Continuing the Structured Dialogue with Civil Society Organisations and Local Authorities

As the European Commission prepares a new Communication on the involvement of civil society organisations in EC development cooperation, delegates at a recent Brussels meeting called on the European Commission to continue the dialogue with such entities and improve their involvement in EU aid delivery mechanisms.



At the end of 2011, over 80 stakeholders of the Structured Dialogue for an efficient partnership in development initiative gathered in Brussels to take part in the Structured Dialogue first-follow up meeting. They wanted to share their respective experiences and discuss the form of future dialogue between the European institution, civil society organisations and local authorities, both in EU and partner countries.

"The Structured Dialogue was an extraordinary and intense consultation process,” said Virginia Manzitti, Head of EuropeAid's sector in charge of the relations with civil society and local authorities, on the sidelines of the meeting. “It brought together over 700 participants from all over the world to jointly reflect upon and define ways and means to improve effectiveness of all actors involved in EC development cooperation, in particular civil societies and local authorities.”

A European Commission initiative, the Structured Dialogue commenced in March 2010 and concluded in May 2011. For the participants to the first-follow up meeting, strengthening the dialogue at country level was viewed as a priority.



"All the themes that we have discussed at the structured dialogue level – such as how to create a favourable environment for such a dialogue, how to work with the Delegations of the European Union, as well as with the local authorities and the civil society – all these issues have helped in enriching the work we are doing at country level," explained Christine Andela from Les Jeudi de Cotonou, an NGO platform from Cameroon that focuses on the ACP-EU relationships.

 

The ideal format for an improved dialogue at country level, the participants agreed, would include partner governments, civil society organisations, local authorities, with the EU Delegations in the facilitator role.  As every operating context is different, a flexible approach should be used, taking into account the specifities of the different countries.



For Jorge Balbis, the Executive Director of the Latin American Association of Promotion Associations, representing 50 NGOs in 19 Latin American countries, fostering the dialogue at regional level is also important as it would bridge the country and global levels.



"You must take the different national and sub regional realities into account," he explained. "These different levels should feed in into each other to make each one stronger. It means it needs to be strengthened at country level and then we need to use those different sub regional levels to work at [regional] level by themes and sectors on key issues."



In the run-up to the publication of the EC Communication on the role of civil society organisations in the EC development cooperation at the end of 2012, the dialogue with different stakeholders will continue through ad hoc consultations and meetings.

The future Communication will address “civil society organisations” (CSO) instead of “non-state actors”. Further, the dialogue between CSOs, local authorities and EU institutions will be reinforced at the global level through the set up a of space for policy discussions.

In the meantime, the European Commission has already launched different initiatives linked to the follow-up of the Structured Dialogue. The Agenda for Change, published in October 2011, explicitly mentions the advocacy role of civil society organisations and local authorities for policy coherence, while the Communication on Budget Support,  which was published alongside the Agenda for Change, confirms the importance of these entities with regard to the delivery of budget support programmes.