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Tag: Sustainable Development Goals

Grants roundup: helping civic voices to be heard

Posted on by Commonwealth Foundation

Five grants projects were approved by the Grants Committee on 13 June 2018.

In line with the Foundation’s strategic goals, these projects will help ensure that policy, law and government institutions are more effective contributors to development through the influence of civic voices.

This year’s cohort features two projects focussed on disability rights.

The first is to be implemented by the Access Bangladesh Foundation (ABF), a leading Disabled People’s Organisation (DPO) that has a strong track record of working to empower persons with disabilities through community based approaches. Bangladesh signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2007 and passed the national Disabilities Act in 2013. This project aims to crystallise the government’s commitments by building on the advocacy capacities of people with disabilities.

This will be done by organising self-help groups in 20 union parishads (local constituencies) that are spread across three districts in Bangladesh. It is expected that by the end of the project, the self-help groups will be better integrated into planning processes and that government officials will have mainstreamed disability concerns into their programmes.

‘Carers often face a number of issues including deterioration in their own health, financial strain, isolation, and social stigma.’

In a project by ChildLink Inc, efforts are being made to support children with Disabilities in Jamaica and Guyana. In 2007, Jamaica became the first country to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which was followed by the adoption of the (national) Disability Act in 2014. ChildLink Inc. will focus on developing the skills of parents to engage the education system and hold it accountable to the act’s provisions.

In Guyana, ChildLink Inc will work with parents, teachers, children with autism and child-focussed Civil Society Organisations to support special education needs in Guyana. Guyana became a signatory to the UNCRPD in 2007. This was followed by the Persons with Disabilities Act in 2010 which involved a commitment to the special education needs policy (SEN). It is expected that by the end of the project SEN could be mainstreamed into government schools.

Two projects from this year’s cohort will be implemented in India.

The government of India has accorded high priority to building sustainable, smart cities that are resilient and able to meet the challenges posed by rapid urbanisation. A project implemented by Gujarat Mahila Housing Sew Trust (GMHST) will support government efforts by amplifying the voice of women in planning processes to bring about community participation in city-level development. The projects will take place in Ahmedabad and Surat: two of the cities covered by the Smart City Mission.

‘Occasionally the Commonwealth Foundation sees the value in building on the success of former projects.’

Occasionally the Commonwealth Foundation sees the value in building on the success of former projects. There are 26.8 million disabled people in India, many of whom need to be cared for by an unpaid family member. Carers often face a number of issues including deterioration in their own health, financial strain, isolation, and social stigma. From October 2014 to September 2017 Carer’s Worldwide UK sought to tackle this problem using funding from the Commonwealth Foundation.

They used the funds to: raise awareness of local authorities in Jharkand, Andra Pradesh and Karnataka to the needs and rights of carers; enable their inclusion into local authority welfare schemes; provide carers with greater access to medical care; and improve their ability to take up new or additional livelihood activities leading to increased income levels. In a new project starting in 2018, Carer’s Worldwide will build on results achieved at local government level, strengthen civic voice in advocating for the rights of family carers and support the passage of favourable policy and legislation.

Following an uptick in applications from the Pacific, amongst this year’s grants partners is The Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIANGO), a regional coordinating body and network of umbrella NGO bodies in 24 Pacific Island countries and territories.

It is well understood that climate change represents the most serious challenge to the future of the Pacific Island countries. Low-lying atolls such as Kiribati are among the countries most vulnerable to its adverse impacts. PIANGO is proposing to work with one of its members, the Kiribati Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (KANGO), in order to collaborate and dialogue with the i-Kiribati government and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) to help shape policies that reflect the needs, priorities, and voices of local i-Kiribati communities on migration and climate change.

For information on our next grants call and all other updates on our grants programme please sign up here. Profiles for each newly endorsed project will be available on the Commonwealth Foundation grants pages soon.

Commonwealth Foundation: keeping an eye on results

Posted on by Myn Garcia

The Commonwealth Foundation completed the first year of its Strategy 2017-21. The results of this first year were presented to the Foundation’s Board in June 2018. It was received well with an affirmation of the demand for the Foundation’s work in amplifying civic voice in governance across the Commonwealth.

The delivery of the Commonwealth People’s Forum 2018 in London in advance of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was widely praised. And the increased prominence of the integration of gender and its intersectionality with disadvantage was particularly welcomed.

