Strengthening Civil Society Organizations in Good Governance Processes - Main Users / Purpose

The procedure described in the method helps to identify civil society organizations and then to strengthen their capacities as well as their role within their communities. The method enables the participating organization to:

• Better articulate and express their constituencies’ interests and lobby on behalf of those interest;
• Better identify their needs in advancing the interests they represent;
• Improve constructive interaction skills within and between levels of local, regional and national political institutions;
• Increase self-confidence;
• More effectively serve in a social control, or watch dog, function;
• Increase community participation in local good governance processes;
• Encourage inclusive and balanced decision making on different levels;
• Better serve as an intermediary between authorities and local population;
• Strengthen their ability to act as a moderator between elected and appointed authorities.

In developing countries and evolving democracies, civil society organizations may be hampered in their activities and impact by a host of constraints, including organizational weaknesses, lack of popular understanding or support of CSOs’ roles in society, apathy, insufficient funding, and obstructionist or overt hostility from various levels of government.

Photo 1: Using new technologies