Yes,
Gov’ts Are Listening
ROSETTA THOMPSON is beginning
to see hope where she did not expect to. Civil society
is rising in activity and profile in West Africa a little
quicker than anyone could have thought.
Thompson is with the Pan African Institute
for Development West Africa based in Cameroon. That
makes it one of four such regional institutions in Africa
that are working for capacity building, she says. |
|
Capacity building means training, and building skills and
knowledge in areas of development work of all kinds. Not work
that is best done in isolation. Thompson is now working with
other institutions for a West Africa network where civil society
organizations (CSOs) can work together.
“The first thing people need is the building of their
capacity to contribute to development and democracy,”
she says. “They must come to this issue from an informed
background. Before people can realize their potential, they
need to be able to build up their skills and knowledge base.”
In recognition of the contribution that civil society can
make to this process, the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) has invited civil society leaders to a conference
in Accra in Ghana later this month.
“That is really unusual,” says Felicity Daly
from the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW). The
ICSW is an international organisation with about 80 CSO members
in 70 countries. Six of these groups are in the central and
western African region, Thompson’s group among them.
“The ECOWAS meeting with civil society was their initiative,
and this sort of thing does not usually happen,” Daly
says. That puts ECOWAS a step ahead of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC).
The ICSW has been given funding by the British and the Danish
governments for a Regional Cooperation in a Globalising World
Project. The project aims to build up relationships between
civil society groups and regional inter-governmental organizations.
If the new response of ECOWAS to civil society is any indication,
this relationship is set to grow, and to grow fast.
“Civil society will have an important role because
many of our members are reporting a political agenda behind
government moves to meet the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs,” Daly says. “Government officials do not
say how they are performing, and civil society can become
another lens to look at this work through.”
Governments and inter-governmental groups are beginning to
take civil society very much more seriously as civil society
becomes more active, Daly says.
As ECOWAS moves from attention to conflict resolutions towards
more economic and trade-related matters, the signs at least
are promising. [end]
|
