Section 1 - Introduction

 

When political leaders with anti-democratic or authoritarian tendencies take office, they seek to stifle criticism, deliberation and the institutional checks and balances we expect in a democracy1 . Installing loyalists into executive and political offices may be the first step, soon to be followed by targeting the independence of courts, the media and civil society organisations (CSOs2 ). It is these attempts to stifle and undermine the functioning of an effective and thriving civil society that is referred to by many as the phenomenon of ‘shrinking civic space’3 . These tactics are considered such a significant threat that many key actors are proposing strategies to respond and counter the shrinking of civic space4 . 
 
Our work on this issue, and the work of partners and supporters of the sector, shows that patterns have become evident across contexts (including those considered more democratic) aiming to erode trust in the civil society sector and undermine the legitimate role the sector plays5 . As a result, CSOs are under enormous pressure and are often on the backfoot, trying to defend themselves against the range of legal measures and narratives attacks that seek to undermine, defame and vilify individuals, organisations and/or the whole sector. We have developed this guide for everyone concerned with this growing pattern of democratic backsliding, to support preventive strategies and more importantly, to move on from the focus on commenting on the erosion of democracy to empowering actors to proactively respond. 
 
In this guide, we share the lessons learned from supporting CSOs and civil society coalitions for more than 10 years to design, experiment and implement narrative change campaigns that seek to restore and rebuild public support for progressive values, and specifically working on civic space narratives with a CSO coalition in Kazakhstan for six years. In addition, in line with the calls for preventive strategies, we suggest a proactive approach to communications designed to complement the more commonly used legal, policy and diplomatic levers in response to civic space attacks. 
 

Intended users for the guide

This resource is intended to support CSOs and allies working to support and safeguard civic space and democracy. More specifically, it aims to support those directly involved in designing and leading public advocacy and narrative change campaigns to engage the more sceptical segments of the public, i.e. those who can tip the balance in whether measures to shrink civic space go ahead. It is worth noting that these lessons and insights, having first assessed safety concerns, can also be applied in more authoritarian states, as leaders in such contexts are very concerned with maintaining public support6 . Hence, we hope the practice and guidelines in this resource will have a broad reach, relevance and use.


Overview of the guide

The lessons and practice in this resource have been developed from extensive empirically-tested narrative change campaigning experience with a coalition in the challenging environment of Kazakhstan. This work was led by a local coalition7 and focused on a narrative change campaign called #Azamatbol (Good Citizen)8 , which proved that storytelling and messaging based on shared unfiying values can significantly shift attitudes in the positive on CSOs. In addition, we conducted primary research on campaigns that successfully fought back proposals to introduce so-called ‘foreign agents’ laws in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan (in the mid-2010's), and analysed published case studies of civic space campaigning from 31 other countries. (See Section 6 for more on the case specifics). It is worth noting that as we finalise this work, that the situation in Kyrgystan has changed for the worse and a foreign agents law very similar to the one discussed in the case study was passed in April 20249 .

 

  Title Focus
Section 1 Introduction Overview of the guide
Section 2 Overview of Shrinking Civic Space Explaining the idea of civic space, how it shrinks and the common responses
Section 3 Common Attack Narratives A frame map of dominant common attack narratives used in attempts to shrink civic space
Section 4 10 Core Lessons for Narrative Change Practice The practical messaging and campaigning guidance
Section 5 Proactive Strategic Communications Responses Our proposal for a proactive strategy to prevent shrinking civic space
Section 6 Advocacy cases countering civic space restrictions Background to case studies used in the guide


 
At the broader level, we open this guide by explaining the idea of civic space, how it shrinks and the common responses (See Section 2). As our main focus is on narrative change, we have also put together a frame map of the most common attack narratives used in attempts to shrink civic space (See Section 3). We hope that this can help all partners to recognise the relatively predictable playbook of narrative attacks to inform responses. In addition, we have also developed a proposal for a proactive preventive strategy to keep proposals to shrink civic space off the agenda (See Section 5). In fact, the change noted above in Kyrgystan over the last decade where restrictive legal proposals go off the agenda and then back on under changing politics/circumstances, provides strong backing to consider such preventative measures.  

 
At the more practical campaigning level, we have developed 10 lessons that we found to be key to an effective narrative change response (See Section 4). In each lesson, we open with an accessible explanation of the lesson in ‘Essence’ and ‘Insight’ sections. We then illustrate the real-life application of the lesson in the campaign cases we have worked on and/or analysed. Lastly, we provide key guidance on applying the lesson in practice (and what you can get wrong) in an ‘Action’ section.

 
These 10 lessons combined provide guidance on a tried and tested proactive narrative change approach that can be used as a preventive measure on its own or can complement legal, policy and diplomatic levers which together serve to protect civic space. Behind each lesson, there is a wealth of further insight, and we provide links throughout to our Reframing Migration Narratives Toolkit and Strategic Communications Knowledge Base, as well as many other resources and sources.

 

 

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