As I step into the role of Secretary General at CIVICUS, the world’s preeminent civil society alliance, I do so at a moment of global reckoning.
From Gaza to Sudan, Myanmar to Ukraine, we are witnessing not just a crisis of conflict, but a crisis of leadership — and Washington must decide whether to be part of the problem or the solution.
International institutions are failing when they’re most needed. We are witnessing the live-streamed genocide of entire peoples. Despite the courage and empathy exhibited by activists like those in the Madleen Freedom Flotilla, we find some politicians ridiculing them and calling for them to be held in solitary confinement.
Armed forces in several parts of the world are committing war crimes with impunity, indiscriminately attacking civilians and torturing prisoners.
International rules to prevent conflicts and bring perpetrators to justice that civil society worked hard to put in place are being openly flouted.
Multilateral bodies tasked with preventing war and ensuring peace are effectively paralyzed, unable to agree on language, let alone action.
Not since the end of the Cold War have we witnessed so much disagreement and abdication of responsibility. Powerful states are creating a “might is right” world through values-free transactional diplomacy.
Meanwhile, civil society activists who speak truth to power, uncover corruption, or aim to drive transformative social change are being increasingly criminalized, restricted, and silenced in far too many places in the world.
The quality of democracy on offer is in serious decline. Our alliance members are being imprisoned, attacked, and vilified merely for doing their work. This is happening not just in authoritarian states but in countries with democratic traditions.
Decline in Civic Freedoms
We are living through the steepest decline in civic freedoms in generations. Protest bans, internet shutdowns, targeted disinformation campaigns, and draconian NGO laws have become standard tools of repression.
For three-fourths of the world’s population, the space to organize, speak out, or simply exist in opposition to power has been squeezed — often violently.
This crisis is not just about failing systems. It’s about unending greed and the absence of principled leadership to better the lives of the disadvantaged. And it’s happening at the same time when wealth accumulation and technological advancements are at their peak. Global military spending has topped 2.7 trillion dollars, while 750 million people are facing chronic hunger.
We are not just witnessing geopolitical instability — we are witnessing the collapse of political will, moral courage, and international cooperation.
We are being led by political leaders with immense resources and tiny hearts. Power-hoarding, vote-chasing, and policy formulation by political calculation are the fashion. Among those who hold the cards, principled and empathetic leadership is in short supply, as are humility and willingness to listen.
The World Ablaze
No wonder, the world is ablaze — literally and figuratively. Conflict-related deaths are at their highest in 30 years. Billionaire wealth is surging while poverty remains stubbornly pervasive. Environmental breakdown is accelerating, fueled by corporations that profit from polluting the Earth and its biodiversity.
In Gaza, ethnic cleansing is unfolding as the world looks away. In Sudan, civilians are paying a monumental price in a power struggle between two opposing forces. In Ukraine, a war of attrition is wiping out a whole generation of young people. In Myanmar and Nicaragua, totalitarian regimes are crushing people’s futures with impunity.
And still, in the face of mounting evidence and grave breaches of international law, these atrocities persist not just because bad actors feel emboldened but because global responses — including from Washington — have been tepid, fragmented, or selectively applied.
This breakdown has real consequences for US foreign policy. In Washington, lawmakers continue to debate the scale and scope of US aid — military, humanitarian, and development-related — while lives hang in the balance. Billions are spent to arm militaries, but support for civil society actors is shrinking.
Courage and Perseverance
Against this backdrop, it’s civil society actors who are holding the line. Civil society organizations are providing lifesaving humanitarian aid, leading reconstruction efforts, collecting evidence of human rights abuses, and urging the international community to take action to end impunity.
Ukrainian volunteer networks are aiding displaced families and rooting out corruption in humanitarian supply chains. Sudanese youth are delivering life-saving aid in conflict zones. In Palestine, citizen journalists are documenting war crimes the world might otherwise ignore.
Youth groups increasingly connected by online activism are emerging to lead today’s impressive civic movements, demanding progress on contemporary scourges such as economic inequality, gender-based violence, and climate change.
Citizens of over 50 countries plan a Global March to Gaza, shifting global public opinion on Israel’s denial of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. These are acts not just of service, but of courage and perseverance.
Meeting the Moment
Yet, many of us who work in organized civil society have been dealt body blows through harmful Official Development Assistance (ODA) cuts, prompting much soul-searching in times when we are already impacted by rising authoritarianism.
Yet, we are not complacent and actively thinking about how to reclaim the notion of substantive democracy from ethno-nationalist forces who have wrested power in several countries. They wish to equate obtaining a majority at the ballot box to being able to lay claim to all the levers of the state, including the judiciary, while actively overlooking the wishes of minorities and crushing democratic dissent.
As Secretary General of CIVICUS, I will work to ensure civil society leadership meets the present moment.
First, those of us who care about social justice and human rights need to adopt a movement mindset that ingrains principled courage, agility, and dispersed leadership in organizations to counter authoritarian forces through peaceful resistance.
Second, we need to focus on public narrative change by connecting with people’s aspirations through serious investments in our media outreach capacities. Ideally, these should be geared toward influencing swathes of the general population who detest injustice.
Third, we need to reconnect with communities to advance bottom-up needs for enduring social change while reducing the present excessive focus on top-down policy-influencing strategies that rely on familiarity with influential decision-makers.
Fourth, we need to diversify our funding streams to ensure that we aren’t dependent on the largesse of a handful of funders or vulnerable to their whims. To do this, we may need to explore entrepreneurship approaches and crowdfunding strategies.
Fifth, we must at all times exercise 360-degree accountability, which extends to all our stakeholders, particularly those in whose names we purport to exist and act.
Tipping Point
The world is at a dangerous tipping point. Our mission at CIVICUS to strengthen civil society and citizen action throughout the world remains ever-relevant.
While the world is ablaze, it doesn’t have to stay like this. Washington has a choice: double down on transactional diplomacy or recommit to principled leadership.
To remain a credible force for democracy, the US must do more than arm militaries. It must invest in civil society. It must protect civic space. And it must hold all perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable. The future hinges on how it moves forward.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
