{"id":3377,"date":"2017-07-26T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2017-07-26T07:44:18","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T14:44:18","slug":"civilsocietywhy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2017\/07\/civilsocietywhy\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil Society Capacity Building: Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/coyote1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-832\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/coyote1.gif\" alt=\"logo\" width=\"138\" height=\"157\" \/><\/a>My favorite kind of professional work is building the capacities of civil society organizations, especially in transitional and developing countries, to communicate, to change minds and to engage a variety of people and communities, through communications, dialogue and volunteering. But the term <i>civil society<\/i> isn&#8217;t used in USA as commonly as it is elsewhere, and many don\u2019t understand exactly what I mean when I talk about my favorite type of work.<\/p>\n<p>Civil society is a term commonly heard outside the USA when discussing community development. Civil society is a term for the assortment of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), nonprofit organizations, activist groups and institutions that, together, demonstrate the interests and will of residents of a particular area. Note, however, that these interests do not have to be the will of a majority of residents.<\/p>\n<p>Civil society organizations include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>academia<\/li>\n<li>activist groups<\/li>\n<li>charities<\/li>\n<li>clubs (sports, social, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>community foundations<\/li>\n<li>community organizations<\/li>\n<li>consumer organizations<\/li>\n<li>cooperatives \/ co-ops<\/li>\n<li>foundations<\/li>\n<li>non-governmental organizations (NGOs)<\/li>\n<li>non-profit organizations (NPOs)<\/li>\n<li>political parties<\/li>\n<li>professional associations<\/li>\n<li>religious groups<\/li>\n<li>social enterprises (an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in human and environmental well-being)<\/li>\n<li>support groups<\/li>\n<li>trade unions<\/li>\n<li>voluntary associations<\/li>\n<li>foundations, government funders and international agencies have been supporting civil society for many years in developing countries. The goals with such support is to:<\/li>\n<li>foster social equality (access to civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights, health, economic prosperity, education, social engagement, etc.)<\/li>\n<li>foster civic engagement, including volunteerism<\/li>\n<li>create a greater sense of ownership of what happens within a community by those that live there<\/li>\n<li>create greater participation in addressing critical community and environmental needs<\/li>\n<li>ensure a diversity of voices are represented in community decision-making<\/li>\n<li>act as a counter to negative forces such as corruption, extremism, anarchy, etc.<\/li>\n<li>ensure that civil society can work within the range of actors required for a country\u2019s development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/development\/civilsociety.shtml\">This new resource<\/a> explores why is it important for a country to have a robust, sustainable civil society, what is meant by the phrase <i>civil society capacity building<\/i>, and how capacities of civil society are strengthened.<\/p>\n<p>Also see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/outreach\/grants.html\">Basic Fund-Raising for Small NGOs\/Civil Society in the Developing World<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/12\/07\/survival-strategies-for-nonprofits\/\">Survival Strategies for Nonprofits<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/03\/17\/civil-society-20\/\">Civil Society 2.0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/09\/17\/capacity-building-tools-resources-for-cso-strengthening\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">capacity building tools &amp; resources for CSO strengthening<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/07\/28\/free-planning-monitoring-evaluating-for-devel\/\">Free: Planning, Monitoring &amp; Evaluating for Development Results (handbook)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/01\/07\/nonprofits-are-job-creators\/\">Nonprofits *are* job creators!<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/03\/18\/without-a-champion\/\">Without a Champion, Your Initiative Won\u2019t Survive<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My favorite kind of professional work is building the capacities of civil society organizations, especially in transitional and developing countries, to communicate, to change minds and to engage a variety of people and communities, through communications, dialogue and volunteering. But the term civil society isn&#8217;t used in USA as commonly as it is elsewhere, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[76,100,132,637,1721,289,6],"class_list":["post-3377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonprofitngoagency-management","tag-capacity","tag-community","tag-cso","tag-jayne-cravens","tag-manage","tag-management","tag-nonprofit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-St","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3425,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions\/3425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}