Civic space is under attack and shrinking, even as access to and use of new digital communication channels is growing. Regulatory and institutional frameworks in the global South have become increasingly restrictive, limiting the ability of citizens and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to utilize civic spaces for organizing, expressing, and participating in decision-making processes that impact the communities they serve. An alarming statistic highlights this grave issue: a staggering 117 out of 197 countries employ at least one of three repressive methods – physical harassment, negative labelling, and restrictive legislation – as reported by CIVICUS, to suppress civil society efforts.
The shrinking of civil society is closely associated with the rapid decline in democracy. According to data from V-Dem, a monitoring institute based in Sweden, more democracies are declining, and even sliding into autocracy – autocratisation is ongoing in 42 countries, home to 2.8 billion people, or 35% of the world’s population. India, with 18% of the world’s population, accounts for about half of the population living in autocratizing countries.
The backsliding of democracy, meanwhile, is accompanied with the global oligarchy on the economic front, where there is a heavy concentration of resources among a few. Since 2020, while nearly five billion people throughout the world have been made poorer, the five richest men on the planet have become twice as wealthy and are now worth more than USD 800 billion.
Likewise, wealth and income inequality are being further exacerbated by climate crisis. While the world’s richest 1% of the population are responsible for more than twice as many emissions as the poorest 50%, 4 women, people of colour, indigenous peoples, and other marginalised groups are on the receiving end of climate breakdown. The current impoverishment and inequality demand greater public investment in addressing the crisis and providing support for marginalised communities. Conversely, over the past two or three years, various parts of the world – Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea region – have witnessed conflicts that have claimed thousands of lives and left millions displaced.
Even amid repressive state measures, civil societies have maintained their collective organisation and have not ceased mobilization efforts. Instead, they have navigated anti-civil society legislation and constraints on freedom of expression and organisation by employing innovative methods, including utilising online platforms and loose networks within civil society. However, many civil societies tend to engage in a considerable degree of self-censorship and caution when addressing contentious issues, strategically tiptoeing around the boundaries of “acceptable” civil activism so as to enable them to continue operating and sustaining themselves within the prevailing context.
World Social Forum: Building Global Resistance amidst the Era of Neoliberalism
The World Social Forum (WSF), since its inception in 2001, has emerged as a vital platform for nurturing resilient civic resistance against the ruthless implementation of neoliberal policies and the global dominance of capital and imperialism. It serves as an inclusive arena that facilitates the exchange of diverse thoughts and experiences, empowering self-organised assemblies to strategise for meaningful change. The WSF represents both a physical space and an ongoing process through which people’s movements and civil society organisations worldwide unite against neoliberalism, climate injustice, patriarchy, racism, queerphobia, xenophobia, and war. With its resounding slogan“Another World is Possible”, the WSF has extended its focus towards crafting alternatives to neoliberal globalization, challenging the mainstream claim that“there is no alternative.”
World Social Forum 2024 in Nepal
Nepal hosted the 16th edition of the World Social Forum on 15-19 February 2024 amidst unprecedented global challenges, including economic crisis, climate crisis, and geopolitical tensions. The Forum reiterated its emphasis on the imperative for a new world order founded on principles of sustainability, dignity, co-existence, equality, and equity. WSF 2024 featured a diverse array of thematic panels, self-organised activities, and assemblies, including Intercontinental Youth Forum, the Palestinian Social Forum, Intercontinental Parliamentary Forum for the Fossil-Fuel Free Future, and Global Feminist Forum, aimed at fostering dialogue and strategizing for change.
For quite some time, mainstream political spaces have marginalised critical civil society actors through de-legitimization, persecution, prosecution, and excessive control. Amidst this, WSF 2024 in Kathmandu, Nepal, emerged as a crucial moment for civil society organisations and social movements including farmers’ organisations, trade unions, community forest user groups, women’s organisations, Dalit organisations, indigenous and marginalised groups, youth groups, and networks, to engage in collective actions.
The World Social Forum 2024 garnered significant interest and participation. It saw 50,000 participants following a hybrid model, which included 35,000 physical attendees and 15,000 online, from 1,359 organisations spanning 102 nations. Each day of the programme featured over 140 activities, all revolving around 13 overarching themes addressing critical global issues. Themes at the WSF 2024 ranged from economic justice and labour rights to discrimination, gender equality, land rights, peace, education, democracy, health rights, climate justice, and social movements. In the end, the Forum saw the release of 91 civil society statements that further delved into the complexities and nuances of these thematic areas.
LDC Watch and SAAPE members have played effective role in providing space and enhancing the capacity of the CSOs of South Asia and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to undertake advocacy, lobbying and grassroots mobilisation around progressive campaign agendas, including inequality, access to land and resources, women’s rights, minimum wage and social security, and most importantly, the promotion of people’s platforms, for example, People’s SAARC. As members of the International Council (IC) and the Asia Pacific Social Forum Facilitation Committee (APSF FC), SAAPE played a vital role in connecting movements and CSOs to the process, while fostering support and collaboration from national, regional, and international civil society groups. Nationally, the LDC Watch and SAAPE Secretariat in Kathmandu played a crucial role in liaising within the national WSF mechanism, coordinating with and providing essential support to the Nepal General Council, Nepal Organizing Committee, Nepal Advisory Committee, and thematic committees. In addition, SAAPE organised several side-events during the World Social Forum in collaboration with its campaign and network members during WSF 2024.