How can we be more effective?
Consultation survey
BOND’s short consultation survey. We would ask that this is completed by Directors, Heads of Programmes or other senior staff, on behalf of their organisations by 20 June 2008. Only one entry per BOND member organisation is allowed so please liaise with your own colleagues.
If you have difficulties participating in the survey or would like to get more information in the process please contact Sofia Angidou.
Civil society organisations have always been aware of the need to improve their effectiveness as development actors. Now a new initiative, driven by CSOs around the globe, offers the potential to respond to the issues in a focused and responsive way. BOND has launched an initial consultation with members so that we can represent your views in the international discussions leading up to the Accra meeting. Sofia Angidou explains.
Civil society organisations (CSOs) have always been aware of the need to improve their effectiveness as development actors – and are probably more so now than ever before.
CSOs have responded to the challenge with numerous policies and systems to improve their effectiveness, both individually and collectively. Even so, there is growing concern that CSOs do not yet share a global ‘instrument’ to guide their efforts in this area, unlike donors and governments, who have committed to the Paris Declaration.
And in the absence of such a global instrument, CSOs have increasingly been pressured to adhere to the Paris Declaration or to apply its principles. Yet many CSOs feel strongly that while the Paris Declaration and its principles are an important initiative for the reform of aid architecture, they are not applicable to civil society.
CSOs respond
Now a new initiative, driven by CSOs, offers the potential to respond to the issues in a focused and responsive way.
Called ‘Framing and Promoting the Effectiveness of Civil Society Organisations’, the initiative aims to increase understanding of the principles guiding the effectiveness of CSOs and to generate dialogue with donors and governments on the issues.
The objectives are still very much work in progress – so it is important you have your say on what the priorities should be.
A first milestone will be making a statement of intention at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness taking place in Accra, Ghana from 2-4 September 2008.
Origins of the initiative
The initiative has its roots in a multi-stakeholder process launched by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in January 2007 to discuss how civil society can enrich the aid effectiveness agenda and to facilitate the inclusion of civil society in the official donor/government process.
An Advisory Group composed of representatives from official donors, recipient country governments and networks from the North and South has led the process. The Group has consulted a wide range of stakeholders on key issues, including CSO good practice and the applicability and limitations of the Paris Declaration for issues of aid effectiveness of importance to CSOs.
The conclusions from these consultations were taken to an International Forum on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness in Ottawa in February 2008, as part of the preparation for the Accra meeting.
CSO participants at a parallel meeting decided to launch a separate process to establish principles of development effectiveness suitable for CSOs. The aim is for this process to be global, inclusive and shaped by CSOs. It will complement ongoing international effectiveness processes.
Get involved!
CONCORD, the European confederation of relief and development NGOs, is facilitating the launch of this process. BOND is part of a Global Facilitation Group, together with other networks.
BOND is committed to ensuring that UK NGOs’ voices are strongly represented in this process – and we urge all members to work together on driving this initiative forward.
We are launching an initial consultation with members so that we can represent your views in the international discussions leading up to the Accra meeting. And we commit to organising further consultation tools as the process evolves.
Please take the time to fill in our short consultation survey. This is for BOND members only and we would ask that this is completed by Directors, Heads of Programmes or other senior staff, on behalf of their organisations by 20 June 2008.
The issue of quality and effectiveness in the UK development sector is much debated. Let’s work together to drive this initiative forward in an inclusive, responsive – and effective – direction.