Problem Formulation - Aalborg...

Aalborg UniversityFaculty of Social Sciences

European Studies

Africa The EU

Civil Society

Tülin Eken10th semester

The Master’s Thesis

Supervisor: Paul-Opoku-Mensah

Aalborg, June 2008

Tülin Eken, 20063536Msc European Studies, 10th Semester

The Master’s thesis

Acknowledgement.............................................................................3

Abbreviations.....................................................................................4

Abstract..............................................................................................5

Introduction........................................................................................7

Problem Formulation.......................................................................10

Methodology....................................................................................15The Structure of the Thesis:.........................................................................................16

Theories:......................................................................................................................16

Analyses........................................................................................................................17

Source of Information and Literature:.........................................................................18

Theoretical Part................................................................................19Democratic Theory Approach:.........................................................................................19

The affiliation between democracy and civil society:..................................................21

The affiliation between democracy and development:.................................................22

Challenges of democracy and the theory:....................................................................23

Democratic theory and Africa:....................................................................................25

Democratic Survival:...................................................................................................27

Organizational Theory......................................................................................................29

A Brief history of organization theory:........................................................................31

Current Challenges of organizations:..........................................................................32

Organization theory and decision-making:.................................................................34

Perspectives of Organization Theory:.........................................................................36

Communication:...........................................................................................................37

Sum up of theories:...........................................................................................................38

Analyses...........................................................................................39Development for the EU:.................................................................................................40

Background of the relations between the EU and Africa.................................................42

The Yaoundé Conventions...............................................................................................43

Cotonou Agreement.........................................................................................................45

EUROSTEP......................................................................................................................48

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The Relationship between the EU and CSOs:..............................................................48

The impact of Eurostep:...............................................................................................56

Summary of Analyses......................................................................................................57

Summary and Conclusion................................................................58Implications of Study.......................................................................................................58

BIBBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................................61

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Acknowledgement

The thesis investigates the participation of civil society in the development policy of the

EU. The thesis work is part of the 10th semester of the Master program in European Studies

at Aalborg University.

This work has been done under the supervision of Paul Opoku-Mensah whose directions

and guidance enabled me to start and end this project and I hereby would like to thank him

for his time and help.

I am responsible for the results and the opinions in the paper.

_________________

Tülin Eken

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Abbreviations

ACP: African Caribbean and Pacific

CSOs: Civil Society Organizations

Eurostep: European Solidarity towards Equal Participation of People

NGOs: Non-Governmental Organizations

NSAs: Non-State Actors

MDGs: Millennium Development Goals

The EU: The European Union

The UN: United Nations

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AbstractThis thesis takes a multidisciplinary look at the concept of civil society and

democracy in the development policy of the EU focusing in particular on Africa. It aims at

illustrating the democratic elements of the development policy and the participation of civil

society to the policy towards the policy.

The thesis attempts to answer how democratic the development policy of the EU

actually is, regarding the participation of the civil society. In addition, it answers the

capability and the effectiveness of the civil society in the policy. Civil society actors are

increasingly mentioned in the agreement of the EU which includes development in Africa,

nevertheless, lack of participation has always been open to discussion.

The analysis section will indicate the relationship between the European Union

(EU) and civil society organizations (CSOs) in Africa and Europe in order to answer the

main questions. Furthermore, the analysis includes the agreement history of relationships

between these continents. By this chance, it allows the reader to discover the amendments

in the agreements and acknowledge the changes in the relationships between the EU and

civil society.

Contemporary situation of civil society in the development policy of the EU can be

best explained by exemplifying. For this reason there is a case study in the analysis section.

Eurostep, which is a network of development NGOs, is used in order to adduce how

participative is the development policy is for civil society.

In conclusion, this thesis ascertains firstly, the space for the participation of civil

society in the EU’s development policy and secondly the capability and the capacity of the

civil society to participate. Exploring these two points will allow the reader to understand

the effectiveness of the civil society in the development of Africa.

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“A vibrant civil society is important in any democratic society… [There is a] need to foster

the broadest possible consensus among not just the political class, but the population as a

whole…. This is a major task. It requires politicians but also other representative voices of

civil society like NGOs, churches and academia, to play a clear role”1.

European Commission Former President José Manuel Barroso,

Belgrade, 16 February 2006

1 http://www.avrupa.info.tr/EUCSD,Csd_Sayfa.html?LanguageID=2

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Introduction

The relations between Europe and Africa go back a long time, although the nature,

title and the type of the relationship has changed several times. It began as a colonial

relationship that was based more on the interests of Europe. The colonial period is

regarded as a sad phase in the history of Africa because the presence of Europe was not

entirely a happy experience for Africa. The end of direct colonial rule, and with it the

attainment of independence by African countries, introduced fundamental changes between

these two continents. Europe on its part started to look for better types of relationships

which can satisfy both sides. Thus the EU prepared different agreements and conventions

in order to have partnership type of relationship with Africa and started to include

participative development in the agreements.

The principle of participative development increased in the Cotonou Agreement in

2000. Although ACP governments are responsible for determining the development

programs for their countries, non-state actors seek to be involved in project

implementation, political dialogue, planning, and evaluation of results2. Participative

development thus aspires to increase the participation and engagement of CSOs in

development cooperation in order to facilitate dialogue between ACP and European civil

society, their institutions and share information between them. The Cotonou Agreement

acknowledges the importance of the role of civil society for the ACP countries and the

capacity-building of civil society.

The aim of the EU-ACP partnership is to contribute to peace and stability in ACP

countries and to ensure stable and democratic political environment and development that

is economically, socially, culturally and environmentally sustainable. Ultimately the aim is

to eradicate poverty with paying attention to employment and access to productive

resources to ACP countries3. Thus in principle, the cooperation between the EU and ACP

countries is a cooperation of development. At base, it is a relationship that seeks to reduce

poverty and improve the political, social and economic levels of the ACP countries.

2 Olufemi Baharinde et al. 2005. The European Union and the Developing Countries. The Cotonou Agreement. Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff.p.177.3 Alessandro Spaventa. Research Report 2/1999. The Lomé Convention. Objectives, Instruments, Results. Roskilde Univeristy.p.28.

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Engagement of civil society organisations (CSOs) with the EU’s development

policies became more crucial after the Cotonou Agreement, which indicated the process

and the conditions of the involvement. Nevertheless, this is not as easy as it sounds. Even

if the EU agreements give the opportunity to CSOs to engage the EU activities, it needs to

be explored whether the CSOs are able to effectively engage the processes. This is because

the capability and resources with which CSOs can participate are as important as the

agreements that advocate their participation.

This thesis responds to this need to understand the spaces for civil participation in

in the EU’s development policy, and the effectiveness with which civil society participates

in these policies for ACP countries and their contribution to the development process.

Democratic theory and organizational theory are going to be used within the paper. They

provide the opportunity to explore the development policy and the ability of civil society

to engage the policy. There are several reasons why I chose these treaties. Democracy is

needed for successful development outcomes. For successful development outcomes

correct problem specification is needed. Concretely, the development problems of Africa

should be clearly indicated for the success of the outcomes, and for this the help of civil

society is necessary.

For the EU democracy is a condition for a sustainable development. Hence, it is

important to understand how democratic theory explains democracy and what it provides

to civil society and its involvement in policy making and implementation processes. On the

other hand, organization theory enables an assessment of the capability and the

effectiveness of civil society. The theory indicates the importance of the capacity and

resources of CSOs for their engagement with policies. Therefore, it is not only being an

organization, it is also about whether the organization has the capacity to engage with the

development policy of the EU.

In sum, I aim to explore the space in the EU’s development policy for civil society

and the effectiveness of the civil society engagement in the policy. I will analyze the

background of the relationship between the EU and ACP countries, the understanding of

development of the EU and the way the civil society acts in the development policy. I will

use a development NGO network, Eurostep, in my work in order to see its interaction with

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European and African CSOs and EU institutions. The case study of Eurostep will enable an

assessment of the organizational capacity--both internal and external resources-- to

participate in the EU’s development policy. Overall the aim is of study is to find out the

effectiveness of the relationship between ACP and the EU.

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Problem Formulation

The European Consensus for development was signed by the Council and the

representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the

EC and the EP on December 20054 where the EU stated what it seeks to achieve from

development. The main target of the EU’s development policy is to eradicate poverty in all

senses. Nevertheless, the consensus does not only aim at the eradication of poverty but also

meeting the MDGs5 of the UN for the sustainable development. The EU is ready to engage

with every international actor in order to achieve the worldwide development objective of

the MDGs.

The EU associates poverty reduction with the promotion of good governance and

respect for human rights, human development, protection of natural resources and

economic growth, wealth creation to benefit poor people, and with development

cooperation principles which are ownership, partnership, political dialogue, gender

equality, preventing state fragility, participation of civil society and democratization. Lack

of good governance and governing system is also seen as a part of poverty but it is a

political poverty of the country. In addition, the EU acknowledges bad governance in

Africa, in particular its effect on political corruption, and acknowledges democratization as

an essential element in solving the problem of political corruption, and promoting

development.

Democratic governments have political parties in their decision making. However,

political parties are not enough to be a democratic government/country. Civil society has a

significant role play in decision making because it can perceive the decisions of

government from a different perspective. In so doing CSOs, as non state actors, reinforce

the government. In addition, a government needs to realize civil society’s opinions in order

to be democratic with giving a stance to non-state actors. Moreover, it should be kept in

mind that the governing system is important for the participation of civil society since 4 http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/r12544.htm5 The MDGs are eight development objectives of the UN which are to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to promore gender equality and empower women, to reduce child morality, to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other deseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to set up a global partnership for development. (acceded 3/03/2008, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/)

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other governing systems may not give opportunity to integrate civil society in governance

processes. In effect, democracy is a governing system that allows citizen participation in

decision making, enabling different voices and opinions, and potentially guaranteeing a

better society6. As the EU sees democracy as a condition for development, it should be

examined whether democracies in Africa allow for civil society participation in the

decision-making processes.

In addition, the second part of the European Consensus for development indicates

the implementation of the Community development policy. The EU, in principle, pays

attention to the consistency between the EU policies. The policies should not contradict

each other; on the contrary, they should support each other and work in coordination and

within harmony in all areas of the EU. In addition, the policies of the EU should also

support the substantial elements of the EU such as democracy, human rights, good

governance and respect to international law. While making sure of consistency of policies

of the EU, it is important to consider the participation of the civil society. Hence, without

a strong and credible implementation system, the policies are not so valid.

The European Consensus on development is not the only document which

concentrates on the third world countries’ development. Since the treaty of Rome, there

has always been a relationship between the EU and overseas countries. The Yaoundé, the

Lomé Conventions and Cotonou Agreement have followed the treaty of Rome and these

treaties have specific relationship with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. In the

thesis I will include these treaties briefly in order to indicate the changes of relationship

between the EU and Africa in terms of democracy and civil society participation. I will try

to explore how things change through treaty by treaty and how democratization and civil

society participation are included in the development programs, evidently, if they are

included in the first place.

In recent years, effectiveness of aid has developed into a crucial issue in the relation

between the EU and developing countries. The way aid is managed has become just as

important as the amount of the aid accumulated. It has been acknowledged that without a

wise way of using the aid, there will only be small improvements in the developing

6 Kasfir, N. 1998. Civil Society and democracy in Africa: critical perspectives.p.5

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countries. The amount of aid has the chance to make considerable changes nevertheless, it

has also been seen that the full amount of aid has not been used. The role of good programs

and implementer are essential for sufficient development. The EU has programs on

development in developing countries, however, it is hard to implement a program that

makes sure the developing countries, particularly Africa for this thesis, make good and full

use of all the aid provided. Civil society is a voice which can help the EU to make more

efficient programs and/or to ensure developing countries are improving due to the EU

programs/aid.

