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The first West African national seminar of ODI's Civil
Society Partnerships Programme's (CSPP) Regional Consultation
was held in Accra, Ghana, on the 15th March 2005, in collaboration
with Participatory Development
Associates (PDA), Ghana. The seminar was held in the second
afternoon of a two-day event, following the regional
workshop. The seminar provided a forum for representatives
from policy research institutes and non-governmental agencies
to discuss the opportunities and challenges for CSOs to use
evidence to inform policy, learn about the latest worldwide
research and practice in this area, share experiences about
ongoing activities and identify opportunities for collaborative
work. See the Regional Consultation
index for more information on the consultation process.
For the afternoon seminar (see agenda),
workshop participants were joined by representatives of 20
CSOs, international NGOs and donor agencies. After welcoming
remarks by Tony Dogbe of PDA and introduction of the participants,
Al-Hassan Adam of Forest Watch Ghana (FWG) presented a case
study on 'Evidence in the
"Forest for the People" Campaign' (powerpoint
presentation 567kb). This showed how FWG used evidence
that already existed in the public domain to challenge the
illegal practices of Ghana's Forestry Commission and influence
policy.
Following John Young's
presentation of the RAPID framework (powerpoint
presentation 1.6mb), the discussions included exchanges
on the neutrality or not of evidence and the need to be aware
of researcher bias. Certain concepts widely used in development
circles, such as 'stakeholder', are thought to be neutral
but are in fact are imbued with assumptions deriving from
particular political viewpoints. Participants also discussed
the various types of conflict that arise during policy advocacy
including conflicts between groups with different vested interests
in management of resources and gender issues, and between
CSOs and government.
Participants identified the need for more CSO capacity building
to help them develop more effective agendas and strategies,
and also to support the grassroots to determine their own
research priorities and to use their own customary institutions
to articulate their agendas, rather than relying on CSOs.
There is a need to find new ways of disseminating information,
including research results, to the grassroots in accessible
language and media, including audio-visual media. Much valuable
evidence is already in the public domain, including in the
websites and reports of agencies that CSOs are lobbying against.
In many cases it is possible to collect new information, especially
at community funding, without needing external funding.
Participants also discussed the need to exploit 'invited
space' - for example invitations to participate in a consultation
- and go further to create their own spaces, and be more pro-active
about setting the agenda rather than responding to government
agendas. Donors also needed to be aware that their narrow
funding criteria often limited the space available for CSOs,
and that long-term funding was needed to help CSOs build capacity
in a sustainable way.
Finally participants noted that coordinating information
on the different strengths and weaknesses of Ghanaian CSOs
could help to build a more effective CSO movement that harnessed
the diversity of CSOs and enabled them to mobilise to meet
particular challenges. Several participant organisations already
had lists of NGOs and their capacities in their particular
areas of work; these could be the start of a process of mapping
out CSO interests, strengths and weaknesses.
Click on the links below for further information:
- Full Workshop and Seminar report:
- The Programme (with
links to powerpoint presentation slide shows)
- List of participants
(pdf 86kb)
- Background information materials provided to participants:
Back to Regional Consultations index
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