CSO Effectiveness- International Work
Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness- the new international initiative
Background information and rationale
Civil Society organisations (CSOs) are aware, now more than ever, of the need to improve their effectiveness as development actors. There are numerous policies on local and national levels that CSOs have developed and set in place as well as internal systems of improving individual CSO effectiveness. However, what is missing is a global framework that CSOs all over the world could share as a guiding and facilitating tool for their respective efforts.
The absence of such a framework was highlighted, over the past months, during the consultations in the run-up to the Accra High-Level Forum. In several of these consultations, many of them sponsored by the Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (established in 2007 to coordinate ongoing dialogue among civil society, donors and developing country governments in the lead up to the September 2008 High Level Forum (HLF) which will review the implementation of the Paris Declaration), CSOs were asked to explore the question of the applicability of the principles of the Paris Declaration to their own effectiveness as development actors.
While questioning the direct applicability of the Paris Declaration, CSOs involved in these consultations acknowledged that there are important issues and challenges regarding their effectiveness. Therefore, during the International Forum on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (Ottawa, 3-6 February 2008) a number of CSOs resolved to launch a North/ South process to agree by December 2010, on a global framework suitable to guide CSOs in their efforts to improve effectiveness.
- Read this presentation for a quick summary on the background, origins, history, objectiveness and cornerstones of the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness.
- The first major event of that new process was the 'Exploratory Meeting on Civil Society Organisations Development Effectiveness' in Paris (29-30 June 2008).
Read the Paris Meeting Report [pdf]
- This Exploratory Meeting on CSO Effectiveness agreed to launch a global two-year Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness from January 2009 to December 2010.
Read the Progress Report [pdf] July 2008
- Bond has been actively engaged in the new global initiative right from its outset. In June 2008, Bond conducted a survey to consult with its members primarily on the ‘Open Forum for CSOs Development Effectiveness’ as well as on the effectiveness issues for the UK sector and how Bond should respond to them.
