ICSW

Southern African Civil Society Forum Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 16-18 August 2003.

As part of the Regional Cooperation Project, covered in the March 2003 edition of Global Cooperation, ICSW in conjunction with the Southern African Development Community Council of NGOs (SADC CNGO) and the Tanzanian Council on Social Development (TACOSODE), is convening a Southern African Civil Society Forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 16-17 August 2003, immediately prior to the SADC Heads of State Summit. On 18 August, CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation, will co-host a day of presentations and discussions on its Civil Society Watch project. This will pay special regard to the rights of civil society in Zimbabwe as well as canvass the group as part of the UN review of relations with civil society.

The forum will bring together representatives from civil society networks involved in a broad range of sectors including; inter-religious cooperation, workers’ unions, human rights, women’s movements, youth movements and HIV/AIDS. Structured discussions will analyze the status of social development in the SADC region and concerns that civil society organizations (CSOs) are working on in the region and will work toward developing a strategic agenda for interaction to advance social development in the region. The keynote address of the forum will centre on the presentation of ICSW’s SADC Briefing Paper, which examines the added value of civil society engagement within the region and in interaction with SADC, the possible connecting points for CSOs afforded through SADC and the key challenges facing civil society in engaging with SADC.

The outcomes of the forum will include the signing of a civil society statement to be presented to the SADC Heads of State Summit. The overall goal is to achieve a more effective engagement of CSOs within SADC through new levels of communication and the articulation of a focused CSO advocacy strategy. A review of the event will be provided in the August edition of Global Cooperation.

UN News:

1. Preparing for the 42^nd Session for the UN Commission for Social Development

Denys Correll, Executive Director, and Bette Mullen, ICSW Special Representative to the UN, commenced preparations for the 2004 session of the UN Commission for Social Development during a recent visit to UN headquarters. The Priority Theme for the 42^nd session is Improving Public Service Effectiveness. ICSW will play a role in the developing the Commission’s conclusions on the priority theme including issues such as:

· privatising social services,

· poverty reduction through education and health spending,

· the focus on expenditure programmes that are tilted to recurrent expenditure rather than long-term investment, and

· decentralisation and local control of services.

This list of issues will expand and form part of ICSW members’ input to the Commission’s deliberations. ICSW will also ensure that NGO’s are well prepared to advocate within the Commission by co-hosting a Global Civil Society Forum immediately prior to the session. ICSW has had an enthusiastic response from the Commission and representatives of civil society who will assist in the development and conduct of the Civil Society Forum.

Denys Correll and Bette Mullen also visited a number of donor organisations and civil society organisations in New York and Washington DC. Many of these are trying to come to terms with the position civil society should take in global debates as governments seem quite divided in their attitudes. A well-worn argument is that civil society advocates have not been democratically elected whereas the representatives of governments have. There was consistent concern expressed at the denigration of the UN and the movement towards unilateralism. ICSW has been encouraged to maintain support of UN processes to do whatever we can to preserve multilateralism. ICSW has been a consistent advocate for the UN and we have spoken often of the need to strengthen the components that deal with social development. Regardless of what governments think, civil society must seek national adherence to global norms and agreements. Too often we hear of nations considering themselves exempt from agreements and accountability. ICSW will continue to work to ensure that people living in poverty throughout the world are the beneficiaries of global and national commitments to international agreements.

There are two important personnel changes within the UN. Julian R. Hunte has been named President of the 58^th Session of the General Assembly. He is Minister of External Affairs, International Trade, and Civil Aviation of Saint Lucia. Jose Antonio Ocampo of Columbia has been named to the position of Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) to replace Nitin Desai who held the position for more than ten years. Mr Ocampo, who will start in this position in September, has been Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean since 1998 (ECLAC)

On June 23 the General Assembly adopted the draft on the implementation and follow-up of the outcomes of the major UN summits and conferences in the economic and social fields as mandated by Resolution 57/270B. In the final session, the General Assembly Working Group reported it had accomplished three main things:

· integrating the outcomes of UN conferences more fully into the work of the UN system

· taking needed steps toward more systematic implementation and monitoring of conference outcomes, and

The Working Group has proposed another major event bearing in mind that the General Assembly has decided to review in 2005 the progress achieved towards implementing all the commitments made in the Millennium Declaration on the basis of a comprehensive report of the Secretary General.

