ABSTRACT
A developed civil society will be the hallmark of successful state-building, the point at which the Bosnian state is able to be left to rule without the international community. Practically every international NGO, foreign donor organization and multilateral agency involved in the country makes explicit reference to civil society development as a key objective of their involvement. This chapter analyses the changing nature of international approaches to civil society development and assess the role of international donors, their patterns of interaction and the support given to the capacity-building of local NGOs. It discusses the approach of the international community to civil society development in the initial post-Dayton period, and the various criticisms that have been levelled at such intervention, in particular, of the high levels of NGO dependence on external funding, their isolation from Bosnian society and from governing institutions, and the instability of the NGO sector in a highly competitive project-led environment.
