Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation study - Fragility by Choice? Nederlandse samenvatting

The Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation, consisting of CARE, HealthNet TPO, Save the Children and ZOA, jointly implement programmes in six countries labelled “fragile”: Burundi, DR Congo, Liberia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Our programmes aim to rehabilitate the physical, societal and economic infrastructure of conflict-affected communities and assist civil society and governmental actors to become stronger stakeholders in the creation of a sustainable peace dividend. Individually, our organizations have a long track record of engagement with local populations in situations of crisis and distress. Not unlike other actors however, we face a range of old and newly emerging challenges. 

In order to increase our contextual understanding and improve our programmatic interventions, we commissioned underlying research study on the strategies civil society organizations (CSOs) in Burundi, South Sudan and Uganda deploy to counter fragility in their countries and contribute to sustainable development for their communities. Building on the ECDPM Discussion Paper No. 135 (Strengthening civil society? – Reflections on international engagement in fragile states), a central feature of this study is
the focus on stakeholder relations. This study takes CSOs as a prism and tunes in on relations with and between host governments, donor governments and INGOs. 

The study firstly challenges the notion of a civil society as a countervailing power in the African. Subsequently, it subdivides the interventions of local civic organizations over three dimensions fragility: the socio-economic, security and political dimension. Civil society is a ‘mixed bag’ with examples across the spectrum, most clearly so in the socio-economic dimension. It comes to the salient conclusion that socio-economic activities can take place relatively unhindered, but once activities become more political in nature or challenge structural issues, the State invariably responds with repressive measures. The report goes as far as saying that States are not always willing to change practices that sustain fragility and in this respect coins the phrase “Fragility by choice?”.

For the complete study, please contact Elske van Gorkum, DCR advocacy coordinator: [email protected]