2020 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY INDEX (ENG)

2020 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY INDEX

FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
9th EDITION – OCTOBER 2021

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is pleased to present the ninth edition of the Civil Society Organization (CSO) Sustainability Index for the Middle East and North Africa, covering developments during the unprecedented circumstances of 2020, during which the COVID-19 pandemic affected all aspects of life around the globe.

This year’s Index reports on the state of CSO sectors in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen. It addresses both advances and setbacks in seven key components or “dimensions” of the sustainability of civil society sectors: legal environment, organizational capacity, financial viability, advocacy, service provision, sectoral infrastructure, and public image. The Index is intended to be a useful source of information for local and international CSOs, governments, multilateral institutions, donors, academics, and other stakeholders who want to better understand and monitor key aspects of sustainability in the CSO sector.

The Index’s methodology relies on CSO practitioners and researchers, who in each country form an expert panel to assess and rate these dimensions of CSO sustainability during the year. The panels in each country—most of which met virtually this year–agree on scores for each dimension, which range from 1 (the most enhanced level of sustainability) to 7 (the most impeded). The dimension scores are then averaged to produce an overall sustainability score for the CSO sector in each country. A Washington DC-based editorial committee composed of technical and regional experts reviews each panel’s scores and the corresponding narrative reports, with the aim of maintaining consistent approaches and standards in order to facilitate cross-country comparisons. Additionally, electronic surveys were carried out among active CSOs in Egypt, Libya, and Morocco in order to increase the representativeness and quality of these reports. Further details about the methodology used to calculate scores and produce narrative reports are provided in Annex A.

The CSO Sustainability Index for the Middle East and North Africa complements similar publications covering other regions. The various regional editions of the 2020 CSO Sustainability Index assess the civil society sectors in a total of seventy-three countries, including thirty-two in Sub-Saharan Africa; twenty-four in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia; eight in Asia; and Mexico.

A publication of this type would not be possible without the contributions of many individuals and organizations. We are especially grateful to our local implementing partners, who play the critical role of facilitating the expert panel meetings and writing the country reports. We would also like to thank the many CSO representatives and experts, USAID partners, and international donors who participate in the expert panels in each country. Their knowledge, perceptions, ideas, observations, and contributions are the foundation upon which this Index is based.

In addition, special thanks goes to Eka Imerlishvili from FHI 360, the project manager; Jennifer Stuart and Stewart Chisholm from ICNL, the report’s editors; and Najiyah Alwazir from USAID. A full list of acknowledgments can be found on page ii.

You can read here the chapter for the Tunisian Civil Society in French and Arabic :

• CSOSI 2020 Tunisie en français
• CSOSI 2020 Tunisie en Arabe