Below are summaries of just a handful of the activities that have been planned by participants to follow up on the Global Forum.
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| The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) and FHI 360 in partnership with the National Council of NGOs in Moldova and Moldova Civil Dialogue Project held International Conference on State Financing for CSOs: New Opportunities for Moldovan CSO Development on September 26-27, 2011. The opening remarks were delivered by Vlad Filat, Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, William H.Moser, US Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova, and Ghenadie Barba, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office. The Conference brought together government officials, CSO representatives, CSO lawyers and experts. The current issues in legal reform affecting CSOs were discussed at a talk show between Mr.Oleg Efrim, the Minister of Justice, and Mr. Serghei Ostaf, President of the National Council of NGOs. With the help of the assessment tool for Government-CSO cooperation (first developed for the Global Forum on Civil Society Law 2011), the Conference participants could assess the current stage of development of the cross-sector cooperation in Moldova and rely on the results to determine the priorities for reform. For more information see: www.ecnl.org |
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| I have written two editorial notes and already held meetings with the biggest trust in Venezuela and an umbrella organization in order to organize a workshop on some of the issues of the Global Forum. They seemed to be very interested. The editorial notes have been published in El Universal, one of the foremost newspapers in Venezuela. They can be accessed here: http://www.eluniversal.com/2011/09/02/democracia-y-sociedad-civil.shtml#.TmDpj2JwexM.email http://www.eluniversal.com/2011/09/09/democracia-y-sociedad-civil-en-venezuela.shtml#.TmoZviMdhjw.email |
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| My plans for follow-up activities are detailed below:
1) I will share my notes on the Global Forum, highlighting information and lessons which I think are most useful for CSOs in the country, through e-mailing with the CODE-NGO Board members and the Executive Directors/Coordinators of our member networks.
2) I will prepare and share notes and related readings on the experiences of government funding for CSOs with CODE-NGO members and leaders, as well as an informal group of government, CSO, and donor agency officials who have recently begun discussing how best to set up a government or government-donor funding mechanism to support CSOs’ engagement with government/participatory governance, including the capacity building of CSOs for this. |
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| The Global Forum hosted a session on the topic of how to select the CSO representatives in cross-sector bodies (e.g. Ministry led-working groups, government councils, government advisory committees). Macedonia is currently in the process of reviewing its framework for cross-sector cooperation and participation in order to promote increased involvement of CSOs in the law making processes. The experience of the countries presented and the recommendations from this session were considered and integrated in the paper Criteria and Procedures for Selection of Civil Society Organizations in Cross-Sector Bodies - Comparative Overview and Description of the Situation in Macedonia, which was developed by the Macedonian Center for International Cooperation (MCIC) and the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) in September 2011. The paper proposes two models that can serve as guidance for governments and CSOs when they want to elect representatives of the sector to take part in cross-sector bodies. In addition, the MCIC representative at the Global Forum will provide a one-day workshop for CSOs (on September 30) and a two-day workshop for government officials (October 6-7) on this topic based on the developed paper among other issues. The follow-up activity is supported by OSCE Macedonia. MCIC will also distribute the paper to the Macedonian Civic Platform and will also inform them about the results from other Global Forum sessions which are of relevance for the development of the CSO legal framework in Macedonia (such as, improving CSO-government cooperation and government funding for CSOs.) |
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| The Global Forum was very useful not only for me and my colleague from our partner organization, Lawyers for Civil Society, but for the whole legal regional network which we support. I organized a special informational meeting to inform regional lawyers about international experiences and the results of the Global forum workshops.
At this meeting we compared some NGO law norms (e.g. registration of NGOs, liquidation of NGOs, state financing, etc.) from various countries including the Russian Federation. We also made recommendations about how to inform regional authorities on best international practices and how to use them in an advocacy campaign for improving NGO legislation both at the federal and regional levels.
