State of Civil Society 2011

CIVICUS inaugural report ‘State of Civil Society 2011’ was developed by the CIVICUS secretariat in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders in the CIVICUS alliance. The report examines such key current areas for civil society as the rise of protest and dissent; the enabling and disenabling environment for civil society; the role of civil society in response to crisis; the funding situation for civil society; and civil society’s role in the multilateral arena. The report suggests that civil society faces a generational opportunity to prove its value as a source of alternatives at a time of profound global crisis. The report further concludes that there is a need for new, more broad-based, inclusive coalitions and communities that take account of the diversity of civil society and the strengths of different parts of civil society, such as CSOs, community groups, online activists, the new protest movements, faith-based groups and trade unions.