Summary Report on a four-day Regional Workshop on Civil Society Organizations and Aid Effectiveness (South and West Asia)

A four-day Regional Workshop on Civil Society Organization (CSOs) and Aid Effectiveness for the South and West Asia was held from 29 October to 1 November, 2007 in Kathmandu in sheer coordination of NGO Federation of Nepal supported by the Reality of Aid and it's member, Nepal Policy Institute along with South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication and LDC Watch. The Regional Workshop was a part of the work plan of the OECD-DAC Advisory Group on CSOs and Aid Effectiveness.

The entire idea of conducting this Regional Workshop was to address the perspectives and concerns of the civil society organizations related to aid effectiveness in the third world counties as they are equally responsible in shaping the global aid architecture. CSOs play a crucial role in the development as they are the distinctive contributors to aid effectiveness and administer their work as watchdog, advocate on behalf of the poor and the needy being a significant channel for aid delivery.

Though the debatable issues of concessionary loans as a from of development assistance, debt crisis and conditionality have been constantly critiqued and questioned by the CSOs in the recent times, but these issues in the longer run get shadowed as there is a constant debate on the identity and the roles of the CSOs as development actors for democratic development. Also, there are instances where the knowledge about the aid effectiveness issues among the civil society organizations themselves seems very limited. Therefore to bridge the knowledge gap, to bring about issues of recognition and role of CSOs and to highlight the issues of the aid effectiveness agenda among the broader circles of the development community and even more among the CSOs, the regional workshop was held.

The Workshop was divided in two parts. The first two days, October 29-30, 2007 was a CSOs-only preparation workshop followed by a two-day Multi-Stakeholders Workshop on October 31 to November 1, 2007, where along with the NGOs, INGOs, government officials including Ministries, Members of National Planning Commission and donors made their presence. NGO Federation of Nepal arranged for several preparatory meeting amongst the Donors, INGOs, Government, and Civil Society Organizations particulalry with networks, allainces and federations prior to the workshop. The preparatory meeting was helpful to chalk down the areas of priority and in identifying good practices and challenges that the CSOs encounter in their work. The preparatory meeting was indeed helpful for the presenters to select the topics for presentation in the four-day workshop depending on their area of work and interests.

The sessions in the workshop were regarding ownership, harmonization, alignment, mutual accountability, conditionality, debts, grants, debt burden, tied aid, on voices and recognition of CSOs, North-South CSO relationships and on models of donor support. Members of civil society organizations and development workers raised questions and dialogues pinpointing the donor agencies on their failure to stand affirm to their commitment regarding effective aid delivery. They brought in studies from countries like Srilanka, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Lebanon, , Bangladesh, Yemen and Nepal which showed that around 60 per cent of the aid amount is diverted back to the donor countries in the name of technical assistance and in other forms. The studies also revealed that the CSOs in the developing counties though play a significant role in development, their contribution in this sector is hardly acknowledged by their respective governments and donors. In the lack of mere coordination and trust among the donors, government and CSOs, it is felt that the key principles for aid reform would never be achieved until the recognition of voices of CSOs and mutual accountability is attained.

Another major discussion in the workshop was on applicability and limitations of 2005 Paris Declaration on CSOs. The major debate lied on the efficiency of Paris Declaration which in itself is a limited and half-hearted attempt for aid regime reform where there is no space for CSO in the formulating process. The non-representation of diverse CSOs including women, children, dalits, indigenous people, tribals, differently able persons, sexual minorities, senior citizens, peasants, migrants, refugees and other excluded groups have added further possibilities to continue donor driven development processes and programs. Its failure to address fundamental problems facing the global aid architecture even enhances the development plans to be continued under donor's control in future too.

