Last week, I attended a discussion [16] on sectoral approaches to encouraging civil society in countries that may not be amenable to civic participation or criticism. The idea was that civic participation could be encouraged by NGOs and CSOs that focus on the provision of services that governments cannot provide, rather than focus on advocacy or watchdog activities often associated with, but only part of, civil society. If civil society organizations can productively cooperate with governments to tackle socio-economic problems, governments may recognize civil society organizations as partners, rather than enemies, and invite their input. Such an arrangement could create opportunities for expanding the role and influence of the civil society sector in the longer-term.
At IREX, I have worked on two projects that do just that. On a national level, the BOTA Foundation program [17] is working very cooperatively with the government of Kazakhstan and civil society organizations in the areas of child welfare and maternal health. In Moldova, informal citizen groups [18] are working closely with municipal governments to improve their communities in a variety of ways such as school and hospital renovation projects.
However, having recognized that governments and civil society represent but two legs of the development “stool,” the discussion turned to the importance of public-private partnerships, or encouraging private businesses to support the work of civil society. I see this as being a more difficult task.
Although the discussion focused around Eastern Europe, the example of Indonesia was suggested by on of the participants. Prior to joining IREX, I spent two years working with civil society organizations in Indonesia. Indonesia has a quickly emerging economy and a strong tradition of civic participation. Following a cataclysmic crisis in the 90’s, true democracy took hold in Indonesia allowing civil society to grow stronger still. Few in Indonesia today need to be convinced of the relevance of civil society at the local or national level and the country seems ripe for local public-private partnerships [19]. Despite business prosperity and the establishment of public spaces that encourage civic engagement, however, the proliferation of such partnerships has yet to occur in a meaningful way. (An exception to this being responses to frequently occurring natural and man-made disasters.)
If civil society organizations can productively cooperate with businesses to tackle socio-economic problems, it could increase the number of healthy and active producers and consumers. I wonder, then, why have public-private partnerships not taken root in a country that seems so ripe for them? Surely there are many reasons, but their absence in Indonesia must say something about the difficulty of making such partnerships attractive, feasible, and durable at present – regardless of their necessity. The difficulty will be to make local companies realize that it is both their responsibility and in their interest to support the communities to which they provide goods and services.