Civil society is a concept that is as old as the society itself. But it only captured the attention of the social science researchers in the 20th century. The main reason for non recognition of this concept was that initially it was just taken for granted as it to be a part of social life and then with the emergence of Marxism and communism in the Eastern Europe and Russia, the entire control of the society was concentrated in the state. The state decided everything for its citizens. With the fall of communism in those parts of the world again the civil society emerged as a strong factor and started capturing the attention of everybody including the researchers.

Parsell et.al claims that in today’s modern societies are made of three main elements. They are namely the state or government, the economy or all the businesses and business activities and the civil society. Each of these elements contribute to the society’s development and well being in its own way in collaboration with other two elements. Hence all these elements have to be preserved and allowed to grow and contribute to the society within the norms of the society (Persell, et. al., 2001).

Even though the concept of civil society has been much in discussion, the researchers and social scientists could not arrive at a common definition covering all the aspects of civil society. Different researchers are using different definitions every one trying its best to include most of the features and functions that are common to civil society (Persell, et. al., 2001).

The London School of Economics Centre for Civil Society in its working definition has defined the civil society as a society where voluntary gathering and actions of the members of a society for the purpose of achieving common purposes or goals in line with their shared and common values. Theory treats the state, the civil society, family and business or market as clearly distinguishable components of the society, but practically it is very difficult to identify and separate them as clearly distinguishable elements as the boundary that separates these components are often blurred and the interaction between these elements are very complex in nature. Civil society is considered to be composed of diverse elements commonly known as stakeholders. These stakeholders may range from single individuals to large groups and may differ in terms of formality, constitution and power contained within and exerted outside. It is very difficult to identify each and every constituent element that is a part of the civil society as the number of such elements is large and there is no clear set of traits or characteristics that separates a constituent element from others. The commonly identified groups that form the civil society include registered and non registered charities, both local and international nongovernmental organizations, workers’ unions, religious and cultural groups, political parties, advocacy groups, coalitions and associations, environmental organizations, rights groups and professional bodies (LSE, 2004).

The definition used by the British Library includes the following characteristics to identify and describe what a civil society is (British Library, 2003):

Civil society includes both individuals who participate in activities and the organization to which they belong or through which they carry out their activities. These organizations are commonly known as civil society organizations or CSOs in short.

Voluntary participation is identified as a common trait of civil society organizations by almost all the researchers and social scientists. Hence any group formed or action taken due any pressure exerted or as a result of a government requirement does not form a civil society organization.

It is possible to see wide differences in the notions of the researchers what a civil society really is? Some argue that it is only the non governmental organizations that participate in some form of political activity can be considered as the civil society the others are of the opinion that any voluntary action or grouping that affects the society is civil society irrespective of whether they are public, private, political or not.

In a society is considered to have a civic culture if a majority in that society believes that the government and the institutions are trustworthy most of the time. There may be situations where the leaders occupying certain positions may fall short of this but it will not make this society any less than a civic society.

Social capital a term defined by social scientists is the human capital is the human capital equivalent of economic capital. This social capital is intangible, but can be gathered, mobilized and used in an emergency or crisis situation like, floods, tsunami or civil commotion.

Civil society is considered to work with an institutional framework along with a qualitative dimensionality. The institutional framework of the civil society includes all the organizations, to which people subscribe to including family at the lowest level and school development societies, workers’ unions, professional bodies, sports clubs, cultural groupings, student associations, academia, faith or religion based groups, voluntary participation groups like neighborhood societies, citizens’ militia, men’s and women’s gropus, consumer protection organizations or groups, cooperatives, registered and unregistered charities and nonprofit organizations. These organizations connect with each other through formal as well as informal means. The bonds formed by these organizations with each other is important for the well being and development of society which includes crime fighting, social and educational development of youngsters, farewell of elderly and disabled, professional and carrier enhancement of the working group, and economic growth of the society on the whole (Coleman, 1988; Furstenberg and Hughes, 1994; Sampson and Groves, 1989; Sampson and Laub, 1990; Cohen and Arato, 1992; Furstenberg and Hughes, 1994; Fukuyama, 1995; Putnam et al., 1995).

Hence in conclusion, it can be said that the composition of the civil society in any country varies depending on several factors including the political system of the country, situation prevailing in the area, and the needs of the society. Hence it is very difficult to precisely enumerate all the organizations that would make up the civil society in any country or place. But the civil society in any country is said to include everybody or organization in which individuals voluntarily participate.

