Global civil society faces increasingly severe and existential threats. The tribulations of civil society organisations (CSOs) have been multiplying over the last decade and are currently intensifying at an alarming speed and scale.
Regimes’ tactics now go well beyond a few ad hoc funding restrictions and in many cases menace the whole notion of an independent civic sphere between individual citizens and the state. On top of all this, many western governments are cutting funding to civil society actors around the world; in addition to the headline-grabbing 2025 cuts in United States (US) funding, most European donors are also reducing their political aid.
Against this backdrop, new thinking is needed on how global civil society can be protected. In an era of major-power rivalry, competitive geopolitics, and security primacy, civil society is in danger of getting squeezed – in some countries, almost entirely out of existence.
This report offers what we hope are original ideas for this emerging phase, in which radically different approaches will be needed to ensure that independent civil society is not hounded off the stage of global politics.
Authors
This publication was produced as part of the European Union System for an Enabling Environment for Civil Society (EU SEE) project, led by Hivos. The project is conducted with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
Photo credit: Zabed Hasnain Chowdhury via Reuters Connect
