Canada’s Role in Global Development… Charity or Social Justice? IMPORTANT: The country given is Kenya looking into their poverty. The CSO is Red Cross Canada. This is the specific topic given to me. Background: Throughout this course we have examined how the lives of people in different parts of the world are interconnected through processes of economic, political and cultural globalization. In recent decades there has been a significant growth of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Canada and across the globe. CSOs (also called non- governmental organizations, NGOs, non-profit organizations, and sometimes faith-based organizations) are independent of government, though they sometimes accept government funding. In the lectures you are learning about the work of CSOs in raising awareness of issues of human rights, social justice and environmental sustainability. But what exactly is ‘civil society’? And what is the role of CSOs? To what extent do they use a ‘charity model’ versus a ‘social justice model’ to frame and guide their work?
