vernments view themselves as centralized command centers overseeing national life and development, neither citizen initiative nor partnership can become significant forces in overcoming poverty and addressing social problems. Today, governments are beginning to conceive of their role and their functions in more facilitative and enabling terms, asking which functions do they need to perform and which can they share with other segments of society. In a time of increasing demand for good governance, governments see the need to perform a more focused role more efficiently and competently. To achieve this, they need to establish working partnerships with both the private sector and the civil society sector to solve social problems and reduce economic inequities. In countries where it is feasible, additional public resources need to be raised for such social development efforts. For a tri-sector strategy to fully succeed, the newly emerging civil society sector in many countries requires strengthening and support. National laws and practices need to be revised to create an enabling framework for a flourishing, independent civil society sector. The sector needs training and capacity-building to help it to perform its major functions effectively and accountably and to enhance a variety of sources of income to support its activities. Targeted support needs to be given to strengthening civil society groups and citizen action in low income communities to address the problems they face and to strengthening connections between these low income areas and national-level civil society efforts. While the economic forces of the market are now widely accepted as vital to progress, some adverse side effects of this progress are increasingly being recognized. Much wider and much deeper dialogue is needed between those with a stake in economic prosperity from all three sectors about how to mitigate these adverse effects without undue harm to the economic ben...
