Civil society wants bigger role in COVID-19 fight

`This is a moment when the voice and actions of civil society are indispensable,’ they say

| THE INDEPENDENT | Governments need to recognise and include Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in their national emergency responses and long-term development efforts. That is one of the main practical solutions that funders and CSOs demanded when asked what should be done to help them recover from the negative effects on their activities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CSOs said the government needs to create an enabling environment for them to operate and provide funding for some CSOs; especially those filling service gaps left by government; especially in service delivery.

The recommendations are contained in a report titled ` The Impact of COVID-19 on African Civil Society Organizations: Ongoing Uncertainty and a Glimmer of Optimism”. It is based on a survey by EPIC-Africa and @AfricanNGOs.

“This is a moment when the voice and actions of civil society are indispensable to guarantee that public policy choices and actions do the least harm, respect human rights, and are driven by evidence,” the report says, “Moreover, CSOs are essential in ensuring that public measures to contain the pandemic are legal, non-discriminatory, time-bound and proportionate.”

They add: “The future, therefore, remains uncertain, with far-reaching implications for African CSOs’ sustainability andthe well-being of communities that they serve.”

Meanwhile, massive losses of funding have limited the ability of African CSOs to do their work, sometimes forcing organizations to close down altogether.

At the same time 68.1% of CSOs said they experienced a loss of funding since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 12.4% compared to 2020. The funders surveyed also indicated that 76.9% of their grantees already lost funding.

The loss of funding is happening at a time when 40.7% of CSOs say they have experienced increased demand in services, compared to 31.5% in 2020 but 45.5% of CSOs are reporting increased costs, compared to 34.9% in 2020.

Only 8.4% received funding support from a government emergency relief fund during the pandemic. 42.3% of the funders surveyed felt that governments failed to recognize and utilize local CSOs’ skills, experience and networks as part of the response to COVID-19. The CSO survey generated responses from 1,039 CSOs in 46 African countries.

The report noted how repeated and sustained containment measures such as social distancing, lockdowns, curfews, travel restrictions and school closures have resulted in unintended socio-economic consequences beyond the direct health and human devastation caused by the disease itself.

Millions of Africans are worse off than before the pandemic, with disadvantaged and vulnerable groups the most severely affected, the report says.

The report noted how the containment measures imposed by governments to stop the spread of the virus have also restricted the freedom of citizens and CSOs across the continent, including the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

Freedom of assembly, in particular, has been curtailed via curfews, lockdowns, the closing of schools and public venues, and the banning of gatherings of more than a certain number of people.

“As many African countries already experienced shrinking civic space before the pandemic, these measures have, in some cases, further adversely impacted civic space,” the report says.

It mentions Uganda and Tanzania as some of the countries with a recent history of shrinking civic space, where 60.5% and 26.4% of respondents, respectively, indicated that government measures adversely impacted civic space.

The single biggest donor basket established by eight European countries; the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF), which has been bank-rolling many CSOs in Uganda, was suspended on orders of President Yoweri  Museveni in February. The DGF works mainly with CSOs engaged in equitable economic growth, poverty eradication, rule of law, and long-term political stability of the country.

Most of the respondents in the CSO survey said their work focuses on almost the same areas; advocacy (69.3%), capacity-building and training (68.5%). Others are into organising or mobilisation(30.4%) and service delivery (26.4%).

Conducted from 1 June to 5 July 2021 the survey has been described as the most comprehensive intervention to date aimed at analyzing the impact of COVID-19 on CSOs anywhere in the world.

“This report’s insights are timely as CSOs and their funders continue to grapple with an uncertain future,” the authors said.

It is the second report on the impact of COVID-19 on African CSOs, compiled by EPIC-Africa and @AfricanNGOs. The previous report, released in June 2020, was the first to focus exclusively on this issue.

A total of 1,039 CSOs from 46 countries participated in the survey. Compared to 2020, there is an increase of 24 CSOs and two countries. The top three regions represented in the survey are Southern Africa (32%), East Africa (31.1%), and West Africa (26.3%). Central Africa makes up 6.4.% and North Africa only 2.7% of the total number of respondents.

This year’s report includes two new components: Cross-country and cross-sectoral comparisons to surface critical gaps and priorities amongst CSOs in different parts of the continent and  insights from a complementary “mini-survey” of funders of African CSOs on how COVID-19 has impacted them, and the implications for their future engagement with African CSOs.

The funder survey, implemented from 28 June to 23 July 2021, generated responses from 26 funders and two African philanthropy support organisations. Unlike the CSO survey, which was advertised publicly, the Funder Survey targeted select individual funders only.

The biggest funders of CSOs are individual donors of CSOs, followed by international NGOs and international foundations.

The loss of funding remains a serious concern for 57.2% of respondents. But there is optimism. Looking ahead, most respondents expect that the overall situation will improve in the coming 12 months (July 2021 to June 2022). They project that the reduction or cancellation of activities would decrease by a further 17.1%, from 56.1% to 39%.

This more positive outlook may be borne out of optimism about the expected roll-out of vaccinations, albeit very slowly, and the further lifting of restrictions on the movement and interaction of people, and the removal of earlier draconian measures that disrupted the activities of entire sectors of society, including civil society.

****