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The State of Civil Society in Global Governance
Chorus or
cacophony of voices?
Any assumptions that global civil society is homogenous
will not withstand even the most superficial scrutiny. Like any community of people, its
members and organizations vary enormously in terms of age, experience, gender, access to
various resources, and basic interests. There are very little data or basic descriptive
material on international civil society.34 One attempt has been
made to establish data about the international NGO community in relation to the UN system.
In 1994, the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway commissioned a study of
international civil society access to global governance. This study surveyed 500 NGOs that
go to, or wish to go to, international UN conferences, over the period from late 1994 to
March 1995, and was published as a report, Democratic Global Governance: Report of the
1995 Benchmark Survey of NGOs.35 The Benchmark
Survey provides the best snapshot of the demographics and perceptions of the
international NGO community that exists at this time.
The size of the international NGO community changes daily.
A full accounting would include those that are formally connected to the process of
intergovernmental debate, principally those with consultative status with ECOSOC or other
UN Agencies. But it would also have to include a plethora of other NGOs that are
unaccredited and find a way to come to these meetings; and unaccredited and accredited
NGOs that do not come to these meetings but feel they have an international mandate.
Accredited international NGOs that do not come to intergovernmental meetings include, for
example, the Union of International Associations, based in Brussels: "over many years
our own position is basically now one of avoiding any attempt at being heard at such
[international intergovernmental] events".36
In other cases, particularly for poorer grassroots
organizations, non-attendance at international events may be caused by lack of funds, not
lack of interest. An Indian secretary of a grassroots organization, with 9 years
experience with his NGO, got the survey from his donor organization, an ECOSOC-accredited
large international NGO based in the UK. He commented: "Ours is a grassroots
organization. We would love to attend official inter-governmental conferences though we
did not have the opportunity so far". Later, he comments: "Money is the major
constraint for small and grassroots NGOs, though they are very active". This
perspective recurs frequently in other responses from grassroots NGOs. Many of their most
talented members leave to seek higher paying jobs in other sectors.
Despite the appearance of tremendous instability in the
NGO population as a whole, it was interesting that a third of respondents of the Benchmark
Survey were in their forties. Fifteen per cent had international experience from
before the 1980s. A quarter had international experience from 1980-1989, and another
quarter from 1990-1993. This was true of respondents from both developed and developing
countries.37
UN global
conferences
Some women's groups have been involved with the UN system
for decades. At the first World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975, 2,000
government delegates and 6,000 NGO delegates attended. Five years later, 8,000 NGO
delegates went to the 1980 women's conference in Copenhagen. In Nairobi in 1990 there were
11,000. In 1995, Beijing hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women; 40,000 NGO delegates
attended, along with 6,000 governmental delegates. Over the course of four conferences in
20 years, the number of government delegates to the international conferences had merely
tripled while the number of NGOs had increased more than sixfold (see figure 1).
Since 1990, the UN has hosted a number of international
conferences, covering issues such as environment, human health and urban development. Each
conference adopted and applied rules for NGO participation. Within the UN system this has
caused some confusion. NGO consultations are allowed under UN Resolution 1296, which
governs ECOSOC-mandated meetings. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development, for
example, defines nine major groups of NGOs, which include youth, women, industry, labour,
and environment groups, and each has representative status at the CSD. This resolution
does not apply to conferences called by the General Assembly, hence the variety of
accreditation programmes for the global conferences. To compound the problem, arrangements
for accreditation are different in other UN-affiliated bodies as well, such as the World
Health Organization and the International Labour Organization.
Despite the complexity of rules for access, the CSOs have
high hopes for their role in the process. (Otherwise, why would 40,000 women go to
Beijing?) After decades of antipathy towards the UN, there is a renewed interest from CSOs
to get involved. Human rights groups, for example, have asserted themselves in the UN
bodies, most conspicuously at the 1993 UN Conference on Human Rights in Geneva.