The civil societies of Africa and Europe are one of the main instruments to improve

aid to Africa. There are many NGOs/CSOs in Europe which concentrate on African

development; in addition there are several NGOs within Africa which aim at development

in Africa with the cooperation of the EU. What needs to be done is to engage the civil

societies of both Europe and Africa. However, in order to achieve this aim, civil societies

must have the capacity to engage the EU’s development process towards Africa. Therefore

capacity building for civil society is the other challenge of civil society participation.

The society should have a good governing system, respect for human rights, rule of

law and civil society. Civil society is a significant tool for citizens to make them speak up

and make their voice to be heard and by this way have the chance to influence the

decisions of the government. Civil society can be seen as the advocate of the citizens, who

prevents their rights and ensure their social security. Democracy is a governing system

which gives the citizens the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process.

Thus, the EU sees democracy as necessary to the development process, and the inclusion

of people in democracy is required.

It is important to lay down the terms I use in the thesis first before analyzing them

on a real basis.. Pàdraig Carmody has several definitions of civil society in his book called

Neoliberalism, Civil Society and Security in Africa.

Civil society can refer to groups, networks and relationships that are not organized

or managed by the state and are generally understood as ‘the population of groups formed

for collective purposes primarily outside of the State and the market place’, in addition, the

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area of organized social life that is voluntary, self-generating, mostly self-supporting,

autonomous from the state, and bound by a legal order or set of shared rules and values.

Thus it can be described as a human activity concerned with the state activities and attempt

to constitute themselves in an ensemble of arrangements so that they can express

themselves and advance their interests7. Commonly civil society refers to almost all groups

outside the government, for instance, NGOs, labor groups, environmental and cultural

groups, etc and they aim to influence the policy and decision-making.

The necessity of non-state actors is mentioned in the EU treaties as well. The

Cotonou Agreement, which is the substance of the EU and Africa relations, clearly

indicates of the participation of civil society. Where before civil society was not a subject

of the agreement. Nevertheless, there is not as such, a good civil society network between

European and African Civil society which can push civil societies of both sides to

participate in the developmental programs of the EU.

In this thesis I examine civil society participation in the EU development process

toward Africa. Although almost every essay related to international relations touches on

the civil society terms, there are very few which really define it. Nevertheless, it is

important to indicate that in my paper, I will use the civil society term interchangeable with

the NGO term.

As previously mentioned, the EU expects democracy in order to increase civil

society participation in the development process. Given that the EU sets democracy as a

condition to development, it is important to examine whether the EU policies are

democratized enough to engage other countries with democracy.

This need to understand the extent to which the EU’s development policy towards

Africa allows for civil society participation provides the immediate context for this thesis.

Specifally this context raises two sets of questions to which this thesis responds:

7 Carmody, Pàdraig. 2007. Neoliberalism, Civil Society and Security in Africa.Pp.14-15.

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First to what extent is the EU’s development policy for Africa democratized, in the

sense of creating space for engaging civil society in the process of development?

Second, how effective is civil societies’ participation in the EU’s development

policy towards Africa?

As indicated earlier, to answer these questions I will analyze the background of the

relationship between the EU and ACP countries, the understanding of development of the

EU and the nature of civil society involvement--if any--in the development policy.

Furthermore, I use the case study of a development NGO network, Eurostep, to examine its

interaction with European and African CSOs and EU institutions. The case study of

Eurostep will enable an assessment of the organizational capacity--both internal and

external resources-- to participate in the EU’s development policy. Overall the aim is of

study is to find out the effectiveness of the relationship between ACP and the EU.

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Methodology

Development in the third world countries is a major policy imperative of the

developed countries. Many developed countries have had a special policy for the

developing countries in order to modernize, democratize and develop them. The EU has

had many programs in terms of development in the region. The EU and Africa have signed

many agreements in order to eradicate poverty and promote democracy in the African

countries. In this project I concentrate on civil societies’ participation in the EU’s

development policy.

In the project I will give information about the agreements that were signed

between the EU and Africa. All the agreements and programs aimed to achieve

development in the region. I, moreover, will deliberate the participation of civil society

organizations (CSOs) in the development policy by using a study case.

As indicated in the previous section, the thesis responds to two main sets of questions:

The first set relates to issues of the democracy of the EU’s development policy and

the space for the participation of the civil society. The space for civil society in the

development policy is as important as the capability of the civil society to use the space to

contribute to development in Africa. In sum, this first set of questions seeks to investigate

the space and how the civil society uses the opportunity.

The second set of questions relates to the effectiveness and the capability of civil

society’s participation in the development policy of the EU in relation to the development

of Africa. This question aims to illustrate the capability of the African and European CSOs

and point out if the participation of CSOs is improving the development in Africa.

In order to answer these questions, I, from time to time, focus my concentration on

the discourse of the main terms such as civil society and democracy. I find it necessary to

define some terms in order to show in what sense they will have place, what civil society

means for the EU and how the EU and the civil society engages. What democracy means

in general is important to acknowledge the possibilities it gives to CSOs to integrate the

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EU’s policies. Thus, some parts of the thesis might be seen as overly descriptive; however,

I think it is required to have descriptive parts in order to facilitate understanding.

The Structure of the Thesis:

The first chapter is a brief introduction explaining the objectives of the thesis.

The detailed explanation of the subject is in the second chapter under the title of

Problem formulation. This chapter indicates what I want to explore and will introduce the

questions I will be answering in this thesis. This part also includes some descriptions of the

crucial issues addressed in the study.

The third chapter of the thesis illustrates the structural and ideological composition

of the paper. It includes the structure in the first subtitle of this chapter and then the

theories are mentioned as the second subtitle. The theories section indicates the theories

used in the study, and why I chose to focus on them. In addition, in the theories section of

the methodology chapter, I will also bring up how I use the theories in order to explain the

problem in the fourth chapter of the thesis. On the third part of the methodology is the

analyses section which shows how I analyse the question. The analyses section also

includes what kind of instruments I use in order to reinforce the thesis in the fifth chapter.

Last part of the methodology indicates the source of information of the thesis. The sixth

chapter of the thesis is the conclusion section where I summarize the findings and also

give my personal reflections.

Theories:

In order to investigate the questions I have chosen two main theories. One is

democratic theory and the other one is organizational theory. I thought they were the most

relevant theories which would help me to analyze the questions in a better way.

The development of Africa is not only a process reducing the poverty but is also a

process of democratization. The relationship between the democratic theory and civil

society and the democratic theory’s approach towards civil society is significant to analyze

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the development policy of the EU. The democratic theory also gives the chance to

question how democratic the EU policies actually are. It is important to ask the democracy

of the policies because the EU sees democracy as a part of development and a substance of

the EU principles. The other reason that I chose this theory is because I want to see how

much the EU policies welcome the citizens to participate in decision-making. Democracy

emphasizes the importance of the participation of citizens in governance so I want to see if

there is a room for the civil society in the development process.

The organizational theory leads to examine the civil society organizations’

participation including democracy from a different angle other than the democratic theory.

This theory gives me the opportunity to see whether the civil societies of the parties are

capable of involvement within the development policy for Africa. What kind of changes

that should be done in order to include the civil society in a democratic system is the other

thing which is hidden in the theory. So this theory will assist me to answer how things can

be changed in order to involve the civil society

Thus, democratic and organizational theories are going to be theories which are

included in this thesis.

Analyses:

This analysis of the thesis is based on a case study of Eurostep, a European network

of developing NGOs.

The first part of the analysis includes the first set of questions and I analyze them

with the democratic theory and organizational theory. The focus is on the extent to which

the EU development policy for Africa is democratized, the capability of the EU policies to

engage civil society in the processes and the space for civil society to participate on

development programs.

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The second part includes the second set of questions, and focuses on how effective

civil society participation is for the EU development policy and the civil society

participation influence on the effectiveness of the EU development’s policy for Africa.

Nevertheless, in order to analyze these sets of questions I find it very important to

analyze the history of the relationship between the EU and Africa. There have been several

agreements in between them such as Younde, Lome and Cotonou. So before analyzing the

two main parts I analyze the changes of the relationships through time.

Source of Information and Literature:

The sources of information for this study are books, articles, magazines and

credible websites mainly the EU websites and the EU and African civil society websites.

As the thesis is based on the European and African civil society participation on the EU’s

development policy, the interviews which are done before and the analysis of the NGOs

are used in order to be aware of the different ideas of different portions of the societies. In

addition, I interviewed a director of one network of developing NGOs, and also had

informal talks with the same organization’s policy assistant via the internet.

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Theoretical Part

Democratic Theory Approach:

Democracy is a form of government and in a general description it means the rule

of people, power of the people that the power belongs to the people8. In an online

dictionary, reference.com, democracy defined as follows;

1. government by the people, a form of government in which the supreme power is vested

in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free

electoral system.

2. a state having such a form of government.

3. a state of society characterized by formal equality or rights and privileges.

4. political or social equality, democratic spirit.

5. the common people of a community as distinguished from any privileged class, the

common people with respect to their political power.9

Democracy is a system of government which includes the people in its governing

mechanism, enabling people of the society need to participate in their politics. When we

look from the democracy window, the participation of citizens in any process of

governance is essential in democracy.

The democracy definition of the EU does not only include citizen participation but

also include the protection of human rights of all citizens and minorities, rule of law,

equality of citizens, and freedom of speech. It is possible to add more principles

nevertheless these are the most important ones that the EU wants to see in the member

states.

In the development process of the EU, the same principles are crucial. The

development process of Africa has roughly the same conditions for continuous aid. If

Africa wants to receive support from the EU, it needs to meet the conditions of the West

8 http://depts.washington.edu/centerme/DemDiv.pdf p.39 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy

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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy

http://depts.washington.edu/centerme/DemDiv.pdf



and improve the countries situation. When we talk about these issues, it sounds easier than

it is. Implementation of the EU policies is not easy as it sounds. There are several obstacles

which prevent the development process.

Democracy is a condition for Africa according to the EU development process.

From the EU view, in order to reach the “developed country” level, the country should

have democracy as a governing system. It is hard to argue about this statement, because

almost every country which is developed has democracy in their system of government,

especially in the West.

Nevertheless, there are several things that come to in my mind about the possibility

of transferring the EU model to Africa. For instance, to what extend is it possible to have

democracy in African countries and does the system fit African society? The African and

the EU societies are different from each other. While democracy entails participation of

citizens in the political process, the African government system does not really leave space

for citizens. NGOs in Africa have struggled with this neglecting behavior of the

governments for a long time. The African and European NGOs want to participate in the

development processes in order to fasten and strengthen the process. NGO participation

means critics on the development and this mean better improvement. The EU development

activities should not be left just to the hands of the EU. In order to achieve healthy

improvement in the region, there needs to be participation from different institutions and

bodies. The EU and the recipient countries’ governments are not objective in the process.

Both sides regard their own interest.

In order to transform the political system of the African countries into democracy,

cultural differences and the difficulties derived from this difference need to be

acknowledged. The development process is not only political but also a social

transformation. The aim of the EU is to increase the life conditions of citizens, and it

encompasses reducing the poverty in social and political lives.

Development is a social transformation of a society, and for that reason,

empowerment, participation and capacity building are crucial for real and sustainable

development. Nevertheless, there are several criticisms about the relationship between

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development and democracy. Meddi Mugyenyi says that the likelihood of developing

countries enjoying both democracy and development at the same time is limited; moreover,

they must sacrifice some of one for the other in the short run10.

The affiliation between democracy and civil society:

Regarding the relationship between democracy and civil society, democratic theory

assumes that civil society

“should act merely as a support structure for democracy proper at the level of the

state-shaping parliamentary deliberation by providing a voice to public opinion, educating

citizens in democratic values, and generally acting as a watchdog over those in power, but

otherwise leaving the real business of democracy to representatives.”11

Hence, civil society is an inseparable part of democracy.

On the other hand, although democracy as the rule of the people and the aim of it is

the maximum participation of all the people, this aim might still be an ideal12, and it is hard

to make the ideals true in the real life.

