Title: Civil society alliances and coalitions

Authors: Blerjana Bino, Gentian Elezi, Knowledge Management Consultants

Saimir Musta, LevizAlbania

June 2022

Summary
This article analyses the topic of local alliances and coalitions in the context of civil society in
Albania. The addressed topic represents an interesting element in the framework of cooperation
instruments and forms, and thus the focus of the article is mainly on the characteristics and
challenges of that field. While exploring the previous concepts and experiences, subject to
analysis are also elements such as the cooperation form and structuring, communication,
inclusion and coordination, maintaining the organizations’ identity and profile, as well as the
dimension of impact to policymakers. The article concludes with some recommendations for the
donors and civil society organizations, as key aspects to address with regard to the practices of
establishing alliances or coalitions with civil society organizations.

Introduction
The purpose of this article is to analyze the main features of cooperation and alliances in the field
of civic society, focusing on the Albanian context and experience of LevizAlbania (LA).
Building new connections among the civil society actors is known in literature as a valuable and
efficient tool in many dimensions, in particular in some fields whose main focus is civic
engagement, such as the environment. For that reason, after more than two decades of activism
and community work of civil society organizations in Albania, it is important to know more on
dimensions of such cooperation, its benefits and impact, as well as the challenges it presents. To
this end, on 23 May, LA organized an open activity in Korça, where more than 50
representatives of civil society organizations and different alliances focused on environment, in
particular, gathered and discussed on common challenges and ideas to further encourage
cooperation. Some of the comments and recommendations of that activity are presented in this
article as well.
Initially, the article explains the concept of alliances in the framework of civil society, focusing
on main definitions and features, and the context in which they develop and are more successful.
Then, the analysis continues with the Albanian context by listing some of the challenges
encountered by different organizations and alliances, as well as those resulting from the gathered
data. More specifically, this part will address the LA experience in that context, as well as
findings on projects implemented through support by alliances.

1
In the end, discussion will focus on lessons learned and recommendations for the future, thus
focusing on the current stage of coalitions development in Albania and the LA experience with
the support given to them.

Building civil society alliances

The forms of joint organization and cooperation in the field of civil society are diverse.
However, there are mainly three important forms in practice: networks, coalitions and alliances.
Networks consist of individuals or organizations that share information, ideas and resources to
meet individual or group aims. Networking is a process of collecting resources and building the
strength by using or establishing connections between two or more individuals, groups or
organizations. Networks have the tendency to be flexible and get together groups of common
interest or concern to exchange information and ideas.
Coalitions are groups of people or organizations working together to pursue a single goal.
Coalitions do often have a more formalized structure with members that have been involved for a
long time and who share responsibilities and resources. Their sustainability determines the
impact they have in society and decision-making. When needed, organizations request to join a
coalition to strengthen the impact of their advocacy.
On the other hand, alliances, in general, include short-term relationships among their members
and are focused on a specific objective. Being limited in time and aims, alliances have the
tendency to be less demanding and consuming to members. Alliances are not as permanent as
coalitions, but share the same approaches and benefits.
More specifically, the grouping and cooperation of civil society organizations and activists in an
alliance brings the following benefits:
- Increase of their actions’ impact
- Increase of access to policymakers and expanding contacts
- Increase of public reliability
- Increase of visibility and improvement of image
- Better opportunities to expand public support
- Opportunities to strengthen civil society in its entirety
- Organizations have different fields of expertise and complement each other, etc.
Coalitions also have some obvious benefits. Building a broad coalition increases the chances of
success and has an impact on decision makers, thus indicating that an action has wide social
support for the desired change of policies. Decision makers are more likely to pay attention to
coalitions - and alliances - as they bring a louder voice to the decision-making table. These
benefits are increased even more in difficult contexts where the need to use more the fewer
human and financial resources and to avoid the doubling of efforts among organizations working

2
in similar issue is larger. Work in coalitions ensures a coordinated way for organizations to build
and maintain strategic partnerships with external actors. It is easier for a government connecting
with a coalition as a single partner representing the range of civil society actors for an issue than
finding who to interact with from a number of organizations, spending time, energy and
resources.
From all these forms of cooperation, communication is of paramount importance. Maintaining
the communication flow and information update is an essential aspect of the work of alliances
and coalitions. These cooperation forms of civil society are known for long time, but they have
been significantly used in the last decades. A key factor in the emergence of broad alliances and
coalitions, always referring to 1990s, is the dramatic evolution of communication technology.
The massive cooperation enabled by the opportunity of sending the same message to hundreds of
thousands of people via an email has changed the dynamics of alliances and coalitions’
campaigns. It has made it easier for individual voices to have a unified voice for a certain issue,
to stay updated on developments, to plan together, to adapt and exercise maximum impact on
decisions made at national and local level.

