On 16th April, BCSDN members and partners discussed future regional and national avenues of advocacy and exchange on the basis of the 8 Country Monitoring Matrix Reports. Workshop under the title Step 5: Turning Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for CSDev into Effective Advocacy Mechanism included presentations of Review of the CIVICUS’s Enabling Environment Index comparing 10 global monitoring tools on CSDev (e.g CIVICUS CSI, USAID Sustainability Index and including BCSDN Monitoring Matrix) by Christina Laybourn from OneWorldTrust, UK and draft regional Monitoring Matrix report by Luben Panov ECNL/BCNL. Some (but not exclusive) diverging points for further work on the regional level identified were: the need to diversify funding opportunities for all types of CSOs; develop minimum standards for public consultations at regional level; advocacy activities for the area of social contracting. The full workshop report is available here. Regional MM report is expected to be presented in Brussels on 27th May.
