Globally, we are witnessing something of a crisis mentality within civil society. A vivid example emerged in the months before the 2014 International Civil Society Week: CIVICUS and a number of NGOs signed a letter suggesting that the “vision” of human rights embodied in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights “lies in tatters” and that informal movements are beginning to deeply challenge more established NGOs.
Some development experts claim NGOs have strayed too far from the people they are meant to represent. Transnational NGOs have received perhaps the most such criticism in terms of accountability. And some research suggests that weak links between NGOs, local populations and their source of funding lead to worse results—with development aid in particular having a negative impact. As one expert, Fernande Raine, notes, “any organization that depends on a narrow number of donors and does not have a broad base of citizen support risks losing touch with the people whom it is trying to serve.”
Can this crisis turn into an opportunity for civil society? What remedies exist to help NGOs, for example, become more resilient and effective? In an age of discontent among civil society organizations, and of governments increasingly trying to shut down NGOs, doubling down on data about what citizens think, know and experience in terms of human rights is one answer. Public opinion data can be used to help reframe agendas and increase NGOs’ ties with the populations they are meant to serve.
