The Open Forum for CSO Development Effectivenessis a diverse coalition of CSOs (civil society organizations) from around the world involved in development work. Its main goal is to define and promote the roles and effectiveness of the CSO sector in development, based on a shared framework of principles. The process of defining and adopting the principles as well as providing guidelines to implement them has been based on a series of regional, national and thematic consultations. In 2011 gender focused consultations have been conducted with CSOs in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Central Eastern Europe and CIS. The aim was to elaborate the specific policies, practices and conditions that CSOs require in order to be effective development actors for gender equality and women’s rights. The starting point of the consultations was the Open Forum’s commitment to gender equality as the Principle Two of the eight Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness adopted by the first Global Assembly of the Open Forum in 2010.
The final outcome of the process involving thousands of CSOs and coordinated by Open Forum is the Siem Reap CSO Consensus on the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness which is a statement from global civil society on the effectiveness of its work in development.
What were the objectives of the activity:
The aim of KARAT’s involvement in the process was to strengthen the awareness and knowledge on gender equality and women’s rights as one of the basic conditions for effective development work of CSOs. The consultations were also an occasion to initiate debate on this issue and to promote the principles of effective development in the region of Central Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
How were we working:
In 2011 KARAT Coalition coordinated Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness Thematic Consultation on CSOs working in Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in CEE and CIS countries. This region includes EU New Member States, non EU Eastern European and Balkan countries, Caucasus and Central Asia. The consultations were conducted based on the electronic questionnaire, prepared by Open Forum and slightly adopted to the region’s context by KARAT, as well as a few face to face interviews. 41 organizations from 17 countries of the region took part in the consultations.
As a follow up of the consultations representative of KARAT took part as a speaker in the workshop on gender equality and women’s rights context of CSO development effectiveness during the second General Assembly of Open Forum in June 2011.
Resources:
- The complete report on the results of the consultations conducted by KARAT is available here: Open Forum Survey Questions Summary_KARAT