Thursday 18 December 2014

Czech CSOs Cross-sector Partnership for the EYD 2015

An important cross-sector cooperation among development NGOs and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) associated with the platform FoRS, environmental CSOs (platform Green Circle) and educational CSOs has started during preparations for the European Year for Development 2015. Three joint working groups have been established. Two of them - key competences and innovative awareness raising - aim at attracting the attention of general public and political representation towards development cooperation and global problems and the third one focuses on the identification of a possible Czech contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its reflection in the official positions. This joint input will also contribute to the activities of European and global NGO networks (CONCORD and Beyond2015).

The first joint outcome of this cross-sector partnership are recent “starting points” for discussions about the global development post-2015 agenda that were submitted to the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They include a CSOs´ joint vision of the world where all human beings enjoy equal right to a secure, decent and full-fledged life without putting in danger boundaries of our planet. Apart from striving to fulfil the MDGs even after 2015, these CSOs will also strive for changes in diverse areas such as energy sector transformation, education towards global citizenship, the right to participation in decision-making processes and accession to justice, protection of biodiversity, tax justice, better gender equality as well as more disaggregated statistics.

In addition to this CSO cooperation, FoRS also aims at increasing dialog and cooperation with the private sector, especially with the Czech Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Platform of Entrepreneurs for International Development Cooperation.

Inspirational background information on this process is gathered in a publication prepared this year by Petr Lebeda, director of Czech think-tank Glopolis, member of FoRS, called “Road to integrity and confident Czech Republic: Opportunities not only for environmental and development organizations after the year 2015” (in Czech available here). English summary and recommendations are available here.

Contact person at FoRS: Marie Zázvorková.

Information provided by Marie Zázvorková, FoRS

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