Civil society is a powerful thing. It can change discriminatory laws, transform societies and hold governments to account. But how can donors contibute to building effective civil society? This was the big question of a twitter chat Bond co-hosted with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as part of DFID’s review of its partnership with civil society. 700 tweets from over 170 participants in 11 countries tried to answer the question. Here are six ways that stuck out. [Bond UK]
Author: anja
In a commentary for the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Maina Kiai, UN Sepcial Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association elaborates why it is so difficult to ensure that assembly and association rights are respected in the context of natural resource exploitation, and concludes that the best solution to the problem would be a binding international treaty that imposes human rights obligations on businesses. As Kiai puts it, the open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights tasked with leading the process towards a binding…
The Open Government Partnership, launched in 2011 to foster more open and accountable government, more responsive to citizens, is an increasingly important initiative for the countries of the Western Balkans, going hand in hand with the reforms embarked upon in the EU accession process. The governments of the Western Balkans have come together on the occasion of the Western Balkans OGP Dialogue 2015, hosted by IDM and the Minister of Innovation and Public Administration, in Tirana, Albania, on 10-11 September 2015, when they made the four commitments 1) to join with civil society in a concerted public awareness campaign to…
On 9th September, 2015, Tanja Hafner Ademi and Milka Ivanova Hadjievska of BCSDN presented the report on the Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development in the Black Sea Region which was commissioned by the Black Sea NGO Forum to support its development of a join civil society strategy for action in the region. The report was discussed with EU stakeholders including EC, EEAS, EP, Romanian representations, civil society networks as a basis for the preparation of the annual gathering – the 8th Edition of the Black Sea NGO Forum. The BCSDN team based its work on its Monitoring Matrix developed…
Civic Initiatives have started implementing a project for enabling marginalized young women from in Sandzak and South of Serbia to get education in IT. Obtained skills will empower these woman to get employment, start their own businesses and set an example that women can be leaders in communities. Under the Youth Build IT project, 30 young women are currently going through comprehensive education program in IT and Web Design (160 lessons). In addition, they will attend training (40 lessons) for personal skills development related to job seeking, start up business and capacity building. Advanced lessons will enable them to complete their…
According to the last edition of the “Government Mirror” published by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC), at the Macedonian Assembly sessions held during 25th-27th August, 2015, 65 draft laws were put on the agenda in summary proceedings, out of which only five are published on the Single Electronic Registry of Regulations (ENER). None of the published laws has respected the minimum period of ten days for public consultation. With the massive adoption of laws that have not been published on ENER through a shortened procedure, the public and all stakeholders have a restricted ability to be timely informed,…
With a delay of ten days, the UN has published the final outcome document for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to be officially adopted at the UN Summit on 25th-27th September, 2015, in New York. The Agenda sets out the aims of the organization and all its members for the coming 15 years in the fields of social development, curbing equalities, economic progress and environmental sustainability. If taken seriously, the 2030 Agenda will require profound changes in policies as well as governance and has the potential to shape debates in each and every country around the world. More information is…
Should aid continue to flow to middle-income countries, or should the world’s poorest countries receive a greater share? It is a debate that has intensified since world leaders set the millennium development goals (MDGs) 15 years ago, during which time more than 30 countries have moved from low- to middle-income status. MDG8, which aims to “develop a global partnership for development”, includes a target to increase aid to the world’s 48 least developed countries. Some campaigners argue this should be the priority, while others insist the world would fail most of the world’s poor if aid to middle-income countries was…
On 26th August, around 100 representatives of civil society from the Western Balkans met to finalize recommendations delivered to EU and Western Balkans leaders present at the Vienna Summit. The recommendations focused on proposing measures on how to tackle challenges of youth and unemployment; freedom of expression and regional cooperation and called on WB leaders to support civil initiatives and networks who have so far showed very tangible results. Ahead of the Summit, ideas for follow-up activities were exchanged so that civil society could be included in the so called Berlin Process more directly, on continuous basis and as equal partners…
After more than two years of intense negotiations, the UN’s 193 member states have unanimously agreed on a new Sustainable Development Agenda with 17 goals — including the elimination of extreme poverty and hunger — to be reached by 2030. An assessment of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals prepared by CIVICUS is availablehere. The new goals, which will be part of the UN’s post-2015 development agenda and to be approved at a summit meeting of world leaders on 25th-27th September, cover a wide range of political and socio-economic issues, including inequality, poverty, hunger, gender equality, industrialisation, sustainable…