Professionalisation of civil society: an aid to the shrinking of civic space and the taming of democracy promotion? The case of Zimbabwe

Abstract

With a general regression of democratic practices being observed globally, a lot of attention has been placed on external factors operating to close the room for civil society organisations to respond and act, such as restrictions on foreign funding, anti-terrorism legislation and judicial harassment of civil society actors. This symposium draws attention to the practice of professionalisation of the sector in response to donor funding practices in order to assess how this practice interacts with other factors and pressures to shrink civic space and tame the democratisation role of civil society. This study invites a reflection on the impacts of donor funding practices on civic space and democratisation through a case study of Zimbabwe. This paper argues that professionalisation prompted by donor funding practices introduces administrative and operational barriers on civil society similar to those imposed by state regulatory authorities and these practices are therefore equally restrictive on civic space particularly in the Global South. The study proposes use of funding practices that are tempered with geo-political contextualisation, and a reconfiguration of civil society models and roles in a new digitised and globalised world. Keywords: professionalisation of civil society; shrinking civic space; civil society; democratisation