Dr. Arvind Kumar*
Civil20 not only represents the voice of civil society in the G20 countries, but also globally, including in the southern hemisphere. Given India’s commitment to this year’s G20 on collaboration and cooperation as the key to produce solutions to combat many of the world’s problems, civil society representatives play a critical and diverse set of roles in societal development. C20 engages more than 800 civil societies, representatives, and networks of various countries including organizations from countries who are not G20 members, to ensure that “people across all strata of society” are heard at the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Gradually, it not only became the premier forum for international economic cooperation, but also holistic socio-economic development of the planet. Now in its expanded spectrum, it includes issues like trade, climate change, sustainable development, energy, environment, and anti-corruption. In the last two decades these roles have shifted as the external environment for civil society has changed. Renewed focus on the essential contribution of civil society to a resilient global system alongside government and business has emerged.
The civil society plays a pivotal role in dissemination and demystification of technical conversations in G20 processes. The documents produced by the C20 are supposed to provide feedback and suggestions. C20 also has a vital role to play when the space to learn and share among the civil society is getting limited due to various restrictions on free flow of ideas and resources. The civil society is integral to the modern-day development discourse with their vast field level community experiences and interactions with policymakers. This strength of the civil society makes a very important contribution in inclusive decision making, policy implementation and achieving policy coherence. It is the responsibility of the host country to organize an inclusive and vibrant C20 process.
From responsibilities to expectations
When mobilized in a coherent manner civil society has the power to influence the actions of elected policy-makers and businesses. But the nature of civil society – what it is and what it does – is evolving, in response to both technological developments and more nuanced changes within societies. Civil society today includes an ever wider and more vibrant range of organized and unorganized groups, as new civil-society actors blur the boundaries between sectors and experiment with new organizational forms, both online and off. Civil societies are involved in a spectrum of activities viz. holding institutions to account and promoting transparency; raising awareness of societal issues; delivering services to meet education, health, food and security needs; implementing disaster management, preparedness and emergency response; bringing expert knowledge and experience to shape policy and strategy; giving power to the marginalized; and encouraging citizen engagement. This shows why governments court them in one breathe and vilify them in another.
Civil society is a dedicated and committed problem-solver, but it seems clear that it needs to step up its efforts to adapt to a new reality of rapidly changing interconnected problems. When we look at the numbers, it appears the sector has the size and scale globally to be able to robustly adjust to change. The workload of civil society organizations has increased in the past few years, and with more work comes more responsibility and the need to manage expectations. For example, civil society groups are being counted on to realize the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to work with other societal actors and decision-makers to transform the global development landscape over the next decade. This is no small challenge. There are 17 goals covering a whole range of thorny societal issues to plan for, deliver and monitor – and new roles for the sector to operate in against a backdrop of blurring boundaries between civil society, governments and businesses.
New responsibilities are falling on the shoulders of civil society leaders, and the sector needs to show its ability to remain agile and adaptive, and to pioneer new approaches and solutions to social development through responsible innovation and inclusive technology. It needs to do this the civil society way. The G20 still has a long way to go to ensure effective civil society participation. G20 leaders need to stop thinking that inviting civil society representatives to a couple of meetings amounts to the fulfillment of their obligation to consult widely and open themselves to scrutiny. They need to acknowledge the unique skills that civil society brings to the table and move towards more meaningful and sustained engagement with civil society. They can do this in many ways. They can, and should, invite civil society as well as business representatives to additional sections of various working group meetings to provide insights and guidance on a thematic basis, and not just during a single, short session dedicated to listening to all of our concerns. The G20 delegates should consistently meet with domestic civil society throughout the year, both prior to and after G20 Working Group meetings. This already happens in some G20 countries but not all of them.
Way Forward
India is one of the unique countries where it is transitioning to a developed nation and is committed to established rule of law and democratic governance. The Indian Civil Society eagerly looks forward for a constructive engagement with the Government of India at the C20 and shall be provided ample focus. The collectivisation of national-level forums for supporting marginalized communities through the articulation of their needs, empowering identity or voices and deconstructing the old arrangements that have failed in performance and ideation is the way forward. Today, civil society is at a crossroads, searching for new ways and strategies amid an invisible tussle with power. Interestingly the C20 team is primarily constituted of members who convene, mobilize and collectivize the sector to have a constructive engagement with external stakeholders but not sector experts. The effectiveness of engagement groups like C20 is heavily dependent on the host government for space and resources. Structurally, it is also up to the government to decide the number, scope and coordination of engagement groups. Civil Society as a sector always have struggled to acquire space on the table, which remains fragile most times. The current situation forces the global civil society to reflect on the need to have a permanent structure beyond the event-based approach of these newly created global platforms. The question is much bigger than oft-repeated harangues on the need to reflect activities through CSO management, fundraising, digitization, compliances, reporting and documentation and communications, leadership or capacity building. For some, the current scenario could lead to more complexities and for others; it offers new opportunities to revive the true spirit of volunteerism and grassroots organizations which have the potency to defy all odds, legislative interventions included. But surely, as its long history in India suggests, civil society will survive these difficult times.
*President, India Water Foundation
