Journalists, human rights defenders and community leaders face serious risks for their works to protect their communities, peoples and environment. Due to the nature of their work, they have become targets of both State and non State actors who seek to intimidate, silence and disrupt their works.

Those working against land grabbing, natural resource extraction, mega projects and deforestation activities on their lands and villages are particularly endangered and their work is plagued by threats, assaults, intimidation, arbitrary-arrests, detention, surveillance and closure of civic space.

Available evidences suggests that the shrinking space of civil society hinders social and -economic development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Restrictions on civic space prevent Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from engaging in policy formulation, monitoring rights, raising awareness, championing the voices of vulnerable populations, and from building partnerships.

When civic space is limited, development risks excluding voices and increasing social distrust. Ultimately, this increases inequalities and makes development less sustainable.

Civic space is essential to provide transparent and verifiable information. If objective data is absent due to shrinking civic space, trust in official data and political performance is likely to decrease.

Weakening of civil society may increase a permissive culture of corruption among elite groups without sufficient checks and balances. Not only could this erode trust in governance, but it could also trigger significant economic, food and political crises.

Overemphasis on huge infrastructure projects and economic growth increasingly competes with the discourse of inclusion and thereby puts the key SDG principle of “leaving no one behind” at risk.

Citizens in particular marginalised groups – must be able to hold the providers of basic public services accountable for equitable delivery of services such as education, health, water and sanitation, housing, safety and justice. Governments routinely struggle to improve the quality of public services, but shrinking and closing civic space and violating fundamental freedoms excludes citizens from addressing challenges in the delivery of basic public services. The ‘leave no
one behind’ principle commits governments to reaching the most marginalised populations.Their voices must be heard, and their active participation as agents of change needs to be promoted.

Clamping down on information-sharing and scrutiny of public affairs has counter-productive effects, as public trust is undermined when governments control the flow of information. In the absence of independent scrutiny and analysis of official statistics, methodologies and sources, public experts and development partners are often suspicious of official data.