Therefore, there were voices raised from the women's organizations, peasant's organizations, NGOs working for differently able persons, indigenous nationalities, dalits, federation of community forestry, environmental organizations, human rights and organisations working for various social causes and socially excluded groups to the donors to end all the donor imposed conditionality and hence recognize the conditions that undermine democratic ownership of the recipient country. On 29 October in the opening program of the CSO preparatory workshop, Minister for Foreign Affairs Ms. Sahana Pradhan stressed that the only possibility to make development process more effective, is by strengthening collaboration between government, civil society and the private sector. Professor Maheshor Man Shrestha, member of National Planning Commission of Nepal raised issues related to unequal relationships that exist between the donors and recipient countries, government and civil society organizations and, government and the people that affect the aid effectiveness agendas. He stressed for a democratic reform at all levels. Similarly, Dr. Arjun Karki, president of NGO Federation of Nepal critiqued on the patron-client relation between the donors and the government which needs to be built into partnership for effective aid utilization and management. Dr Arjun Karki further criticized the aid policy followed by the IMF and the World Bank.

Following the first two days, another one and a half days was allocated to a tripartite workshop that brought together CSOs presence with representatives of donor agencies and partner governments. On 31 October 2007, Dr. Jagadish Chandra Pokharel- Vice Chairman of National Planning Commission of Nepal inaugurated the multi-stakeholders' workshop. He highlighted that the planners of the government and the CSOs need to trust each other in order to make the State work. He further stressed on the identification of lacunas of aid agendas that need to be corrected first for effective aid implementation.

Dipendra Chhetri, member of National Planning Commission highlighted on the issues related to dependency syndrome created by foreign aid. Eiichi Sadamatsu, representative of Association of International NGOs in Nepal stressed on the importance of transformation of the donors including the civil society organisations for creating an inclusive environment for managing the development processes. Gevenieve Federspiel from Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation said that the CSOs have to dictate their existing agendas to work in the peace and reconstruction process. She added that CSOs have to address the governance challenges and get organized to work with people horizontally than vertically. The representatives were present in the workshop as key note speakers.

Similarly, Dr. Renu Raj Bhandari from Women Hhuman Rights Defenders network, Ms. Lucky Sherpa from National Network of Indigenous Women and Ms. Azrah Talat Sayeed from Roots for Equity, Pakistan were amongst the speakers who also highlighted the issues of women, gender and indegeneous people that needed to be addressed first in creating a democratic development. Ms Azra further explained on how sustainable development is only possible in a stage where there is social solidarity. Dr. Netra Timsina from NGO Federation of Nepal stressed on the issues related to harmonization, alignment, ownership and mutual accountability.

Likewise, Karuna Onta and Nabin Subedi from Association of International NGOs, Antonio Tujan, Jr. from Reality of Aid Network, Brian Tomilson, Advisory Group member, Aloke Michyari form India, Ali Ercelen from Pakistan, Rabin Subedi from Nepal Policy Institute , Dr. Keshab Khadka from All Nepal Peasants' Federation (ANPFa), Ahmed Swapnam from Voice Bangladesh, Anil Singh from South Asian Network for Social and Agricultural Development, India, Jamal Jawahiri from Al Amal, Iraq, Suranjan Kodithuwakku from Green Movement Srilanka, Mohd Abdul Matin from Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan, Taufik al Bathiagi from Human rights training center-Yemen, Reza Karim Chaudhari from Bangladesh, Shadnaz Khan from UNNAYAN Onneshan, Bangladesh and Taufik Abdul Latif from Social and Democratic Forum, Yemen were some of the presenters from CSOs who gave an over view of the aid scenario of their respective countries and emphasized on creating social solidarity by the CSOs for sustainable development.

The Workshop was able to draw important recommendations and suggestions on the draft policy paper that is prepared by the International Civil Society Steering Group for the Accra High Level Forum. They have demanded that the Accra HLF should also recognize the centrality of democracy along with poverty reduction, equality and human rights. Some of the participants have suggested for the increase share of decision making of developing counties and bring World Bank and IMF in the UN governance framework. Some other still raised the questions on the UN system regarding how democratic it is.

The CSOs in the workshop also stressed for an enabling legal requirement from the government which is a prerequisite for the development actors to play a proactive role in all development programmes. Reflecting on their own weaknesses and challenges, they felt that the CSOs themselves should come up with self-regulatory mechanism with respect to accountability, transparency and participation.

It is believed that the concerns raised from the CSOs, and the recommendations regarding the Paris Declaration and the draft policy paper prepared by the International Civil Society Steering Group will be seriously talked about and will feed into the next High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Ghana, September 2008.