Today, Mexico and Central America face an increasingly hostile civic landscape—one that continues to test the resilience of community-based civil society organizations. These grassroots actors play an irreplaceable role: they sustain life and offer real alternatives in territories where government presence is often absent. Their work is not only essential—it is transformative.
Maylí Sepúlveda Toledo, External Consultant at COMETA
Why talk about resilience in civil society organizations today?
International financiers: risk and opportunity
In recent years, international funders have steadily withdrawn from Latin America, often citing political shifts and redirecting priorities toward other regions, such as Africa. Despite the rhetoric of initiatives like “Shift the Power,” these shifts in global cooperation have rarely acknowledged the strategic importance of community-based organizations in our region.
For many organizations, this retreat has meant an abrupt loss of critical resources—with few clear pathways to replace them. One key expression of resilience in civil society organizations is the insistence on diversifying funding sources and strengthening internal capacities. These efforts are vital to navigating the current vacuum and reducing dependency on external actors.
Competition that fragments vs. networks that sustain
In many of our workspaces, a shared concern persists: the competition among organizations for the same limited funding. It’s not new—but it remains painful. The structure of international aid has pushed us to compete for visibility, to demonstrate rapid impact, and to deliver more results with fewer resources.
This model has eroded our collaborative networks. Horizontal learning processes and collaborative alliances are another expression of resilience within civil society organizations—strategies that allow us to sustain ourselves in community, where sharing is not a risk, but a source of collective strength.
Lack of Recognition for Local Organizations
Many international funders and actors still struggle to grasp the specific realities of local organizations in Mexico and Central America—and making this visible is essential. We are not peripheral, but strategic actors with deep territorial knowledge and lived experience. We have sustained life in contexts marked by violence, institutional neglect, and structural inequality.
Too often, we are expected to conform to external frameworks that disregard our methodologies and organizational cultures. This must change. There is extraordinary power in creating spaces where we can speak from our own experience and communicate our strategic value on our own terms. Resilience in civil society organizations is not just technical—it is cultural and political. It means naming our experience, affirming our vision, and asserting our value without compromising our autonomy.
Strategies to strengthen resilience in civil society organizations
Diversification and financial resilience
Economic dependence on international funding has come at a cost: the pressure to adapt our discourse to what is considered “fundable”—to what delivers fast, quantifiable results. Yet the rhythm of our fieldwork is different: slower, perhaps, but deeply rooted and enduring.
To reclaim political autonomy, we must reflect strategically on our direction. This means designing new pathways to diversify income, forge local alliances, and manage resources with greater flexibility. These steps allow us to make decisions aligned with our mission—not just with funder expectations. This, too, is a vital expression of resilience in civil society organizations.
Shrinking Civic Space and Criminalization
The situation is especially serious in countries where civic space is rapidly closing—through legal, political, and administrative measures that criminalize the work of civil society organizations. Human rights defenders face harassment, institutions are being dismantled, and meaningful dialogue with the State is increasingly eroded. In this context, many organizations find themselves at risk.
Strengthening our political analysis and security capacities is essential. It allows us to navigate hostile environments without compromising the safety of our teams or the communities we serve.
What do civil society organizations expect from co-responsible donors?
International Aid Must Transform
International aid must evolve beyond vertical relationships. It is urgent to reframe the connections between funders and local organizations—grounded in shared responsibility, respect for autonomy, and mutual trust.
This transformation requires donors to listen, to co-design, and to invest in institutional capacities—not just in short-term projects. Resilience within civil society organizations also means having the freedom to express what we truly need, without fear of being excluded for not fitting into predefined frameworks.
Sustaining Life Is a Political Act
Community-based organizations sustain life in the most difficult places. We offer real alternatives in contexts marked by violence, extreme poverty, and dispossession. We are refuge, school, network, dignity, and collective organization.
Resilience in civil society organizations is not only about withstanding pressure or adapting to change. For those of us rooted in community work, resilience is a way of affirming our mission in the face of adversity—of building collective responses amid abandonment, and of continuing to imagine possible futures when everything seems stacked against us.
To be resilient is to sustain life, protect people, defend territories, and strengthen the social fabric—even when resources are scarce, threats are constant, and recognition is limited.
In a hostile world, our organizations do more than resist: we reimagine the future.
Our work matters—even when it’s not immediately visible. The seed we plant today may seem small, but it is already transforming the soil. At COMETA, we’re here to walk alongside you.