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| The Global Forum was extremely useful in its various sessions in reflecting on the events in the Arab region, otherwise called the Arab Spring. The deficiency and restrictive nature of civil society law in that region is well known, and there is plenty to learn and apply from the Global Forum. However, I have committed myself to the following:
1) Being the guest editor of the December 2011 issue of the Alliance Magazine, I have been in discussion with Kareem Elbayar on how to reflect on ICNL work in Latin America and its applicability to the Arab region in terms of legal structure and peaceful transitioning ; same discussions are ongoing with Nilda Bullain on how the Arab region’s transition can benefit from the experiences of Eastern European Countries.
2) I represent SAANED on the Global Philanthropy Leadership Initiative (GPLI) and the Forum was extremely useful in highlighting issues related to collaboration and legal structures (two main tracks within GPLI) and will influence my input in the work of the GPLI in the upcoming meetings.
3) The Arab Foundations Forum is holding a retreat in December for its members and I have suggested a session on the importance of enabling civil society law to our work with reflections from the Stockholm meeting.
Thanks for the opportunity to participate in the Forum.
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| In co-authorship with Zaur Allahverdizadeh, I wrote an article about mandate of UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of association and of assembly. The article intends to familiarize the NGO community and government officials with the new mandate and to invite them to cooperate with the Rapporteur to make sure that developments on freedom of association and assembly in Azerbaijan are reflected in the Rapporteur’s first annual report to be produced next year.
The article is written in the Azerbaijani language and will be published in the next issue of Civil Society Journal, an organ of the NGO Council, which is a popular magazine about CSOs both among NGOs and state officials. This article was also translated into Russian following a request from the Central Asian offices of ICNL.
Upon returning from Sweden I have also conducted an interview about the Global Forum which can be accessed at:
www.qhtxeber.az/news/a-11074.html.
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| After returning from the Global Forum on Civil Society Law, I met with local donors to see how acquired knowledge and shared experiences at the Global Forum could be shared with Rwandan Civil Society.
Specifically, it’s been agreed that they will make sure I have some presentations during their forthcoming meetings organized jointly with the Rwanda Governance Board. With the on-going reviewing of NGOs law in Rwanda, it’s been agreed that I will share with CSOs what should be done after getting a new law, drawing on the discussions held during one of the Global Forum Sessions. I am committed to keeping ICNL informed about any impact my participation to the Global Forum has in Rwanda.
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| A workshop will be organized in the first week of October 2011 to be attended by representatives of 15 prominent CSOs in Montenegro that are dealing with CSO legislation. The workshop will aim to share experiences from the Global Forum and different environments for CSO functioning. After a presentation about the international situation in the field of CSO legislation, participants will be divided into three groups. Each group will be tasked to prepare draft policy papers on three public policies that are directly or indirectly affecting the work of CSOs in the country. Policy papers will be submitted to relevant decision-makers on a local or national level.
An article will aim to present my participation at the Global Forum and this event in general. This will be very important information for the general public considering that this marked the first time a Montenegrin representative attended the Global Forum. More specifically, this article will be available to all stakeholders of CSOs in the country (legislators, decision-makers, and the donor community) and I will use this opportunity to alert them about key issues in the field of CSOs legislation in the country. The article will be published in the middle of October, in the daily news paper and put on CRNVO’s website.
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| I have written and published an article about "Social Enterprises," which not only addresses the topic as discussed in the event workshops, but also in terms of legal analysis of Peruvian social enterprise law.
My article can be accessed here:
1. www.blogcristalroto.wordpress.com. This blog belongs to the Faculty of Law at Universidad Pacífico, one of the most prestigious universities in Peru, which specializes in economics and administration.
2. www.lasociedadcivil.org. This website is linked with the Latin American section of the International Society of the Third Sector Research-ISTR. You may also access this website through ISTR’s website (www.istr.org, regional sections: Latin America).
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Are you planning an activity to follow up on what you learned at the Global Forum that you'd like to share with your fellow participants? To upload a summary of what you are doing, please click here.