New UN
needs from CSOs
In its current form, the UN is unable to carry out all the
tasks given to it by an unstable world. Urbanization, migration, poverty, displacement,
the breakdown of the family and ethnic identity, civil war: these are now endemic in many
parts of the world.38 Economic and communications globalization can bring about major
and enduring social fractures. In addition, the relative authority of the UN has declined
dramatically in relation to finance and trade institutions, such as the World Bank and the
World Trade Organization, and these institutions often do not collaborate closely with the
UN. The UN's financial crisis has exacerbated its problems. The UN is thus in need of
allies both to perform its operational tasks and to increase its legitimacy and status in
the new global power-play. CSOs and NGOs can be those allies.
In this context, it is not surprising to see new
relationships being brokered by the UN and international civil society that can give the
UN more moral authority and political relevance. Former UN Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali acknowledged this relationship in ways that many received with astonishment
because they are so new:
Non-governmental organizations are a basic form
of popular representation in the present-day world. Their participation in international
relations is, in a way, a guarantee of the political legitimacy of those international
organizations. It is therefore not surprising that in a short space of time we have
witnessed the emergence of many new non-governmental organizations.39
This collaboration, however, is changing the roles that
organizations and governments play, such as in the area of humanitarian relief. National
and international humanitarian relief passes with increasing frequency through NGOs. UN
officials acknowledge that they cannot supply relief and undertake peace-keeping
operations without help from outside groups. This is creating a set of complex issues for
all parties: What are the implications of this new relationship between the UN and
service-providing or "operational" NGOs? Are we witnessing a takeover of
national social service functions by NGOs in countries where the state has collapsed? What
are the implications for reconstruction, for democracy and for national sovereignty?40
At the same time that the UN is welcoming NGO access, some
global CSOs increasingly see the relevance of their work in relation to the new
international economic agenda and its institutions. In many places the political decisions
of the state are strongly influenced by economic actors, be they transnational
corporations or international financial institutions and in these areas, CSOs have
little access and very few procedures for participation and influence.
While the UN is the international governance institution
where NGOs have the longest history, the relationship has only blossomed in recent years.
Although the arrangements are still in flux, there is access with active participation and
representation. This history, particularly the recent relationships between the UN and
NGOs, holds lessons for broader questions of how best to integrate NGOs and the interests
they represent into global governance.
25 There is debate about the use of descriptive terms for civil society that this
paper does not try to resolve. The term global CSO is used loosely to describe civil
society organizations that are interested in issues of global governance, development and
democracy. The term NGO is used here mainly in reference to the UN.
26 Stephen Toulmin, The Role of Transnational NGOs in Global Affairs, paper
presented to the conference on The UN and Japan in an Age of Globalization, Peace Research
Institute, International Christian University, Tokyo, November 1994, p. 8.
27 Michael Bratton, Civil Society and Political Transition in Africa,
Institute for Development Research, Working Paper No. 10, Boston, 1994.
28 Antonio Donini, "Bureaucracy and the free spirits: Stagnation and
innovation in the relationship between the UN and NGOs", in Thomas Weiss and Leon
Gordenker (eds.), Non-governmental Organizations, the United Nations and Global
Governance, a special issue of Third World Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1995, pp.
421-439. These papers were originally produced for a conference of the same title held at
York University, 10-11 April, 1995; they have also been published, under the same title,
by Lynne Reinner Publishers, Boulder, 1996.
29 The "big eight" are: CARE; World Vision International; Oxfam; MSF
(Médecins Sans Frontičres); Save the Children Federation; CIDSE (Coopération
Internationale pour le Développement et la Solidarité), the Coalition of Catholic NGOs;
APDOVE (Association of Protestant Development Organizations in Europe); and Eurostep
(Secular European NGOs).
30 UN, Report of the Seminar on the Involvement of Civil Society in the
Follow-up to the Social Summit, Mohonk Mountain House, New York, 22-23 June 1995.
