Regional Conference on Research on Civil Society Organisations:

Status and Prospects26th-28th January 2010

 Amman - Jordan

Research on CSOs in North Africa

(Tunisia)

Comments: Pr. Haykel Ben Mahfoudh

Idea - Values

Identification

Scope - Typology

Role - Action

Evolution - Historical Aspect

Transformation - Challenges

Means

Understanding

A problem of Structure◦ Mapping - Identification◦ Structuring - Community

A problem of Inventory◦ Official

Partial ; Biased Ifeda; CREDIF

◦ Private: Inexistent ; insufficient

◦ Associative Incomplete ; reliability

Inventory

Disequilibrium

Legitimacy

Autonomy

Transformation

Diagnosis

Recuperation and manipulation of CSOs:

autonomy at the formation

autonomy in the action

autonomy form authority

autonomy from others: political parties

Power and Counter-power

◦ means of action against the coercive power

◦ attempts to escape pressures

AUTONOMY

Approach

◦ Neglected historical approach

◦ Exhausted Institutional approach

◦ Unfocused multidisciplinary approach

◦ Confused comparative approach

Needs

A Right to an Inventory

A need for a true and proper image of

CSO’s

A need for a CSO’S Community

A need for a an effective autonomy

A need for a new view

Attempts and resources for release –

Autonomy

Rethinking the associative work –

Redefining CSO’s values and principles:

Voluntarism:

Framework

Professionalization v. Amateurism

Prospects

The need for new terms of analysis

A Community of NGO’S

Inputs of the “Share and Compare” concept

CSO’s in the Maghreb