Generate timely knowledge and analysis
We research, monitor and document civic space conditions and civil society action worldwide, and work to ensure that our findings reach and inform civil society, policymakers, media and international institutions. Our knowledge products range from rapid monitoring alerts to long-form thematic research.
Tracking civil society action
Our knowledge of civil society begins with listening to it. This year, we will publish at least 300 civil society interviews, prioritising underrepresented regions and excluded groups, and at least 100 CIVICUS Lens articles on civil society and civic space, with all global-scope pieces available in English, French and Spanish. The content published throughout the year, together with consultations with our board, membership and broader civil society, will feed into our annual flagship publication, the 16th edition of the State of Civil Society Report, to be published by March 2027.
Monitoring civic space
We track civic space conditions across 198 countries and territories through the CIVICUS Monitor, underpinned by a global network of regional research partners, providing continuous country-level evidence and feeding into submissions to the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process on priority countries. Throughout the year, we will publish three Watchlist editions, with each identifying five to six countries experiencing rapid civic space deterioration, and a series of country briefs highlighting civic space trends. We will publish our key annual monitoring publication, People Power Under Attack, in December 2026, followed by a thematic report on civic space for LGBTQI+ activism.
Our global monitoring work is complemented by the European Union System for the Enabling Environment for Civil Society project (EU SEE), which brings together an 86-country consortium of civil society network members to generate civil society-led evidence on their enabling environments. CIVICUS leads the consortium’s research and methodology work, including the production of enabling environment snapshots and country focus reports for 19 partners, the review of early warning alerts for the 86 countries and the publication of a global trends report.
Thematic research
Our thematic research programme this year covers artivism, Gen Z-led protests, civic space restrictions on LGBTQI+ activism and, through the Horizon Europe ENSURED project, global governance reform, with a focus on the UN Security Council.
Drawing on our investment in social listening tools, we will publish three reports applying digital narrative analysis to civic space, analysing algorithmic bias and polarisation in how platforms treat civil society voices, digital manipulation during electoral cycles and early warning indicators, the digital narrative patterns that tend to precede civic space crackdowns or the introduction of restrictive laws. We will contribute as a core advisory partner to the Comparative Third Sector Project, a seven-year global research collaboration led by Concordia University examining the size, composition and roles of civil society across 40 countries.
Dissemination of research outputs
We will renew our partnership with Inter Press Service and establish a new Spanish-language media partnership, extending the reach of our research among Latin American civil society and media. CIVICUS researchers will publish at least 50 op-eds in external outlets throughout the year. For every major research output, we will develop an advocacy, communications and social media plan at the start of production and track reach and engagement quarterly to inform future dissemination.
What we are doing differently:
- We are expanding our research into the information environment, exploring algorithmic bias, electoral manipulation and the digital patterns that precede crackdowns, because disinformation and platform manipulation have become tools of civic space restriction.
- We are shifting from generating all knowledge centrally to building the capacity of network members and research partners to generate it themselves, investing in a more distributed and resilient knowledge base.
- We are making outreach systematic rather than ad hoc, treating it as a core part of the research function with dedicated media partnerships and dissemination and advocacy plans built into every major output from the start.
