High-Level Forum Gets Down-to-Earth
Summary:The recent High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness proved that civil society groups are gaining a greater voice in the development debate
By Brandon Currie
GV Content Editor
For anyone who's ever been involved in high-level summits - as last week's get -together in Ghana cetainly was - the most interesting delegates are often the civil society groups. Often without the political and diplomatic shackles of their higher-level counterparts, they can speak more frankly and truthfully about sensitive issues.
So much so that they often organize an entirely separate event for themselves.
Last year, at the annual meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), civil society was shouting from the rooftops about the need for electoral and constitutional reform in Zimbabwe ahead of this year's elections. Problem was, there was no forum (or desire, really) for that dialogue to reach the visiting heads of state. Civil society could urge, underline and recommend in their own space, but it wouldn't have an audience with presidents Mugabe and Mbeki.
If vetted journalists for state-owned newspapers weren't allowed to question the top brass during the summit, a horde of highly-engaged actvivists wasn't going to get anywhere close.
However, as our forum blog on GV demonstrated, in Ghana last week civil society was given a seat at the table with the high-level power-brokers. By most accounts, their presence was a foil to the more conservative elements at the summit, and pushed the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) to be a more progressive, inclusive document.
While these groups certainly have their own agendas and rivalries within the mosaic of the development industry, their presence can ground hopelessly complicated discussions. 'We're here to help poor people, remember' was a mantra used by one of our contributors from the SEND Foundation of Ghana.
If civil society can help bring a grandiose high-level forum down to earth, they deserve a place at future development summits that always talk a lot but rarely say anything.
GV Content Editor
For anyone who's ever been involved in high-level summits - as last week's get -together in Ghana cetainly was - the most interesting delegates are often the civil society groups. Often without the political and diplomatic shackles of their higher-level counterparts, they can speak more frankly and truthfully about sensitive issues.
So much so that they often organize an entirely separate event for themselves.
Last year, at the annual meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), civil society was shouting from the rooftops about the need for electoral and constitutional reform in Zimbabwe ahead of this year's elections. Problem was, there was no forum (or desire, really) for that dialogue to reach the visiting heads of state. Civil society could urge, underline and recommend in their own space, but it wouldn't have an audience with presidents Mugabe and Mbeki.
If vetted journalists for state-owned newspapers weren't allowed to question the top brass during the summit, a horde of highly-engaged actvivists wasn't going to get anywhere close.
However, as our forum blog on GV demonstrated, in Ghana last week civil society was given a seat at the table with the high-level power-brokers. By most accounts, their presence was a foil to the more conservative elements at the summit, and pushed the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) to be a more progressive, inclusive document.
While these groups certainly have their own agendas and rivalries within the mosaic of the development industry, their presence can ground hopelessly complicated discussions. 'We're here to help poor people, remember' was a mantra used by one of our contributors from the SEND Foundation of Ghana.
If civil society can help bring a grandiose high-level forum down to earth, they deserve a place at future development summits that always talk a lot but rarely say anything.
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