Volume 41, Issue 1, November 2023, Pages 357–367
Lawani Ayemi Akessime1
1 Department of Sociology, University of Kara, Togo
Original language: English
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Civil society organizations are important players on the international stage, and specifically in sub-Saharan African countries. While the place they occupy in the public arena and the influence they exert on political decisions seem to be accepted today, this has not always been the case. Their emergence is the result of a historical process that needs to be contextualized to better understand the role they play today. This article proposes a socio-historical study of this emergence, using two West African countries, Benin and Togo, as a framework for analysis. The analyses are based on a documentary review with data from archival documents, supplemented by a mobilization of scientific literature. A comparison of the emergence of civil society organizations in Benin and Togo illustrates that, despite similarities, from the 1990s onwards these two countries underwent differentiated processes. The success of the democratic transition in Benin was an important factor; whereas in Togo, the socio-political crisis slowed the rise of civil society for almost two decades (1990–2005).
Author Keywords: Civil society, Benin, Togo, Non-Governmental Organizations, Development.
Lawani Ayemi Akessime1
1 Department of Sociology, University of Kara, Togo
Original language: English
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Civil society organizations are important players on the international stage, and specifically in sub-Saharan African countries. While the place they occupy in the public arena and the influence they exert on political decisions seem to be accepted today, this has not always been the case. Their emergence is the result of a historical process that needs to be contextualized to better understand the role they play today. This article proposes a socio-historical study of this emergence, using two West African countries, Benin and Togo, as a framework for analysis. The analyses are based on a documentary review with data from archival documents, supplemented by a mobilization of scientific literature. A comparison of the emergence of civil society organizations in Benin and Togo illustrates that, despite similarities, from the 1990s onwards these two countries underwent differentiated processes. The success of the democratic transition in Benin was an important factor; whereas in Togo, the socio-political crisis slowed the rise of civil society for almost two decades (1990–2005).
Author Keywords: Civil society, Benin, Togo, Non-Governmental Organizations, Development.
How to Cite this Article
Lawani Ayemi Akessime, “The rise of civil society in Africa: A comparative analysis of Benin and Togo,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 357–367, November 2023.
