Civil Society Assistance Counterproductive: Undermines Legitimacy

Civil Society Assistance Counterproductive: Undermines Legitimacy

Marina Ottaway & Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment, 2000, Funding Virtue: civil society aid and democracy promotion, eds. M. Ottaway & T. Carothers, p. 15

Another issue highlighted by a number of chapters is the fact that civil society assistance risks undermining the legitimacy of the very organizations it seeks to promote. Al-Sayyid, Christopher Landsberg, Marina Ottaway, and Carlos Basombrio point out that civil society organizations that accept donor support often come under suspicion or are seen as less legitimate and authentic than organizations that receive no external support. But such support can also play a critical role, as Basombrio and Landsberg argue, when government repression closes the political space and threatens the survival of independent organizations. Many of the studies also show that donors confront a challenge in adapting to the changing requirements of civil society as political circumstances change—both Eastern Europe and Africa provide interesting examples.
U.S. CIVIL SOCIETY SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL AND OTHER MIDEAST COUNTRIES COUNTERPRODUCTIVE – UNDERMINES LEGITIMACY OF ORGANIZATIONS

Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid, Professor Cairo University, 2000, Funding Virtue: civil society aid and democracy promotion, eds. M. Ottaway & T. Carothers, p. 69-70

In fact, it would be unwise to ask Western donors, governmental and nongovernmental, to do more to help the embryonic civil society in Arab countries. It is doubtful the donors have the will to do more, so long as the rise of civil society is associated with a democratization process that could bring in governments less friendly to the West than those now in power. Furthermore, Arab countries do not believe that the West, and in particular the United States, is truly committed to democracy or to the legitimate interests of Arab countries. Washington’s continued support of Israel, its disregard of the suffering of the Iraqi people, and its lukewarm response to Turkish incursions in Iraqi territory do not promote a positive image in the region. Large segments of the population in Arab countries, as well as most of the region’s governments, are suspicious of any kind of external assistance provided to groups viewed as belonging to the opposition, which is the case for active civil society organizations in countries like Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia. Nationalist and Islamist press campaigns against foreign sponsorship of social science research in Egypt is one of the latest manifestations of the profound mistrust of Western aid for any civil society organizations. Under these circumstances, increased support by Western donors would serve only to discredit civil society organizations in the eyes of ordinary Egyptians.

--Civil Society Assistance Turns- Hurts Civil Society Organizations

Frontline Turns: US Aid Hurts Civil Society

Marina Ottaway & Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment, 2000, Funding Virtue: civil society aid and democracy promotion, eds. M. Ottaway & T. Carothers, p. 15

Another issue highlighted by a number of chapters is the fact that civil society assistance risks undermining the legitimacy of the very organizations it seeks to promote. Al-Sayyid, Christopher Landsberg, Marina Ottaway, and Carlos Basombrio point out that civil society organizations that accept donor support often come under suspicion or are seen as less legitimate and authentic than organizations that receive no external support. But such support can also play a critical role, as Basombrio and Landsberg argue, when government repression closes the political space and threatens the survival of independent organizations. Many of the studies also show that donors confront a challenge in adapting to the changing requirements of civil society as political circumstances change—both Eastern Europe and Africa provide interesting examples.
U.S. AID DISTORTS WORK OF CIVIL SOCIETY TO OUR AGENDA – SUCH AS THE ENVIRONMENT AND WOMEN’S ISSUES

Amy Hawthorne, Carnegie Endowment, 2005, Unchartered Journey: promoting democracy in the middle east, eds. T. Carothers & M. Ottaway, p. 102

Benoit Challand, Research Fellow-European Institute in Florence, 2009, Palestinian Civil Society: foreign donors and the power to promote and exclude, p. 190

This tension between the interest of donor and of locals is a topos of developmental literature. For many this is simply Achilles’ heel. Anheier and Themuldo noticed that the increased division of labor for northern NGOs to concentrate on fund raising, capacity building and advocacy, might create a uniformization of the agenda. This in turn translated into pressure towards isomorphic tendencies about the issues dealt with, but also on increased bureaucratization. Eventually, the risk is that southern NGOs, in order to gain funding and this type of legitimacy, will be forced to “mismetic isomorphism stemming from increased competition for scarce resource.”

But the issue of legitimacy is not only provided by the discourse, by the “technicity” of the jargon, or even by the bureaucratization implied by funding. It also depends on the way it is formulated and how it is practically implemented as a response to local needs or not. For example, one cannot but have the feeling that some of the funding made available by USAID is meant to alleviate the consequences of the harsh closure imposed in the last years by the Israeli military forces. As if it was about making sure that minimum services can be delivered despite the closure and bantustanization of the Territories. For example, in the case of delivery facilities developed recently in villages, one could wonder whether “sustainability” is possible in the long run. Is there really a need to have delivery rooms in each village when in “normal times” each villager can reach an urban center in less than 30 minutes? One cannot help but feel that there is a form of guilty consciousness on the side of some donors, but the consequence is that these donors subsidize and indirectly support the occupation and colonial regime put in place and increased by Israel over the years. The consequence for local NGOs benefits form this financial manna can be perceived by the population as working for somebody else’s interests rather than the local common good. ‘