Project on Middle East Democracy

Project on Middle East Democracy
The POMED Wire


Civil Society in Arab World Faces Structural Obstacles, Funding Challenges

October 25th, 2010 by Anna

In a recent article, Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center explores obstacles to the development of civil society in the Arab world. He asserts that NGOs in the region “have been weakened and tamed.” Although Western governments often express rhetorical support for civil society development, “the mode of NGO empowerment remains both flawed and often aimless,” Hamid adds. He outlines three main problems: 1) that many NGOs are co-opted by the government, which limits the social and political change they can drive; 2) restrictive legislation in many countries limits freedom of association and assembly, and organizations often self-censor out of fear of government reprisal; and 3) many supposedly pro-democracy organizations do not actively challenge the dominant political structure. Hamid also highlights issues with Western funding for Arab NGOs: “US and EU funding usually goes to NGO programming that is oppositional but not necessarily conducive to the sort of sustained, structural change that democratization requires.” In light of these difficulties, Hamid writes that Arab civil society organizations must “develop a sustainable model for funding from internal and regional sources.”


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