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Civil society

25 years after … civil society in the Visegrad countries

Rupert Strachwitz 1 October 2014

From 1975, when the Declaration of Helsinki, following the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, was signed to ensure ‘respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or …


Civil society in China

Karla Simon 4 March 2014

February was another very busy month for civil society in China.  The developments were in several areas: tax exemption, direct registration, implementing regulations on cancellation of the branch registration requirement for national social organizations, procurement …


Blueprint 2014: Philanthropy and the Social Economy learns from Europe

Lucy Bernholz 4 December 2013

For the fifth annual Blueprint forecast I finally got up the courage to venture beyond the US. Since publishing the first one, I’ve expanded my lens to focus on philanthropy and the social economy. This …

Just published: Interview with CIVICUS Secretary General Danny Sriskandarajah

Alliance magazine 5 November 2013

Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah took up the post of Secretary General of CIVICUS in January. What does he think is most important about CIVICUS? What areas of work would he like to see more developed? Where …

Civil society events make headway but China still needs to develop trust in CSOs

Karla Simon 25 September 2013

I was honoured to be invited to speak at two events about civil society in China held during the Mid-Autumn Festival this month (when one consumes lots of mooncakes at family gatherings held throughout China …

Aspiring to greatness – little by little

Mark Nowottny 7 May 2013

The heady days of the 2012 Olympic Games seems like an age ago. In recent weeks, though, as I’ve discussed citizen action and global justice around northern Europe, one story above all still lingers. For me, rather …

Bold ideas for global philanthropy, the Brazilian Way, Broken Windows: Council on Foundations Conference 2013

Terry Odendahl and Global Greengrants Fund 11 April 2013

The Council on Foundations annual conference began its programme in Chicago with a packed pre-conference day of ‘Bold Ideas for Global Philanthropy’. Having attended CoF at least 20 times over the last 30 years, it …

Big news from the big meeting of the National People’s Congress in China

9 Karla Simon 21 March 2013

While there have been other recent developments that are relevant to this blog, they all pale in comparison with the one part of the Chinese government’s government restructuring plan that affects civil society. As part …

Not much ‘new’ news from China as 18th Party Congress wraps up

Karla Simon 21 November 2012

Makeup of the new ‘Politburo’ With many tales in the Western and local media of the difficulty of doing anything in Beijing besides merely going to work, the 18th Party Congress was grinding to a …

Innovation and entrepreneurship dominate the 20th anniversary of the Iberamerican Civil Society Meeting

1 Catalina Parra 8 November 2012

This autumn marks 20 years of leaders from Latin America and Spain building bridges and sharing ideas to strengthen civil society. The 20th anniversary meeting of the Encuentro Iberoamerico de la Sociedad Civil was held …