An essential practice for designing support programs that add value to organizations is analyzing the contexts in the countries in which we work. This analysis allows us to be informed about the social, political, and economic aspects that impact the work of the organizations we work with and, therefore, better adapt our support.
Between 2023 and 2024, various countries where ECOS has operations went through elections, including Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. These processes had a significant and harmful impact on the ability of civil society organizations to influence different agendas, including human rights. COMETA participated in the seminar “Central America in Debate”, organized by the Colegio de México, to contribute to our analysis of the elections and their impacts. We also conducted an in-depth analysis of different organizations and the media and their positions on Mexico’s post-election landscape.
Some regional governments have implemented measures that restrict the participation of organizations and close the civic space. In this sense, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights defines civic space as “the context that enables civil society to play a role in the political and social life of our societies […] that allows people to contribute to the development of policies that affect them, by facilitating access to information, participating in dialogue, expressing disagreement and joining together to express opinions2.
Violence, repression, authoritarian regimes, criminalization of defenders of human rights, and stricter fiscal and administrative policies are just some of the mechanisms that limit the participation of organizations and fuel this closure of civic space.
To mention a few examples, the government of El Salvador implemented a regime of exception and suspension of constitutional guarantees and approved the unconstitutional reelection of President Bukele 3. In Guatemala, human rights defenders and former prosecutors have been criminalized4, many of whom had to go into exile in other regional countries. In Mexico, the attack on civil society is the result of the stigmatization made by the former president in his morning addresses along with “strategies of repression, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearance of defenders and journalists, sexual violence against women who protest and the improper use of the penal system and the tax system, among other forms of stigmatization” 5.
What do these strategic reflections for civil society organizations leave us?
In the face of such challenging contexts, at COMETA, we deem it essential and strategic for civil society organizations to take a break and review and redefine their strategic missions and visions. In other words, organizations must take the time to analyze the context in which they operate, identify their added value and what distinguishes them, and think about what they want and can achieve.
Within the framework of the ECOS Initiative, COMETA contributes to strengthening civil society organizations in the region through services in strategic thinking and financial resilience. The former contributes to clear definitions of the impacts and changes that organizations want to achieve with their work, while the latter contributes to reflecting on how to estimate organizations’ real financial needs, raise funds according to these needs, and adapt to the current context and the availability of funds.
We invite you to review some of our materials that can help you reflect on the importance of these exercises and how they can help you face these challenges.
1Here are other reflections that we have had on the subject from COMETA..
2Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Proteger y ampliar el espacio cívico”, retrieved in September 18, 2023, quoted in https://animalpolitico.com/analisis/organizaciones/nuestras-voces/2024-espacio-civico-derechos-humanos#_ftn1
3https://elfaro.net/es/202406/columnas/27434/ha-nacido-una-dictadura
5Quoting the words that Edith Olivares Ferreto, executive director of Amnesty International, shared with Proceso in the framework of the last Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Mexican State. https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/2023/11/29/denuncian-en-la-onu-cierre-del-espacio-civico-en-mexico-aumento-de-la-crisis-de-derechos-humanos-319414.html
