Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play a role in every aspect of society, from electoral reforms to gender equality and environmental issues to the governance of public organizations.
Unfortunately, the number of CSOs, which once exceeded 300,000 during the early reform era, has dropped drastically, with fewer than 8,000 units remaining.
“One reason for this decline is the continuous decrease in funding support from international donor organizations,” explained Professor Amalinda Savirani during her inaugural speech as a professor of business and politics at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (Fisipol UGM), on Thursday (Feb. 27) at the Senate Hall, UGM Central Office.
Her speech, titled “Between Civic Making and Profit Making: Seeking Alternative Funding for Indonesian Civil Society in the Neoliberal Era,” also explained that as Indonesia has “graduated” to become a Middle-Income Country, it is no longer a priority target for international aid.
Additionally, one characteristic of CSOs in Indonesia is their dependency on international donor funding, with a dependency rate reaching up to 85%.
“As a result, it is difficult for CSOs and their programs to continue in the long term,” she remarked.
Professor Savirani further explained that Indonesia’s increasing integration into neoliberal economic practices has reduced the state’s role in addressing public issues and increased the private sector’s influence.
“In the context of CSOs, neoliberalism manifests in the rise of managerialism due to control from donor institutions. Many CSO activists complain about being overwhelmed with financial reports and work plans,” she added.
She also explained that there are four sources of funding for CSOs in Indonesia: donor institutions, membership fees, unrestricted individual donations, incidental public fundraising, and state funding.
She outlined four options CSOs can explore to secure funding and the risks associated with each option, aside from the now-declining international donor funding.
Professor Savirani’s options include seeking government and business sector funding, creating self-sustaining funding through business units, and radicalizing volunteer-based movements.
Drawing from Karl Polanyi’s thoughts on embedded economic practices within social and political contexts, she reflected on the independence and sustainability of CSOs as economic actors.
CSOs can establish business units to diversify funding and ensure sustainability while maintaining social movements. The social enterprise (SE) option aims to strengthen CSOs’ financial capacity while promoting sustainability.
She cited cooperatives as an example of a social enterprise model that CSOs could adopt.
“While promoting social movements is a key point to ensure that this option does not trap CSOs into becoming capitalist agents solely focused on profit-making,” she explained.
In her view, in the midst of the funding crisis currently faced by CSOs, establishing social enterprises as an alternative funding source is an effort to restore the cooperative spirit as a tool for movements.
However, this option does carry risks, as it may be seen as insufficiently radical, viewed as a capitalist collaborator, or risk deviating from its social movement ideology.
Therefore, a fundamental prerequisite is that profit-making must be an instrument for civic-making.
Additionally, it is important to remain adaptable, as the current crisis facing CSOs may change the landscape of CSOs in Indonesia and globally, possibly leading to a process of decentering (decreasing centralization) and downsizing.
“Here, the death of CSOs is not an option. The death of CSOs could mark the death of democracy,” she emphasized.
She also explained that the current strategic agenda for CSOs is to build networks and bridges between CSOs to ensure their survival.
Seeking alternative funding for CSOs is also part of preserving democracy in Indonesia.
In her remarks, the Rector of UGM, Professor Ova Emilia, mentioned that Professor Savirani is one of the 526 active professors at UGM and one of the 22 active professors out of the 38 professors ever produced by Fisipol UGM.
Author: Leony
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya
Photographer: Donnie