Civil society organizations are important players on the international stage, and specifically in sub-Saharan African countries. While the place they occupy in the public arena and the influence they exert on political decisions seem to be accepted today, this has not always been the case. Their emergence is the result of a historical process that needs to be contextualized to better understand the role they play today. This article proposes a socio-historical study of this emergence, using two West African countries, Benin and Togo, as a framework for analysis. The analyses are based on a documentary review with data from archival documents, supplemented by a mobilization of scientific literature. A comparison of the emergence of civil society organizations in Benin and Togo illustrates that, despite similarities, from the 1990s onwards these two countries underwent differentiated processes. The success of the democratic transition in Benin was an important factor; whereas in Togo, the socio-political crisis slowed the rise of civil society for almost two decades (1990–2005).
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