Finding Opportunity in Closing Civil Spaces

October 30, 2024

Around the world, civic space is shrinking, and civil society organizations are scrambling to develop responses that help protect the ability of citizens to advocate for their needs. At the 9th International Conference on Shrinking Civic Space in Asia, hosted by Asia Centre in Bangkok, Counterpart conducted a session on strategies for civil society organizations to use in constricted civic spaces. The session explored practical approaches for engaging with governments in shrinking civic spaces, and how civil society leaders and activists can build positive relationships with decision makers and foster collaboration.

Two Counterpart partners shared their experiences on helping preserve civic space. Flora Menezes, program coordinator for the Judicial Support Monitoring Program in Timor-Leste and Arzak Khan , founder of Innovation for Change Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights South Asia in Pakistan shared stories of resilience and recommendations with the audience that included participants from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand.

Identifying Emerging Trends in Closing Civil Space

Kourtney Pompi , Counterpart senior director of governance, and Sarah Little , a governance and civil society specialist, introduced Counterpart’s framework for measuring civil society resilience and asked the group to assess their own contexts. The framework, currently being finalized in consultation with global stakeholders and community leaders, is intended to provide organizations with practical tools to assess and respond to the challenges posed by closing civic spaces. By integrating real-time insights from CSOs, it seeks to offer a practical, adaptable tool for understanding and responding to shrinking civic spaces.  Once complete, it will provide quick, actionable options for advocates to anticipate and respond to civic space closures, encouraging thinking and working politically to respond to varying contexts.

Participants scored the civic space in their respective countries using the framework criteria. The self-scoring data revealed several significant trends:

• Across all regime types, from democracies to authoritarian systems, participants overwhelmingly rated their civic space as “closing” in critical dimensions such as political, media, and governance. This indicates that civic space is perceived as shrinking across the region, regardless of the formal political structure.
• The political dimension emerged as one of the most restricted, with 13 instances of participants rating their environment as “closing.” This reflects growing political interference and the widespread impact of governmental restrictions on civil society across countries.
• The ideational dimension, which addresses freedom of thought and intellectual exchange, also saw notable closure, with 10 instances of participants rating it “closing.” This reflects increasing suppression of public discourse in the region, impacting activists, academics, and cultural leaders alike.

Recommendations for Civil Society Resilience

During the session, participants generated recommendations for strengthening civil society resilience in these closing environments. They deliberated over the strategies to enhance an organization’s adaptability and advocacy, and then collaboratively prioritized them based on their potential impact and feasibility. The group discussed several recommendations, especially those employing informal methods alongside traditional advocacy.

A consistent theme was the importance of building alliances—both within civil society and with non-traditional partners like government ministries and the diaspora. Participants stressed the need for strategic relationships and cross-sector collaborations, recognizing that collective action across diverse causes can help counter restrictive environments. The group highlighted digital tools as essential for protecting activists and online platforms as useful to consolidate efforts.

Finally, the participants agreed that both strategic litigation and public pressure to reverse restrictive legislation were key activities for long-term resilience. Legal strategies, combined with proactive efforts to shape public opinion through channels such as op-eds offer a multifaceted approach to safeguarding civic space in the face of growing repression.

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