Unveiling of 2018 Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index-CSOSI Report

29 January, Kathmandu. The Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index (CSOSI) report is a global independent initiatives of the USAID in association with the FHI360/ICNL, USA to measure the strengths and overall viability of the CSO sectors in more than 70 countries of the globe. The reports are produced and disseminated annually in the respective countries.

FHI360/ICNL has also initiated to produce similar report of the 9 countries from South/East Asian namely Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Thus, in association with the FHI360/ICNL, GoGo Foundation has contributed as the “implementing partner organization” from Nepal to publish Asia version of CSOSI report.

The CSOSI report is prepared through the panel discussions among CSO practitioners and experts to assess and score in the sector on given scales in seven interrelated dimensions i.e. legal environment; organizational capacity; financial viability; advocacy; service provision; infrastructure; and public image. In addition to this exercise, the host partner organization also conducts in-depth context analysis of the civil society initiatives in the respective countries.

An editorial committee of technical and regional experts are involved to review each country panel’s findings. Based on their final scores, the CSO sector of each country are grouped within one of three sustainability categories: sustainability enhanced; sustainability evolving; and sustainability impeded.

Thus, CSOSI 2018 report covered 9 countries of the South/East Asia and Nepal ranked 4th position with 4.3 out of 7 score. The scores from 1-3 are given for sustainable enhanced category, 3.1-5 for sustainability evolving category and 5.1-7 for sustainability impeded category. With 4.3 score, Nepal fall under the sustainability evolving categories. The Philippines and Bangladesh are ranked first and second respectively where as Burma and Thailand are positioned 8th and 9th respectively. The overall country rank along with the respective dimension-wise scores are given as follows:

CSO-SI scored Countries Rank with overall CSO-SI scores Overall 2018 CSOSI Dimension-wise Rank and Score Legal Environ-ment Organi-zational Capacity Financial Viability Advo-cacy Service Provision Infra-structure Public

In overall dimension, Nepal has secured fourth position among nine countries with 4.3 score and categorized under the sustainability evolving (3.1-5 score) category. However, out of 7 dimensions Nepalese CSO’s “organization capacity”, “service provision”, “infrastructure” and “public images” have been scored low.