In 2022, El Salvador proposed a restrictive new law that threatened to decimate civil society. The draft law would require civil society organizations (CSOs) to register as foreign agents if they received funding and philanthropic giving from abroad, criminalize many of their normal activities, and impose a 40 percent tax on their financial transactions. Aware that a similar law in a neighboring country had shut down hundreds of organizations, Salvadoran CSOs concluded the region’s civil societies needed to come together and organize a joint defense.

With support from the Ford Foundation, ICNL launched a project from February 2020 through October 2022 to address FATF and AML/CFT issues related to nonprofit operations in three countries: Jordan, Tunisia, and Lebanon.

ICNL is working with a broad coalition of civil liberties, racial justice, environmental, and other groups to address anti-protest measures in the United States.

COVID hit Kyrgyzstan hard, overwhelming an already fragile healthcare system. In the face of these challenges, Elim Barsynby, a charitable foundation in Bishkek, assembled a large-scale volunteer movement to support the local community. With ICNL’s assistance, the organization was able to streamline its ability to receive aid by working through the medical supply distribution process and the bottlenecks of import and customs documentation.

ICNL partnered with the Lebanese Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI), a civil society organization promoting transparent management of oil and gas resources, in drafting a model public consultations law.

In early 2020, as COVID began to spread globally, ICNL recognized the repercussions of states’ emergency responses on fundamental freedoms and civil society. To address this, ICNL partnered with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) to convene a high-level meeting in May 2021 on protecting civic space and ending unnecessary emergency measures.

Responding to Covid-19, ICNLand partners tracked the impact of government responses, analyzed trends, informed the public, and supported partners.

ICNL partnered with the Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPi) at Stanford University to host the first-ever Tech Camp for civic space defenders.

ICNL and the East Africa Civil Society Organizations’ Forum (EACSOF), joined local partners to launch the Protection of Civic Space in East Africa Platform.

ICNL organized the International Workshop on Teaching Nonprofit Law to address civic space issues and education in Central Asia.