CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (CSOs): CAPACITY TO ABET COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

Abstract

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are considered as the main tool for promoting citizen participation and to ensure good governance. Thus, for exploring the CSOs role to promote participation and establish good governance, there is the scarcity of research literature regarding specifically in case of developing countries and Pakistan is not an exception. This paper has filled this research gap by finding out the role of civil society in indorsing good governance and reconnoitering citizen participation. The qualitative research methodology was applied. Focus Group Discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted. For the data analysis, thematic analysis as guided by Braun and Clark were applied. The findings revealed that CSOs role in ensuring good governance, influencing decision making, impacting service delivery and promoting citizen participation. It was further found out that efficacy of CSOs to fulfill its goals and meet its designed objective in the local settings of Pakistan is very limited. This paper proposed that stakeholder engagement is the most important prerequisite for the success of CSOs. On the top of that, CSOs must introduce some mechanism to train themselves to engage themselves efficiently in the governance issues.