Report: DO WE STILL EXIST?

When global civic space to influence society has been shrinking for 13 consecutive years, civil society needs new strategies to deal with the crisis at hand.

For any actor working to support civil society organisations (CSOs) today, being aware of the ways in which shrinking civic space impacts on civil society’s abilities to operate is crucial.

The report DO WE STILL EXIST? aims to provide an overview of how current trends regarding available and shrinking civic space are perceived, managed and countered by local CSOs in the countries and regions where Forum Syd works.

To better understand how a shrinking civic affects local CSOs, the report uses the accounts and perspectives of CSO representatives as a basis for analysis. It focuses primarily on: how CSOs in various countries and regions view their spaces for action; if and in what ways they believe these spaces to be shrinking; what strategies they have adopted in order to combat a shrinking space, and; what forms of support they need.

Forum Syd has also produced a digital material that shows how actors from civil society are threatened in different countries. The material includes recommendations for the EU and Swedish government in order to stop the attacks on civil society globally.