Safeguarding Civic Space: Harnessing Narrative Change to Restore Public Trust in CSOs

 

In an era of shrinking civic space, civil society organisations (CSOs) find themselves under immense pressure, contending with a barrage of legal measures and narrative attacks aimed at undermining and vilifying them. Against this backdrop of democratic backsliding, our guide serves as a proactive resource, to move past commenting on the erosion of democracy to empowering actors to defend and promote civic rights effectively.

Crafted from first-hand experience and extensive research, our guide offers 10 practical lessons for proactive narrative change. Drawing from successful campaigns around the globe, including in-depth insights from a locally-led CSO coalition in Kazakhstan and efforts to counter 'foreign agents' laws in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan, these lessons provide actionable strategies to restore trust in CSOs with sceptical middle audiences.

attack narratives

Map of common attack frames from Section 3

Whether used independently as a narrative change strategy or in conjunction with legal, policy, and diplomatic levers employed in civic space campaigning, this toolkit equips leaders of public campaigns with the tools to safeguard civic space. Each lesson is supported by a wealth of additional resources, offering further insight and guidance from our Reframing Migration Narratives Toolkit and Strategic Communications Knowledge Base.

To find out more about this guide, the background project and who is behind it, see the About page. You can access this resource in modules from the linked pages below or download as a single PDF: 

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