Civil Society

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• Civil Society
• Capacity Building
• in Burkina Faso

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• Roles of Civil Society actors
• in contributing to change and development in
  Burkina Faso
• Who is the Civil Society in Burkina Faso ?
• Definition of the Civil Society  Any form of
  organization except the family and the State, or
  any form of organization between the domestic
  sphere and the public sphere. 
• Good Governance National Plan (2d)
• Definition of the Association  Any group of
  physical or moral persons, national or foreign,
  with a permanent vocation, with a non-profit
  goal, that dedicates itself to the achievement of
  common objectives, particularly in cultural,
  sport, social, spiritual, scientific,
  professional or socio-economic areas. 

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• 14 Criteria of identification of CSOs
• Autonomy in the creation Freedom of organizing
• Non-profit goal Non-politic and non-partisan
  charater
• Citizen activity General interest goals

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• 11 components of the Civil Society in Burkina
  Faso
• Women organizations
• Human Rights organizations
• Youth movements
• Other development associations and NGOs
• Trade unions
• Religious organizations
• Peasant organization
• Professional organizations of media
• Marginalized persons organizations
• Cultural and sport organization
• Research and training organization
• (excluded Political Party, Traditional Chief,
  Private Sector)
• 70 000 CSOs !!

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• Good political environment for the participation
  of CSOs in public affairs
• What is the Civil Society expected to do in
  Burkina Faso ?
• - Contributing in the development
• (many discourses to recognize and encourage this
  contribution)
• - Taking part in national debates, Monitoring of
  PRSP, MDGs
• - Monitoring of development projects
• UN and France / Civil Society Advisory Committee,
  
• member of Steering Committees of many projects of
  various donors
• - Expressing itself
• Relative freedom of expression for media
• in Texts everything allows CSOs to act !

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• What are the concrete specific contributions of
  CSOs in Burkina Faso ?
• 1. Many development projects implemented by CSOs
  
• ½ of CSOs work for Health and social care
  Agriculture Education
• Water infrastructures, Handicraft, Environment
• 2. Active and Regular participation of Trade
  Unions / work rights
• (7 central trade unions 86 autonomous trade
  unions)
• 3. Contribution of the mobilization of the
  population for the MDGs through 6.000
  Communautary Based Organizations (women, farmers,
  handcrafters) and dynamic youth movements
• 4. Promotion of women rights and of incomes
  generating activities
• 83 women associations and thousands of women
  groups
• 5. Mediation in social conflicts done by
  religious organizations
• 6. Defense of the expression freedom by private
  media
• 7. Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy by 30
  HR organizations
• 8. Promotion of local arts and cultures

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• Specific contributions of CSOs in debates
• Proposals to improve the PRSP in 2003 and the
  role that CSOs should play in its monitoring
• Participation in the formulation of the 2d Good
  Governance National Plan
• Regular participation in the writing of the
  National SHD Report
• Participation in steering committees of many
  projects of donors
• Many punctual participations in international
  debates

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• 2. Innovations in the strengthening
• of Roles of Civil Society actors in Burkina Faso
• What is the key Capacity Building aim ?
• Good Governance National Plan (2d)
• 3rd Objective To emphasize the participation of
  citizens and civil society in the management of
  public affairs
• CSOs CB is implemented by
• foreign NGOs, national CSOs, national training
  centers, national consultancy offices, government
  offices, bilateral and multilateral donors
• INTRAC Survey 95 answers from
• Foreign and National NGOs Consultancy offices
• To further improve the contribution of CSOs to
  the MDGs

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• How does CB seek to reinforce or challenge
• the view of the role of civil society ?
• CSOs Capacity Building Reference Document in
  Burkina Faso (January 2002)
• UNDP Good Governance National Plan
• Actions at 3 levels
• Environmental level politic and legal aspects,
  dialogue between CSOs themselves and between
  CSOs/State
• Organizational level mission and strategy of an
  organization, human/financial/material/logistic
  resources, information communication
• Individual level management leadership

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• CSOs Capacity Building Reference Document in
  Burkina Faso (January 2002)
• Objectives
• Main Objective
• At the organizational level to strengthen the
  CSOs capacity to increase their resources, their
  internal and external interactions, to develop
  their structures and skills, and to implement
  their mission and strategy
• At the individual level to develop their
  management and leadership capacities
• 2. Specific objectives
• At the organizational level
• To reinforce CSOs in institutional communication
• To give infrastructures and logistic resources to
  CSOs
• To develop CSOs staff Capacities
• To give financial resources to CSOs
• At the environment level
• To reinforce the legal framework that rules CSOs
• To strengthen the cooperation and partnership
  between CSOs
• To promote internal and accountability in CSOs
• To increase a citizen awareness within the
  population
• To further involve CSOs in fight against poverty

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• CSOs Capacity Building Reference Document in
  Burkina Faso (January 2002)
• What is  new  and particularly
• what is exciting and energizing for the actors
  involved?
• ENCOURAGING GOOD PRACTICES
• To write a law with CSOs for the recognition of
  CSOs with accurate criteria for access to funds
• An award of Prize for transparency good practices
• Encouraging CSOs to be more accountable to their
  members (encouraging donors and the Government to
  promote CSOs accountability and to support only
  CSOs that respect transparency and accountability
  management)
• To encourage CSOs to create an auto-regulation
  structure between them
• Encouraging capacities diagnostics and
  tailor-made support
• ENCOURAGING DIALOGUE
• To encourage any Ministry to create a dialogue
  framework with CSOs
• Setting up an annual Civil Society Forum (to
  highlight some critical points next to deciders)
• Making more dynamic dialogue groups of CSOs
• Supporting the Public Office in charge of the
  relationships with NGOs
• Creating information channels (bulletin) between
  CSOs
• Access to ITC
• Creating a database of CSOs regularly updated

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• What is  new  and particularly
• what is exciting and energizing for the actors
  involved?
• the upcoming CB projects !!
• 2 projects European Union UNDP specifically
  dedicated to CSOs CB
• and the debate launched in the CB working group
  !!
• BasisINTRAC survey
• Many organizations very enthusiastic for a
  sharing of experiences
• to make their CB actions more professional

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• 3. Constraining and Enabling factors
• that affect the capacity building work in Burkina
  Faso
• At the level of the CB intervention itself
• In the environment context in which the CB
  intervention take place
• CONSTRAINING FACTORS
• Lack of guidelines and good practices at the
  international level (kind of brand new project
  generation)
• Lack of people who have experimented this kind of
  project elsewhere
• Lack of tools to monitor the implementation of
  the project (measure of results impact)
• Lack of a strong willing of change from CSOs
• Lack of structuration of CSOs among them the
  persons who want to take the lead on CB are not
  legitimate and credible enough among CSOs
• Lack of mobilization of the Government on that
  issue
• The unknowness of texts and procedures of the
  State by the population
• The weak participation of members in life of many
  CSOs
• Interest Fights between CSOs
• Influence traffic of CSOs
• Socio-cultural behavior and lack of education of
  people
• ENABLING FACTORS

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• All united for the achievement
• of the Millenium Development Goals in Burkina
  Faso !

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• Civil Society Focal Point
• United Nations in Burkina Faso
• nelly.potevin_at_undp.org