31 UN General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Forty-ninth session,
Substantive Session of 1994, Agenda item 10, Report of the Economic and Social Council,
(report of the open-ended working group on the review of arrangements for consultations
with non-governmental organizations), A/49/215 E/1994/99, 5 July 1994.
32 Jan Wiklund and John Hontelez, "Of NGOs, ECOs and SMOs", LINK 71,
March/April 1996, p. 21.
33 Erskine Childers with Brian Urquart, Renewing the United Nations System,
Dag Hammerskjold Foundation, Sweden, 1994, p. 171.
34 This is one of the major concluding comments of Leon Gordenker and Thomas Weiss
in their article entitled "NGO Participation in the international policy process", the
summary essay in Thomas Weiss and Leon Gordenker (eds.), Non-governmental
Organizations, the United Nations and Global Governance, op. cit., pp. 543-555.
35 Some 350 responses came from NGOs at the NGO Forum at the World Summit for
Social Development, Copenhagen, March 1995. See Benchmark Environmental Consulting and
Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Democratic Global Governance: Report of the 1995
Benchmark Survey of NGOs, Oslo, Norway, September 1996, referred to in this paper as
the Benchmark Survey.
36 Anthony Judge, Assistant Secretary General, Union of International Associations,
letter to Riva Krut/Benchmark Consulting, 25 October 1994.
37 In the Benchmark Survey, demographics of the respondents were sorted
against six indicators, three for the individual and three for the individual's
organization. These six independent variables were based on (1) gender, (2) age, (3) years
of personal experience in the international arena (year of first international
conference), (4) location of the organization (developed country, developing country, or
country in transition), (5) organizational accreditation status (consultative status with
ECOSOC, accredited to another UN system agency but not ECOSOC, not accredited), and (6)
organizational size (see Benchmark Survey, pp. 7-10).
Within the male and female respondent population,
the age range was similar. 40 per cent were over 50 years of age, 33 per cent in their
40s, 25 per cent in their 30s, 12-13 per cent under 30. The ages of respondents did not
differ much between Northern and Southern countries, although there were more older
respondents (over 60) within the Northern than the Southern respondent population.
Respondents from developed and developing countries
both had a large degree of recent experience in participation at international
conferences, though respondents with more prolonged experience (active since before 1980)
come predominantly from Northern countries. Respondents represented organizations of all
sizes, from those smaller than 99 members to those over 10,000 members. A high proportion
(43 per cent) of the non-accredited NGOs had large memberships (over 10,000 members).
Respondents came from some 100 countries and all
major regions. Using the UN geographic definitions, of the 440 respondents to this
question, 54 per cent were from developed countries, 43 per cent from the developing
countries, and 2 per cent from countries in transition. Survey data provide a sufficiently
large sample and geographic distribution from developed and developing country NGOs to
analyse possible differences between their political behaviour and perceptions.
Thirty-eight per cent of respondents had
consultative status with ECOSOC or another UN agency, and 62 per cent were non-accredited
NGOs. Of those surveyed who work for accredited organizations, just under two thirds have
consultative status with ECOSOC, and just over one third with other UN agencies. The
actual proportions of accredited to non-accredited NGOs operating in the international
arena is unknown. Survey data provide a sufficiently large sample and geographic
distribution from both populations to analyse the differences in political behaviour and
perceptions between accredited and non-accredited NGOs. Data also make clear the new
demographics of civil society active at international UN conferences, and the challenge to
the hegemonic position of ECOSOC NGOs there.
38 UNRISD, States of Disarray, op. cit.
39 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, speech to the DPI Annual Conference, United Nations, New
York, September 1995.
40 Antonio Donini, statement at the conference on The Fate of Democracy in an
Age of Globalization, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 15 March 1996; see
also "New tasks for the aiders", The
Economist, 22 June 1996, p. 44.
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