NGOs and Civil Society Roles in African Development
From the (relative) obscurity in which it had dwelt for much of the century, civil society has (re)emerged to become one of the central policy formulations and the object of current social science research. This interest in civil society is partly the result of a growing disillusionment with current societal development, and expectations of the emancipatory potential of civil society to reverse present trends. Thus, civil society is expected to pluralize the institutions of global governance to make them responsive; to be the ‘conscience’ of humanity; the third force that balances the power of the states and markets; ushers in new forms of global citizenship and community; humanizes globalization; consolidates the third wave of democratisation; and restructures current global politics to more progressive forms.
In the African context, NGOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) have, within the past two decades, become critical actors, expected to reconstitute the African state in order to build democratic forms of governance, including that of socio-economic development.
Despite this importance, a robust understanding of civil society and its roles have come very short, as a wide gap exists between ascribed attributes and actual knowledge of the activities of NGOs and CSOs in African development. This situation, however, does not result simply from a lack of data, as there has been a proliferation of research on civil society the past decade. That fundamental questions about civil society and its roles remain, despite the existing studies, is partly a conceptual and methodological problem. Existing analyses have been fundamentally normative and utilized frameworks that prevent a robust understanding of civil society roles.
While ongoing academic debates on these organisations are unlikely to be resolved soon, together with practical demands, they continue to spur efforts to better understand NGOs and CSOs from a variety of theoretical perspectives and political and social needs. Specifically, there is need to broaden the empirical base of the topic, as well as conceptually reframe the civil society discussions in African development.
This Nordic research network is a response to this need for a more robust understanding of NGOs and CSO contributions to African development. Specifically it seeks to promote Nordic research cooperation on the roles of NGOs and Civil Society roles in African development, and does so in the context of research, training and capacity building activities.
Research
The network will encourage research on all aspects of NGOs and CSOs roles, but will particularly focus on three under-researched issues, namely a) The impact of the aid system on NGO and CSO roles in African development; b) Faith-based/Religious NGOs/CSOs and African Development and; c) NGOs and CSO roles in African Regional Integration.
Training
The network will provide theoretical and conceptual tools for postgraduate students in the Nordic countries focusing their research on this topic through postgraduate workshops.
Capacity building
Ultimately the network seeks to provide a long term infrastructure for promoting NGO and CSO research in the Nordic countries by proactively working towards the establishment of a Nordic Centre of Excellence for this topic.
Contact person: Paul Opoku-Mensah paulom@ihis.aau.dk