THIRD ACP
CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM ESTABLISHES ACP INFORMATION AND DIALOGUE NETWORK
By Joyce van Genderen-Naar
On 10 and 11 December 2009 the 3rd ACP
Civil Society Forum was held at the ACP House in Brussels. Representatives
from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Civil Society came together to discuss
how to move forward after many years of silence and inactivity. In 1997 the Forum was established by ACP
Civil Society organizations from the ACP regions in Entebbe, Uganda with the
aim to provide a platform for civil society actors in the ACP countries, where
they could articulate views and concerns, share information and facilitate
dialogue with official ACP-EU institutions in order to support and strengthen
the participation of ACP Civil Society in the ACP-EU development cooperation.
The follow up was an impressive and unique Conference on the Participation of
Civil Society in the implementation of the Cotonou Agreement, organised in July 2001 by the Belgian EU Presidency
and the ACP Secretariat in Brussels. For almost a week, from July 2nd
– 7th 2001, more than 150
representatives of ACP civil society came together in Brussels to discuss their
role in the ACP-EC cooperation and the ACP-EC-Agreement, signed by the EC and
the ACP countries a year before in Cotonou on 23 June 2000.
This first ACP Civil Society Forum adopted a Plan of Action. However, between 2001
and 2006 there was no follow up and no implementation. Only in 2006 the 2nd ACP Civil Society Forum was organised. During a
4-day meeting in April 2006 at the ACP Secretariat in Brussels a Declaration
and Plan of Action was adopted, and never implemented during the years to
follow.
The participants of the 3rd ACP Civil Society Forum,
a two day meeting in Brussels, organised in December 2009, three years later
after the second one, concluded that the remaining 10 years should not be
wasted, being aware that the Cotonou Agreement will expire in 2020. They
decided to create a network for the exchange and sharing of information and
dialogue through internet and any other appropriate media, connecting Civil
Society organizations and their focal points in 79 countries in Africa, the
Caribbean and the Pacific. They agreed upon a coordinator for each of the six
ACP regions: four in Africa, one in the Caribbean and one in the Pacific.
According to the ACP rotation system the Caribbean chaired the 3rd
ACP Civil Society Forum and appointed Mr. Lawman Lynch (Jamaica). In 2006 the
Chair of the 2nd ACP Civil Society Forum came from Africa (Cote
d’Ivoire) and the next Chair will be from the Pacific.
ACP Secretary-General, Sir John Kaputin, at the opening of the 3rd ACP Civil Society
Meeting in Brussels, urged the participants to make the most of this all-ACP
platform of stock-taking, policy dialogue and planning. He said that a
high priority for Civil Society at the national, regional and all-ACP levels,
is the aspiration to be involved in the consultation in the Programming,
Implementation of National and Regional Indicative Programmes and all-ACP
Programmes, consultation in the Mid-Term Review process of the Country Strategy
Papers and the National and Regional Indicative Programmes;
consultation in the review of the Cotonou Agreement (which is taking
place now); the negotiation and Follow- Up of the Economic
Partnership Agreements and the impact of the current Financial Crisis.
He
encouraged the participants to exchange views evaluating the types of
consultations that target the existing wide range of Non-State Actor
Organisations, and to discuss and agree amongst themselves on the most
appropriate working mechanisms for future cooperation at the national, regional
and all-ACP levels.
As said before the participants of the 3rd
ACP Civil Society Forum agreed upon a virtual network as the most appropriate
working mechanisms for future cooperation at the national, regional and all-ACP
levels.
Through internet discussions they will deal with the questions raised by the ACP Secretary General Sir
John Kaputin, such as: How satisfied are we
with our Governments approach to active policy dialogue with the wide range of
Civil Society actors? Has significant progress been made, since our last
all-ACP discourse, to greater include Civil Society in the consultation
processes on Capacity Building needs? Have Civil Society Capacity Building
requirement been addressed to facilitate greater involvement in the policy
dialogue on issues highlighted in the thematic areas discussed at the last
meeting? Are Civil Society stakeholders present at the
negotiating table on Economic Partnership Agreements?
Mrs. Dominique DELICOUR of the EuropeAid
cooperation office (AIDCO) of the European Commission made a presentation on
the participation of ACP Civil Society in the 9th and 10th European Development
Fund (EDF). She gave an overview of the ACP programmes adopted, approved and the
budget foreseen (191,6 million Euro for the 10th EDF).
She said that there is a strong appeal and push for better and more involvement
and engagement of Civil Society and that it is important for Civil Society to seize
this momentum and to participate in the regional seminar, planned by AIDCO.F1
in Mali, Africa, in 2010 in the framework of structured dialogue. She also
informed the participants about the EC study on Civil Society participation and
urged them to read this. The study is available on the site: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/what/civil-society/index_en.htm
All ACP participants stressed the complexity and
bureaucratic procedures of the EC procedures, the problems they experience in
dealing with the European Commission, the National and Regional Authorizing
Officers. They asked why the EC sees capacity building as the solution of all
ACP problems. They even suggested that the EC in its turn needs capacity
building too in order to deal with the ACP countries and their population. They
made an urgent appeal upon the EC to involve ACP experts, ACP Universities and
ACP research institutions for the design, implementation and monitoring of studies,
research and capacity building programmes in the ACP countries.
The practice followed by the EC to send EU consultants to the ACP
countries has not resulted in capacity building nor exchange and transfer
of knowledge, in contrary the many reports they wrote are not used
and are a waste of time and money.
The second presentation was made by Dr. Stephanie Diakité, International Expert, on the Evidence Based
Knowledge Sharing (EBKS) as a tool for Civil Society to influence ACP-EU
policy. Once again the ACP participants of the Forum noted that there is enough
expertise and experience in ACP countries and that nothing new was placed on
the table.
Brussels,
December 14, 2009
Joyce
van Genderen-Naar, Lawyer/journalist
Email:
vangenderen@unicall.be