Across the world there is a growing trend of countries restricting citizens’ freedoms or making the work of civil society groups more difficult and dangerous, for ex. increased surveillance on ordinary citizens, activists and CSOs and targeted attacks and arrests. Furthermore, civil society activists, journalists and human rights defenders face escalating intimidation, harassment and reprisals, including imprisonment, for undertaking the work that fights for and protects human rights for us all. This toolkit was produced to be a useful, informative tool for connecting journalists and media with the challenges and opportunities currently happening in civil society. Most importantly, it provides…
Author: anja
At a time of global uncertainty, the UN is stretched to the breaking point. More and more people are losing faith in institutions and political leadership, and nationalistic trends are presenting a grave challenge to the rules-based international system from which all benefit. Public support for the UN is vital if a multilateral order is to be sustained, let alone deliver ambitious agendas on development and climate. The UN must do all it can to protect, expand and in some cases, stem the shrinkage of civil society space both inside and outside the UN. Determined work on this front will…
On February 10th, 2017, 18 leading CSOs from the G20 countries co-signed and sent a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel asking her, ahead of her preparations for the G20 Summit under her presidency, to put civil society on the G20 Summit agenda. Referring to CIVICUS Monitor, the signatories highlight that all G20 member states, but Germany, are facing narrowing down of civic space with CSOs facing undue vilification, threats, arrests, frozen bank accounts, revoked licenses, blocked websites, coerced registrations with government bodies, and closure of their offices, whereas civil society activists fear for their lives, with many disappearing and becoming…
A Content Advisory Workshop was held in Berlin on 20 – 21 February. The Content Advisory Group, consisting of representatives of Rendir Cuentas, BCSDN and Accountable Now as well as the ICSC, Project Development Team and three external experts worked on further developing the content of the Global Standard. The group specifically focused on the Guidance Material. Both documents will be presented in April 2017. More information on the Standard can be found here.
The Berlin Process Series is an initiative started by Cooperation and Development Institute (CDI), in November 2015, in Tirana, and supported by Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Hanns Seidel Foundation. An intergovernmental cooperation initiative between countries of the Western Balkans and selected member states of the European Union, known as the Berlin process was established in 2014 to enhance integration dialogue among Balkan countries and to further develop their mutual economic, political and security interests. Their latest study “Monitoring the Berlin Process: From Paris to Trieste”, the 6th research contribution and one of the components of the Berlin…
Feedback Labs aims to change the norms in development, aid, and philanthropic policy to be more responsive to the people that those policies aim to help. We are at a critical point in history where prioritizing constituencies’ feedback has the potential to unleash massive, timely, and necessary changes in the way development is pursued. While many aid and philanthropy organizations aspire to listen to those they seek to help, most are not designed to field and respond with agility to feedback from their constituencies. This field —termed “closing the feedback loop”— is still uncharted and unbounded. Most social development organizations…
The global objective of this call for proposals is to contribute, through supporting civil society organisations, to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and to contribute to the strengthening of the international framework for the promotion and protection of human rights, justice and the rule of law. The specific objectives of this call for proposals are: 1. Strengthening civil society’s involvement and 2. Supporting Human Rights Defenders. The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2,900,000. Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the minimum EUR 150,000…
Center for Civil Communications (CCC) in collaboration with the NGO Infocentre and BIRN Macedonia as part of the project “Investigative Journalism for encouraging reforms,” funded by the European Union through the program to support civil society and media freedom in 2014, announce the call for Applications for civil society organizations (CSOs) for actions related to the collection, processing and analysis of public information and training on open databases on areas of wider public interest. The areas in which the research should be conducted are: economy and finance, quality of life, health and environment. In total, 8 small grants will be…
How healthy are your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts? The Free Online Training for the Nonprofit Professsion has been designed to strengthen grant writing skills and fundamentals of effective communication, negotiation and presentation. Ensure that your nonprofit remains in position to continue to grow and thrive in its mission. The NonprofitReady.org course library contains over 200 courses to support the most common job families in the sector: Fundraising, Leadership, Accounting and Finance, Operations, Marketing and Communications, Volunteer Engagement, and Program Management. More information is available here. Source: Nonprofit Ready
The European Social Enterprise Law Association is an international network of social enterprise experts, with members ranging from law firms through academic institutions to expert individuals. The ESELA Annual Conference will be taking place this year on 28 April in Brussels on the theme of ‘Teaming Up in the Middle: How Business and Not for Profits Jointly Create Social Impact’. Whilst the discussions will have a legal flavor and focus, there will be a mix of perspectives from entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, policy specialists and legal experts. The theme of ‘teaming up’ will be explored for international development, the welfare state, social…