Civil
Society Participation in Development and Governance
Development Management Division
Launching of the African Centre for Civil Society
The Centre was officially launched on 24 October 1997 in the presence of His Excellency Mr. Dawit Yohannes, Speaker of the House of the Peoples Representative of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Mr. K.Y. Amoako the Executive Secretary of ECA.
The African centre for Civil Society will address the critical issue of how NGOs and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) would play a more active and effective role as intermediaries promoting the interest and priorities of their grassroots constituencies. Moreover, it will develop and offer core programmes to train African civil society leaders and on-going technical advisory services.
Purpose
The Civil Society Participation in Development & Governance assists ECA member countries in carrying out activities related to the promotion of involvement of peoples organizations and NGOs in national economic and social life;
- monitor the process being made in the implementation of the African charter for Popular Participation in Development.;
- facilitates ECA's work with people's organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations in formulating and articulating development programmes and initiatives that are people-centred and self-reliant: and
- promote policies and institutional arrangements that foster wide spread participatory action.
The African Resource Centre for Civil Society
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Caption: Left to right, Mr. Getachew Demeke, Mr. James Nxumalo, Chief DMD, Mr. E. Abebe, Dep. Director, GTZ and Dr. Thomas Labahu, Country Rep. GTZ. |
ECA, in its renewed effort "to serve Africa better", has strategically focused efforts on strengthening civil society, especially, indigenous NGOs. Assessment of its pilot project, "Popular Participation in Development," in the Development Management Division, DMD) has been extremely well received. Many requests are received at the Commission from governments, civil organizations and partner agencies, for assistance in promoting popular organizations. For the past few years, the concept has been developing and has finally taken shape. A launching meeting for the African Resource Centre for Civil Society, took place 24 October 1997, at the ECA. |
The planning meeting to establish such a Centre took place earlier in Addis Ababa on 12 July 1997, in response to the new age of partnership between the United Nations member State governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) The meeting set up a Task Force that was responsible for developing the proposal on the governance structure and programme content Under the United Nations Special Initiative for Africa (UNSIA), ECA and UNDP are the lead agencies for this component.
Under newly-appointed Director Mr. James Nxumalo, DMD covers NGOs/CSOs, informal sector/small-scale entrepreneurship and the public sector Mr. Getachew Demeke is Team Leader of the Popular Participation in Development project. Mr. Caleb Demeksa is consultant and Mr. B T Constantinos was the consultant who worked on identifying resources and the operational structure and a business plan for the Centre.
The Resource Centre launched will build institutional, human, resource-mobilization and advocacy capacities of African NGOs/CSOS, enhance NGO/Government dialogue and cooperation for an enabling environment, build civil society’s capacity to develop innovative techniques for conflict-prevention and peace-building, strengthen peaceful, pluralistic society and foster the active involvement of NGOs/CSOs in development and governance issues and activities It will also provide a one-stop regional information repository on national and regional NGOs/CSOs and professional organizations, with a database on their activities, best practices, lessons learnt and emerging issues.
The Centre is being established in response to the positive changes sweeping through Africa as people-centred agendas" are gaining in momentum The time is ripe for providing support to African CSOs In almost every African country autocrats of closed systems are giving way to democracy; single-party dictatorships are being replaced by multi-party systems and many conflicts have found peaceful solutions with a few well-known exceptions Through the Centre, ECA will assist African governments and CSOs to acquire the analytical, organizational and practical tools they need in this new era set to characterize the start of the twenty-first century.