Thu, Jun 09, 2005

Inventory of Civil Society Resources and Tools from CARE

The Inventory of Civil Society Resources and Tools has been prepared for CARE country office personnel who are concerned with how programs can best enable sustainable capacities within civil society, so that the poor become effective agents of their own development. For CARE a strong civil society means ensuring a dynamic and beneficial relationship among government, business and non-profit sectors. The purpose of this inventory is twofold:
- To provide some background in theory and practice of working with civil society.
- To provide useful tools for designing and evaluating work in this sector.

The inventory is divided into three parts.
Part I sets the stage with readings in both theory and practice. Three concept papers and four case studies were written for CARE.
- A literature review of civil society prepared by Terry Bergdall, a CARE consultant.
- Case studies of CARE’s civil society work in Egypt, Somalia, Zambia and Mali, also prepared by Terry Bergdall.
- A paper by Paul McCarthy, a CARE consultant, to help field practitioners map institutions as they explore and begin to make decisions related to their civil society strengthening interventions.
- A paper on civil society and economic development in Niger, by Daniel Chirot, a consultant commissioned by CARE Niger.

Part II is the inventory of tools, indicators and processes for designing and evaluating civil society activities, collected by the School for International Training on behalf of CARE.  Tools are grouped into four sub-sections, representing major thrusts of CARE’s efforts in civil society strengthening:
A. Building or enhancing organizational capacity and strengthening institutions
B. Supporting mechanisms for dialogue and advocacy among these three sectors of society
C. Communication and the media
D. Promoting inclusion of poor, disenfranchised and marginalized citizens in civil society organizations and their relations with government and the private sector.

Part III contains an extensive list of additional readings, websites and institutional resources, pulled together from a variety of sources.

Page 1 of 1 pages