Consultant for drafting a critical story for the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness
Background
Over the last decade, international stakeholders in development cooperation have been working to re-shape the global development architecture and improve practices to deliver international aid. Throughout a series of International Summits, High Level Forums (HLFs) and other meetings, donors, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) are currently attempting to reach agreements on common principles and objectives in order to improve the effectiveness of development cooperation.
The main points of reference in this respect are the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (signed by donor/beneficiary governments and multilateral agencies) and the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), where CSOs finally have been recognized as development stakeholders. In addition to securing a place for CSOs in the discussions about effectiveness, the AAA also endorses the objective of shifting from the concept of ‘aid effectiveness’ to ‘DEVELOPMENT effectiveness’. Following the Accra HLF, CSOs committed to provide their own contributions to the process of establishing principles and standards of development effectiveness, to be finalized before the 4th HLF in 2011. To achieve this, the Open Forum for Development Effectiveness was created.
It has the following key objectives:
1. The creation of an open process, whose credibility and accountability will be based on its inclusiveness and transparency. It will reach out through country-based, sectoral/thematic, regional and global processes, enabling CSOs to contribute to and identify with an iterative consensus on CSO development effectiveness.
2. The development of a CSO vision on development effectiveness through national and international policy dialogue, taking account of the centrality of the concepts of human rights, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and the capacity of development actors to lead the changes they seek, as the foundation for situating CSO effectiveness, as well as the effectiveness of donors and governments.
3. An agreement on common principles regarding CSO development effectiveness, through dialogue and learning. Shared principles will be applied differently by a diversity of CSOs in very different regional or sectoral contexts.
4. An agreement on guidelines on how to apply these principles and documentation of good practices for context-relevant mechanisms appropriate to each country and region.
5. A global agreement on minimum standards for an enabling environment at the 4th High Level Forum in South Korea in late 2011.
After more than 60 country consultations and 6 regional workshops around the world, consultations on Trade Unions on 2 continents, the kick-off of 3 additional thematic consultations on “Gender”, “CSO in situation of conflict”, “CSO working for the poor and marginalized people”, the first Global Assembly of the Open Forum and the adoption of the 8 Istanbul principles, it’s now a good time to look a bit backward in order to better prepare our last stage of our road to Busan by documenting what the Open Forum is and shaping what its key messages will be .
What is the expected outcome?
The proposal is to produce a ‘critical story’ of approximately 20 pages which will tell the story of the Open Forum, including some of the preliminary direct and indirect outcomes and learning from the process thus far, both for follow up and parallel work, in an engaging and entertaining way. The story will draw on the perspectives of various different key stakeholders involved in the Open Forum, to tell a story of the process and capture some important ‘institutional memory’ in one place before the coordination mechanisms dissolve.
The key themes identified for exploration include:
- The intention and importance of the Open Forum for CSOs and development effectiveness
- The process itself, and how it drove towards the development of the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness
- Learning (about CSO effectiveness and about coordinating a multi-stakeholder open forum) and how that evolved
- The ripple effects of the process in national and organisational contexts.
- Where the process is/ might be/ should be going post-HLF4... the context for a rolling-out of the Framework
The timeline for this is between April and July 2011.
Over the last decade, international stakeholders in development cooperation have been working to re-shape the global development architecture and improve practices to deliver international aid. Throughout a series of International Summits, High Level Forums (HLFs) and other meetings, donors, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) are currently attempting to reach agreements on common principles and objectives in order to improve the effectiveness of development cooperation.
The main points of reference in this respect are the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (signed by donor/beneficiary governments and multilateral agencies) and the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), where CSOs finally have been recognized as development stakeholders. In addition to securing a place for CSOs in the discussions about effectiveness, the AAA also endorses the objective of shifting from the concept of ‘aid effectiveness’ to ‘DEVELOPMENT effectiveness’. Following the Accra HLF, CSOs committed to provide their own contributions to the process of establishing principles and standards of development effectiveness, to be finalized before the 4th HLF in 2011. To achieve this, the Open Forum for Development Effectiveness was created.
It has the following key objectives:
1. The creation of an open process, whose credibility and accountability will be based on its inclusiveness and transparency. It will reach out through country-based, sectoral/thematic, regional and global processes, enabling CSOs to contribute to and identify with an iterative consensus on CSO development effectiveness.
2. The development of a CSO vision on development effectiveness through national and international policy dialogue, taking account of the centrality of the concepts of human rights, gender equality, environmental sustainability, and the capacity of development actors to lead the changes they seek, as the foundation for situating CSO effectiveness, as well as the effectiveness of donors and governments.
3. An agreement on common principles regarding CSO development effectiveness, through dialogue and learning. Shared principles will be applied differently by a diversity of CSOs in very different regional or sectoral contexts.
4. An agreement on guidelines on how to apply these principles and documentation of good practices for context-relevant mechanisms appropriate to each country and region.
5. A global agreement on minimum standards for an enabling environment at the 4th High Level Forum in South Korea in late 2011.
After more than 60 country consultations and 6 regional workshops around the world, consultations on Trade Unions on 2 continents, the kick-off of 3 additional thematic consultations on “Gender”, “CSO in situation of conflict”, “CSO working for the poor and marginalized people”, the first Global Assembly of the Open Forum and the adoption of the 8 Istanbul principles, it’s now a good time to look a bit backward in order to better prepare our last stage of our road to Busan by documenting what the Open Forum is and shaping what its key messages will be .
What is the expected outcome?
The proposal is to produce a ‘critical story’ of approximately 20 pages which will tell the story of the Open Forum, including some of the preliminary direct and indirect outcomes and learning from the process thus far, both for follow up and parallel work, in an engaging and entertaining way. The story will draw on the perspectives of various different key stakeholders involved in the Open Forum, to tell a story of the process and capture some important ‘institutional memory’ in one place before the coordination mechanisms dissolve.
The key themes identified for exploration include:
- The intention and importance of the Open Forum for CSOs and development effectiveness
- The process itself, and how it drove towards the development of the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness
- Learning (about CSO effectiveness and about coordinating a multi-stakeholder open forum) and how that evolved
- The ripple effects of the process in national and organisational contexts.
- Where the process is/ might be/ should be going post-HLF4... the context for a rolling-out of the Framework
The timeline for this is between April and July 2011.
How to apply
Please send us a clear proposal detailing your methodology, workplan, timeline and budget along with a resume in English to info@cso-effectiveness.org before February 11th 2011.
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