Descrição: Global public problems in poverty, health, education, environment and social inclusion pose deep systemic challenges. They are systemic in two key respects: a) they cannot be solved by scientific and management innovation alone, but require responses that are simultaneously economic, social, and political; and, b) the scaling up of solutions involves multiple actors in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, acting over long time horizons. In their efforts to create systemic solutions to poverty, many civil society organizations (CSOs) are thus trying to influence actors much bigger than themselves: governments, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), and corporations. They are doing this by inserting themselves directly into policymaking, regulation, and implementation at national and global levels, in order to leverage change that has broad impact. The growing forays by civil society organizations into policy domains pose two related challenges in democratic societies. The first is about accountability. CSOs have raised concerns about public sector problems of corruption and transparency, democratic deficits, inadequate systems of checks and balances, poor oversight and performance, and inefficiency. At the same time, CSOs themselves are increasingly being challenged on the grounds of their legitimacy in speaking for the poor that is, on the question of whom they represent. This problem of representation is especially thorny when CSOs seek entry to policy arenas (as compared to their involvement in service delivery projects), ostensibly the domain of elected representatives in democratic societies. This research project develops country case studies in three continents: Asia (India and Bangladesh), Africa (South Africa and Uganda) and America Latina (Bolivia and Brazil).
Docente responsável: Alnoor Abrahim