Space to Be Heard: Mobilizing the Power of People to Reshape Civic Space

"Citizens, civil society actors and their allies must formulate a strong and consolidated global response to defend our common space for engagement, debate and action."

Because civic space for people to speak out is shrinking, this briefing note from Oxfam outlines an analysis and strategic focus to contribute to the global defence of civic space: "Based on an analysis of the main global drivers of shrinking civic space, [it] outline[s] four key changes...necessary to reclaim and create civic space. The paper ends with some key principles and an open invitation...."

Civic space is defined as space "for citizens to associate, organize and act on issues of interest to them in the space outside the family, the state and the market." Drivers of shrinking space include: growing discourse of national sovereignty and non-interference ; elites cracking down on civic action; counter-terrorism and polarised societies; civil society legitimacy being questioned; questioning the integral value of civil society; and populism, authoritarianism and nationalism eroding the values of freedom, democracy, and diversity.

Oxfam's key changes within specific countries include:

Change 1: "[C]ivil society organizations must ensure that they are recognized as legitimate actors by the wider public and have strong connections to citizens" including building their own accountability structures and ties to local constituencies and putting civic engagement at the centre of their work.

Change 2: The five areas that civil society actors "should consider if they are to become more resilient and effective in contexts of shrinking and shifting civic space":

• transparency and accountability standards;
• resilience and risk preparedness in the face of harassment;
• alliance building "including formal and informal civic actors with various identities, faith-based organizations, trade unions, media, universities, business associations, community groups, online activists and others";
• new strategies and tactics that contribute to transformative change, for example, a Café Politico in Honduras, a Facebook live programme with a top-level government official and rural youth in Bangladesh, a PechaKucha (concise and fast-paced presentations at multiple-speaker events) event in Somalia, and an animation video to share the Global Youth Manifesto to End Inequality; and
• "valuing diversity, expressing solidarity across groups with various identities and agendas, and challenging any forms of discrimination based on gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, and other identity traits within our own ranks, the broader society and the government."

Change 3: National policies to guarantee an "enabling legal environment for civic action and ...the rights to freedom of association, expression, assembly and information."

Change 4: Regional and global actors and institutions upholding and strengthening the norms and principles of civic space.

Recommendation are for: stronger partnerships, enabling and empowering spaces where citizen speech and action is defended, inclusiveness, accountability, and integrity.