According to the World Bank: “Civil society … refers to a wide array of organizations: community groups, non-governmental organizations [NGOs], labour unions, indigenous groups, charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, and foundations.” Examples of well-known civil society organizations include Amnesty International, the International Trade Union Confederation, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Greenpeace and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). Civil society is an essential building block of development and national cohesion. In a country blessed with peace and stability, civil society fills the space untouched by government and the private sector. In a fragile and conflict-ridden country, it plays an even more important role of providing services normally the responsibility of the state and business and can lay the foundation for reconciliation.
At various points throughout history, civil society has taken on the role of leading great movements of change, including civil rights, gender equality and other parity movements.
The role of civil society
Societies are constantly changing. They're shaped by world events, struggles, and creative, technological and economic advances. Civil society provides a way to engage productively in this process—to keep tabs on new developments and partner with other organizations working for the common good in society, community, state, country.
Some of the most critical jobs involve:
1)Social accountability
2) Empowering communities.
3) Ensuring good governance.
Conclusion
Liberal democracy inevitably gives rise to conflict between the protected realms of private belief and action on the one hand, and the state's need to achieve goods that benefit the entire community on the other. Civil society becomes the primary arena for fostering institutions and values through which these conflicts can be resolved, a place where “a variety of conceptions of the good—including many that deviate widely from the beliefs of the mainstream majority—may be freely enacted.”
WRITER- PINKY BOTHRA
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