Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Entwicklung und Humanitäre Hilfe
17.02.2015 – To be able to work effectively and foster positive sustainable change, civil society organisations (CSOs) need favourable conditions, a so called enabling environment, for their work. An enabling environment for CSOs comprises legal, bureaucratic, financial, informational and cultural conditions as well as conditions of participation in political dialogue.
In 2008, at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, governments acknowledged CSOs as independent development actors in their own right and commited to provide an enabling environment that maximises CSOs contributions to development. Nevertheless, today many CSOs worldwide experience worsening conditions. For example, human rights defenders face criminalisation or the freedom of the press and access to foreign funding is restricted.
Global Responsibility, the Austrian Platform for Development and Humanitarian Aid, and the Catholic Womens Movement (KFB) therefore invited to a workshop on enabling environment for CSOs. The aim of the workshop was to exchange experiences of Austrian CSOs and their partners with conditions they face and to learn about components, aspects and global trends of enabling environment. This knowledge should support Austrian CSOs in their cooperation with partners in the Global South.
DocumentationPresentation of Oli Henman, CivicusMinutes of the workshop
Further readingIGO, NP; Civicus: Civil Society Index Rahmenbedingungen für die Zivilgesellschaft in Österreich, 2014actalliance, CIDSE: Space for civil society How to protect and expand an enabling environmentCivicus: State of Civil Society Report 2014 – Reimagining global governance, 2014Civicus: Enabling Environment Index 2013