CSOs must build networks and solidarity in order to withstand current threats

The 2025 State of Civil Society Report from CIVICUS urges civil society groups worldwide to strengthen their networks, prioritize community connections, and develop more diverse and sustainable funding models, amid the cascade of crises affecting the sector. The report, published annually, identifies trends in civil society action, from responses to conflicts to demands for global governance reform and struggles for democracy, inclusion and climate justice.

Despite rising right-wing populism, nationalism, and autocratic and military rule, civil society continues to work hard to hold the line and has managed to achieve important victories through strategic advocacy, mobilization, litigation and international solidarity, the report says. Yet, just when civil society is most needed, major funding sources such as state donor agencies have been cut back and become more aligned with narrowly defined national interests, making it harder for groups to secure support for core work and stay true to their own missions and agendas.

However, the current moment also presents the opportunity to reimagine civil society approaches, in order to ensure that groups are able to keep defending and advancing human rights, the authors suggest. For instance, rather than functioning as rigid bureaucratic organizations, structured to suit funder requirements, civil society groups could take on a movement mindset, embracing flexibility and embodying movement characteristics such as distributed leadership, nimble decision-making, a focus on shared values, a willingness to listen, and the ability to mobilize broad constituencies rapidly.

Furthermore, to enable more effective responses, organizations should build and improve the functioning of networks at every level from local to global and across the broadest possible range of civil society and allies, leveraging their ability to build solidarity across issues, constituencies and geographies, says the report. Such connections allow rapid mobilization of support when crises emerge, the sharing of successful strategies, and the pooling of resources and capacities. New technologies may facilitate connections, but networks can’t rely on them alone: they must be built on genuine trust and reciprocity. Moreover, they should be horizontally organized and democratic, not top-down or Global-North driven, the authors note.

More organizations should also go beyond traditional stakeholder consultations to develop genuine relationships with communities, facilitating community self-organization and being accountable to those civil society exists to serve, rather than speaking on their behalf, the report suggests. While many groups prioritize authentic community connections, particularly with those most excluded from power, this approach is not currently widespread.

Informed by its listening, civil society needs to develop effective narratives that counter populist, nationalist and authoritarian rhetoric. These counter-narratives must connect universal values to local contexts and concerns and speak to people’s legitimate anxieties, including economic precarity and lack of voice, while inspiring optimism and offering inclusive and rights-based solutions that push back against populist appeals to scapegoat excluded groups.

Finally, it should be clear that the donor-reliant funding model has reached its limits, say the authors. The funding sources civil society groups have long relied on are increasingly unreliable, politically constrained, or inadequate for today’s needs, often reproducing economic and political power imbalances and leading to a project-driven civil society unable to confront power. Organizations must therefore develop more diverse and sustainable resource models, including community-based funding approaches such as membership programs, crowdfunding and community foundations; ethical enterprise and investment activities; and the leveraging of non-financial resources through skilled volunteerism, time banking and resource sharing. Out of necessity, many civil society groups, particularly in the Global South, are already pioneering these approaches, distributing financial risk, increasing independence, and making themselves accountable to the communities they serve rather than to external funders.

A more movement-oriented, community-driven, narrative-focused, resistance-ready, networked, principled and financially independent civil society can better withstand current threats and more effectively realize its collective mission of building a more just, equal, democratic and sustainable world, CIVICUS says. If civil society perseveres, even in the most difficult of circumstances, then moments of change will come, providing stepping stones toward possibilities of greater transformation.

Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:

At least 8,938 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2024, making it the deadliest year on record, according to new data collected by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The actual number of migrant deaths and disappearances is likely much higher, however, as many have gone undocumented because of the dearth of official sources. In addition, the identities and demographic characteristics of the majority of people who have died or gone missing are unknown. 

Meanwhile, IOM has released a statement announcing “essential structural adjustments” at its Geneva headquarters and globally, following an unprecedented 30 per cent reduction in estimated donor funding for the year, including a major decrease in U.S.-funded projects. The adjustments include scaling back or ending projects affecting more than 6,000 staff members worldwide and reducing headquarters staffing by approximately 20 per cent, while the overall reduction in funding will have severe impacts on vulnerable migrant communities, the statement says.

Global civil society and trade union leaders, along with other key allies of the Global March Against Child Labour (GMACL), recently assembled in Brussels to assess the current state of child labour and demand immediate, decisive action for its eradication. GMACL has launched a renewed five-year strategy to intensify efforts, mobilize key stakeholders, and drive sustainable change, focusing on strengthening accountability, advocating for systemic reforms, and scaling up effective community-oriented solutions to tackle root causes.

The UK Government is attempting to throw out a clause in its new energy bill that would have blocked companies found to have used forced labour in any part of the state-owned Great British Energy supply chain from receiving public money. Concern has long been expressed that Chinese-manufactured solar panels likely to be bought by Great British Energy are made using Uyghur slave labour. However, the UK Foreign Secretary has now called for “pragmatic engagement with China”.

The U.S. Government has lifted its two-year ban on sugar exports from the Dominican Republic’s Central Romana Corporation, restoring normal trade operations. The U.S. had suspended Central Romana’s exports in November 2022 due to allegations of forced labour, while the U.S. Department of Labor had previously listed Dominican sugarcane among goods linked to child or forced labour.

A new report from Devex explores the development aid spending of Asian donors such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, providing data-driven insights into their growth, strategies, and impact. The study looks at the latest spending figures from major Asian donors, the ways in which emerging donors are reshaping the global development landscape, key priorities and strategies driving Asian donor investments, the impact of Asia’s aid contributions on global development goals, and data-driven trends and forecasts that will shape the future of international aid.

The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery is calling for inputs for a thematic report on “the role of the financial sector in preventing and addressing contemporary forms of slavery”, aiming to examine how sectorial, national, regional, and international financial sector actors engage in preventing and eradicating contemporary forms of slavery; identify promising practices, challenges and gaps; and provide actionable recommendations for financial sector actors, governments, and other stakeholders to combat contemporary forms of slavery more effectively.