Although democracy has a precise literal meaning this does not really help us to

understand what an actual democracy is. Sometimes we have doubts upon what democracy

is and what democracy should be. According to John Stuart Mill,

“the simplest and most correct notion of a definition is a proposition declaratory of

the meaning of a word, either the meaning which it bears in common acceptation, or that

which the speaker or writer... intends to annex to it”13.

Democracy is such a concept that it is easy to absorb the meaning yet hard to

comprehend the practice. There are different kinds of democracy in the world and even

within the EU. The practice of democracy varies so it is hard to judge the practice

according to one concrete definition. However, citizen participation in the politics is the

main principle in all kinds of democratic systems.

10 Walter o. Oyugi et al. 1988. Democratic theory practice in Africa.p.179.11 Gideon Baker. 2002. Civil society and democratic theory. Alternative voices.p.112 Carole Pateman. 1970. Participation and democratic theory. P.2.13 Giovanni Sartori. 1958. Democratic theory. p.207

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Europe and Africa are not similar continents in terms of political and social

systems. The ideologies and cultures of these continents are visibly different one from

another, so these differences should be considered during the transition process. This is

known that there are differences; nonetheless, there has not been enough consideration in

the development process. If the differences would have been considered enough, there

would have been more improvement than present. Due to the differences between two

countries, we should ask ourselves whether democracy can work in Africa and civil society

can be accepted by citizens. People need to embrace civil society as their “right protector”

in order to let the civil society participate on behalf of them in the decision-making in

development. Hence, the civil society and people should engage first in order to have a

democracy in a country.

Democracy has been seen to depend on civil society, with civil society perceived as

a restraint on the government.

The affiliation between democracy and development:

Democratic theory has a close relationship with development, but there are several

arguments on which one comes first. While some says democracy is necessary for

development, some argues development will bring democracy so development needs to be

considered first.

Meddi Mugyenyi demonstrates that developing countries are committed to

development and democracy and development should come first, democracy second.

Which one needs to come first is a very crucial discussion in development programs.

Howbeit, development is seen as a track which opens the road for democracy. Developing

countries can not accept the democracy straight away without having any real development

within the country. In order to make any developing country embrace democracy there,

some previous activities needs to be done. Democracy is seen as a “Western” concept, so

there should be a concrete example to confirm what democracy will bring to the

development in the region.

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Muyenyi tells that we will need to receive a sufficient amount of support from

people within the population to get a good say in the challenges of the government, and he

adds that the sufficient amount of people does not need to be majority but it needs to be

effective. The amount requires effectiveness in maintaining order providing goods and

services to win support by the people. Although the common view for democracy is

majority support it comes around on popular participation in the share of values.

In order to have democracy, capacity building is important and the best way of

doing it is to use civil society. Civil society means development. In addition development

includes increasing the capacity of individuals and collectivities. Development can also be

seen as a process in order to increase the capacity to cope with internal and external

demands which the people may not be happy with.

As I mentioned previously, there are several criticisms about the relationship

between development and democracy. In addition, Mugyenyi is sceptical about the

likelihood to have development and democracy at the same time in a developing country,

and argues that one or the other should be sacrificed14. According to this view,

development is the precondition for democracy. Development will bring democracy if it is

necessary to have democracy in the society. Actually, development brings what the people

needs and what is profitable for the people when civil society is included to the

development. Participation of people is necessary for the benefit of themselves, their voice

needs to be heard to know what they really need and for now democracy is the only

government system that allows citizens participation.

Challenges of democracy and the theory:

One way or another democracy has survived for many decades. It has changed by

time, place and situation, but nevertheless its fundamentals stay the same. For instance, in

the ancient Greek times direct democracy was practiced and in a direct democracy

decisions are made directly by the people. It was possible to practice it then because of the

low population and the half or even more than half did not have a say because women and

slaves were not considered as citizens.

14 Walter o. Oyugi et al. 1988. Democratic theory practice in Africa.p.179.

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Consequently the states established a republic which is a form of democracy and

government power restricted in certain ways and people, citizens choose who they want to

be governed by. People choose their own representatives. There are many things that need

to be done before and after democracy. Democratic theory demonstrates that the education

level within the country is very important for the continuation of democracy. There have

been some countries that the democracy has failed in the past and today solely on that

reason. Every society has different cultural and social values and according to this the type

of democracy should be chosen. Some times the separation of powers may work

sometimes not. However, the main principle should be education of the citizens and letting

them to be a part of the governing system in order to keep the survival of democracy. Thus,

in some cases it is more difficult to keep the presence of democracy than establishing it.

Democratic theory and democracy does not equal perfection for the countries. Even

though democracy means modernization for some, for some it means Western power on

developing countries. There are many criticisms on democracy. It has been seen as an

instrument that the West uses in order to influence the values of developing countries. In

addition, civil society organizations have been perceived as a western tool in many

countries. People of the developing countries have felt themselves in the middle of two

sides, west and their own governments. When they accept the western rules they felt they

have to accept their values and culture and this was not what they wanted to do. On the

other hand, when they do not collaborate with West, they did not feel themselves powerful

enough to handle with the governments’ corruptions.

While the harmony of civil society and democracy has been mostly accepted as the

ideal, there are some problems that this fact comes across with. In some situations civil

society organizations have been mentioned as a part of democracy. Nevertheless it is not

the case necessarily. Some criticizes that civil society and democracy becomes circular.

Nevertheless it is true that democracy gives more space for civil society and people’s

participation in the government system. Moreover, democracy also invites interventions in

civil society organizations in order to make the organizations more democratic.

Furthermore, an overemphasis on values of civil society may make democratic politics

25



more difficult so the balance between the democracy and the responsibilities of civil

society is questioned.

Democratic theory and Africa:

In this part, I consider the possibility of democracy in Africa in general terms. I will

touch upon the relationship between Africa and the EU form different perspectives.

The relationship between the EU and Africa predates the colonial time.

Nevertheless, during and after the colonial period the relationship has changed

tremendously. Colonialism has always been the sad history of black Africa. Everything

was under control of western powers. African people were not seen equal with the

European nations. They were black and they could not be same as the West, they could not

be as good as whites in anything. Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish, British, American; there

were many nations on African land and they behaved to the locals as they are not the real

owner of the lands. Then the Western powers took most of the countries under their

domination. They exploited as much as possible. Westerners humiliated everything that the

black people had, their values, culture, traditions.

The colonial period is a sad phase of African history and it is very difficult to

expect people to overcome it easily and move on. In international relations we can not

ignore the history, it is there and these people have experienced this history. However, the

relationship between two continents has changed after some African countries declared

their independence. The post-colonial period has brought in its wake promise of a better

relationship for both sides. The obvious exploitation stopped and they moved into

relationships which are shaped by agreements.

To be sure, the end of direct colonial rule did not end the distrust of the West by

Africans. Most literatures state that in pre colonial time, Africa was more participatory and

open. Yet, the undemocratic behavior of the West during colonial time changed the

situation in the continent. Some say that the post-colonial period brought a different kind

of exploitation. Under the name of development, modernization and democracy, the EU

countries still tries to get what they want and do not really serve the other parties interest.

26



Nevertheless, we can see that the both sides benefit from the relationship. International

relations are based on mutual interest and the capitalist world makes the countries interest

seekers.

Education, political, socio-economic and the cultural situation of Africa are the

main concerns of the democratization and development processes. The way of bringing

democracy is important, but the EU uses the humanitarian ways to develop the continent

this time. The EU also see the Colonial time as a sad part of the history so they do not want

to make the same mistakes again. At the moment, the EU is the world’s biggest donor to

Africa, more than half of the aid to Africa is from the EU member states.

The EU sees democracy primary for the development, they are also aware that

democracy can not simply survive in undeveloped circumstances. As Muyenyi says

development can occur in the absence of democracy but democracy can not function in the

absence of development. Hence the EU concentrates on the development and

improvement of life conditions of citizens. Signing papers do not make the principles to

come true immediately after the action. There needs to be concrete work on the subject in

order to reach the target. Changing the title of the country does not make the country’s

situation better.

Many of the democratic, republican African countries are not practicing democracy

in the country. We see on the news about the violence and malfunctioning of government

everyday. For instance, Kenya-republic, Uganda-republic, Ghana-constitutional democracy

and Democratic republic of the Congo-republic are a few of them. These particular

instances are having problems still in their democratic practices. Defining the country as

democratic does not make the country democratic. The developments within the countries

were not enough to adopt democracy and practice it as it should be. I will not go into

details in terms of countries’ situation in this section. In the analyses part, I will

demonstrate them more with a case study.

The democracy practices in Africa are perceived in different ways. Realist

perspective argues that the EU uses democracy and development as a tool to control the

continent. The relationship between the EU and Africa is all about interest and the EU

27



benefits most as it is the powerful party. Realism does not believe in equal relationships in

international relations. In addition, it emphasizes that in their relationships, nation states

seek their own interest. The powerful part gives in to the weak whereas it gains much more

than what it gives.

Idealism has a similar view with realism nevertheless from a different angle. It

concentrates more on the values and cultural perspective. It sees the relationship as an

influence of the West on Africa. According to this view, the aim is to westernize the values

and ideologies of Africans. Expanding the area of western culture, values, ideologies and

norms are primary than the development.

Democratic Survival:

Democracy may come into force no matter how hard it is, the greater challenge is in

keeping democracy in the place, that is, democratic consolidation. Ian Shapiro15 says in his

book that there are three approaches which are institutional, economic and cultural. That is,

there are there things that ought to be considered in order to keep democracy alive. Mainly,

there are three things which are very important for a country, political, economic and

cultural structure. According to these three things even the relationships of a country and

foreign policy changes. There is a reality that the countries’ foreign policies are very

dependent on the political, economic and social structure of the countries.

In terms of an institutional system of a country, Ian supports that the parliamentary

system is more stable compared to a presidential system. Parliamentary system brings

more country stability. Nevertheless, he argues that there are examples of presidential

institutional arranged countries which are more stable than parliamentary. In fact, it

diversifies according to different norms whether the countries stability is dependent of the

institutional structures or not. There are many things that affect the countries political

system. Economic structure, cultural diversities, social system, unemployment, brain drain,

immigration… This list can have more points; nevertheless, I wanted to list just a few of

the many.

15 Shapiro, I. 2006. The State of Democratic Theory.p.86.

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Democracy has been engaged very much with economic development. Democracy

labelled as economic development, once there is democracy then economic development

will follow. However, this is not always the case. There are many countries which are

democratic, but their economic situation is not pleasant enough. Even in the EU there are

democracies which are faced with economic problems. Therefore, it is not reasonable to

think democracy brings strong economy. On the other hand, fragile economy does make

democracy fragile too.

Culture for the survival of democracy is another crucial issue. What influences does

culture have on a country’s ability to do things? This is the question that I am going to

mention in the next theory concentrating on Africa. Culture is a concept that not only has

an influence on political behavior but also on personal behavior. The cultural affinity of

countries brings also countries closer. Since the first real international relations started the

reality shows that even in the wars the alliances and allies were based on interests and

culture.

To sum up, democracy is a complicated issue to explain in few pages. It requires

development in the region in order for its survival. Even though democracy needs

development to be practiced, it also brings development. Nevertheless, it will not be

realistic to expect development to be achieved by democracy alone.

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Organizational Theory

Organizational Theory is chosen for the thesis to illustrate the role of the civil

society in the development policy of the EU toward Africa. Besides, organizational theory

assists us to understand what CSOs need to work on to enhance their participation. This

theory also gives the opportunity to examine the space in the EU’s development policy.

The engagement of the civil society needs to explore the opportunities that are given by the

EU and the sufficiency of the opportunities. Hereafter, I will look into what being

organization is and how they should work and why the individuals should be working

under an organization.