Civil Society Participation in Development

Any development process must be people centric and have the development of the people whether it is social, political or economical, as its primary goal. Otherwise it is bound to fail due to the rejection or non participation of the same people whose development was intended in the first instance. Civil society organizations can play a vital role in this kind of development processes as they can act as innovative change agents who contribute to social change. Civil society organizations are made of the ordinary people, who are brought together voluntarily not by any external force or pressure. They are not bound by any strict regulations on how they carry out their work except for certain statutory requirements they will have to adhere to. This informal structure helps them to form relationship with societies and people for whose benefit the development projects are implemented. Since they can understand the needs and wants of the society, they can very easily act as change agents as they will be readily accepted by the society. Since the CSOs play a vital role in development and assurance of human rights, it is accepted that everybody including the donors, governments of the recipient societies, communities and the CSOs themselves have a responsibility to ensure that the CSOs achieve the maximum from their efforts. In this regards, even the CSOs themselves have acknowledged the requirement on their part to improve their efficiency and effectiveness as the leaders and effectors of change agents and development agents (Tomlinson and Fernández, 2008).

It is very common to see non governmental organizations play an important role in social development throughout the world. The role played by the NGOs becomes critical when state funds are limited and the political situations are volatile. Especially during natural and manmade disasters, NGOs play a crucial role in bringing the life of affected to normal. In places where poverty is very high, people’s rights are violated with impunity by the people with power and money. In such situations, the people whose rights are violated do not have any voice or capability to fight for their rights due to their ignorance or other reasons. NGOs play an important role here in making these people aware of their rights and helping them in realizing them through multitudes of methods such as educating them, providing them with legal assistance, making them economically strong etc., (Asamoah, 2003).

Human rights are violated throughout the world and people die due to epidemics especially in the poor third world developing countries. But countries need not be poor to benefit from the efforts of the NGOs. A government is expected to meet all the requirements of its people. This is due to the reason that governments are considered to be formed by the representatives of the people and for the people. They also come to power with the pledge of serving the people. But, all the requirements of every person cannot be met even by the well intended governments including the ones in the developed world. This is due to the fact no country has unlimited resources to meet all the requirements of every citizen and with the limited resources there are competing requirements by different segments of the society. Hence governments find it difficult to strike a balance in meeting every person or society’s requirements. In such situations, NGOs can easily complement the roles played by governments in meeting the needs of the society and sustaining human conditions including in the so called developed countries (Asamoah, 2003).

The money that has been channeled through the NGOs to the developing countries by donors in the recent years exceeds $ 6 billion. This amounts to something between 10 -15 percent of all the development aid provided to those countries. Significant portion of this aid was provided as emergency assistance during natural and manmade disasters, and the rest is for regular development projects and programs undertaken by these NGOs. Funding for development projects are on the rise in the recent years (ODI, 1996).

Major development projects have been implemented by NGOs throughout the world. The following is a small sample of such projects. Adult Basic Education Society a registered NGO in Pakistan implemented several education related projects in Pakistan. One project concentrated on the non formal education of girls in the Gujranwala division. Another project carried out by this society was the multi grade teacher training in the Rawalpindi division. In the consumer protection sector, the Network for Consumer Protection works towards to protect and promote consumer rights in Pakistan. The main activities carried out by this organization are training and educational programs on consumer rights, helping people to get independent information on products and services and providing information on government activities regarding consumer protection. The other objective of the organization is the promotion of responsible and sustainable consumption practices in society, as well as the development of alternative systems. In Nigeria the Adolescent Project (TAP) was founded in 1999 by Justice Mary Odili. Justice Odili is the wife of the former governor of the River State in Nigeria. The objective of this project was to train young people in new skills, so they could become useful citizens of Nigeria. Today this project is considered a success as several thousand people have acquired new skills through this initiative.

