Acord e-Newsletter 

No 6 (23 January 2003)
Return to Newsletter No 6.

Article 1

SOCIAL ACTION PROGRAMME: What does it mean to work with and support social movements?

ACORD’s 2003 to 2006 Strategic Plan states that it will seek to be part of and support Social Movements in Africa. While the idea of working in alliance with others makes sense intuitively what does it mean in practice? What role have social movements played in the past in Africa? What are their potential strengths and weaknesses? With these questions in mind ACORD brought together three speakers to provide their insights on the issue as a means of starting a debate both within ACORD and amongst those we are likely to want to work with. The brief report that follows is a brief summary of that discussion.

Social movements, are formed to provide space for citizen participation beyond the formal and legal frameworks set by governments and other powerful institutions, said Prof. Peter Anyang N'yongo (an academic and politician) speaking at a recent gathering of ACORD staff, its Board, its members and a cross-section of participants from various organisations and agencies in Nairobi early last November. The gathering was aimed at exploring the relevance and viability of social movements in fighting social exclusion in Africa.

  'Social movements emerge as popular contestations, redefining and extending the space and limits of ‘acceptable’ forms of political, social and economic engagement', said Anyang." And because they emerge spontaneously around social, political or economic goals, they dissolve equally fast, once they have fulfilled their mission.'

He stressed that efforts by governments and other supra-state institutions to reduce the space for citizen participation presents major threats to citizens. 'This has worsened in the recent past, especially under the excuse of the global fight against terrorism. The rise of organised protests across the globe is an indication of a growing popular realisation that citizens must ultimately rise against forms of legal participation that seek to limit their space for engagement.'

However, there is nothing inherently democratic in movements, warned Murtaza Jaffer, Novib's Project Co-ordinator for Somalia, also speaking at the gathering. 'The nationalist movements, which rode on the wave of negritude that assume an innate virtuousness in being black or African, provide good examples of this. Mobutu, Bokassa, Idi Amin and many other African dictators highlighted that ‘black’ could be as oppressive as the white colonial predecessor. The weakened status of the African state,' he added, 'raises questions with regard to the salience of movements focused on the state and whether they should widen their focus. This raises important questions on their mandate and the legitimacy of their actions.'

Jaffer also questions the role of NGOs as vanguards of social movements, particularly as most have emerged from charities, require state legislation to exist, are de-politicised and have formal and hierarchical structures. NGOs rely on external funding, complete with time-lines, reporting dates, set objectives and activities and a host of other conditionalities, which limits what they can do. Social movements are spontaneous, do not require formal state registration to exist and are not structured. Movements belong to the people and defy hierarchical arrangements or confinement within formalised institutional structures. 'Given their spontaneity, mass base and autonomy, can social movements be externally funded and be subject to such stringent conditionality?' asked Jaffer.

Opiyo Makoude, ACORD’s Assistant Programming Director for Advocacy, the third speaker at the gathering, defining social movements as ‘fairly permanent, or sustained, collective action by a group or groups that seeks a restructuring of the social order, based on a shared notion of justice.’

He emphasised that Africa needs social movements because development hasn’t worked most people in Africa. Most remain trapped in poverty, marginalisation and exclusion which has been transmitted from previous generations, and will almost certainly be transmitted to the next. Social movements are also essential because of the worsening condition of the poor and excluded due to sharp declines in economic performance, the prevalence of diseases (especially malaria and HIV/AIDS) and pressures inherent in rapid economic globalisation. Conventional civil society interventions in dealing with the above problems have not worked – NGO intervention in providing basic needs, working with groups of the poor and excluded or in engaging individual national governments to change restrictive policies have often been too piece meal and isolated to make any major impact.

Makoude justified ACORD’s strategic shift in supporting social movements in Africa on the basis of the need to go beyond conventional NGO approaches in dealing with poverty and social exclusion. ‘We need to mobilise partnerships and alliances to confront the causes of exclusion and marginalisation in Africa’, he said. ‘Isolated efforts, however well intentioned, will always be limited in impact. Having worked for over 25 years across 18 countries in Africa, in over 46 programmes, ACORD is well positioned to be part of such movements and to help catalyse their formation. The organisation has strong links in Africa, Europe, Canada and Hong Kong, and intends to use and extend its network in helping to build movements for achieving social justice in Africa.’

Makoude outlined the four building blocks that are essential for movements in Africa. The first is to work with and support particular individuals among the socially excluded to be able to articulate the perspectives of the excluded. The next is support groups of the excluded to organize and demand their rights. Thirdly, organisations and institutions that perpetuate social exclusion need to be challenged and engaged to change their ways of working. Finally, there is need to link with organisations, groups and individuals at various levels, within and across different countries in Africa and internationally to analyse, change and reform systems, structures and policies that cause and perpetuate social exclusion.

There are number of challenges that stand in the face of social movements. One is getting authentic mandate and legitimacy and being credible and salient. The second is knowing how to engage with the contending discourses, perspectives and interests that are characteristic of development. Thirdly, being able to deal effectively with conflicting interests that characterise movements, and ensure that the greatest good accrues to the socially excluded while limiting the damage and risks to them. Advocacy and campaigning must constantly evaluate the risk of these activities to the people it works with.

Molly Kane, ACORD Board Chairperson, in her closing remarks, stressed the need to question popular perceptions. For instance, does ‘International NGO’ amount to Northern NGOs doing international development or NGOs that are truly international in their structures? She argued that NGOs were re-creating levels of citizenship; in colonial times there were citizens and subjects, now NGOs have recreated distinctions between citizens and beneficiaries. ‘Whereas globalisation ought to create greater freedom for citizens to organise across borders and deal with challenges that confront humanity, governments are constricting that space under the pretext of fighting global terrorism’ she said. In her view, governments use the law to break the law, i.e. by infringing on personal freedoms, and thus criminalising dissent. Finally, she urged that there is need for constant critical reflection on how ACORD works, and some of the concepts that underpin ACORD’s work. For example, what is social exclusion? Who is excluded, and excluded from what? In terms of inclusion, ‘Inclusion into what?’ she asked. She advised that while there are no easy answers or solutions to the problems we seek to solve, part of the answer lies in the process of debate itself.