Experiences and lessons learned

The experience of civil society in Albania with various forms of cooperation has been diverse
and has had its fluctuations. Based on the previous experiences and practices, LA has made
meaningful efforts to encourage and structure cooperation for joint purposes. The LA approach
has favored the establishment of alliances and cooperation in that context, stimulating a more
organic interconnectedness between the grassroots and think tanks. Regardless of challenges and
difficulties, this approach has produced some positive outcomes through years, with the support
of approximately 36 projects with cooperation among various actors, out of 194 1 that is the total
of projects implemented by organizations.
90 organizations (with respective activities and defined budget) have been involved in the
implementation of 36 partnership projects.
However, challenges have always been present. More specifically, the level of formalizing
cooperation and procedures to decide on cooperation have had different perceptions among
organizations, based on the size, mission, as well as the form of organization, experience, very
different expectations related to procedures, etc. On the one hand, these standards are necessary
to ensure progress, concentration and results. However, on the other hand, the lack of capacities
and experience, as well as the time and energy necessary for formal aspects can be often

1
Since 2016, LevizAlbania has supported 300 projects, out of which 194 projects have been implemented by civil
society organizations (NGO) and xx from individuals and informal groups

3
perceived as a burden. For instance, the alliances and coalitions supported by activists and
experts in specific field should not be taken for granted as all share the same understanding on
the organization of joint work. This is more evident when the nature of alliance members is
different, as may be the cases of environment protection initiatives where the diversity of
activists goes from large organizations (think tanks) to simple activists of the community. This
element leads to a significant challenge from the perspective of balance requiring work
flexibility and structuring with strict procedures and formalized rules.

As mentioned in the previous section on theoretical concepts and general experiences on

alliances and coalitions, the issues of trust and communication are evident even in the case of
Albania. Although coalitions and alliances are established and developed, it is the trust among
involved individuals and organizations and the communication flow that will turn a group of
organizations into a strong force for the change of policies. Trust can be developed by quality
communication, in particular by effective communication in the face of disagreements and
tensions. The special challenge for civil society alliances and coalitions is that there are no fixed
rules or practices related to the way these dynamics should be addressed or resolved. Such
tensions may be valuable, requiring a detailed review of positions of work policies, strategies or
ways, but they may also create large problems if not effectively addressed. They may lead to a
lack of cooperation or fictitiousness of alliance, which would weaken their operational strength.
Even the practice in Albania has shown that alliances are more successful if they have a better
organization of the communication and mutual trust.

Another challenge encountered by civil society organizations when facing the alliance dilemma
is the fear of identity weakening and organization profile. Regardless of the awareness that joint
actions increase the impact power to policymakers, the perception of merger into a large and
diverse community risks to change the image of a certain organization and its positioning in a
specific field. An alliance needs to agree upon clear messages and a joint stance. In doing this, it
is important to clearly see the sharing of duties, as well as the profiling and expertise of
everyone, so that there is visibility for every organization, without risking their identity, thus
strongly contributing to the joint cause. The lack of those elements may cause misunderstandings
and disagreements even in the Albanian context, thus fragmenting the action of civil society,
even in cases when they have specific joint causes and objectives.

Another issue encountered and brought to attention by civil society organizations in Albania is
that, in some cases, alliances are dominated by a large and strong organization, which recruits
others for its purposes. Such practice may reduce the space for small organizations and might

4
lower the voice in making strategic decisions within the alliance, thus expecting more from the
lead organization that has know how and not developing its capacities. On the other hand, the
alliances and coalitions need efficient organization and structure. In addition, the association
with large organizations and participation in many activities where they would have not had
access if they were alone might result in additional benefits even for small or local organizations.
The comprehensive and transversal cooperation and joining is a key element in increasing the
impacting potential to policymakers, in particular in the field of environment.
In the context of Albania, an important element noted in the establishment of alliances and
coalitions is the significant lack of academia involvement. It is worth-mentioning that in the case
of LA, the non-involvement of universities as grant recipients is a result of the status they have
(not being civil society organizations and non-profit organizations). Except for sporadic cases or
large advocacy campaigns, the systematic cooperation (or establishment of alliances and
coalitions) with these important structures of thought and analysis is missing, which can provide
significant contribution to specific causes. This observation requires a more detailed analysis to
understand potential barriers and respective features, but the absence of universities in alliances
and coalitions is a significant factor to be highlighted in broad discussions on such topic.
Based on the experience of LevizAlbania with grant award for causes of local democracy, the
establishment of alliances and partnerships among organizations has been encouraged since
2017, with the first call “UPSCALE”2.
LëvizAlbania aims to have a wider coverage and to support initiatives from as many units and
communities as possible, be them isolated and rural.
The approach of local initiatives far from Tirana, undertaken by new small organizations, which
are generally categorized as grassroots, is accompanied by problems related to implementing
capacities and experience in project management. On the other hand, consolidated CSOs
operating mainly in the capital and large cities find it difficult to penetrate rural and remote
areas, not only because of the physical distance, but even due to the lack of understanding
community issues and features.
In response to those two issues, observed during the implementation, LevizAlbania has
redesigned the criteria of grant selection by conditioning on the one hand - in the second phase -
the grant award for grassroots organizations (lead partner in project implementation operating in
one of the municipalities of the region where the proposed project activities will be developed)
and, on the other hand, by prioritizing the partnership between grassroots and consolidated

2
One of the main directions of call no. 4 for grants initiated by LevizAlbania, aiming at “Continuity”. This call was
addressed to all grant recipients of LevizAlbania, who were supported in the previous calls for application 1, 2 and
3. The purpose of the continuity direction had as its essence the objective to support projects that were successful
in their interventions, and have produces concrete outcomes in strengthening local democracy, increasing
transparency, accountability, participation and involvement in local decision-making.

