Active Citizenship in Central America: Towards a strong public

1
Active Citizenship in Central America Towards a
strong public?

• A review of the DCU Active Citizenship programme.
• Barry Cannon, School of Law and Government, DCU
• INTRAC conference, Amersfoort, the Netherlands,
  3-5 December, 2008

2
Structure of presentation

• Mainstream and alternative perspectives on
  Civil Society in democratisation and development
  (Diamond, 1999 Howell and Pearce, 2001)
• Strong and weak publics (Fraser, 1994)
• Active Citizenship Programme overview three
  pillars
• Capacities
• Research
• Advocacy.
• Conclusions Active Citizenship in Central
  America Towards a strong public?

3
Mainstream perspective on Civil Society
(Diamond, 1999)

• CS intermediary between private sphere and the
  state
• acts as check on state - legitimise and
  strengthen it, but NOT anti-state
• CS stimulates political participation, educates
  citizens for democracy, provides group
  representation and articulation, helps improve
  political system, disseminates information etc.
• mobilizes support for (and neutralising
  resistance to) economic reform policies in
  favour of market (p.248)

4
Mainstream perspective on Civil Society
(Diamond, 1999)

• Overall aim of Civil Society hence is to
• improve liberal democratic model through
  monitoring, reporting, documenting, educating,
  debating and so on but NOT to question it
• make the market-led neoliberal economic model
  work more efficiently thus laying the basis for
  sustainable growth (p.260)

5
Critique of Mainstream perspective (Howell and
Pearce, 2001)

• Individualist
• Civil society is based on associational
  bondswhich reconcile the pursuit of individual
  self-interest with a common or public good
  (ibid 30)
• Emphasis on the defence of the individual against
  the collective, rather than the furtherance of
  the interests of the collective
• Lack of questioning of civil societys
  relationship to market seen as unproblematic
• Ignores power relations within civil society
  homogenises it when societal inequalities are
  reflected in it
• Ignores role of donors and the power they wield
• Sees Civil Society as a means rather than an end
  in itself - reduced to a technical exercise of
  coordination, co-operation, and joint effort,
  depoliticized and neutralized (p.177).

6
Alternative perspective on Civil Society
(Howell and Pearce, 2001)

• Civil society reflects a multiplicity of diverse
  and often diverging voices that share a wish to
  preserve a concern for a common humanity, undo
  the negative aspects of capitalist development,
  and promote forms of economic organisation that
  are environmentally sustainable and socially
  just (p.37)

7
Alternative perspective on Civil Society
(Howell and Pearce, 2001)

• Common Good and collective emphasised as opposed
  to individual
• Inequality, class and social differentiation
  recognised as embedded in CS, frequently
  conflictive rather than harmonious
• CS realm in which dominant values and norms
  contested instead of facilitated, and can act as
  agent for such contestation
• Challenges market driven, corporate controlled
  globalisation, and the inequities reaped through
  private accumulation (p232).

8
Alternative perspective on Civil Society (Cox,
1999)

• CS is the realm in which the existing social
  order is grounded, and it can also be the realm
  in which a new social order can be grounded
  (p.4).
• It is both shaper and shaped, an agent of
  stabilisation and reproduction, and a potential
  agent of transformation (p.5).

9
Weak Publics and Strong Publics (Fraser, 1994)

• Separation of civil society and the state
  promotes weak publicswhose role is to form
  opinion but not to make decisions
• Strong publics- civil society as opinion
  formers and decision makers, self managing
  institutions of different kinds which could
  become sites of direct or quasi-direct democracy
  co-existing with representative forms (p.59)
• Civil society playing a co-equal role alongside
  the state taking active part in re-fashioning
  state and civil society in the context of the
  South, towards a development which ensures
  freedom, diversity and democracy (ibid.).

10
Active Citizenship in Central America Programme
overview

• Two projects
• Active Citizenship in Central America Research
  and Advocacy Project
• Active Citizenship in Central America Building
  Capacities
• Based on
• Irish Aid funded Diploma in NGO Management,
  2001-present with business and administration
  departments in one university each in El
  Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras
• Established Irish Aid funded NGO network in
  region as core partners
• Irish Aid strategic policy of working with Irish
  Universities
• Research project developed by DCU for the
  Advisory Body of Irish Aid, Engagement with Civil
  Society for Poverty Reduction (2007)
• 6 month research period (Jan-June 2006) and I
  year grant to continue existing programme (June
  2006-June 2007)

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Active Citizenship in Central America Project
1 Research and Advocacy Project

• Two main objectives
• To enable the construction of effective, coherent
  civil society pro-poor policy proposals based on
  evidence of key issues affecting the poor,
  through research based activities led by
  universities and,
• To positively influence the adoption of these
  pro-poor policy measures by decision-makers by
  enabling civil society to construct effective
  strategies for action to produce change, through
  the building of more effective CSO networks on a
  national and regional basis.

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Active Citizenship in Central America Research
and Advocacy Project Activities

• Regional workshop for partners in León, Nicaragua
  on 5 and 6 October, 2007
• national committees and regional committee draft
  research agenda basic governance rules and
  procedures.
• First full meeting of Regional Committee, El
  Salvador 23-25 January, 2008
• Results
• Further precision of a research agenda
• Criteria for selection of research and advocacy
  projects
• Delegation of administrative and operative
  responsibilities
• Reordering of budget
• Timetable of activities
• Selection of regional administrator.

