Civil society

CIVIL SOCIETY: How do we define it?
A generally accepted and officially authorized definition of the civil society organizations does not exist, but according to the United Nations, civil society organizations are the following: “Not-for-profit, voluntary citizen groups, organized on a local, national and international level in order to raise public interest issues. Fully oriented and created by individuals with common interests, they perform various services and humanitarian functions; they represent the needs of the citizens before the governing structures, monitor the policies and programmes implementation and support the participation of the civil society sector on a community level.
On the other hand, CIVICUS defines the civil society as the space amid the family, state and the market, where people join in order to express their interests, by this definition one may conclude that the formal as well as the informal associations and networks are inclusive.

Birungi K. Desiderius
077 2 426 607
Executive Director
Better World Uganda
P. O. Box 406, Hoima-Uganda