A/HRC/35/28 specialized housing finance and urban planning stakeholders, such as local government and private contractors.77 7. Shared humanity 83. Civil society collectives have been credited with contributing to poverty reduction and emergency relief by meeting basic needs and providing public services to communities at the margins. Whether formally or informally, the less fortunate in many societies depend on social structures such as community groups and friendship ties; such groups may also improve people’s lives by pooling community resources or collectively seeking external assistance. 84. Whereas the State might provide tangible goods and services that the poor may need, civil society groups provide avenues for them to share their experiences and contribute to a more comprehensive analysis of the responses. Civil society also goes beyond meeting basic needs by contributing to the empowerment of beneficiaries and ensuring the sustainability of initiatives. In Bangladesh, for example, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee has provided much needed basic services to millions of poor people. Their package of services has evolved from disaster relief to empowerment through education, health services, agriculture and income generation for lasting change. 78 85. The diversity of civil society enables it to respond to emergency situations in a variety of ways, from providing immediate essentials to medium- and long-term aid. In emergency situations, partnerships with civil society are often necessary to provide longerterm aid because government resources are stretched and focused on the immediate crisis. For example, at the height of the Ebola crisis in West Africa, most government resources were focused on the needs of patients affected by the virus. 79 Of course, civil society groups also contributed greatly to the initial response. However, they also recognized the devastating and long-term effects that Ebola would have on society as a whole, including on children’s access to education and the country’s broader socioeconomic development; the work of the national education coalition Education for All Sierra Leone on these issues is one example of civil society’s contribution.80 86. In the area of service delivery, civil society is in a relatively better position than the State or private enterprise to demonstrate the value of shared humanity of those ravaged by conflict, natural disasters and other crises. In Europe, the recent influx of refugees provided civil society groups with an opportunity to show humanity to those fleeing conflict and oppression in their home countries, a role that European Governments were either unwilling or unable to play. 87. At the migrant camp known as “the jungle” in Calais, France, where in October 2016 an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 asylum seekers waited in the hope of gaining entry to the United Kingdom, volunteers and international aid agencies were the primary providers of much needed basic supplies. 81 Volunteers elsewhere strove to address non-material concerns, such as countering anti-immigration sentiment and providing support services, including language, art and skills classes — services that civil society and individuals, working at a person-to-person level, are best placed to provide services. 82 88. Although, in many cases, civil society steps in when governments withdraw or otherwise fail to provide public services, civil society can also challenge this withdrawal and push for reform of policies that deny much-needed services. In South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign used a multifaceted approach to force the Government to reverse a policy decision to not provide antiretroviral drugs to individuals infected with 77 78 79 80 81 82 Ibid. See www.brac.net/#what_we_do. See www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/sierra-leone-front-line-fight-against-ebola. See www.globalpartnership.org/blog/civil-societys-response-ebola-crisis-sierra-leone. See http://time.com/4504479/calais-jungle-migrants-volunteers-teachers/. See www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/honour-bayes/meet-dancers-who-are-making-refugeeswelcome. 19