One of the most successful and sustainable civil society projects is the micro financing project initiated by the Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank started by Prof. Yunus is giving small loans commonly known as microcredit to very poor families without any collateral or legal formalities like signing contracts. This is a novel scheme in a sense these people cannot approach the traditional lending agencies as they are considered as credit risk without a collateral. They usually get into more trouble and the vicious cycle of debt by approaching the village lenders who charge exorbitant interest from these poor masses. The loans are made to poor people on the condition that the money must be used for some entrepreneurial task not just consumption, so the loan can be paid back. In order to increase the repayment rates, loans are given to members of groups where peer pressure is high for the repayment of the borrowing as default by one member may affect the future borrowings off all the members of the group. In addition to the micro financing carried out by the Grameen Bank, they all require the beneficiaries to send their school going aged children to send them to school, they want them to have proper housing, and eat properly. This way this is complete program for the upliftment of the poor rather than one just concentrates on economic development. Other operations carried out by the Bank are providing services like accepting deposits, advising on investment opportunities and running small rural development projects. This project is a tremendous success that the founder and the bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and around 40 other countries have adopted similar schemes in their countries (Wikipedia, 2010).

Using civil society organizations in development work has certain disadvantages too. The projects implemented through civil society organizations are not sustainable, if the government participation is not included in every stage from planning, implementation to maintenance. The main reason for the sustainability problem is the short term and specific focus of these projects. Certain projects implemented by NGOs lack proper feasibility studies. Other shortcomings may be summarized as little or no participation of local stake holders, issues with the host country governments, cultural insensitivity of the implementers of projects, total lacking of benefit analysis and evaluation, sometimes incomplete projects due to funding drying up and high administrative costs.

Civil Society in Algeria

Algeria is an Arab country in North Africa with a land area of around 2.5 million square kilometers and a population of 35 million people. Algeria was colonized by France for 132 years. In 1962 Algeria gained independence from France. After the independence, Algeria has gone through several revolutions and military coups and even today fighting the Islamic militia which has for killed around 200,000 people. Algeria has the largest number of civil society organization numbering more than 70,000. This is the most number of civil societies in any country in the Arab world (Liverani, 2008). These civil society organizations represent almost every aspect of the Algerian people’s life. There are worker unions to represent workers in Algeria, women’s organizations to work towards the women’s rights and interest, Students’ unions focus on the student issues and education and even the war veterans who fought in the national liberation war were looked after by the National War Veterans Union. The following sections take a brief look at the few of these organizations.

Before the independence, the Algerians participated in the French trade unions. In 1956, Algerians were banned from participating in the French trade unions. After this Algerians formed their own trade union under the name of the Algerian General Workers’ Union. Later this trade union was affiliated to the Front of Liberation National the main political party in Algeria. Most of the time this trade union promoted the government policies discouraging mass strikes and public demonstrations. Sometimes they even promoted government legislation banning strikes in certain sectors of industry. Later due to the pressure from the workers demanding independence from political interference in labor rights, smaller labor unions were created by breaking the large union.

National Union of Algerian Students is the student movement created by the Front of Libration National. At the forming years, the union was very active and participated in several protests including strikes, boycotts and violent clashes with the government officials. The government later suppressed and dissolved the union in early 1970s. A more passive National Union of Algerian Youth was later formed absorbing all the student movements again under the Front of Liberation National. This was the only recognized youth front in Algeria.

To protect the rights of the Algerian farmers, the National Union of Algerian Farmers was created in 1973. This one is also a front organization created by the FLN. Even though a framers union was formed most of the members of the union either had few or no land of their own as most of the agricultural lands were nationalized. This union compared to other unions is less active, less united or influential. Later due to efforts of the union and the government some improvements in the agriculture sector including better production and general conditions of workers’ life were achieved. Later governments took some initiative to return the previously nationalized agricultural lands back to owners despite the efforts by certain quarters to oppose this move.

Recently the Algerian entrepreneurs have got together to form their own societies. With the government policy of liberalizing the economy and privatization of the government enterprises, new entrepreneurs were created in Algeria. The new entrepreneurs formed their professional associations of small business owners. These associations are very active and growing rapidly specially in the membership and activities. The Algerian Confederation of Employers, the General Confederation of Algerian Economic Operators, and the General Union of Algerian Merchants and Artisans are few examples of such organizations coming under this umbrella.

The National Union of Algerian Women is one of the societies created by the government of Algeria for the purpose of promoting socialism in the country. Even though the union participated in several processions including the one to celebrate the International Women’s Day, it never was considered an important organization working towards the upliftment of women by feminist group. This group remained a urban women’s organization as it failed to rural women to its fold even if the rural women are considered a vulnerable group especially in male dominated societies. But to its credit, the union could see an improvement in the educational sector of women. Women’s participation in educational activities at all levels from primary education to university education including technical education has seen remarkable improvements. Today the women constitute more than 40 percent of students at all levels in Algeria.