Most commonly, a group of people who work together for a common target can be

recognized as an organization. Nevertheless there are certain things that need to be done in

order to be considered an organization. Clarification of definition of an organization is a

very difficult task. There are several discussions about the definition of an organization.

Most theorists define it as;

An organization is the rational coordination of the activities of a number of people

for the achievement of some common explicit purpose or goal, through division of labor or

function, and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility16.

Basically, an organization gives the opportunity to individuals to combine their

personal strengths to achieve a better outcome than they would achieve individually. It is

important to combine the strengths for a certain goal.

Theorists David Silverman sees the definitions of organization as not enough and

attributes in his book17,

The power of thought and action, to social constructs. We can ask an individual

about his goals or purposes but it is difficult to approach an organization in the same way.

It seems doubtful whether it is legitimate to conceive of an organization as having a goal

16 John McAuley et al.2007. Organizaiton theory: challenges and perspectives.p1217 David Silverman.1970. theory of organizaiton, London:Heinemann.p.9. Taken from John McAuley et al.2007. Organizaiton theory: challenges and perspectives.p13.

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except where there is an ongoing consensus between members of organization about the

purpose of their interactions18.

Organizational theory is important in the sense of understanding who we are and

why we are who we are. It helps us to question the current situation. In addition

organization theory helps us to examine ourselves and how we interact with others which

are all different from each other. As every theory plays an important role to make us

understand the world better, organizational theory makes us to understand the importance

of the organizational behaviour and how it should be.

As the organization is defined as a collective of people who are coordinated and

directed by its members for a common goal, in this point organization theory aims to

improve the organizational efficiency in order to reach the goal. Organization theory

contributes to facilitate organizations to achieve goals with less spending of their resources

as much as possible. In addition, when one looks at organizational theory, it informs them

with what problems/challenges or obstacles they can come across while they are pursuing

their goal. While the theory concentrates on the understating of organizations, it also

provides information how organizations operate in order to illustrate to organizations

which ways are more efficient for them in order to attain their goals.

Although organization theory always mentions the importance of the organizational

societal interface, it also deals with internal issues of organizations. In addition,

organization theorists are interested in why organizations exist and how the social systems

function. Organization theory is not only used in political science; but also in fields of

management and economics. In terms of business, they attempt to explain the dynamics of

business organizations, including the ways in which they make decisions, distribute power

and control, resolve conflict, and follow the organizational change19. Some researchers

indicate that organization theory focus on

1. the effect of social organizations on the behavior and attitudes of individuals

within them,

18 David Silverman.1970. theory of organizaiton, London:Heinemann.p.9. Taken from John McAuley et al.2007. Organizaiton theory: challenges and perspectives.p13.19 http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Op-Qu/Organization-Theory.html

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2. the effects of individual characteristics and action on organization, …

3. the performance, success, and survival of organizations,

4. the mutual effects of environments, including resource and task, political, and

cultural environments on organizations and vice versa, and

5. concerns with both the epistemology and methodology that under gird research

on each of these topics."20

Thus organizations are not simply influenced by the participant of the organizations

but also the environment around them. An organization aims at using the resources in an

efficient way to achieve its goal. The cooperation/collaboration of CSOs with each other

and the EU institutions is essential. In order to grow the participation of CSOs in the

development policy there is a need for transparent, inclusive and predictable way for the

CSO, and the EU is the body who should realize them for both African and European

CSOs.

A Brief history of organization theory:

Organization theory is not a new theory. Modern organization theory emerged in

between the late 1800s and early 1900s with Max Weber21. He says that bureaucracies

represent the ideal organizational form and he based his model bureaucracy on legal and

absolute authority which is based on logic and order. The ideal organizational structure

includes clearly defined responsibilities for workers and everything has strongly controlled

rules, policies, regulations and procedures. Henri Fayol22 is another theorist who

contributed to the organization theory in the beginning of 1900s. He is known for strategic

planning, staff recruitment, employee motivation, employee guidance, including policies,

and important management functions in order to create beneficial and successful

organizations. Frederick W. Taylor23 is a theorist who is credited with helping to define the

20 http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Op-Qu/Organization-Theory.html21 He was a German sociologist and political economist who lived in between 1864-1920. He is considered one of the founders of the modern study of sociology and public administration.22 Fayol lived in between 1841-1925. He was a French management theorist and who suggested that there are five primary functions of management: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.23 He lived between 1856-1915. He was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency.

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role of training, wage incentives, employee selection and work standards in organizational

performance24.

Before the mid of 1900s, researchers began to concentrate on human influences on

organization rather than the composition of organizations. Abraham Maslow25 emphasized

the importance of the human influence in organizations with his hierarchy of human needs

into organization theory. Maslow contributed the to organization theory by underlining that

people have different needs and they need to be motivated by different encouragements in

order to reach organizational objectives. Moreover, his theories indicate that by with time

people’s needs change and by this he meant that even if you give the people what they

need, new needs will arise. His assumptions suggested that when people’s needs are met,

they can be more productive. Hence, organizational success is related to the satisfaction of

people’s, workers’, needs.

Douglas McGregor26 came up with two theories which are Theory Y and Theory X.

In the later one he says the typical human is the one that dislikes their job and because of

that they need to be directed, controlled and ruled as they want to avoid responsibility and

they are more interested in their financial awards. On the other hand, Theory Y says that

control of punishment is not the only way to make people work. People can learn to be

responsible and have the ability of solving problems and workers are accomplished enough

to self-direct at work. McGregor believed that organizations which take up Theory Y are

generally more productive and successful27.

Current Challenges of organizations:

Time is passing and world is changing. Globalization is a process of interactions

and integration among the people, companies and organizations28 and it refers to expansion

of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale29. As an organization

evolves its challenges also evolve. So that the challenges they were facing in the past

24 http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Op-Qu/Organization-Theory.html25 Maslow lived in between 1908 and 1970. He was an American psychologist and he is considered as the father of humanistic psyhology. 26 McGregor lived in between 1906-1964 and he was a management professor.27 http://www.accel-team.com/human_relations/hrels_03_mcgregor.html28 http://www.globalization101.org/What_is_Globalization.html29 http://www.sociology.emory.edu/globalization/issues01.html

33

http://www.accel-team.com/human_relations/hrels_03_mcgregor.html



compared to the present are different. The basic challenges of organizations which I have

chosen are global competition, ethnic and social responsibility and diversity30.

Global competition: Globalization undermines the boundaries of the countries and

this enhances global competition. In terms of companies, now companies can locate their

organizations to different countries and make the competition even tougher. While global

competition gives advantages to some companies it does give disadvantages to others.

Ethics and Social Responsibility: It is possible to perceive this term from different

angles. These responsibilities refer to the workers in an organization should have almost

the same ethic views and social ideals. While they have high ethical values, they also

practice a high standard of professionalism.

Diversity: Organizations are social entities and made up of people interacting with

one another. Moreover, the interaction between people is without discrimination. Current

organizations especially civil society organizations increasingly have international

features. Although diversity is helpful for development NGOs in order to facilitate to

understand the dissimilarity of countries, it also causes difficulties to reach people and

solve problems.

Efficiency and effectiveness of organizations is important in order to overcome

challenges. Organization theory aims to reach people’s goals with collective action.

Organizations bring together resources in order to achieve the target. For any kind of

organization efficiency and effectiveness are very significant. Whereas, efficiency refers to

well used resources, effectiveness refers to well organized strategies in order to achieve the

goal of organizations. Organizations diversify within themselves. Explicitly, commercial

organizations and development organizations work differently; nevertheless, they have the

same principles. Development civil society organizations also concentrate on effectiveness.

For development NGOs, communication increases effectiveness. As development NGOs

seeks to have a close relationship between the developing and developed countries in order

to improve developing countries.

30 Richard L. Dafy. 2003.Organization Theory and Design ps.6-9.

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Organization theory and decision-making:

Organization changes because of the change in ideas and especially because of the

change of decisions of parties. A change in ideas and decisions of the decision makers

causes a change in organizations. Decision makers come across with several choices on

one issue nevertheless, they usually need to choose one way to follow and they choose the

most efficient one in order to reach the target as fast as possible and get the best outcomes.

For that reason, it can be said that there is a close relationship between decision-making

and functionality, because decision-makers seek functionality in their decisions.

Although decision makers consider functionality in the decision-making process,

they need to consider the other different aspects, and the situation is one of them. Situation

is the other element that changes the decision-makers ideas. Agreements which have been

signed between Africa and the EU changes according to the situation. The world’s

situation is always changing and the agreements should be amended accordingly. For that

reason the Cotonou Agreement is revised every five years. The other things that change

according to the countries situation is CSP of ACPs. These samples indicate the

importance of the situation in decision making clearly. Thus, decision-makers should

choose the structure of their decisions according to the situation, in other words situation

determines the structure of the decisions.

Some researchers state that the organizational structure that the decision makers

choose is caused by two social facts,

1.that only one structure objectively fits the situation in that only it will produce the

most functional outcomes,

2.that organizational decision-makers are under situational pressure, from

competition, head office, directors, takeover threat, etc., to give priority to attaining

the most functional outcome for their organization31.

Nevertheless, there is an alternative point of view with decision-making; it is

believed that the decision makers can prefer an option which may produce less

organizational effectiveness and less fit to the situation because of their values and

attitudes. Therefore, some theorists have developed three kinds of the decision-making

31 Haridimos tsoukas et al.2005. The Oxford handbook of organization theory.p.45

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processes which are rational decision making, bounded rational decision making and

garbage can decision making32.

Rational Decision Making: Rational decision making is also known as economic

model of decision making. This model presumes that decision-makers aim to gather

information and use rationality in order to arrive at best and most effective decision

making outcomes. Decision making process in this model begins with problem

identification and ends with solution implementation; nevertheless the intended outcome is

utility maximization.33

Bounded Rational Decision Making: This decision making model approaches

problems different than the previous model. There are several ways of thinking about the

decision making in organizations. As one way concentrates on how organizations would

like to make their decisions, the other way concentrates on how organizations make their

decisions in reality. The latter one is called bounded rational decision making. Even though

organizations intend to make rational decisions in order to gain the best outcome, real life

brings different conditions and constraints and organizations may not be able to disregard

them in their decision making process and they may change their decision accordingly.

Personal preferences have an effect on this model.

Garbage Can Decision Making: It is feasible to come across with this decision

making model in daily life. There are multiple and conflicting goals, the means in order to

achieve the objective might not be clarified enough, and the participation of members of

the organization in decision making might not be specified. In addition, it is not for definite

that the problem or problems might be solved in the end. This model is a descriptive model

and it aims to describe the conditions and consequences which organizations may come

across with. Nevertheless, garbage can model is not suggested to any organization.

Perspectives of Organization Theory:

Modernist organization theory: Modernist organization theory supports

globalization and emphasizes the importance of translation of organizations into any

32 B.J.Hodge. 2003. Organizaion Theory: A strategic approach.p.29033 Ibid.

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culture. It does not represent the past and it always looks for new ways of understanding of

organizations. Even though modernist organization theory emerged from the “European

Enlightenment Project”34 and can provide support for the development of fair form of

organization, it can also be the means of dictatorship35. Modernist organization theory is

challenging and revolutionary, on the other hand it emphasizes order, rationality and

stability in order to control the world. Some modernist organization theorists claim that

there need to be means for the coordination of activities in order to work efficiently, in

addition, they state that as organizations are made up of individuals and every large

organization embraces small and less formal groupings in order to achieve their goals36.

Neomodernist organization theory: This perspective focuses on human relations

and the emergence of democratic organization. It concentrates on the importance of people

within an organization. Although human relations approach/deal with developing

leadership, the theory emphasizes the empowerment of members of organizations which

means “democratic organization”. Neo-modernists argue that organization members can

undertake key tasks such as leadership and management, developing the relationships

between the members of the organization and the design of organizations37. Hence, this

perspective is expressed in two ways, one is human relations and the other one is

democratic neo-modernism. Human relations focus on the problems of communication and

understanding between individuals and organizations. It also tries to increase the

cooperation between the parties in order to facilitate the process towards the solution.

