A new agenda for supporting civil society in an authoritarian era: Building resilience, enabling flexibility, and empowering agency

Abstract

This is a pivotal moment for international support to civil society, characterized by falling aid budgets and rising authoritarianism. At the same time, demands by actors in the Global South for new forms of cooperation have provided a very different challenge to established aid practices. Drawing on recent research, evidence from democratic resistance movements, and conversations with donors and civil society leaders across five continents, this essay suggests that aid retrenchment should be treated not only as a crisis, but also as an opportunity to rethink how donors support civil society. Building on key lessons emerging from work on the aid–institutions paradox, aid effectiveness, and locally led development, the essay advocates moving away from a model centred on project funding to professionalized NGOs, towards an approach that invests more in the social movements, grassroots coalitions, and informal networks that have also proved to be effective at resisting authoritarianism.