I’ve worked on civil society [11] development for almost twenty years now. So I’ve seen my fill of inspirational project acronyms and transformative methodologies - each one more synergistic and sustainable than the next: community mobilization, citizen participation, and other grassroots approaches to civil society capacity building. These are methodologies that frame the work of international NGOs like IREX around the world. And don’t misunderstand my lighthearted sarcasm, I believe in these concepts quite deeply and have dedicated myself to them passionately.
At the same time, as we celebrate the United Nations International Year of Youth [12], it’s worth remembering not to get so wrapped up in semantic somersaults to define modules and methodologies that we forget to make a difference. Of all the definitions I’ve seen of civil society, the best came from a recent trip to the Center for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University [13] where young students actively embrace simple self-motivated outwardly-driven initiatives; from a bio-mass generator driven by slaughterhouse refuse to off-grid lighting. Civil society is driven by individual conscience and compassion, not great books or analytical thinking. Those things help of course, but it’s about social responsibility and practical contributions on a personal level.
More often than not, youth take the lead in understanding this concept. While at Santa Clara, I met Bego Gerber [14], a professor who manages a small NGO called Chemists Without Borders that works on alleviating human suffering through the use of proven chemical technologies -- think chemical filters in Bangladesh that purify water of arsenic. Most of the work is done by students as unpaid volunteers, so I asked Bego how he motivated youth to donate their time. And he responded quite candidly that he didn’t. “Youth are just crazy enough to do amazing things for the world just because it sounds interesting and is a good thing to do,” he explained.
To come back to the definition of civil society, the lesson for me is that in the development community we sometimes put the cart before the horse worrying about the institutions that make up a democratic civil society when the important thing is the individual and its drive to contribute to society with compassion and common sense. As long as we focus on that, the sustainable initiatives and institutions that comprise civil society will follow naturally. And judging from recent events around the world, it’ll come from the work of young people….who are just crazy enough to get the point. Thanks for the reminder, Bego.