new social contract

• Call for Expressions of Interest: Convening partners to conduct locally initiated multi-stakeholder dialogues

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  Application deadline: 15 October 2013

  We are living in an age characterized by climate change, financial collapse, resource depletion and a growing gap between rich and poor, amongst other factors. In order to properly address those complex challenges and demands, societies need to adopt new approaches fostering innovative, cross-sector, decision-making and action strategies. To explore these new pathways for participation, CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, has launched the action-based research project, New Social Contract.

  

  Within this framework, CIVICUS seeks Expressions of Interest by potential convening partners to organise and oversee locally-initiated multi-stakeholder dialogues, following the methodological approach proposed by the project. More specifically, we are looking for:

  • A relevant challenge (social, economic, environmental) existing in a given community, that – if properly tackled by a group of diverse stakeholders joining hands and bringing their added value to the table - could lead to a systemic change;
  • A convening partner (or a small group of co-convenors) that is directly affected by this challenge, is able to articulate the potential impact of an inclusive dialogue and identify and engage relevant stakeholders.
• Enhancing religious pluralism and tolerance - Case Study

  Action For Fundamental Change and Development (AFFCAD)
  Enhancing Religious Pluralism and Tolerance - Multi Stakeholders' Meetings and Dialogue in Kawempe Municipality
  May - June 2013
  Kampala, Uganda

  This project was motivated by the perceptions that the many faith-based organisations in Kawempe Municipality tie their humanitarian assistance to the faith they profess, which has created tensions, mistrust and hatred within the local communities. This initiative was thus intended to encourage these organisations to enhance and mainstream religious pluralism and tolerance in their work to promote peaceful co-existence and to ensure community cohesion at local level.

• No more time outs from poverty - Case Study

  Living In a Shanty Town (L.I.S.T)

  No more time outs from poverty
  27 June 2013
  Nairobi, Kenya

  In the absence of active engagement with slum dwellers and serious consideration of their points of view and aspirations, most poverty alleviation and youth empowerment programs fail to offer a real chance for breaking the poverty cycle. This dialogue aimed at sparking a conversation between stakeholders that don't usually interact directly with each other in order to jointly share views on how to tackle poverty in Kibera, Nairobi's biggest slum, identifying who can play a role in that change and exploring ways of further engagement with the hope to build and validate an otherwise unlikely partnership. It was hoped that such a dialogue could shift the relations between the beneficiaries of poverty alleviation programs and donors and government agencies.

• Social responsibility: A commitment to cross learning - Case Study

  

  Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental (CEDA)
  Social responsibility: a commitment to cross learning
  20 June 2013
  Quito, Ecuador

  CEDA sought to promote innovation in the management of civil society organisations (CSOs) based on the experiences of the private sector and through the creation of new channels of dialogue and learning between them. This new space for dialogue would allow sharing specific experiences of social responsibility, analysing and discussing its implementation in the civil society and social sector.

  CEDA has been working on positioning the corporate social responsibility as a management model which could allow for a better accountability for CSOs, and this dialogue between CSOs and private companies in Ecuador built on the private sector's interest in actions based management models in social responsibility.

• Stakeholders forum on building citizen engagement and participation - Case Study

  Niger Delta Women's Movement for Peace and Development (NDWMPD)
  Stakeholders forum on building citizen engagement and participation
  5 June 2013
  Ughelli, Nigeria

  The forum was conceived as a one day capacity building workshop and engagement forum for citizens from the Niger Delta communities, multinationals companies, local governments and civil society organisations. Its ambition was to provide an opportunity for reflection on the roles and responsibilities that several economic and social groups play in the Niger Delta's environmental, economic and socal situation today. In many rural communities, most citizens, especially women, do not participate in the decisions that affect their daily lives, and there is often a lack of trust between citizens and local officials. Communities have also been suffering from the negative effects of oil's extraction without necessarily benefiting from this industry. The objectives of this dialogue were primarily to increase citizens' knowledge and participation about those issues and to create opportunities for citizens and relevant stakeholders to engage with each other to improve their community.

• the New Social Contract project

  Through the New Social Contract project, CIVICUS seeks to find new ways of partnerships, engagements and commitments around collective goals for society. New Social Contract will input on the discussions around participative governance and how to reconsider the rules that govern how citizens engage in the decisions that affect their lives.

  Through local, multi-level and virtual activities and consultations New Social Contract will gather compelling examples of collaborations, commitments and action strategies taking place between diverse stakeholders around the world, including government, business, scientific community and the civic sector, across a broad range of issues.

  One method to do so will be the co-organisation with convening partners of locally initiated multi-stakeholder dialogues, following a methodology developed by CIVICUS. The local partners will be selected through a call for expressions of interest, based on the relevance of the proposed challenge, their willingness to address it and their motivations, reasons and interest to establish a local multi-stakeholder platform.

• Towards New Social Contracts: using dialogue processes to promote social change

  This toolkit is designed to stimulate a reflection around the potential and limits of multi-stakeholder processes in promoting socio-political change, and provides practical tools and resources to facilitate the use of dialogue processes in new ways.

  The proposed methodology is based on the direct observation of several local dialogue processes initiated by civil society around crucial challenges experienced in their communities. It takes stock of the useful and sometimes unusual perspectives of local stakeholders around challenges, trends and innovations on how citizens collectively engage in the decisions that affect their lives.