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The Argentinian seminar and workshop of Civil
Society Partnerships Programme's (CSPP) Regional
Consultation in Latin American was held in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, in collaboration with CIPPEC
(Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting
Equity and Growth), a non-profit organization that strives
to create a more just, democratic, and efficient State in
Argentina to improve the quality of life for all Argentine
citizens. It was facilitated by Fundación
Cambio Democrático, a non-governmental and non-profit
organization whose vision is to promote changes into a more
peaceful and participative society.
The consultation in Argentina was composed of three phases:
one to one interviews with representatives of leaders from
CSOs, governmental agencies and international organisations;
a half day seminar to discuss the current and potential role
of CSOs that use research to influence policymaking; a one
and a half day workshop with the participation of CSOs to
discuss and explore how research and evidence can be better
used for influencing public policies.
The seminar was held on September 7th, in Buenos Aires,
in collaboration with CIPPEC; 29 representatives from national
and international civil society organizations including policy
research institutes, academia, governmental agencies, and
international donors participated in the seminar (see participants
list (pdf 66kb)). Three presentations
were given to the seminar participants, firstly by Alberto
Dalla Via, Vice-president of the National Electoral Chamber,
who spoke about the potential for NGOs to build capacity for
citizenship participation through the promotion of democratic
institutions and the participation at the critical debates
on public issues. Then John Young, Head of Partnerships and
Communications, and Enrique Mendizábal, Research Officer
at ODI, gave a description of ODI, outlined the objectives
and partnership principles of the Civil Society Partnership
Programme and explained the CEL framework. Finally, Mrs. Ma.
Inés Tula, Director of Political Institutions at CIPPEC,
presented a case study on the role
of this institution in the reform of an electoral system in
the province of Santa Fe, called 'Ley de Lemas'
(view powerpoint presentation 869kb).
The workshop was held after the seminar in the afternoon
and the following day and was attended by 26 participants
from diverse CSOs. The workshop objects were to: (i) Generate
a critical debate on the opportunities and challenges faced
by Argentina's CSOs to influence on public policies; (ii)
Share experiences on different activities and strategies in
this area; (iii) Strengthen CSOs impact on public policy influence
work by identifying key needs and gaps they have to overcome
to achieve their goals. The workshop began with a brief session
on ODI and CIPPEC, followed by an introduction to RAPID's
Context, Evidence and Links Framework by John Young. Enrique
Mendizábal followed by sharing a case study of Peru,
which was based on an environmental contamination conflict.
A local case study was then presented to the workshop. Cristina
Resano, from Cáritas and Maximiliano Luft, from the
Consultative Council presented the case of Consejo
Consultivo Nacional de Políticas Sociales (National
Consultative Council for Social Policies) (view
powerpoint presentation 1.3mb) - a specific mechanism
proposed by the Diálogo Argentino (process conducted
by the Argentine government, the UNDP and the Catholic Church
in the midst of the 2001 crisis to forge consensus building
discussions in order to find new solutions for shared problems).
The second day of the workshop involved two sessions of group
work. Firstly, groups of participants discussed a specific
case of influence on a public policy, identifying key success
factors, the challenges and opportunities that either helped
or hindered the implementation of the strategy and applied
the CEL framework to the case. A presentation was then given
on tools useful for policy influence, based on the Tools
for Policy Impact: A Handbook for Researchers (click for
details of publication), which was followed by the second
group work session where participants used the same case to
address two tools - Force Field Analysis and Stakeholder Analysis.
Finally, participants were invited to make suggestions about
how ODI might help them enhance their capacity to influence
public policies. Suggestions included:
- Help CSOs work together to generate evidence
- Technical assistance and advice on strategies to influence
policy
- Availabilty of ODI handbooks and papers in Spanish
- Provide access to local experiences of other countries
- Connect NGOs with other NGOs that work in the same field
in the world
- Joint contacts: generate e-learning strategies
- Help create 'influence networks'
- Generate periodic meetings among CSOs to share knowledge
and information
- Include policymakers, businessmen and mass media in incidence
issues and meetings
Further details on group work and comments, suggestions and
feedback during the discussion sessions are available in the
seminar and workshop report.
- Seminar and Workshop report:
- CSPP powerpoint presentations for seminar
(ppt 284kb) and workshop
(ppt 712kb) (Spanish only)
- Programme (with links to powerpoint
presentation slideshows)
- List of Participants
(pdf 66kb)
- Background information materials provided to participants:
For more on ODI's work in Latin America, see the Latin
America and Caribbean Group website.
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