Report of Civicus world Assembly event held at Glasgow Scotland.
The process of getting visa took longer than I had imagine it came a few days before the event and the preparation for the trip was in hurry, the budget for the trip was not much so the decision was to take a flight to London and from there a train or bus to Glasgow, although the flight arrived in the morning of 23rd unfortunately we could not continue till later that evening so we missed both the opening ceremony and the whole event of that day.
24th May
We arrived at the event on the second day which was the 24th the process of locating the hostel we were booked in took another hour, when we finally did we freshened up for the event but also missed the opening plenary for he day.
The Mimi plenary was slated for 11h00-12h30. I chose to go for Accountability on Human Security and Gender Equality: Failure or Challenge. The Panellists were Olara Otunu Former UN Special Rep, Children & Armed Conflict, President LBL, Foundation for children, Deborah Kaddu- Serwadda Founder & Chair person Of Empower Children & Communities against abuse, Alevtina Durmashkina, Youth representative youth assembly Russia,
This plenary looked at whether the governments , civil societies and / or men in general at national and international levels have failed women utterly in the issue of human security, it looked at the failure to guarantee right, which is the reason behind the lack of progress on violence committed against women, one of the issues I raised was on the state of women’s right in Nigeria the unfavourable law in the case where a woman desires a divorce the compensation that comes to her, and the cultural and family value which makes it impossible for women to leave there violent husbands home. Mr Otunu also talked about the issue of universal basic education which he thinks of as a fraud since the government can not provide all the basic needs therefore the output also will be unbaked and fostering the boom of private school.
At 16h00 the BBC Panellist debate was on amongst the were Ngozi Okonjo Iwuala, Representaive from the Worldbank.
At 17h45- 19h15 was the Workshops on Making NGO Accountability practical and relevant organised by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) the speakers included Teressa Fogelberg, Senior Director, GRI, Kumi Naidoo, General Secretary Civicus, Lucia Helsloot policy officer, Cordaid, Ms Andrea M Figari programme Manager Transparency International, Maryanne Nwaokeleme Head Women Commission/Outreach Office YTI.
The welcome speech and brief introduction on transparency, sustainability reporting was made by Teresa followed by the reactions from the panellists, in this workshop we discoursed the specific reporting issues of NGO’s who they are accountable to, the Cordaid was standing as the bridge wearing the cap of reporting to donors and to the grant receivers, the Transparency International was to the public receivers while I represented the grassroots. This initiated a dynamic discussion on NGO accountability part of it on the activities of the organisations and their reporting system
25 May
This morning the plenary session 11 was on Money matters: Towards greater Transparency in funding decisions. This discussed issues of donors and recipients relations and objectives, this session seek to clarify funding objectives, identify the sources of the funders legitimacy, highlighting the need for building strong organisations that are independent of the funder and the need for challenging various funding approach
At 11h00-12h30 I attended the session on accountability of Global Institutions the panellist included Monica Blagescu as the moderator, Chars Badenoch chief Executive World vision UK, John Garrison Senior civil service Specialist, world bank, Leila Mucarsel youth representative youth assembly Argentina, this presented some of the findings of the 2006 global accountability report and shared with participants some of the work done in promoting principals of accountability at the global level. The decision making at nation state level as no longer possible for issues like climate change and poverty, and also the government are connected through trades, finance and communication. As they join together yet a lack of accountability of these organisation to the communities they affect often constrain progress on addressing these global problems. So the aim of this session was to discus the roles CSO’s can play to promote greater international government accountability.
There were the learning exchanges which I did not register for the registration was done on the first day of the event.
At 18h00-19h00 was the networking session I attended the African caucus which had only 5 people in attendance unfortunately but issues on the progress of NEPAD was discussed and the presenter was to add those present to the already existing mailing list for updates.
At 19h000-22h00 was the dinner the speaker was Goege Papandreou, Greece Foreign Minister, President of socialist international and leader of Pan-Hellenic socialist Movement the title Civil society and political parties- allies, adversaries and both it also featured a renowned pianist Keiko Matsui an icon of contemporary jazz I was particularly touched by the tune she called ocean which she explained was inspired by her trips and the realisation that the continents were all connected by the oceans and hoped her music and this tune will also connect the world
26 May
To who are National Associations Accountable in coalition building and public campaigning? this engagement workshop tackled the accountability challenges that national associations as representative of civil society face in building coalitions and lunching campaign to influence public policy the different coalition talked on there experiences it also touched various strategies taken by national associations to balance multiple accountability when adopting public policy choices and campaigning strategies and approaches, and the several challenges they face in the activities were also highlighted. The organisers were Civicus, Centro Mexican para la filantripa,Caucus of Deliverance NGO networks , Nigerian Network of NGOs, Pakistan NGO Forum and the speakers were Consuelo Castro,Sixtus Macasaet, Oluseyi Oyebisi,Meraj Khan, Diana Eltahawy
The plenary session III was on Government Accountability: from political won’t to political will. The moderator was Doug Rutzen, Irene khan, secretary general Amnesty International, Bangladish, Anwarul Chowdhury,Mamounata Cisse, Cobus de Swardt, Olara Otunu were the panellist; this dealt with the issues of government and political accountability the far reaching implications and consequences of government power holders at national, regional and international levels; these seek to show case that inaction by power holders is almost as destructive as action and how a balance can be achieved where the rights of those without voice can be guaranteed while protecting the national interest.
The Gala dinner 20h00 -23h30 featured Scottish Ceilidh music and dancing and the highlight was the Civicus Nelson Mandela Grace Machel Innovation Awards which was presented to three development projects two of the projects were from Nigeria, one from Fiji the project reflected the theme Acting together for a just world the theme for the last Civicus World Assembly, each won a $5,000 prize
27 May
Plenary IV: Our Accountability to future generations: Responding to the challenge on Environmental sustainability
Speaker Jem Bendell, Prof Auckland University, New Zealand, June Zeitlin ED, Women’s Environment & Democracy Organisation USA, Alan AtKission, Ed Earth Charter international Sweden and Video Message by Wangari mathai, Founder of Green belt Movement International, Nobel Laureate Kenya.
This looked at the issues of public goods and accountability particularly focusing on the climate crisis and environmental sustainability concerns. It gave an overview of the human influence factors globally that are contributing to climate change and environmental lack of sustainability for future generations also on the activity of the big businesses, governments and civil societies to deal with these challenges, we broke out is sessions to deliberate on our activities with regards to the environment.
In conclusion there is still a big disconnect between words and reality. Reflections were sober but that didn’t stop us dancing to the CIVICUS Calypso as well as learning the moves of Scotland ’s own traditional dancing.
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