Democratic neomodernist perspective attaches importance to worker involvement and the

democracy in the working place so the participation of the members and capacity building

are very important according to this perspective.

Postmodernist organization theory: This considers the changes in the world, not

only the changes which have happened but also which are happening. The changes affect

both individuals and organizations and postmodernist perspective aims to explore the

changes and its effects. It can be also said that this perspective includes globalization in

this sense as it tries to understand the changes. Some theorists describe the ideal type post

34 The European Enlightenment Project:……35 John McAuley et al.2007.Organizaiton theory: Chalenges and Perspectives.p.58.36 Ibid.p.69.37 Ibid.p.103.

37



modern organizational form as small, functionally decentralized, participative and

corporative in culture in order to integrate people to reach organizations’ goals38.

Communication:

In organization theory communication is one of the key elements. Human relations

are based on communication. Organization and human relations are in close relationship

and for both, communication is very important in order to reach the goal. Information flow

and use relevant information are essentials of well working organization, so the

information should be reliable, quick and understandable and with the purpose of having

these characteristics in the information, communication is necessary between individuals

and groups and also between groups.

Development in Africa and the agreement between Africa and the EU mention the

importance of communication. The EU and Africa relationship, especially in recent

development programs, pays attention to civil society participation and civil society

organizations needs communication in order to reach development in Africa. Fostering

social awareness and facilitating democratic dialogues between parties are closely

connected to communication. The development NGOs in developing countries complains

about lack of information flow between developing and developed countries, thus

communication is seen as a part of the development process and is engaged to the

processes.

The goals, decision making, decision makers, and the structure of an organization

diversify according to the type of organization and in which area the organization is.

Management based organizations are profit and/or growth seeking organizations

nevertheless development organizations are survival seeking organizations. Basically, there

are three types of organization which are profit-oriented, growth-oriented and survival-

oriented organizations.

Profit and growth organizations are product oriented, affected by environmental

changes, entrepreneurial, dominated by founder, and have specific, measurable goals; on

the other hand, survival-oriented organizations are finance oriented, less affected by

38 Ibid.p.227.

38



environmental changes, managed by professionals and working with trained people and

have general goals39. Regarding these characteristics of different organizations, depiction

of which category the development organizations lay is a difficult task to do.

Sum up of theories:

Democracy is a governing system which engages citizens to the policy making

systems. Civil society organizations are a way to include the citizens of the society in the

process of governance. Nevertheless it is not an easy process. There are several things that

the organizations need to accomplish before their integration to the system.

Therefore, the analysis section will examine the effectiveness of CSOs in the EU

policies. The organizational theory points out that even if there is space in the EU’s

development policy for the civil society, it is not enough for the participation of CSOs

because CSOs’ resources and capacity is the factor for the participation. Where the

democratic theory indicates the importance of the engagement between the civil society

and the decision makers, the organizational theory states the need of the capacity of the

civil society, so these two theories complements each other in that sense.

In the following section, this theoretical template will be used to answer the

questions of the thesis by using a study case, Eurostep.

Analyses

In this part I will analyze the background of the relationship and the important issue

in the development between Africa and Europe. Before analyzing the background of the

39 Robert C.Ford et al. 1988. Organizaitonal Theory: An Integrative approach.ps.51-52

39



relationship, I prefer to give some information about some terms which are essentials for

the EU’s development policy especially for Africa. I would like to briefly mention the

meaning of the term “development” for the EU. I will focus on the EU’s Conventions and

Treaties for the development cooperation with Africa. This will enable the exploration of

the effects of the different to Africa’s development.

The analyses part has two main sections. The first section includes the frameworks

for the relations: the Yaoundé Conventions, the Lomé Conventions and the Cotonou

Agreement. I will look at the treaties in order to portray how democratic they are, what the

amendments are and the importance of the participation of civil society. Thereby, I will

have the opportunity to analyze whether the EU policies are democratized enough to open

up place for civil society to allow them to engage with the EU in order to increase the

development in Africa.

The second section of the analyses part includes more empirical evidence. For this

part, I have chosen one development NGO Network which is Eurostep. I would like to

illustrate how Eurostep participate in the EU’s development policy toward Africa. I will

concentrate on the development civil society network to understand two main things. The

first one is to see whether the civil society organizations find a place in the development

process of the EU. The second one is to see whether the civil society organizations put

enough effort to participate in the process. In addition, when I answer these questions, the

answers will enable me understand the efficiency of the participation of civil society in the

development process. Eurostep will be a case to understand the relationship between the

EU and Africa, and the role of civil society in this. Furthermore, it will show the CSOs’

capability to participate in the development policy. The issue participation is not only a

subject of the EU, is also of Africa. If there is a problem in the participation this needs to

be revealed by looking both the EU’s and CSOs’ situations to understand the reason of

complains in terms of participation.

Development for the EU:

Development is an important policy issue for all international actors including the

EU. The EU’s external policy includes development; in addition, development is the part

40



of the EU’s security, trade, foreign and neighborhood policies. Development Policy of the

EU aims to improve the governing system of the developing countries to improve the

region. The EU has partnerships with developing countries to promote development and

strengthen the relations with these countries. In addition, the EU attaches importance to

developing countries and makes “development” a part in most of their policies. There are

several issues that the EU concentrates on. The EU indicates the issues under the title of

development policy as follows; intervention areas, cross-cutting, programming and policy

formulation40.

Intervention areas: The DG DEV, Directorate General for Development, works on

the development policy and aims at making it relevant to and workable for the developing

countries. The DG DEV does not only work on development policy it also works on policy

formulations in general. In addition, the development policy focuses on following areas;

“Social cohesion and employment, peace-building including post-conflict and

peace-building, conflict prevention, conflict management, conflict resolution, the

EU water and energy initiative, rural development, territorial planning,

agriculture, food security, human development, governance, democracy, human

rights and support for economic and institutional reforms, environment, sustainable

management of natural resources, infrastructure, communications and transport,

trade and regional development”41.

Cross-cutting issues: The EU aims to improve the developing countries in all ways.

Reduction of poverty is not the only aim of the Community. Cross-cutting includes the

other very important issues and more social and crucial issues it concerns, such as gender

equality, HIV/AIDS, environment, democracy and human rights. The EU tries to convince

the developing countries that the equality between men and women is very important.

Right of human without discrimination and not only adults but also children are the other

issue which is getting important more every year. It is known that the communicable

disease is the headache of Africa and in every development program food, water security

and health issues are included especially malaria and HIV/AIDS. Cross-cutting encloses

democracy which is the indispensable part of development policy.40 http://ec.europa.eu/development/aboutgen_en.cfm#key (23.04.08)41 Ibid. http://ec.europa.eu/development/aboutgen_en.cfm#key

41

http://ec.europa.eu/development/aboutgen_en.cfm#key




Programming: DG DEV deals with the financial allocations of the resources for the

development policy. According to the Commission budget and the need of the

development countries the programming changes in every CSP of ACPs. Development

NGOs try to engage in this process and follow the discussions in order to ensure that the

programming is transparent and accountable.

Policy formulation: DG DEV has a contribution in the formation of the policies for

instance; it contributes environment policy and trade policies. Policy formulation does

policy coordination with different international relations actors such as the European

Investment Bank, the African Union and G-8.

The EU applies varies programmes for the development of Afrca. It specifies the

issues which are necessary for Africa. Human rights, development, regional development

gender equality and social issues have their places in the treaties, nevertheless the

implementation of treaties is necessary to receive better outcomes. The EU delegations are

important for the implementation and the non-state actors are needed to be emphasized in

the programs.

Background of the relations between the EU and Africa

The Treaty of Rome:

The treaty of Rome is commonly known as the Treaties of Rome because it

encompasses and establishes the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European

Atomic Energy Community (Euroatom) and they were both signed in 1957 and entered

42



into force on 1 January 195842. This treaty is one of the most substantial treaties of the EU.

The Rome treaty aims improvement at trade and economic expansion. Even though the EU

was an economic union rather than a political union, it always pays attention to

development cooperation with developing countries.

In the treaty there is a part called development cooperation43, because I concentrate

on development policy of the EU I will analyze the development cooperation part of the

treaty of Rome. The current development agreements have most of the things that the

treaty of Rome has, nevertheless every time there have been some amendments in order to

increase the democratic structure of the treaties. The treaty of Rome indicates that the

economic and social development, the integration to the world economy and campaign

against poverty of the developing countries are the prior issues in the development

cooperation of the EU. In addition, the substantial principles of the EU were not neglected

in the treaty. Consolidation of democracy, rule of law and respect to human rights were

aimed to be contributed in the region. The treaty also maintains that the Member States of

the EU should consider the UN’s and other international organizations’ principles in terms

of development in the developing countries.

In my opinion, the treaty does not have any kind of irrational ideas; however, there

is one thing that I noticed while I was reading some of its Articles. The treaty does not

consider the reciprocity principle. The EU is the main actor obviously in the treaties of the

EU, yet while the current agreements have mutuality, the old ones did not have it. The

treaty is one of the establishing treaties of the EU. Due to that it does make sense that it

does have lack of democracy and participation elements in the articles. As it is seen that

the democracy is an important issue for the development cooperation, but it is silent on

what the developing countries need to do in order to consolidate democracy. Thus, it is

open to question how a treaty which does not have democratic elements in it can

consolidate democracy for the developing countries.

It is indicated in the treaty that the coordination of the other policies and the

development cooperation should be considered and while this is coordinated, it should be

done in consultation with all the Member States and their aid programs. Nevertheless, the 42 http://europa.eu/abc/treaties/index_en.htm43 http://www.hri.org/docs/Rome57/Part3Title17.html

43



Member States are not the only actor that the Community works with; the Community

includes the international organizations for development cooperation. Even though the

participation of the third countries was not emphasized strongly, the importance of

cooperation with the third countries and international organizations was mentioned in the

treaty.

The Yaoundé Conventions

There are two Yaoundé Conventions. The first one came into force in 1964 in

Yaoundé, the capitol of Cameron. The Convention created trade agreements which made

the relationships more institutionalised and contractual between the Member States of the

EU and some former African colonies which had their independence recently. It aimed to

improve the cooperation between the parties by giving financial and technical support to

African countries in order to support them to develop economic and socially44.

The first Convention lasted until 1970 and the second Convention started in 1970

and lasted five years.45 The second Convention mainly led to the Lomé Conventions.

Basically, the Yaoundé Conventions envisaged strengthening economic structures and

industrialization in Africa, moreover, improvement in regional cooperation and integration

with international trade46.

The Lomé Conventions

The Lomé Convention was signed in 1975 between the Community and its former

colonies47. The contractual relationship between the EU and Africa started by 18 African

countries and rose to 46 countries with the Lomé Conventions. In addition, whereas the

Yaoundé Conventions was just between the EU and Africa, the Lome Conventions

extended the area of cooperation. The new cooperation countries are called as African,

Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. 44 http://www.ikv.org.tr/sozluk2.php?ID=103845 http://www.unc.edu/euce/eusa2007/papers/evrensel-a-05g.pdf46 http://www.ikv.org.tr/sozluk2.php?ID=103847 Alessandro Spaventa. Research Report 2/1999. The Lomé Convention. Objectives, Instruments, Results. Roskilde Univeristy.p.5.

44



The Conventions and Treaties before the Lomé Conventions were unilateral and

non-reciprocal48 in terms of trade preferences. Especially the Yaoundé Conventions raised

the discussions that the EU made developing countries dependent to itself, so dependency

was discussed. Due to these critics the EU aimed to have equal partnership and there had

been institutional changes in order to reach the aim of having the equal partnership.

