Can Civil Society Be Made Sustainable? Examining USAID Legacy Mechanisms

• In Event: 239 - Regular Session. Development

Abstract

What happens when donors withdraw? Unlike many international donors, USAID creates long-term “graduation” plans years in advance with a goal of supporting a sustainable civil society. This paper examines one case of a “graduated” country, Croatia, to see how the legal, institutional, and community sustainability mechanisms have held up in the eight years since the USAID intervention ended. This sheds light on larger questions of civil society: can a civil sector that has been financially, technocratically, and morally supported from the outside maintain itself once international interventions end? This paper uses archival and interview data collected between 2008 and 2016 to examine the long-term impact of USAID interventions on civil society. I find there are fundamental limits to the strength of an externally supported civil society, and that in the absence of continued attention and funding, legacy mechanisms can easily be overturned.

Author

• Laura J. Heideman, Northern Illinois University