Assessing and Strengthening Civil Society Worldwide

The CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) is a participatory needs assessment and action planning tool for civil society, used in 60 countries, with the aim of creating a knowledge base and momentum for civil society strengthening initiatives. The CSI programme, revised in 2008 following the first phase of implementation beginning in 2003, is described in this document.

This revision process was based on the findings of end-of-programme evaluations, as well as feedback provided by the participatory evaluations, of the National Coordinating Organisations (NCOs). The revision of the CSI methodological framework was developed in partnership with Heidelberg University, Germany, resulting in a revised toolkit for the 2008-2010 CSI implementation phase.

The CSI is designed to clarify the notion of civil society and strengthen its role in the social and political life of nations, resulting in, for example, good governance, people-centred development, and the fight against corruption. The role of the CIVICUS international secretariat is: initial capacity building, international co-ordination, technical assistance, and quality assurance, while a broad range of stakeholders at the national level is responsible for implementation and producing the reports. "The two main outputs of the CSI remain the Analytical Country Report and the Policy Action Brief. The Analytical Country Reports summarise the CSI implementation process and synthesise the findings in an analytical manner, and are directed at civil society stakeholders. The Policy Action Brief outlines the main CSI findings and highlights the action agenda and policy recommendations to rectify weaknesses and promote strengths. The Policy Action Brief is aimed at policy makers and a broader civil society audience."

The CSI redesign had the following guiding principles:

• "Action-orientation": identify aspects of civil society that can be changed, as well as generate information and knowledge relevant to action-oriented goals.
  
• "CSI implementation must be participatory by design: These participatory processes ensure that desired courses of action and policy are chartered by the stakeholders through a combination of empirical data-gathering and normative assessment. Moreover, the engagement of researchers and practitioners throughout the programme stages helps to break down barriers and allows for a mutually empowering relationship."
• "CSI must remain change-oriented: At the heart of the CSI’s knowledge-action link is the national workshop, which brings together a variety of civil society stakeholders....The intention of the national workshop is twofold. Firstly, it aims to engage stakeholders in a critical discussion of, and reflection on, the results of the CSI initiative, in order to arrive at a common understanding of its current state and major challenges. This is a prerequisite for the second goal, which is namely for participants to use the findings as a basis for the identification of specific strengths and weaknesses, as well as to identify potential areas of improvement for civil society. The national workshop usually culminates in the development of a specific action agenda..."
  
• "CSI must continue putting local partners in the driver’s seat: ...[by] being a collaborative effort between a broad range of stakeholders...."

The CSI programme redefined the concept of civil society as: "The arena, outside of the family, the state, and the market - which is created by individual and collective actions, organisations and institutions to advance shared interests." Its methodology includes building on existing literature, concepts, scales, indicators, and operational tools as much as possible. It seeks to accommodate a variety of theoretical views and cultural variations in understandings of civil society as "a complex arena where diverse and often competing values, ideologies and interests interact and power struggles occur." The indicators for the CSI Framework were chosen based on the following criteria: measurable; unambiguous; cross-checked; empowering; and relevant. The dimensions used for evaluation (called the CSI Diamond) changed from "structure, environment, impact, and values" to "level of organisation, practice of values, Civic engagement, and perception of impact". "External environment" became a recognised influence rather than a civil society dimension.

Page 32 has an implementation flow chart beginning with a national call for interest and including trainings, research and meeting phases, a national workshop, and three outputs: the analytical report, the policy action brief, and the indicator base. The steps in this implementation chart are detailed in the document, and annexes include an indicator scoring matrix beginning on page 42 and a list of implementing countries beginning on page 49.

The document concludes by emphasising the need for data-driven documentation like the CSI, resulting from participatory process and relevant to a variety of audiences, such as civil society practitioners, policy-makers, donors, and academics. "The CSI seeks to contribute to public recognition of civil society as a crucial feature of today’s societies, and more importantly, as the very space for people to deliberate and act together for a more humane, just, peaceful and prosperous world."