Non-state actors consist of all the publicly engaged actors armed with a certain degree of resources and power to exert influence that are not part of the State apparatus. These include business people, labour unions, non-governmental organizations, social movements, universities, religious institutions, indigenous, Afrodescendant and local communities, among others.

Citizen participation and the involvement of non-state actors are key to achieving quality social policies. Recent decades have revealed that active citizen engagement in social policy increases the odds of success in dealing with social issues, and it has assumed such importance as to be regarded as a central feature of any democracy.

Such participation may be collective or individual. In some cases, it comes at the invitation of State authorities or as a spontaneous response from the citizenry, whether organized or not. Coordination with non-state actors has assumed an increasingly prominent role as a political-institutional mechanism for managing social policies and programmes.

In order that such participation and coordination prove effective, non-state actors must enjoy social mobilization, information, organization, bargaining and communication capabilities. It also demands the State recognize and respect diversity, receptivity, formal mechanisms for channelling demands and preferences for allocating resources, and the investment alignment mechanisms of other non-state actors, among others.