The experts meeting "Strengthening dialogue on global development affairs between civil society and government” was held in Ljubljana on 22 – 23 October 2008. The event was organised by SLOGA, the Slovenian NGDO platform, in cooperation with the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak NGDO platforms in the framework of the Regional Partnership Programme (RPP).
The aim of the meeting was to exchange experiences of different civil dialogue practices on global development affairs in Europe. The outcome was a framework for effective civil dialogue in the RPP participating countries. Among the participants were representatives of the Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Irish and Slovenian NGDO platforms, as well as a representative of Eurostep, the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration.
The debates were focused on advantages and disadvantages of various civil dialogue types (structured vs. informal) according to the experiences of the participating platform and governmental representatives, and on possible improvements of development consultation processes. It was stressed that the RPP significantly contributed to the establishment of civil dialogue with the ministries responsible for development cooperation in Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Slovenia, and improved NGDO abilities for advocacy work.
After the meeting, the platforms shall now work on the implementation of the proposed framework for dialogue. The implementation shall be adopted to the national circumstances, based on answers to the following questions:
-what is the communication culture in our country? Is informal consultation with state officials on the basis of personal contacts common or is our cooperation with the government regulated by law? Should we have a combination of both dialogue practices?
-what is our expertise? What kind of expertise does our government expect from us?
-should we become more flexible within the platform in order to shorten the reaction time to respond to the government?
-should our government work more on securing the NGDOs voice in the decision-making?
For further information please visit:
SLOGA webpage: http://www.sloga-platform.org/
RPP webpage: http://www.eu-platform.at/english/start.asp?b=872
Information provided by Anja Mesic, SLOGA, anja.mesic@sloga-platform.org
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