13
Active Citizenship in Central America Research
and Advocacy Project Activities

• Call for projects
• Document drawn up to guide the call for research
  and advocacy
• Each country total funding 20,000 20,000
  regional proposal.
• Dissemination Irish Aid networks
• Duration March- April, 2008
• 8 projects selected.

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Active Citizenship in Central America Research
and Advocacy Project Funded projects themes

• Regional
• Women migrant social networks in Central America.
  
• Honduras
• Agro fuels and its impact on right to food in
  Honduras.
• Analysis of Impact of International Cooperation
  in Honduras 1990-2008.
• Nicaragua
• Human Rights of migrants in Nicaragua
• Needs of disabled people to achieve social and
  work integration.
• El Salvador
• Contributing to the construction of womens
  citizenship in El Salvador.
• Characterisation of Pharmaceutical sector in El
  Salvador.
• Reproduction of gendered images by young
  Salvadorans resulting in a higher disposition to
  violence.

15
Active Citizenship in Central America Research
and Advocacy Project

• Achievements
• Various spaces for regional discussion and
  networking developed
• Coordination between universities or research
  units and CS orgs on research
• Funding of 8 research projects with subsequent
  generation of knowledge on key issues for region
• Difficulties
• Process long and cumbersome
• Conflicts of interest in committees, participants
  as/wishing to be recipients
• Lack of clarity on functions of national and
  regional committees
• Waning of interest after initial meetings
• Lack of regional perspective amongst partners.

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Active Citizenship in Central America Building
Capacities Projects

• Objectives
• To facilitate a more effective and informed civil
  society impact on policy-making by supporting the
  development of civil society's leadership
  capacity through the continued provision of
  scholarships for existing NGO Management Diploma.
  
• To facilitate a more effective and informed local
  government impact on national policy making by
  supporting the development of local government
  leadership capacity through the development and
  provision of a Local Government Management
  Diploma.
• To impact more effectively on policy on poverty
  in the participating municipalities through the
  construction of effective, coherent joint civil
  society and local government pro-poor policy
  proposals through joint research based activities
  led by universities and through the development
  and execution of joint municipality/civil society
  lobbying activities based on the evidence
  gathered through that research.
• To encourage the adoption of a regional
  perspective through joint research projects and
  increased networking opportunities for partners.

17
Active Citizenship in Central America Building
Capacities- Activities

• Two inter-related activities
• Continued provision of Diploma in NGO Management.
  
• Consultation between partners on consultancy and
  implementation.
• Some Consultancy report recommendations
• NGO Diploma
• Relate content more to NGO experience
• Cohesion between three countries
• Emphasis on geopolitical context, development
  theory, civil society theory (20) to complement
  technical content (i.e. business and
  administration model) (80)
• Municipalities report
• Course local development philosophy encouraging
  networking and leadership
• Similar mix Content as NGO diploma context,
  democracy theory, development theory etc. plus
  technical content.

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Active Citizenship in Central America Building
Capacities

• Achievements
• Continued provision of NGO diploma
• Increased opportunities for partner networking
• Identification and implementation of consultancy
• Difficulties
• Consultancy not conceived and framed in context
  of previous processes and procedures built up
  since Diplomas inception five years previously
• Dissatisfaction of university partners with
  consultant methodology and consequent reports
• Concentration on consultancy to exclusion of
  other objectives
• Need for period of reappraisal and reorientation
  with partners.

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Conclusions Active Citizenship in Central
America Towards a strong public?

• Global and regional context has changed since
  original conception of project in late 90s/early
  2000
• Globalisation
• Global financial crisis
• Crisis of neoliberalism and changing development
  paradigms
• Central America
• CAFTA-DR where to now in context of Obama
  presidency?
• EU/Central America negotiations
• Migration fall in remittances less emigration
  - increased discontent, possibly violence?
• Central American Civil Society must play part in
  reappraisal of global economic system making
  alternative proposals
• strong public perspective more pertinent

20
Conclusions Active Citizenship in Central
America Towards a strong public?

• Active Citizenship Programme displays both
  mainstream and alternative perspectives of CS
• technical and research/advocacy elements
• Inherited networks rather than created search
  for unified vision
• Active Citizenship Programme must move towards
  promotion of strong public facilitating
• Research to create alternative proposals
• Spaces for discussion and dialogue within
  universities incl classroom and without
• Engagement with policy makers AND with wider
  public esp poor seeking spaces for participation
• Ongoing process need for further dialogue and
  discussion with partners to promote this
  perspective and discuss strategies.

21
Active Citizenship in Central America Towards a
strong public?

• For more information see
• http//www.ciudadania-activa-ca.net/
• Bibliography
• Robert W. Cox, 1999. Civil Society at the turn
  of the millennium prospects for an alternative
  world order, in Review of International Studies
  25, pp.3-28.
• Larry Diamond, 1999. Developing Democracy
  Towards Consolidation Baltimore and London The
  John Hopkins University Press.
• Jude Howell and Jenny Pearce, 2001. Civil Society
  and Development A Critical Exploration Boulder
  and London Lynne Rienner.
• Various internal documentation.