STABEX and SYSMIN were created in 1970s. Stabex is an export earning stabilization

system in order to prevent the losses in agriculture which is because of crop failures and

price falls49. Sysmin was a special financing facility which was created in order to diminish

the dependency on mining of ACP countries. However, both Stabex and Sysmin were

abolished with Cotonou Agreement in 200050. Although the Lomé I and II sought to

advance trade between parties and develop agriculture and industry, and they built an aid

system which was based on project aid especially for the least developed states with

focusing on regional cooperation, the Conventions did not bring big chances to the

relationship.

The Lomé III covers the time period from 1985 to 199051. The previous Conventions

did not change the situation in ACP countries. Hunger and poverty were still the most

important issues because there were very huge amount of people dying due to hunger.

Thus in the 3rd Convention the rural development became the centre of the EDF.

Furthermore, the Lomé III focused on transport and communication systems and regional

cooperation52. There have been some chances in the Conventions; nevertheless, there is no

emphasis on the civil society participation or any kind of citizen participation in regional

cooperation. The democratic principles were not seen so far in the agreements.

The last Lomé Conventions lasted 10 years which includes five years of the Lomé IV

and its revision. This Convention pointed out the conditionality of the relationships in

order to give more responsibility to ACP countries in order to develop the cooperation

48 Alessandro Spaventa. Research Report 2/1999. The Lomé Convention. Objectives, Instruments, Results. Roskilde Univeristy.p.5.49 http://ec.europa.eu/development/geographical/cotonou/lomegen/lomeitoiv_en.cfm50 http://www.acplgp.net/cotonou_tools/european_development_fund_edf51 The time periods for EDF and the Conventions are taken from http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/r12102.htm . The Table can be seen in Annex 1.52 Alessandro Spaventa. Research Report 2/1999. The Lomé Convention. Objectives, Instruments, Results. Roskilde Univeristy.p.5

45



within the ACP countries and also the relationship between the EU and ACP countries.

After the Lomé IV, the determination of the development cooperation relationship between

the EU and the ACP was given to ACP countries. Democracy became a focus on the

relationship with ACP countries. The relationship became more interesting after the

Community gave the possibility or power to ACP countries to conduct their development.

Democratic principles, such as protection of human rights, improvement in rule of law and

economy of ACPs, started to be the focal point of the development process.

ACP countries were perceived very dependent to the EU because of the development

agreements. Hence, the EU adjusted it agreements in order to change this negative

perception toward the relationship between these two parts. Hitherto it was hard to see the

elements of democracy in the Conventions; the papers included what the African or ACP

countries should do for development without an emphasis on democratic principles. The

Conventions were good to indicate the needs of the developing countries; by this way the

developed countries had the chance to see these needs. Nonetheless the Conventions were

not seen as an achievement, because there had not been development in the region.

Cotonou Agreement

Cotonou Agreement was signed in 2000 in Cotonou, Benin. It is a part of the EU’s

development cooperation policy, yet it presents different aspects from what the previous

agreements had presented so far. For instance, it presents a revision clause which designate

that the Agreement is revised and adapted every five years. This clause is aimed at giving

the opportunity to the ACP countries to engage the development programmes with

negotiation of the contractors. The clause also targets the conditions and circumstances for

the EU to follow the changes in the region; therefore the EU could amend the Agreement

accordingly in order to increase the development in ACP countries. Similar to the

preceding agreements and conventions, the Cotonou Agreement also aimed at the

elimination of poverty. However this time the emphasis was given to the political

dimensions as well, and the EU underlined the important issues as an enhanced political

dimension, increased participation, a more strategic approach to cooperation focusing on

46



poverty reduction, new economic and trade partnerships and improved financial

cooperation53.

The Cotonou Agreement is not only a development cooperation agreement but also

a progression of formal arrangements which outline political cooperation and preferential

trade agreements with the ACP countries54. The Agreement stated that sustainable

development of the ACP countries and their integration to the world economy are

important for the purpose of eradicating poverty. Notwithstanding the Agreement included

political, social and human development of the ACP countries and focused on

democratization of these countries. As the policy conditionality of development aid was

added to the Agreement, it was not the only thing which made the Agreement diverse from

the others. It was because it included local ownership, a participatory approach to

development and it stated the agreement as a partnership agreement (Article 5)55.

Fundamentally, the Cotonou Agreement had two main parts in it, trade related

development and non-trade development. Good governance, political dialogue,

participation of civil societies in the development process and humanitarian development

became as important as economic development. Participation is contained under the title of

fundamental principles of the Agreement in Article 256. It is indicated that including civil

society and private sector actors would help to improve the economic, social and political

structures of the developing countries.

The Agreement brought out different needs of the ACP countries, moreover,

different solutions to these needs. It achieved improvements in the region so far,

nevertheless it is early to conclude whether the Agreement is successful or not. It has been

only eight years with the Cotonou Agreement but there has been some significant emphasis

on several issues that have never stressed out much, and participation of civil society is one

of those. Political improvement is necessary for the developing countries and participation

of the civil societies and private sectors who want to have a say in the political processes

for development should be included. The Agreement aims to give the opportunity to these

53 http://ec.europa.eu/development/geographical/cotonouintro_en.cfm54 Christian Bjornskov and Ekaterina Krinos. From Lomé to Cotonou. The new EU-ACP Agreement. SJFI.Working Paper no. 14/2001.p.2.55 http://www.acpsec.org/en/conventions/cotonou/accord1.htm and http://www.onao.go.tz/Cotonoujvk.pdf56 http://www.acpsec.org/en/conventions/cotonou/accord1.htm

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actors in the development process, however, the problem of the EU’s agreement is

implementation.

The Cotonou Agreement has the revision clause in order to fill the gaps of the

Agreement by time. It is made to not to make the same mistakes which are done by

previous agreements. There is opportunity every five years to amend the malfunctioning

parts of the Agreement. The Agreement does explain what should be done and how it

should be done, yet it is not always easy to implement the principles.

In the next section of the thesis I will analyze one of the developing NGOs network

in terms of its relationship with the EU and the African NGOs for development. The EU

indicates the things that should be done, nevertheless it is hardly seen that the EU helps the

NGOs to implement it. Especially the participation of the civil society organizations is not

acknowledged. In the treaties of the EU, even though the democracy is mentioned it is

difficult to see the democratic elements in the development agreement of the EU for the

ACP countries. The EU gives opportunities to civil society in the agreement, however the

equal opportunities are not acknowledged.

EUROSTEP

As noted, this thesis examines the democratic nature of the EU’s development

policy, capability of the civil society to engage the development process and the impact

and effectiveness of the participation of the civil society. To be able to do so, it is

essential to have a concrete example to identify the issues in a better way. Selecting a CSO

would help to look into the issues in an empirical arena. So far in the paper, I outlined two

theories to enable the problems to be answered, and I started the analyses. In the first part

of the analyses I explored the background of the relationship between the EU and Africa

48



by looking at the agreement/ conventions/ treaties which are signed between these parties

for development until now. I had the chance to experience the organization I have chosen

for the analyses part, nevertheless, I did not want to rely on just my experiences. Hence, I

had an online interview with the director of Eurostep, Simon Stocker. (Annex 2). The

second part of the analysis section will thus focus on Eurostep. Afterwards, I will analyse

the relationship between the EU and CSOs by using the information from Eurostep.

The Relationship between the EU and CSOs:

The EU states in the White Paper of European Governance57 that civil society plays

a crucial role in making citizens’ voice heard and in responding to their needs. In addition,

civil society involvement is important for the EU in the consultation process of the policy

dialogues58. The role of the civil society is a forming factor for associations and

organizations. Furthermore, they can make people pursue their wills and needs. While

civil society has the role of making people participate in the policies, this is also the very

basic aim of democracy. Democracy aspires to allow people to participate in policy

making. Thus, to the extent that civil society aims people to take action in the direction of

desires, the case study of Eurostep will allow us to analyze the relationship between the

CSOs and the EU.

Disclosing the opinion, perception and the attitude of Eurostep toward the EU’s

development policy and its cooperation with African CSOs are required to enlighten the

engagement of the CSOs in the development process within a specified scope. The aim of

this thesis is not to use one sample and generalize to other CSOs. Rather it is to use one

example from CSOs to to comprehend the perception of CSOs/NGOs.

Hereafter, the engagement of Eurostep with the other NGOs in Africa and its role in

the policy making of the EU in its development policy and the tools that Eurostep use in

order to have an information flow between the other CSOs and more are going to be

illustrated. Eurostep is a developing NGOs network which has a focus on the EU’s

development cooperation and to collaborate with the African organizations on

57 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/com2001_0428en01.pdf58 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/com2001_0428en01.pdf /p.15

49

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/com2001_0428en01.pdf




development related issues. Eurostep does not work only with African NGOs but also with

Caribbean, Pacific and Latin American NGOs. There are some other issues which it

concentrates on such as the recent EU treaty, for instance, Lisbon Treaty and Presidency

Fund. However, this thesis concentrates on Eurostep’s work with African NGOs in regard

to development policy of the EU.

Organization theory gives emphasis to organizational behaviour and the capacity of

an organization, so the effectiveness of an organization is very much related to its capacity

and the way the organization uses the capacity. It is accepted that civil society has an

influence on the EU’s development policy, the capacity of the organization affects the

engagement in the development process. Stocker states that opportunities for participation

in the development process are increasing nevertheless it is not sufficient. He says that the

ideal engagement of CSOs to the process is the one which is managed by the national

government of the developing countries in a transparent, inclusive, consistent, predictable

and ongoing way. He adds that most of the governments of African countries are not

enthusiastic about it. The Commission delegation plays an important role where the

engagement takes place, therefore the effectiveness of the process depends on capacity and

interest of the delegation staff. Although the delegations need to ensure consultation and

the engagement to the process, due to the countries situations the consultation can be

difficult. Increasing the involvement of CSOs is not only the responsibility of the EU

delegations but also the responsibility of CSOs.

The paper, which is titled: “Towards a reinforced culture of consultation and

dialogue - General principles and minimum standards for consultation of interested

parties by the Commission”59, states the consultation mechanisms of the EU. The

Commission says that the consultation is in the activities of all European Institutions’

legislative process. Moreover, consultation is aimed to give the opportunity for input from

“representatives of regional and local authorities, civil society organisations, undertakings

and associations of undertakings, the individual citizens concerned, academics and

technical experts, and interested parties in third countries”60. The groups which are

affected from the policies of the EU are expected to participate in the process. The EU sees

59 http://ec.europa.eu/governance/docs/comm_standards_en.pdf60 Ibid.p.4.

50



the vague definition of civil society as a substantial problem. Consequently, it lists the

possible CSOs who are included in the process.

In order to make the consultation easier for the civil societies and other actors the

Commission gives the general principles and minimum standards for consultation. General

principles are given as participation, openness and accountability, effectiveness and

coherence; in addition the minimum standards are clear content of the consultation

process, consultation target groups, publication, time limits for participation,

acknowledgement and feedback in the paper. The EU wants these principles and standards

to be done and considered by the interested parties. This is understandable and it is

necessary for CSOs in order to make their voice heard. CSOs want to reach the EU and

want the EU to consider their ideas. Nevertheless, there are several issues which should be

gone over again because the CSOs have some concerns on collaboration with the EU.

For instance, the EU says that the consultation should be mentioned clearly such as

what is the concern of the organization, who is being consulted, etc. The EU also wants the

consultations to be gathered in the database of the EU which is the webportal of the EU

called Your Voice in Europe61. The CSOs or other interested groups can make their voice

heard in the webportal, however, every topic in the portal has their own closing date and

after that date it is not possible to send your view. Moreover, the EU gives 8 weeks time

for the consultation and the EU informs the consulting part for the meeting before 20

working days. CSOs complains about the short given time. They express concern that

preparing the documentation and a report takes awhile so the consultation becomes a

burden instead of a solution. Stocker, in addition, says for the actors in Africa as it is

recognized the internet is not appropriate as a communication tool between the EU, hence,

internet is not always a way to facilitate the communication between the parties.

