Building resilience through participation: Lessons from the civil society in Eastern Europe and Western Balkans

In times of multiple crises that affect the sustainable development agenda, resilience has become a buzzword in the international development community. While civil society has been involved in bottom-up resilience building in the global South for quite some time, it is crucial to define the risks that may compromise the underlying values of civil society organisations (CSOs) such as human rights, inclusion, equality and sustainability.

Based on the best practices of CSOs from the Eastern Neighbourhood of the European Union (EU) and the Western Balkans, this policy paper identifies the most efficient ways for the donors to support resilience building. Since resilience building is a long-term process, donors and the European institutions particularly, should commit to long-term resilience-building programmes, mobilise the use of local knowledge and thus contribute to addressing the root causes of poverty, inequality, insecurity and unsustainability.