Working as the space narrows
Rights-based work, civic participation, advocacy, organising, and operating as civic space narrows.
Why this is hard.
Restricted civic space is not only a political condition. It is an operational one, and it changes what an organisation has to do: how it registers, how it receives funding, how it stores data, who is named publicly, how partners are protected, and what risk staff carry personally.
We work with rights-based organisations, movements, networks and funders on both dimensions: the substantive work of advocacy, organising and rights protection, responses to humanitarian crisis and the organisational arrangements that determine whether that work can continue safely.
We also work with organisations that have grown out of movements and now face a specific problem: how to build institutional systems without losing the horizontal practice that made them effective.
What we work on here.
- 01 civic space analysis and monitoring
- 02 organisational strategy for restricted environments
- 03 risk assessment for organisations, staff and partners
- 04 digital security and data protection in high-risk contexts
- 05 advocacy and influencing strategy
- 06 movement-building and cross-movement collaboration
- 07 feminist organising and network support
- 08 organisational development for movements and collectives
- 09 funder strategy for supporting civil society under pressure
- 10 research on rights, participation and civic conditions
- 11 protection and duty of care for activists and human rights defenders
How our services apply here.
This is a subject area, not a service. You commission one of the five below, applied to it.
| Service | Applied to Human Rights, Humanitarian Response & Civic Space |
|---|---|
| Research & Assessment | Civic space and context analysis; mapping of actors and conditions; risk assessment; research on rights and participation |
| Frameworks, Policy & Governance | Governance and operating arrangements for restricted environments; protection and risk policies; advocacy frameworks |
| Learning Design & Delivery | Learning on advocacy, organising, rights-based approaches and organisational resilience |
| Facilitation & Conflict Work | Convening across movements and organisations; strategy processes for networks and coalitions |
| Advisory & Accompaniment | Advisory for organisations and funders operating under pressure or transition |
Questions organisations bring us.
- "Registration requirements have changed and our current structure is now a liability."
- "We started as a collective. We now have thirty staff and no governance."
- "We fund civil society in a region where funding itself has become risky."
- "We need evidence on civic conditions that funders will find credible."
Selected work.
Regional civil society mapping across six countries
multi-dimensional analysis of the political, legal and relational conditions shaping how organisations could operate, organise and receive support.
Talk to us about civic space.
Tell us the issue, the decision or the change in front of you. We will tell you honestly which of the five services fits, whether you need more than one, and whether CTDC is the right organisation for it.
The first conversation is free and carries no obligation.
