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III. Key recommendations from the panel sessions
Session 1: Recognize and understand the role of civil society in policy development
Civil society plays important advocacy and mediation roles in policy development through:
identifying the most critical development priorities, suggesting practical solutions and policy
opportunities, and critiquing impractical or problematic policies. The expertise of local civil
society can be more grounded in national circumstances than the expertise of international
research institutions. Governments should:
1) Move from engagement to empowerment of CSOs - not just dialogue but actual policy
formulation - this requires shifting of power and breaking down institutional, social and
cultural barriers.
2) Ensure policy making processes are more open with timely information sharing with
CSOs and guarantee that processes are free of harassment/ intimidation of CSOs.
3) Leverage on the strengths of the CSOs - being the voice of the vulnerable, inclusion,
equality and equity
Session 2: Create an enabling environment: Build a policy and regulatory framework that
maximizes civil society’s contribution towards development objectives;
The role of States to foster an enabling environment for civil society partnership is critical for
the implementation of the post-2015 agenda. An enabling environment for civil society
partnership must be consistent with agreed international human rights principles, including
among others: freedom of association, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression,
the right to operate free from unwarranted State interference, the right to communicate and
cooperate, the right to seek and secure funding. Further, States must fulfil their duty to protect.
In this light, it is important to build local capacity in priority areas, and engage civil society’s
capacity to produce credible analytical, qualitative and quantitative research.
Key recommendations include:
1) Ensure participatory governance, accountability and transparency for all stages of
policy-making and implementation for the post-2015 development agenda. The
framework must be anchored in existing international human rights agreements and
instruments.
Governments should establish institutional frameworks to ensure rule of law as well
as respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights, particularly to ensure
empowerment of people who have been marginalized.
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2) Build viable cooperation
Strengthen existing dialogue mechanisms of civil society with governments, at both
national and sub-national levels. Enhance local leadership.
Engage civil society’s capacity to produce credible analytical, qualitative and
quantitative research.
Develop and improve coordination and knowledge-sharing mechanisms to avoid
duplication, build alliances and strengthen capacity.
Ensure access to independent media and information; create public media platforms.
3) Invest in building the capacity of civil society organizations
Expand civic education
Provide funding for civil society participation in government meetings
Support visa applications for international travel
Expand access to technology, including the Internet
Session 3: Proactively align multi-stakeholder priorities, including those of government, civil
society, volunteers and private sector actors;
Multi-stakeholder partnerships should be based on the principles of inclusivity and
complementarity, acknowledging that no single actor can address sustainable development
challenges alone and each partner brings a particular added value into the dialogue as well as
specific capacities for implementation. In order to best align priorities and identify
opportunities for synergetic partnerships, neutral spaces for regular multi-stakeholder dialogue
need to be created with clear connections to decision making processes and implementation
measures. SDG implementation will require systematic community outreach and volunteer
engagement. The United Nations System can play a facilitating role as convener of dialogues.
Governments should ensure an enabling environment for multi-stakeholder dialogues at
national level and systematically associate volunteer involving organizations as they design
implementation strategies. Key recommendations include:
1) With regards to decision making processes across different thematic areas, ensure
integration of diverse perspectives and actors such as academia, the private sector
and volunteer groups around areas of mutual interest and ensure the inclusion of
those most marginalized.
2) Ensure connection between consultation and implementation mechanisms, with
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clear connections to decision making processes. Enlarge spaces for dialogue,
connected to opportunities for action.
3) Provide opportunities for capacity building of civil society actors who can in return
act as multipliers and capacity builders of local communities, in order to increase
accountability.
4) Include concrete opportunities for dialogue and voluntary action at local level with
regards to SDG implementation, ensuring outreach to marginalized people,
leveraging the expressed desire for engagement and tapping into the wealth of local
knowledge and experience.
5) Recognize and integrate volunteerism as a key factor for the localization of SDG
implementation as it provides new spaces of interaction between governments and
people for concrete, scalable actions to address development challenges across all
thematic areas.
Session 4: Set up and maintain accountability mechanisms that monitor partnerships and
progress in implementation efforts;
Citizen engagement in monitoring and accountability can strengthen policy-making and social
inclusion. Grassroots data collection on a mass scale can be accomplished through combining
online and offline efforts and requires systematic multi-stake partnerships, including volunteer
engagement. Accessibility of data is crucial to increase transparency and thus accountability.
Thereafter, data visualization facilitates communication and dissemination of data for evidence-based
advocacy. Furthermore, multi-stakeholder monitoring, which brings policy makers
together civil society and other actors, is a way to contribute to monitoring SDG progress.
Challenges
1) Local, Regional, and National data needs to be standardized and then centralized in
order to better inform global policy making. Stronger regional cooperation will be
essential to achieving this.
2) CSOs also need to be more coordinated and have a stronger and institutionalized role in
policy making.
3) Data has to be more open and transparent. Wide communication and dissemination of
data is necessary to ensure access to data and foster evidence-based advocacy.
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IV. Outcomes
During the entire event, a number of key points emerged that are pertinent for meaningful
engagement of civil society in the continued elaboration and implementation of the post-2015
development agenda.
The immediate outcomes of the meeting include:
1. strengthened capacity for engagement of various stakeholders, including governments, civil
society and volunteer organizations in the post-2015 process;
2. greater awareness and understanding of the role of civil society in policy development,
including with regard to the different national contexts;
3. greater awareness of existing examples, practices and opportunities to support an enabling
environment for civil society to contribute substantially to shaping key sustainable
development policies;
4. enhanced partnerships among key stakeholders at national and international levels.
All presentations and discussions were webcast live; the recordings can be accessed here:
http://worldwewant2015.org/civilsociety2015.
References:
1) Agenda File: Agenda
2) Participants List File: Participants List report
3) Concept note File: Concept Note
4) Visual documentation: Photos