On December 2, 2011, the
day after HLF-4, BetterAid and the Open Forum for CSO Development
Effectiveness met to discuss our post-Busan agenda. With a set of global
standards in place, including the Istanbul
Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness, everyone knew that any new
structure needed to evoke the spirit of Busan, “Country Heavy, Global Light”,
and to get down to the nitty-gritty of implementation. In practice, this meant
that more energy and resources needed to be filtered down to the national and
regional levels, to build the capacity of national CSOs to monitor and engage
with national development plans and the Busan commitments, to coordinate at a
regional level, to promote minimum standards around the enabling environment,
and to begin implementing the Istanbul Principles. At a global level, this meant developing a
light global structure that would engage with the new GPEDC, continue to press
our CSO
Key Asks on the Road to Busan, and hold governments to account for their
commitments.
But over the past four years, hundreds of organizations and
constituencies have invested huge amounts of time, energy and identity into BetterAid
and the Open Forum. While this work, and what we have accomplished, can’t ever
been taken away, closing the doors on two organizations still seems quite final.
It feels like we are ending two chapters before we know the conclusion of each
story. The past four years has also
pitted egos, priorities and competing interests – and sometimes platforms – against
one another. In the lead-up to Busan, the two platforms had held it together,
but we still needed to come together. Nairobi, therefore, was an important
conclusion to the often heated discussions of the last year and an effort at,
as they say in Swahili, “pamoja” or “togetherness”. The Pamoja
Declaration does this. It unites our collective vision, mission, principles and
goals going forward (as well as key decisions reached), and finally launched
the new CSO Platform for Development Effectiveness.
And so
what does this entail? The Declaration itself can tell the story:
“Our Vision
We
envisage a world where respect for human rights, participatory democracy,
social and environmental justice and sustainability, gender equality and
equity, and decent work and sustainable change are achieved.
Our Mission
To promote
development effectiveness in all areas of work, both our own and the work of
others, including through active engagement with the GPEDC, we will be guided
by a human rights based approach.
In order
to develop a strong basis for CSO participation in the creation and realization
of our vision, mission and goals for development, the CPDE will work with a
strong focus to support country, sub-regional and regional, and sectoral civil
society, combining this with the coordinated regional and global work on
development effectiveness.
To achieve
this vision, we need to also address exclusion, oppression and removing
structures of power that perpetuate injustice.
Therefore,
we are committed to social justice approaches and mechanisms, to challenge
unequal power structures, especially for women (such as by working towards a
feminist approach), in order to achieve emancipation of excluded communities
and people.”
“Our Goals
To realize our shared vision, we commit to
work together in partnership on a global-scale in relation to development
effectiveness and the GPEDC to achieve the following goals:
- to pursue and advocate for a
transformative agenda for development and development cooperation,
informed by our guiding principles and a human rights-based approach to
development that prioritizes gender equality, decent work, and environmental
sustainability, as well as dignity, justice and improved livelihoods for
all people living in poverty, including the most marginalized, victims of
violence, and those with disabilities, and the full realization of human
rights for all;
- to protect and deepen policy
gains made in Paris, Accra and Busan, and reverse any of the harmful
provisions that continue to guide those three agendas;
- to continue to advocate for
development effectiveness in development cooperation
policy and practice, in particular as it relates to the accountability of
governments to the broader development effectiveness agenda, the Internationally
Agreed Development Goals and to people;
- to continuously work to improve our own effectiveness and the realization of an enabling environment for civil society as independent development actors in our own right.
These
goals are informed by our CSO Key Asks on
the Road to Busan, including those raised ahead of Busan by women’s
organizations, the trade unions, and faith-based organizations; the Istanbul
Principles and Siem
Reap International Framework; and prior assessments of the Paris, Accra and
Busan commitments.”
It is a
tall order. But then civil society has never been short on ambition. We now need to focus on putting this into action, and perhaps above
all, to truly coming together.
This blog was written by
Fraser Reilly-King, Policy Analyst (Aid), CCIC. The views expressed are his
own, and do not necessarily represent the views of CCIC or its members.
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