Eurostep is one of the development NGOs networks in Europe and in terms of

Eurostep membership there is cooperation with NGOs and CSOs with almost all African

countries, such as Benin, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Ghana, Cameroon,

Burundi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia. On the other hand, Eurostep is still

wishing for more engagement with more NGOs and CSOs. Eurostep is more concerned on

61 http://europa.eu.int/yourvoice

51



the role of the EU in the development policy rather than the role of the CSOs in the policy.

For the efficiency of an organization accessibility of information is as important as the

capacity of the organization. Stocker also states the difficulty of the information flow

between Europe and Africa because of lack of internet possibility in Africa. Because of

that other means of communication keep their importance in the relationship. Good

information flow is required for a good cooperation. However, African CSOs come across

with some technological problems.

Eurostep aims to increase transparency of the EU’s cooperation with African

countries and tries to help on defining clear common aim and reflecting their perspectives,

whereas the EU does not include the CSOs which have not clearly define their consultation

or engagement. Nevertheless, Eurostep is also use internet to make the access to European

documents easy as well. European CSOs are also facing with some difficulties to reach and

collaborate with African CSOs.

The diagram below displays the relationship between European CSOs, ENPI62

CSOs, governments of ENPI countries and the EU institutions. The same relationship can

be considered between the ACP countries and CSOs and other actors.

62 More information about ENP can be found in the EU’s website: http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/documents_en.htm

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63

The diagram of the relationship between the CSOs and the EU institutions.

African CSOs and European CSOs communicate through the internet. They

commonly use the internet to process the information flow between each other. As the

diagram shows that the websites have an important role in relationship between the CSOs

nevertheless the arrow on the right side of the website circle means that there is a

relationship between them without the websites which can be consider as meetings and

over the phone meetings. It can also be interpreted as that there are some countries which

do not have the internet use other sources to communicate to each other. The Policy

Assistant of Eurostep, Lisa Crisostomo maintains that it is a challenge to make information

accessible to all African countries because the internet is not accessible for all, so some

ACP CSOs call for printed material or CD files yet cost is a factor64. Due to the lack of

resources, Eurostep finds it hard to send the materials to the developing countries’ CSOs.

This situation is not just limited to Eurostep but can be found within most NGOs/CSOs. In

addition because Eurostep is not a founding organization as Stocker indicates, they can not

do more than strengthen African CSOs to make their voices heard in the EU.

63 http://www.developmentportal.eu/wcm/subsite/acp/content/category/23/221/213/en/64 I, informally, asked few questions via email to Lisa Crisostomo, Policy Assistant of Eurostep. (27/5/2008)

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African CSOs have relationship with their host countries’ governments; however,

the governments do not always support the CSOs in the development process. There are

not many CSOs of Africa who have the chance to communicate to the EU without going

through their own government or European CSOs. CSOs of developing countries need to

collaborate with European CSOs in order to get what they looking for. On the other hand,

it is not always to do without their own government’s support, so what needed is to

strengthen the association between CSOs and the governments.

The consultation process of the EU shows the procedures of involving and making

CSOs’ voices heard. The EU indicates the way of consultation in the paper, nevertheless,

democracy of the EU treaties and how much the EU let the CSOs to be involved in the

development process are open to question. Current leading principles of the African and

European relationship are equality, partnership and ownership. Equality and partnership

have always caused discussion because of the power differences of the partners and the

role of the EU in the relationship. The EU is the framer of the agreement in the dialogues

so it takes all the attention in terms of calling it as partnership. The other principle of the

relationship is ownership. The aim of ownership is to make the strategies65 adopted and

owned by the countries. Stocker says that “…the EC is dominant in making decisions, and

from the EU’s perspective “ownership” means ownership by government”. When we think

that the national governments are the obstacles of civil society of developing countries, we

come across with a serious problem.

The EU explains in the agreements that it intends cooperation with Africa,

furthermore, the EU aims to engage with African CSOs. On the other hand, it is important

to expose how CSOs acts in this chance of integration. As the organization theory states

the ability and the capacity of the organizations always have significant role in the

relations. When the capacity of Eurostep is assessed, it is seen that the capacity is

sometimes not enough to engage with the EU in every chance that is given to them.

Nevertheless, since Eurostep is an active member of CONCORD66, they get information

quite easily from other CONCORD members; moreover discussions with the other

65 Specifically for “EU Strategy for Africa” 66 CONCORD is the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development. Its 20 international networks and 22 national associations from the European Member States and the candidate countries represent more than 1600 European NGOs vis-à-vis the European Institutions.http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=4

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http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=4



members are always ongoing. Even if the capacity of an organization is not enough, the

networking of the organization should be adequate so the organization can still be involved

in the development process.

Eurostep organizes meetings and participates in the meetings although not all

activities are documented. On the other hand, there are several examples which illustrate

the interaction between the EU and CSOs. For instance, Eurostep organized roundtable

discussion called “Assessing EU cooperation with ACP countries 2008-201367” on 4th of

December 2007. There were participants both from the European Commission and CSOs.

For instance, there were Bernard Petit, Deputy Director General, DG Development of

European Commission; José Luis Trimino Perez, Head of Coordination and Supervision of

Europe Aid; Thijs Bernan, Member of European Parliament, Vice Chair European

Parliament Development Committee; H.E. Sutiawan Gunessee, Ambassador of Mauritius

and Florent Sebban, Eurostep, Concord Cotonou Aid Working Group, were only few of

them. These sorts of seminars which welcome speakers from both parties of the

development cooperation are necessary to talk about the effectiveness of an organization.

In the upcoming activities of Eurostep, civil society engagement is on its agenda. In terms

of the engagement Eurostep will continue to contribute the websites they have and

secondly will participate as a part of CONCORD in the bi-annual ACP-EU Joint

Parliamentary Assembly68 (JPA) whereby CSOs engage with MEPs and ACP Members of

Parliaments (MPs). By this chance Eurostep takes the opportunity to engage with CSOs of

ACP in order to share information.

CSOs are in charge of building their capacity to find a space for themselves in the

opportunities which are given by the EU. Internal and external resources of an organization

are important indicator for the effectiveness and accountability of the organization. The

forums and seminars which both African and European CSOs can join are useful.

Eurostep tries to instruct the ACP CSOs in terms of what they need to look for and

ask the EU. The website- www.developmentportal.eu - is a very helpful source for Africa

67 http://www.eurostep.org/wcm/dmdocuments/ES-RT_v3.pdf68 JPA: The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly was created out of a common desire to bring together the elected representatives of the European Community - the Members of the European Parliament - and the elected representatives of ACP countries that have signed the Cotonou Agreement.More information can be found: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/acp/20_01/default_en.htm

55



and European CSOs, because it includes the questions that developing CSOs should ask

the EU for their participation in the policies. For example, if the future Country Strategy

Paper can ensure a real ownership of the development strategy and how. Whether civil

society can be involved in programming, implementation and evaluation of EC aid in

CSOs’ countries, and whether resources can be made available to ensure the possibility of

the participation. The website has the civil society statements69 as well. This allows the

CSOs to express themselves freely and make the statements, documents accessible for both

the other CSOs and the EU. CSOs necessarily seek to answer these questions for a

sufficient participation. Therefore, the EU needs to formulate a participative development

program which contains the answers.

According to Eurostep there are several steps that civil society of ACP countries

should consider for a strong participation.

First of all, CSOs should contact the European Delegation and the National

Authorizing Officer and request information on the development process in the region and

in the country. The EU also allows CSOs to contact them when they need to do so.

Secondly, the EU needs to allow the European delegation and then National

Authorising officer for a meeting to discuss the process with CSOs.

Thirdly, CSOs ask the European Delegation whether CSOs have been contacted by

the delegation as part of this process or have shown interest to engage.

Fourthly, CSOs follow the delegation for relevant documents and the outcome of

the regional meeting which are agreed in the beginning of development process.

There are several discussions about how the European CSOs can support the

African CSOs, and there are few points that are listed by the European CSOs. Thus the

European CSOs needs to as Eurostep mentions in its websites;

o Pressure EU Member States’ representations in a particular country to work more

closely with the European Commission, the National Authorising Officers and

Technical Ministries, and urging EC delegations to increase the political space for

civil society actor involvement and make available sufficient financial assistance to

facilitate this,

69 http://www.developmentportal.eu/wcm/subsite/acp/content/category/12/240/245/

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o Forward to their partners in ACP countries background information on the

programming of EC aid and in particular on the upcoming drafting process of

Country and Region Strategy Papers for ACP countries that can be gathered at

European level,

o Collect feedback emerging from their partners in ACP countries and disseminating

it to other European civil society actors for compilation, analysis and ultimately

delivery to the appropriate units/officials in the European Commission as well as to

national governments and parliaments in EU Member States.70

Thus the EU needs to realize a development program which allows the CSOs to

follow the information without having any difficulty. The program needs to allow the

CSOs to work close with the EU institutions and actors related to development.

The impact of Eurostep:

There is not any document which shows that Eurostep has had an influence on the

EU policies. Nevertheless, experts of Eurostep believe that the parliamentary scrutiny of

the Development Cooperation Instruments (DCI) was influenced by Eurostep and

CONCORD. Since Eurostep is working on gender equality and civil society participation

and Eurostep always pushed the EU to emphasize these issues in their documents. Now,

Eurostep says that they are almost always in Commission documents, so this is due to the

persistent push of NGOs which works on these issues. Crisostomo states that there is a

growing number of MEPs joining the lunch meetings organized by civil society within the

margins of the ACP-EU. JPA also indicates the strong interest of MEPs on the views of

CSOs, moreover, this opens new avenues for CSOs particularly CSOs of ACP countries to

influence. In fact, even ACP parliamentarians, who are often not heard, find space in the

lunch meetings to be heard by MEPs.

Eurostep prepared a paper in October 2007 which is called “Influencing the

discussions on Country Strategy Papers in the European Development Fund committee”71.

The purpose of the paper was to assist European CSOs in influcing the discussions on 10 th

70 http://www.developmentportal.eu71 www.acp-programming.eu/wcm/dmdocuments/bri_edftoolkit_071030.doc

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http://www.developmentportal.eu/



EDF CSPs that was going to took place October/November 2007 within the EDF

committee of the EU Council. To be heard and make changes about the parts that civil

society was not satisfied was intended.

Summary of Analyses

The analyses part basically concentrated on the space which is created by the EU

and the space that civil society creates for itself. Democracy in the development policy of

the EU has increased treaty by treaty, and the participation of civil society is increasingly

having place in the EU documents. Nevertheless, more participation is always required.

The relation between the EU and the civil society of Europe and Africa has changed. CSOs

illustrates that participation of civil society is almost in all EU documents. Having place in

the documents is not enough if participation chance is not given to civil society.

The case study of Eurostep also illustrates that capacity of CSOs is essential for the

participation in the development policy. CSOs of Europe and Africa need to have a strong

communication network, good resources and qualified staff in order to collaborate for

development in Africa.

To sum up, the analyses indicates that the CSOs are effective when the

organizations have the possibility and capability to participate. The relation between the

EU and Africa should not be restricted by the African governments and should include the

NSAs. The EU need to formulate such a development program that CSOs can be able to

participate. As it is mentioned previously, CSOs have complains about the limited time for

the consultation, so this should be considered and the development programs should be

welcome CSOs to participate.

Summary and Conclusion

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This study has sought to ask, and answer two sets of questions. The first set

indicates the democracy of EU’s development policy for Africa and second set includes the

effectiveness of civil society in the policy. In this concluding section, the findings of the

study are brought together and their implications outlined. In addition my personal

reflections are given.

The main findings of the study relate to the following;

The first finding of the thesis is that the development programs of the EU are not

enough participatory for civil society. Particularly for the African CSOs it is more difficult

to follow up the EU’s implications regarding development. In the case of where the

information flow comes to African CSOs through their governments, it is very difficult for

them to participate in the development programs.

