Governments failing to create favourable conditions for civil society, says new report
23 September 2013 – A new index published today by the global civil society network, CIVICUS, shows that many
governments around the world are failing to keep their promise to create an environment that allows citizens to mobilise
and participate in civil society.
“Despite countless promises from governments that they will protect civil society, the majority of citizens around the
world live in environments in which they do not have the capacity to participate freely and fully in the activities,
organisations and movements that seek to better their lives and improve their societies,” said Dr Danny Sriskandarajah,
CIVICUS Secretary-General.
Evidence from around the world suggests that the conditions for civil society are far from perfect. The CIVICUS
`Enabling Environment Index’ (EEI) is the first rigorous attempt to measure and compare the conditions that affect the
potential of citizens to participate in civil society and ranks the governance, socio-cultural and socio-economic
environments for civil society in 109 countries.
“In recent years we have seen popular uprisings from the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement, but we have also seen far
too many crackdowns on the ability of citizens to mobilise. We wanted to create a tool that helps understand the
conditions facing civil society in different parts of the world. Our index also helps identify countries where special
attention needs to be paid to strengthening civil society by the international community,” said Sriskandarajah.
New Zealand tops the list, followed by Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway while the Democratic Republic of Congo has
the worst rated EEI, followed by Uzbekistan, Iran, Burundi and the Gambia.
“It is worrying that countries such as Ethiopia (8th lowest) and Vietnam (10th lowest) that have received substantial
development assistance and are often praised by the international community for their economic performance have such
poor environments for civil society. Either donor governments and financial institutions have not found ways to improve
conditions for a vibrant civil society or are actively turning a blind eye to repressive measures.”
“The three worst ranking African countries – DRC, Burundi and the Gambia – are heavily dependent on aid flows. This
means that donors have an important lever to improve conditions if they chose to use it, whether it is by working with
governments or by directly supporting local civil society,” stated Sriskandarajah.
Co-author of the report, CIVICUS Research Officer, Ciana-Marie Pegus cautions that the EEI currently has limitations as
it looks at long-term factors that create the conditions for healthy citizen engagement and is not necessarily
indicative of current events.
“There certainly is no civil society utopia. In many countries with high EEI scores, we have seen recent funding cuts
for civil society and instances of repression in others. For example, in Canada, which ranks second on the EEI,
government-civil society relations have been strained due to reports of active undermining of sections of civil
society,” said Pegus.
“We know that democracy is only sustainable when citizens are free and able to connect and mobilise and this is the
first attempt to measure and compare the conditions for citizen participation. So while it’s a work in progress, we hope
the EEI will be used as tool that will generate debate on the conditions that are fundamental to the freedoms we all
cherish,” concluded Pegus.
The Enabling Environment Index supplements CIVICUS’ ongoing efforts to track threats to civil society, ranging from
restrictive legislation to politically motivated prosecution of activists to physical attacks and intimidation of human
rights defenders.
Notes:
• The EEI is a global composite index developed using secondary data that seeks to understand the propensity of
citizens to participate in civil society.
• The indicators that are part of the EEI have different units and scales. In order to be incorporated into the
EEI, they are re-weighted on a scale of 0-1, with 0 being the least `enabling’ or favourable environment and 1 being the
most enabling.
• The EEI covers 109 countries.
• The number of countries included in the EEI is determined by data availability.
Top 10 EEI scores
RankCountryEEI score1New Zealand0.872Canada0.853Australia0.844Denmark0.815Norway0.806Netherlands0.797Switzerland0.798Iceland0.799Sweden0.7910United States of America0.79
Bottom 10 EEI scores
RankCountryEEI score100Vietnam0.37101Angola0.37102Ethiopia0.36103Zimbabwe0.35104Guinea0.35105The Gambia0.32106Burundi0.31107Iran0.31108Uzbekistan0.29109Democratic Republic of Congo0.26
For more information on the EEI: please download the CIVICUS EEI Background Note, full report and supporting
documentation from the CIVICUS website
In 2012, CIVICUS tracked threats to civil society in over 75 countries. For more information on enabling environment for
civil society, read CIVICUS’ State of Civil Society Report 2013.
ENDS