5
organizations. Maintaining ongoing contacts with LevizAlbania and continuous participation in
training, counselling and leading activities of LevizAlbania has created the appropriate
environment and circumstances for these local organizations to increase their capacities, while
also maintaining contacts with an experienced organization.
The analysis of cases identified as less successful has shown that one of the widely observed
aspects considered as the most significant in not achieving results is the lack of simplicity in the
established relationship. Regardless of having a short-term and involving nature in implementing
a single joint initiative, factors such as different profiling of fields of activity, large variations in
experience or being part of a unnatural partnership have had a significant impact on achieving
joint objectives.

Conclusions and recommendations for the future

The stimulation of organizing civil society actors and their cooperation for joint causes presents
some disadvantages, and raises some questions.
First of all, the community of donors should bear in mind finding the balance between demand
and supply. The excessive top-down approach (e.g. imposing cooperation among the
organizations that have no cooperation experience) must be moderated, paying attention to the
inclusion of some additional criteria in building a more organic alliance or coalition. Otherwise,
we risk the classical outcome of “box ticking”, with a non-integrated involvement of all the
alliance members and with a not fully met objective. On the other hand, this practice cannot be
dependent only on the bottom-up “inspiration, as the Albanian society still reflects structural
problems from the past, with regard to civic engagement and activism. Therefore, the stimulating
approach and capacity building and strengthening for the organizations of local nature must be
strengthened and oriented towards cooperation.
The focus and orientation of alliances must be on the impact they have on the cause or the final
objective. This needs to be highlighted as the local approach towards the support of projects
balances the mission of the organization with the location, thus sometimes favoring the latter, to
increase the intervention authorship. Firstly, as mentioned above, the authorship does not
necessarily fall only on local partners, as this is mostly related to the form how an alliance is
built and how the cooperation is structured. Secondly, the mission of an organization can be a
“fuel” much more valuable than the geographical aspect. For this reason, in building future
alliances and coalitions, a balance among those components must be considered, so that potential
contributors are not excluded from cooperation, thus favoring local organizations of low impact
and experience.

6
Another element in building alliances, in particular in the field of environmental protection, is
the engagement and involvement of directly affected communities. Wherever possible, the
alliances or coalitions must be led by representatives of this communities, and not from other
organizations. This approach increases the alliance potential to expand inclusion, building more
trust and knowledge from other communities.
Although, as mentioned above, there is no standard recipe for forms of cooperation, there are
some criteria deemed as necessary. A better coordination is key for any form of cooperation.
Clearly formulated and joint interest- and value-based messages or actions should be accurately
coordinated, in particular with regard to policymakers or external actors. This is closely related
to the importance of communication, which was addressed in this article.
Inclusion (from grassroots to the academia), hearing the voice of alliance members, encouraging
the sense of belonging and promotion of everyone’s sensitivities must also be considered in
establishing a successful alliance. The practical approach of presenting objectives by requesting
others to follow, without any discussion with the members, may result in failure or weakening of
the joint action, thus questioning the reliability. Therefore, alliances must pay attention to
directly involve members in joint activities and works, by dividing tasks and using the skills of
everyone to the benefit of the objective. This approach increases trust, which must not be
underestimated for the importance it has in such types of cooperation. In particular, when
organizations or individuals that have closely worked with each other in previous causes, they
must play a central role in coordinating and organizing the joint work due to the trust they have
built.

About LevizAlbania
LevizAlbania is a project of the Local Democracy of the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation (SDC), implemented by a consortium composed of: (i) Open Society Foundation for
Albania (OSFA), (ii) Partners Albania and (iii) Co-Plan. Since 2015, LA has contributed to
strengthen local democracy through grants awarded to Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs),
informal groups and individuals, thus supporting their request for transparent and responsible
local governance, and efficient public services. The project supports building coalitions to boost
structural and systematic changes at local and national level, and to promote positive practices in
support of local democracy.

Knowledge Management System and Civic Engagement Platform

The Knowledge Management and Civic Engagement Platform of Lëviz Albania aims at
collecting, structuring and capitalizing the whole contribution and achievements of LA in the last
6 years. At the same time, this exercise reviews the challenges encountered by Lëviz Albania in

7
meeting its objectives, as well as the challenges of grant recipients and the broad context of local
democracy. The knowledge management analyzes internal and external processes of LA, as well
as designs the establishment of mechanisms based on identified needs. This selected approach
aims to improve the new projects effectiveness and to instill the culture of systematic and
structured use of acquired knowledge, using the set up instruments and mechanisms (platform).
The Knowledge Management System and Civic Engagement Platform contributes to the increase
of intervention effectiveness and allows a detailed analysis and overview of challenges related to
the support of local democracy and civic engagement. The experts engaged in this aspect by
LevizAlbania (in alphabetical order): Blerjana Bino and Gentian Elezi.