract civil society organization from working on economic, social and cultural reforms in parallel to the political ones.
Consequently, ANND adopted advocacy around social and economic rights as a main strategy. It is also committed to work on governance issues and the follow-up of the implementation of related declarations and statements issued during the UN summits. ANND focuses on the commitments undertaken by the Arab governments to improve the social and economic conditions of the people of the region.
ANND is aware that free trade policies and agreements affect the ability of governments to implement fair and just development strategies and policies. Accordingly ANND focuses on the social and economic impacts of the trade liberalization policies and various related agreements, particularly those undertaken within the framework of the World Trade Organization, the free trade agreements with the United States, the bilateral agreements with the European Union and the Pan-Arab free trade agreements.
In this context, ANND consistently invests in the creation of national and regional coalitions around specific topics in order to implement advocacy campaigns on the abovementioned priorities. In the quest of strengthening this campaigning, ANND believes there is a necessity to establish civil society resource centers and think tanks with strong global relations and exchange. ANND invests efforts in that direction in order to further contribute to exchanging and engaging with various global experiences and networks.
