Consider the three pie charts below, which show (1) the percentage of NGOs at the UN headquartered in OECD nations, G77 nations, or nations that are neither OECD nor G77 members against (2) the percentage of world population living in each group and (3) the percentage of world GDP (by purchasing-power parity) living in each group. Note that the UN representation is much closer to GDP percentage than to population percentage.
Nonkosi Khumalo, the chairperson of Treatment Action Campaign South Africa, asks whether African civil society has “lost the plot” in its efforts to encourage stronger international action on the AIDS crisis in Africa.
The international HIV/AIDS Alliance (Senegalese representative Magatte Mbodj) prepares its representatives to advocate at the UN in June of 2011.
This chart shows how many NGOs a region (UN Geoscheme) has in consultative status to the UN for every billion dollars of GDP (purchasing-power parity) it produces.
This simple chart shows the approximate trend in the overall “population” of global NGOs over the past few years.
This bar graph compares the representation of different regions at the UN, in terms of NGOs with consultative status, for the citizens of different regions (UN Geoscheme-defined regions).
James Traub, writing in Foreign Policy, discusses the failed effort of the Arab “Forum for the Future” to incorporate civil society, and its ramifications: “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum”.
Did civil society in Egypt presage the uprisings in the Maghreb? Issandr El Amrani suggests that that might be the case, writing in a blog on foreignpolicy.com: “Egyptian Civil Society at Risk”.
Azar Nafisi was recently interviewed by Britt Peterson in Foreign Policy, where he discussed Iranian civil society: “a forgotten civil society”.
The Economist recently published a brief article on the Chinese government and nascent civil society: “a work in progress”.
Alim Remtulla writes about the recent questioning regarding Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea”.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies refers repeatedly to the role of civil society in addressing new questions about the thawing Arctic on www.realclearworld.org.
The role of civil society in the countries recently thrown into turmoil by the Arab Spring is significant. Some reflections from Tunisia were shared by Abdulwahab Alkebsi on www.realclearworld.org.
Patrick Diamond, writing in the Guardian, says that “market competition is driving David Cameron’s ‘big society’; but it cannot rebuild civil society’”
NGOs and multilaterals work together and push each other towards universal norms and expectations, such as the Millenium Development Goals.
Stuart Etherington, writing in the Guardian, gives a great overview of why “civil society is an essential part of a truly vital world”.
The majority of the registrants for the 15,000 seats available at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen were from NGOs.
Through this website, you can get an idea of how the nine different commissions subsidiary to ECOSOC incorporate (or exclude) NGOs from their work.
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The Economist recently wrote on the Sri Lankan conflict and civil society: “keep quiet and carry on”.
All you need to know about the influential network of local, national and international organizations that works to strengthen citizen action and civil society around the world.
The ultimate resource for learning more about the UN’s work with civil society organizations.
An interview with Prof. Helmut Anheier, PhD, Dean at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, who sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of global civil society.
By Corina Murafa
Join FutureChallenges.org for a video interview on global civil society with Prof. Helmut Anheier, PhD, Professor of Sociology and Dean at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. Does global civil [...]
