Interview with Civil Society Activist - Amy Bartlett

Amy Bartlett, the Global Coordinator of the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness, a unique global initiative working to strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of civil society in development initiatives, speaks to CIVICUS about her work.

The Open Forum has been coordinating a collective civil society voice on development effectiveness over the last couple of years. Can you tell us about this process? 

The Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness is a unique space for CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) worldwide to engage in a global and fully participatory process towards defining and introducing a framework of mutually shared development effectiveness principles. Through the Open Forum, which will be operating from 2009 until the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011, CSOs are striving to build a consensus on commonly accepted principles to improve their development effectiveness and on minimum standards for an enabling environment where CSOs can fully apply and strengthen their specific roles in development. This framework will take account of CSO development visions, approaches, relationships and the impact of their actions. To develop this framework, the Open Forum is also facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues with and among CSOs, donors and governments on these issues at country, regional and international levels.

Moreover, the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness is an initiative conceived of and led by a diverse coalition of CSOs from around the world to identify the elements that are essential to the development effectiveness of CSOs. This process is unique in its effort to create a global CSO consensus on the principles to which we hold ourselves accountable and to which we wish to be held accountable by the constituencies we serve and represent, by our fellow CSOs and by donors and governments. To ensure the outcomes capture and reflect the diversity of the sector, this consensus is built from the bottom up, involving CSOs from all levels of engagement, from community-based organisations to national platforms to regional networks to international NGOs.

How did the idea of the Open Forum originate and what are its main achievements, goals and outcomes? 

For about a decade, there have been a series of on-going processes that are shaping the future of international aid. One of these processes is led by the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness at the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD DAC), which has organised a series of high level forums related to aid effectiveness.

At the beginning of the OECD-DAC processes, however, the perspective of CSOs was largely absent from the discussions. In response, CSOs began to combine their efforts to organise their engagement in the aid effectiveness processes more systematically. The 2008 3rd High Level Forum in Accra set an important precedent about the extent of CSO participation in what were previously discussions between bilateral and multilateral representatives. During HLF3, CSOs challenged the implicit assumption of the Paris Declaration, namely that more efficient delivery of aid will automatically lead to improved development results. Donors and partner countries issued their own challenge in response, calling on CSOs to demonstrate and account for their own effectiveness (paragraph 20 of the AAA). CSOs took up this challenge by launching the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness. 

Where does the draft International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness come from? 

The Open Forum draft International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness is built on the content generated at the Open Forum National Consultations. The mandate for undertaking this process can be found here.

A first draft of the Open Forum International Framework was developed from the content generated at the over 60 national consultations undertaken between March and August 2010. This first version of the Draft International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness was discussed in detail at the first Global Assembly of the Open Forum in September 2010. A longer Synthesis Report of the National Consultations was also compiled, and is available in English, French and Spanish.

At the Global Assembly, the first version of the draft Global Framework was discussed and debated and, based on the inputs from the consultations at the national and regional levels, the Istanbul Principles were refined and endorsed by participants of the Global Assembly, as part of the draft International Framework.

Morever, based on the inputs and discussions from the Global Assembly, as well as incorporating the modified and endorsed Istanbul Principles, an updated version of the draft International Framework has been consolidated which is available here: Version Two of the draft International Framework.

The Open Forum is working to identify some basic minimum standards and critical conditions for an enabling environment for civil society. How will you ensure governments and donors also recognise these conditions?

It is very important, through the Open Forum process, for CSOs to develop principles to guide their work as development actors, and to devise guidelines, mechanisms and indictors on how to measure our success at achieving those principles. However, if governments and donors cannot provide an enabling environment in which to undertake our work, CSO development effectiveness can never be achieved. Therefore, in 2011, the Open Forum, in partnership with BetterAid, will be working with CSOs around the globe to advocate with donors and governments for a more enabling environment for CSOs. A first key moment for strategising on this work was a joint Open Forum-BetterAid high-level meeting in March 2011. We will also be working through the OECD avenues we have opened up for CSOs in the run-up to HLF4, including Cluster A work on Ownership and Accountability, and the Multi-Stakeholder Task Team on CSO Development Effectiveness. After the second Global Assembly in June 2011, and final endorsement of the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness, we will be developing an advocacy strategy to help guide CSOs at the national, regional and international level on how to use the information and recommendations in the Open Forum International Framework as a tool for advocating with governments and donors for a more enabling environment for CSOs.

What are the next steps you are planning to undertake in the Open Forum work?

The development and endorsement of the Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness was a very important step in the process towards defining and introducing a complete International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness. However, that is definitely not the end of the story, and there are lots of activities being planned to take the work forward towards 2011 and HLF4. Some of these are outlined below: