Workshop: Dealing with contested civic space and democratic erosion

Do you ever struggle with the following questions?

• When trying to strengthen local civil society and promote an open civic space, who decides who is ‘civil’ and who is ‘uncivil society’?
• To what extent will you go against the ruling government in your quest to promote civil rights and freedoms and an open civic space?
• When the regime of the country you are working in is steadily becoming more autocratic, do you continue working with the government? When local partners are seeking collaboration with autocratic leaders, do you try to stop them?
• When your programmatic objectives can be realised by collaborating with autocratic or ‘uncivil’ actors, to what extent are you willing to put your democratic values aside?