The second finding is technological obstacles on the participation. Lack of internet

and high cost of sending the hard copies of meetings’ minutes and up to date documents

are an obstacle for the participation of CSOs in Africa and also Europe. Because the

European CSOs have limited budget, they do not have the chance of sending the important

documents to their partners in Africa.

The third finding is the capability of civil society for an effective participation. The

education of the staff in CSOs is very important for a sufficient participation. The number

of experts about the issue, which the CSOs are working on, needs to be acknowledged

before evaluating the effectiveness of the participation of civil society. Furthermore, CSOs

need to have well educated staff/experts in order to have sufficient outcomes of

participation and improve the development in Africa.

Implications of Study

The role of civil society needs to work keenly to ensure that the development

process of EU is consistent, comprehensive, transparent and predictable and CSOs are

integrated to the process. In some cases CSOs are invited to participate to the policy

nevertheless, more importantly the actors views should be taken into account. The

effectiveness of CSO can be measured when CSOs ensures that their voice are heard and

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makes effective outcome. Hence, the organizations need to prepare clear strategies to make

sure they can reach to the EU.

As it is mentioned above that the EU need a development program which civil

society is active, because CSOs need to meeting with EU bodies themselves to discuss the

intervention of the EU with the margin of development of Africa. By the chance civil

society’s participation will be more like an ongoing engagement process, not solely

consultation.

In the section of main findings, it is illustrated that the development policy of the

EU should be formulated such that it needs to allow civil society to act more active. What

the development process needs is being more inclusive, transparent and democratic for

have better development in Africa.

The process needs to be an inclusive process on the forthcoming decisions which

are going to be taken in which the criteria for actors to be invited provides enough space

for all the actors who wish to participate to do so regardless of their capacity and/or

experience in this type of exercises.

It needs to be a transparent process whereby documents are made available to the

interested organizations or to the broader public in a timely way so that they can be

properly considered by civil society actors and their constituencies in advance of dialogue

with the Commision and government. Feedback on discussions and negotiations needs to

be provided.

Finally, it needs to be a democratic process whereby the discussions on the

priorities for each country are debated in the public arena or in parliaments. Involvement of

national administrations with specific knowledge should be encouraged.

Participation of civil society in the development policy is an important and effective

element for the development of Africa. The aim of the thesis was to give examples to

demonstrate the current situation of the EU’s development policy and the place of CSOs in

the policy. The capability and the capacity of CSOs are significant for their involvement.

60



The thesis indicated that the development program of the EU is weak in some point and

needs to be strengthened. The EU needs to formulate a development program which

enables the CSOs to be more active in the process, for this the program needs to be more

democratic, transparent and inclusive which welcomes civil society.

In conclusion, the participation of the civil society ensures development in the

policies of the EU. Different perspectives on one subject give the opportunity to the parties

to perceive the subject from a diverse angle. Participative development tolerates an

increase in the development of Africa. In my opinion, the stronger the communication

between the EU and CSOs and the greater the participation of civil society in the

development policy of the EU are; the better the development of Africa is.

BIBBLIOGRAPHY

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Websites:

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2) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy

3) http://ec.europa.eu/development/aboutgen_en.cfm#key

4) http://europa.eu/abc/treaties/index_en.htm

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http://www.avrupa.info.tr/EUCSD,Csd_Sayfa.html?LanguageID=2

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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy

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21) www.acp-programming.eu/wcm/dmdocuments/bri_edftoolkit_071030.doc

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35) http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Annex 1:

Each EDF is concluded for a period of around five years. Since the conclusion of the first

partnership convention in 1964, the EDF cycles have generally followed the partnership

agreement/convention cycles.

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http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

http://www.unc.edu/euce/eusa2007/papers/evrensel-a-05g.pdf

http://www.sociology.emory.edu/globalization/issues01.html

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Op-Qu/Organization-Theory.html

http://www.prospects-for-africa.de/

http://www.onao.go.tz/Cotonoujvk.pdf

http://www.ikv.org.tr/sozluk2.php?ID=1038

http://www.hri.org/docs/Rome57/Part3Title17.html

http://www.globalization101.org/What_is_Globalization.html

http://www.developmentportal.eu/wcm/subsite/acp/content/category/12/240/245/

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/intcoop/acp/20_01/default_en.htm

http://www.eurostep.org/wcm/dmdocuments/ES-RT_v3.pdf

http://www.concordeurope.org/Public/Page.php?ID=4

http://www.bond.org.uk/pubs/briefs/ecaid.doc

http://www.acp-programming.eu/wcm/dmdocuments/bri_edftoolkit_071030.doc



First EDF: 1959-1964

Second EDF: 1964-1970 (Yaoundé I Convention)

Third EDF: 1970-1975 (Yaoundé II Convention)

Fourth EDF: 1975-1980 (Lomé I Convention)

Fifth EDF: 1980-1985 (Lomé II Convention)

Sixth EDF: 1985-1990 (Lomé III Convention)

Seventh EDF: 1990-1995 (Lomé IV Convention)

Eighth EDF: 1995-2000 (Lomé IV Convention and the revised Lomé IV)

Ninth EDF: 2000-2007 (Cotonou Agreement)

Tenth EDF: 2008-2013 (Revised Cotonou Agreement)

Source: http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/r12102.htm

Annex 2:

Interview with Simon Stocker:

1. Does Eurostep work with NGOs (civil society) in Africa? Which ones are they? Please list the names.

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Yes, Eurostep works with NGOs and other civil society organisations from many parts of Africa. At the level of the Eurostep membership there is cooperation with NGOs and civil society organisations of different kinds from almost every country in Africa. These include local farmers’ organisations, fishermen’s associations, women’s organisations, trade unions, as well as numerous NGOs and associations providing services of one kind or another (health, education, etc). The predominant relationship of Eurostep’s members with their partners is to one of facilitating the activities of these NGOs and associations through the provision of funds. However, there is an increasing cooperation on issues of policy making, and in pursuing advocacy and lobbying within African countries. At the level of the Eurostep secretariat we also work directly with many organisations and networks from Africa on issues relating to the EU’s cooperation with African countries.In Africa cooperation exists with CSOs from/in:Benin, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Ghana, Cameroon, Burundi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, amongst others.

2. Do you feel that Eurostep is engaging with Africa’s NGOs enough?

More engagement is always desirable and we are striving to establish cooperation with an increasing number of NGOs and civil society organisations. However the engagement needs to have a clear objective, with an identified common purpose. Since Eurostep is not a funding organisation our collaboration is solely concerned with questions of development policies and strategies, particularly related to the role of the EU in this process.

3. In which issues do you usually become in contact with them? EDF, CSP, etc

As I said before, the focus of Eurostep is the EU’s development cooperation. So the focus of collaboration with African organisations is on issues relating to this. This includes such things as the negotiations between the EU and African countries on trade cooperation (EPAs), the use of EU aid (EDF and the CSPs), as well as issues on specific aspects of development policy, such as health, education, democracy, etc. Central to this is the space for civil society to engage in discussions about national development policy in general, and about contributing to the drafting of the country strategies in particular.

4. What do you think of the participation of civil society in the EU development policy? Is the participation intensive enough to make the voices heard?

I will answer this question in two parts.First in relation to the participation of civil society in general in EU development policy. At the overall level of EU development policy civil society certainly has influence. Current development policy draws on the status quo in thinking about the role that development policy plays in promoting effective development. A substantial part of this comes from the international framework such as the UN, and NGOs/CSOs have certainly been involved in these processes. This includes both Europeans NGOs (including Eurostep), and NGOS/CSOs from Africa. In the actual formation of European development policy there is also an involvement of EUNGOs (and a much lesser extent African NGOs) at different stages in the process. Indeed, the EU is seeking to institutionalise a consultation process to allow/enable views, opinions, perspectives to be submitted by any interested parties

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(and not just from Europe). This involves both internet consultation tools, as well as meetings.Secondly, in relation to the EU’s cooperation with individual countries in Africa. These are supposed to be consistent with the overall policies of the EU. There is also a rhetorical commitment to seeking to make the strategies adopted “owned” by the countries themselves. In reality it is clear that for many, if not most countries, the EC is dominant in making decisions, and from the EU’s perspective “ownership” means ownership by the government. That being said there are considerable variations across Africa on the level of participation by CSOs. In Benin, for example, the consultation process for the country strategy papers was organised by a civil society organisation. This process included an extensive set of workshops that took place in all parts of the country, and not just the capital. In other countries the involvement of civil society was very poorly managed;

5. If you think the participation is not enough, what do you think to be the problem? Is it because of the EU or Africa and European NGOs of both? And why?

Opportunities for participation are growing, but it is still not adequate. There are many different obstacles to effective participation. In the ideal context the process of engagement of CSOs would be managed by the national government, in a transparent, inclusive, consistent, predictable and ongoing way. However, in a large number of African countries governments are unwilling to do this. In most countries where engagement does take place the Commission delegation plays an important role. How effective this process is depends on the capacity and interest of the delegation staff. All delegations are required to ensure that there is a CSO engagement in the process, so in most instance something does happen.Clearly in difficult countries (due to conflict, repressive governments, etc) consultations can be difficult.

6. What kind of means/instruments do you used to facilitate a good information, flow between your organisation and your partners in Africa?

Our aim is to increase transparency of the EU’s cooperation with African countries. This not only requires making the EU’s documents, decisions, etc more readily accessible, including for instance the drafts of CSPs, but also provides opportunities for views and perspectives from CSO and other actors to be available too. We have set up some dedicate websites that focus specifically on the EU’s cooperation with different regions of the world, including the ACP. The aim of these sites is to make as much information accessible, and to encourage CSOs from developing countries (and Europe) to contribute their own perspectives.However, there is recognition that the internet is not appropriate for many actors, particularly in Africa. So normal communication means continue to be important. In the end an effective flow of exchanges and information is based on clearly defined common aims, and a commitment to work together around these aims. Since most African NGOS/CSOs do not have a particular focus on the role of the EU, this can often be difficult.

7. Have Eurostep and its partners in Africa had the chance to meet in order to increase the participation of civil society organisations for the EU development programs?

Yes, in different venues, relating to different processes, etc. Our advocacy activities seek to involve CSO actors from Africa, and as part of this we look towards

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opportunities for them to be engages in specific processes towards the EU’s cooperation, such as around the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

8. Do you think that the EU’s development policy is democratic enough to engage civil societies in the development process? Please explain.Over the past few years there has not only been an increase in the rhetoric about the involvement of civil society in the EU’s development policy, but the legal instruments (Cotonou Agreement, Development Cooperation Instrument, etc ) place an obligation to do so. This isn’t necessarily spelt out in detail, although the language in the legal instruments identify that this is not just consultation. This has certainly led to an increase in the level of engagement of civil society. However, in many instances this is interpreted as being consultation. At this stage the issue is about how to increase the effective involvement of civil society in a way that enables consistency, predictability, transparency, inclusivity, etc. Discussions on this are beginning to take place and improvements are likely to happen as a result. However, it is important to make a distinction between the involvement of civil society and democracy. In a democratic environment the effective involvement of civil society is one indicator/factor. However, democratic accountability can only be assured through the involvement of the national Parliament. There may be problems with the EC’s approach to ensuring a democratic context, but equally national governments of developing countries are wary of the involvement of civil society organisations. In many instances it is the constraints imposed by national governments that are the major barrier to the involvement of civil society.

9. What kind of thing can the EU make in order to improve the participation of the civil societies in the development process?The answer lies partly in some of the previous answers. Ultimately it is important that there is a strategy developed within the EU setting out the expectations CSO involvement, and which identifies a practical road map for achieving this. And, of course this then needs to be put into action. At the same time the willingness of national governments to accept/support/enable the involvement of CSOs is also a major factor.

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