Interaction Policy Paper - Enabling Environment

Policy Paper
June 2011
Enabling Environment for CSOs: An Opportunity to Lead

For more information, please contact: Carolyn Long Director Global Partnerships InterAction [email protected]
InterAction welcomes the opportunity for a series of small roundtable meetings between its members and U.S. government representatives to discuss key issues to be taken up at the Fourth High Level Forum (HLF) in Busan. This paper puts forward InterActions ideas on the first meetings topic, namely, an enabling environment for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). Signatories to the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) at the Third HLF i in 2008 promised to promote an enabling environment for CSOs. In addition, the enabling environment is a major focus in the work of the Open Forum on CSO Development Effectiveness in which InterAction is actively engaged. Open Forum is a CSO-led global process initiated before the 2008 Accra High Level Forum to deepen CSO accountability for effectiveness as development actors. In 2010, this process involved national consultations with hundreds of CSOs in over 60 countries, culminating with endorsement of the Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness at the Open Forums first Global Assembly in Istanbul in September 2010. CSOs around the world are continuing work on a draft Framework on CSO Development Effectiveness that includes implementation guidelines, indicators and accountability mechanisms. This Framework will be presented for endorsement at Busan. An essential part of the Open Forum process is dialogue with donor and developing country governments on minimum standards to provide an enabling environment in all countries so CSOs can carry out development practices consistent with the Istanbul Principles. InterAction has held two U.S. Open Forum consultations, the first in May 2010 on the development effectiveness framework where a dialogue on the enabling environment with key U.S. government agency representatives began. At the second, th on May 26 , 2011, the focus was on the enabling environment to determine key issues to discuss in the upcoming roundtable with U.S. government officials.
Enabling Environment Categories

When discussing the enabling environment, we use the following three categories: 1. Elements provided by any government in keeping with existing commitments in international and regional legal instruments that guarantee fundamental rights. E.g. Freedom of association, expression, right to operate free from unwarranted state interference, right to communicate and cooperate, right to seek and secure funding, and the states duty to protect. 2. Elements provided by donor governments to CSOs in the donor country and to both international and local CSOs in recipient countries. E.g. Through strategic engagement with CSOs, policy dialogue, policies and funding.
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3. Elements provided by recipient governments to CSOs in the development context. E.g. True participation in formulation of national development strategies, policy dialogue, and practice.
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Two Major Issues for Discussion

First, we call on the U.S. government to champion promotion of an enabling environment for CSOs in all its aspects at the Fourth High Level Forum in Busan. This request is based on the excellent work U.S. government agencies are doing to promote an enabling environment in developing countries specifically the rights noted in Category One above that are existing obligations of all signatories to international and reii gional human rights instruments. Although signatories to the Accra Agenda for Action committed themselves to promoting an enabling environment for CSOs, since then many governments have been limiting CSO activities and, in some cases, proposing restrictive laws and regulations, especially for those CSOs working to influence government policy or to defend human rights. We look to the U.S. government to put the enabling environment front and center at Busan, especially given that CSOs are acknowledged in the AAA as independent development actors in their own right whose efforts comiii plement those of governments and the private sector and have been full participants in the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness since Accra. To ensure continued attention to the important work the U.S. government is doing, we include the following two points. a) Continue and expand the State Departments bilateral and multilateral diplomacy in support of the enabling environment. Specifically, we urge the addition of a performance indicator to the State Departments Strategic Plan focused on the enabling environment for civil society. We urge continued cooperation with the Community of Democracies Working Group on Enabling and Protecting Civil Society and support for the new UN Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Association and of Assembly. To support the State Departments work, we urge an increase in the permanent staff and resources available to the Secretary of States Senior Advisor for Civil Society and/or the creation of a well-staffed, well-resourced Office within the State Department focused on enabling environment issues. b) Create a formal contact point within USAID for engagement on enabling environment issues. Prioritize enabling environment concerns in democracy and governance strategies and programs as part of the reorganization of USAIDs DCHA Bureau (including technical assistance, capacity strengthening, research, and networking). Second, there is a need for strategic engagement by USAID with local and U.S. CSOs, not only in the formulation of Country Development Cooperation Strategies (CDCS) by USAID missions, but in the entire process of community-led, participatory development with accountability. This relates to Category Two of the enabling environment, i.e. elements provided by donor governments, as described earlier in this paper. We are encouraged by the creation of the Global Development Council and look forward to its early launch so as to begin strategic engagement with U. S. CSOs as well as to reduce confusion about priorities and approaches across the U.S. government. a) At the country level, create an explicit, transparent process for civil society engagement by USAID missions (with local and U.S. CSOs) regarding formulation of development strategy and programs, monitoring, evaluation and accountability. This includes a mandatory, verifiable partnership with local CSOs and relevant U.S. CSOs during the formulation of USAID Country Development Cooperation Strategies. b) Fulfill the commitment to leadership in aid transparency by publishing data as soon as it is available or state when it will be available, and make the data more comprehensive across the entire U.S. government, i.e. make the dashboard a dynamic, up-to-date resource. InterAction and its members view the current ongoing reforms within the State Department and USAID, as well as the ongoing development of CDCSs, as representing a key moment to strengthen U.S. consultation with civil society (both local and international) as a step to achieving participatory development in poor countries. During a recent presentation to InterAction members by USAID regarding formulation of CDCSs, we learned that there is no current requirement for consultation in relation to CDCS development, no training of USAID mission staff to conduct consultations, no auditing of how well missions have implemented consultations, and no information provided to local or U.S. CSOs on which countries are about to engage in strategy formulation. The U.S. government plays an important role in development in countries around the world. As partners in development, U.S. CSOs see these as key areas where real advances can be made in order to ensure U.S. development is more effective, efficient and transparent, contributing to long-lasting poverty reduction. We look forward to a robust discussion of these enabling environment issues.
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i Accra Agenda for Action (Paragraph 20) ii Instruments means covenants, charters and declarations. Rights noted in Category One are guaranteed in one or more existing legally binding instruments, including: International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, for example. Other relevant non-binding but widely adopted international declarations include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Resolution on Freedom of Assembly and Association. On September 30, 2010, the Human Rights Council adopted Resolution A/HRC/15/L.23 to establish the mandate of a UN Special Rapporteur for three years on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. iii Accra Agenda for Action (Paragraph 20)

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Policy Paper

Enabling Environment for CSOs: An Opportunity to Lead

Enabling Environment Categories

Two Major Issues for Discussion

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