4. ICSW Member Participation in UN Civil Society Survey

The UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Civil Society held its first meeting on June 2-3 in New York. Available papers include a contextual paper prepared by the Panel’s chair, Fernando Cardozo, and a background paper that is an inventory and analysis of practices on the UN’s relations with civil society. Information on the work of the Panel can be found at: http://www.un.org/reform/panel.htm. Inquiries about the Panel should be directed to: civilsocietypanel@un.org

The review emerges from a UN that is bemused by the vast number of civil society organisations that are seeking a voice in global affairs. There are now thousands of civil society organisations that have consultative status with the UN. This poses a problem to both civil society and the UN. ICSW has been deeply involved in analysing the relationship between civil society and the UN for many years. The Panel’s consultations, including this survey, are a crucial vehicle for civil society to express its perspectives on how the relationship is functioning.

We hope that all members will take the opportunity to reply to the attached survey. We wish to collect responses and submit them to the Panel with a covering memorandum that expresses the views of ICSW’s unique global network of civil society organisations. ICSW would like to receive responses by September 15 for submission to the Panel on October 1 2003.

If you wish to respond directly to the Panel’s secretariat please use the following:

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The attached questionnaire has been prepared and circulated by the Secretary-General’s Panel of Eminent Persons on Civil Society through the Panel’s secretariat at UN Headquarters. The Panel is mandated to canvas the experiences related to UN and its relationship with civil society actors, private sector and parliaments in order to make practical recommendations to the Secretary-General on possible improvements. Your response to this questionnaire will assist the Panel to better understand the wide range of experiences at all levels from national to international. The questionnaire is being distributed widely through electronic list-servers, major networks of NGOs and other civil society organizations, as well as through the World Wide Web, given the diversity of non-state actors. Your assistance with distribution, by forwarding the questionnaire to others in your network(s) will be much appreciated.

Responding to the items in this box is optional. If you chose not to respond please indicate the country or region your organization is based in: _______________________________________________

Name of Organization: __________________________________________________________

Contact person: _______________________________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Email address: ___________________________ Tel: ____________________________

Web site: _______________________________ Fax: ____________________________

1. Please indicate which of the following categories best describes your organization:

2. Please describe briefly the main constituency of your organization (community groups, workers, young people, association of local authorities etc) and the key issue area(s) of your work (human rights, environmental protection, development or humanitarian assistance, research, capacity building, community service etc)

3. If your organization is formally affiliated with any of the following UN bodies please check all applicable boxes:

a. Please describe your best and worst experiences as a participant of one or more of the above meetings (attach a separate page if needed)

Best:

Lessons Learned:

Worst:

Recommendations for improvement:

b. What influence do you feel your organization has had on the above conferences (please chose one): r1 (none) r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 (a lot)

4. If your organization has links, interacts or has regular relationships with local, national or regional offices of the UN please indicate the type of interaction below:

a. What influence do you feel your organization has had through these interactions (please chose one): r1 (none) r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 (a lot)

b. Please describe your ‘best’ and ‘worst’ experiences with the above list of organizations/programs including the lessons learned and the recommendations for improvements (attach a separate page if needed)

Best:

Lessons learned:

Worst:

Recommendations for improvements:

5. If representatives of your organization attend annual meetings of standing UN commissions, councils or committees please indicate which ones:

6. How important has your involvement in UN bodies or processes been for the development of your organization? r1 (none) r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 (very important)

7. What influence do you feel civil society at large have on inter-governmental processes (please chose one): r1 (none) r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 (a lot)

a. If you chose boxes 4-6 please describe how the impact is best achieved

b. If you chose boxes 1-3 please describe the barriers civil society faces

9. What improvements would you like to see made in the UN – civil society relationships (attach a separate page if needed)

Local/National level

Regional Level

International level

The content of Global Cooperation may be freely reproduced or cited provided the source is acknowledged. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily the policy of ICSW.

If you have any questions or need further information on any of the activities or issues mentioned in this newsletter, please contact: Felicity Daly, Project Officer, at the Secretariat in London, or reply to this email. icsw@icsw.org.

JULY 2003