International and national non governmental organizations are also active in Algeria. They play an important role in the Algerian society especially in the agricultural and educational sectors. The following are some of the projects carried out by such organizations.

The European Union (EU) through its Investing in People program has implemented several poverty reduction projects in the Arabian countries including Algeria. Usually these funds are channeled through non governmental organizations. The main areas covered under the broad banner of poverty reduction include empowerment of women, promotion of civil and political rights and fight gender inequality. In addition to this, the EU has funded projects on the environmental protection, protection of the national heritage, culture and health.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) funded a program costing $75,000.00 for the promotion of natural resource management in Algeria. One of the main projects carried out under this program was to enhance the capacities of the non governmental organizations involved in the protection of bio diversity and fight against soil degradation. The other activities carried out were the construction of a waste water treatment plant and the establishment pilot farm with the implementation of agrosylvopastoral techniques. This technique would eliminate the salinizaton of water and desertification of the arid zones. For the purpose of sustaining these projects, a community based group was formed and trained in the operation and maintenance of waste water treatment plant.

Another project funded by the UNICEF promoted house gardening of vegetables for consumption the Tindouf desert area in the South of Algeria. The project was titled "Construction of family gardens and school gardens in the refugee camps of the Saharawis". This project today provides enough vegetables for consumption of the families who participated in the project. The main feature of this project is the minimal use of water as water is a very scarce resource in this area.

There are several organizations that have been funding academic and research in various fields in Algeria and other countries of the region. The following a list of some of those organizations and the projects funded by them. Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation – Supports scientific research and encouraging researchers, in particular the young ones, AM Qattan Foundation – Guests/Consultants of NGOs who will implement a cultural, artistic, or educational mission/project of limited duration, American Institute for Maghreb Studies – Open to Maghreb citizens who are conducting research for a doctoral dissertation or are post doctoral or senior scholars, Arab Authority for Agricultural and Investment Development – Offers funding for applied scientific research programs, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development – Provides Arab Ph.D. holders who have excellent academic track record with opportunities to conduct research and/or lecture in the best universities of the world, and Arab Human Rights Fund -Supports projects that respond to potential openings for the advancement of human rights in the region. Opportunities of this sort may include the relaxation of government restrictions in a particular country; increased public engagement and demands for respect for a particular human right; the formation of a new network of organizations.

Conclusion

The society is defined to be constituted by three main elements. These elements are namely the government or the state, the market or the economy and the civil society. Even though there is no single definition accepted by all as what civil society is or what constitutes the civil society, many agree on the presumption that the civil society is made of associations to which people subscribe to voluntarily. Similar to the difficulty in finding a commonly acceptable definition, it is also difficult to enumerate all the organizations that form the civil society in any country or place. It has been shown that the civil society contributes to the development of the society in several aspects including the promotion of civil and political rights, protection of vulnerable groups such as women, children and disabled in a society, working towards the empowerment of people by carrying out poverty reduction programs and skill enhancement programs.

One of the main active constituent elements of the civil society is the non governmental organizations. Non governmental organizations contribute a lot to the economic and social development of societies. They carry out a lot of projects throughout the world enhancing the quality of life of people. The contribution of the non governmental organizations becomes critical and visible during emergencies and crisis situations. In the recent times the international donors like the World Bank, European Union and the International Monetary Fund are all willing to channel their development funds through non governmental organizations as they are less bureaucratic in their operations and can be held accountable for actions and funds compared to the governments. The contribution of non governmental organizations is not confined to developing countries, even the developed countries can benefit from the operations of non governmental organizations. This is mainly due to the fact that no government has unlimited funds to meet all the requirements of every citizen. The non governmental organization can play a complementary role to the governments in meeting the development needs of its citizens. The operation of non governmental organizations is not without critsism. The main critsism against the work of the non governmental organizations is in the area of sustainability of the projects and sometimes the short sighted approaches taken and the lack of local participation

Algeria as a country host a lot of civil society organizations. Initially several organizations were created by the political party that was in power. But later several independent organizations emerged. These civil society organizations have contributed a lot to the country in several ways including ensuring the rights of people to economic development. Non governmental organizations have carried out a lot of projects in Algeria especially in the areas of environmental protection and sustainable agricultural practices. The women have benefitted from the civil society organization efforts tremendously in terms of access to education. Today the proportion of women in educational organizations including universities is more than 40 percent.

Article name: Role Has Civil Society Played In Algerian Development Politics essay, research paper, dissertation

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