PLENARY SESSIONS

Mr. Abdullah Baginda
National Council for Social Welfare, Malaysia

Actions to Enhance Civil Society

    Dr. Baginda drew attention to Commitment One of the Copenhagen agreements, which stressed the importance of creating an enabling environment for social development. These commitments spell out very clearly the crucial role which civil society organisations have to play in implementing the Copenhagen agreements and programme of action.

    Mr. Baginda stressed the importance of Civil Society/Government partnerships and for civil society to find constructive mechanisms for influencing government policy and for contributing ideas and recommendations for implementing social services aimed at eradicating poverty.

    He drew attention to the need for sufficient enabling legislation for civil society organisations to operate and he outlined basic conditions, which civil society organisations must fulfil to be effective. Civil society organisations also have access to financial resources from the private sector and international organisations and the use of and accountability for these resources is an important responsibility.

    Mr. Baginda also maintained that the most beneficial and effective resources are those offered by the people themselves and it is this investment in human resources that is critical. A key component of a strong civil society is to have access to well-qualified and knowledgeable people in positions of management and, in many countries, capacity building of an organisation is best achieved through training and skills development to enable civil society organisations to contribute effectively to policy making and to the design and implementation of social service programmes.


Abdullah Malim Baginda is ICSW’s Regional Treasurer for Asia and the Pacific and a member of ICSW’s Executive Committee. He is also a member of the board of the National Council for Social Welfare, Malaysia.