Continuous improvement is a consistent feature of the work of the Foundation. Every year, planning is undertaken and this time in May, we covered the programmatic priorities, their design and implementation for the next three years from 2018 to 2021.

So what will the next three years look like for us?

The Foundation will remain focused on the pathways for advocating and supporting SDG 16: peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development. This is the specific interest of the Foundation. Success in achieving SDG 16 could not be more relevant than now and arguably would ‘unlock’ the rest of the goals, particularly in the midst of an increasingly contested space for people’s participation in governance.

As part of continuous improvement, we will keep an eye on results; cultivating deeper what has been established and building on outcomes to date into the next three years. Processes and partnerships that are bearing fruit will be nurtured; and new ones that make sense will be established.

We are committed to enhance the integration of gender and its intersectionality in all the programmes and organisational aspects of the Foundation’s work.

We have also benefited in cultivating flexibility to adapt by taking learning more vigorously, which means connecting the dots and promoting an integrated approach to our work.

With results on people’s participation in governance at hand, the Foundation is increasingly intentional in raising the visibility, not only of the brand, but more importantly of the range of outcomes being advanced. This is seeing progress in areas such as:

  • Women’s inclusion in political and democratic processes including peacebuilding
  • Environmental governance as it relates to climate change
  • Legislative reform
  • Coalition building for policy advocacy
  • Inclusion of persons with disabilities
  • Citizen-led social accountability
  • Enhanced and inclusive service delivery
  • Localisation of global multilateral conventions such as CEDAW
  • SDG 2030
  • Universal Periodic Review and creative expression as entry points to raising awareness of policy issues among many others.

Commonwealth Writers, the cultural initiative of the Foundation, will continue to support the transformative power of creative expression and will provide platforms for less heard voices and narratives across the Commonwealth, in countries with little or no publishing infrastructure, from places that are marked by geographical, geopolitical or economic isolation and where freedom of expression is challenged. The 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner will be announced in Cyprus in July 2018. The Prize brings unpublished writers and stories to the attention of an international audience.

As we look to the next three years, we will persist to ask the question: where can we add value given the relatively modest contributions the Foundation can make in the wide spectrum of participatory governance?

Myn Garcia is Deputy Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation. 

Download the Commonwealth Foundation Annual Report 2017-2018

Ben Okri’s electrifying keynote on ending exclusion

Posted on by Gillian Cooper

Inclusion is at the heart of Sustainable Development Goal 16, but exclusion has become accepted across the Commonwealth.

How can institutions and civic voices ensure that inclusion, rather than exclusion, becomes the norm?

Ben Okri, one of Africa’s foremost authors and poets, opened the Commonwealth People’s Forum 2018 with an address on how civil society can breathe new life and purpose into the Commonwealth by ending exclusion. View his electrifying keynote below.

Message for Commonwealth Day 2018

Posted on by Vijay Krishnarayan

This year the Commonwealth’s theme is ‘Towards a Common Future.’

It’s an aspiration which many would subscribe to; what distinguishes the Commonwealth’s commitment is a focus on making that future fairer for all.

For the Commonwealth fairness is a powerful concept. We invoke it, for example, in relation to the conduct of elections and the pursuit of a global rules-based trading system. But fairness also evokes other words that are keystones for the Commonwealth, like equity and justice. Through these lenses fairness also means sustainable development and universal human rights.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) saw the global community agree that we should ‘leave no one behind’. This means that each of us has a responsibility to each of us and that we all need a say in determining what’s fair. At the Commonwealth Foundation our strapline is ‘More voices for a fairer world’ because we recognise that inclusive, fair, and accountable development is best achieved through civic dialogue and participation.

‘The architecture of the SDGs acknowledges that fairness doesn’t just happen—it requires foundations.’

There is no universal template for achieving fairness within the Commonwealth’s broad vision for plural democracies where all can expect equal treatment. Any definition of fairness should respond to an articulation of people’s needs regardless of their status. The road to fairness is culturally situated and negotiated.

Civil society is an essential part of this mix. It is these voices that can bring the interests and concerns—particularly from those that aren’t usually heard—into the public arena, where institutions and policies can respond.  The architecture of the SDGs acknowledges that fairness doesn’t just happen—it requires foundations. SDG 16 calls for peace, justice, and strong institutions. These are the essential building blocks for sustainable development. Policies can signal the intent of institutions to encourage this kind of environment; at their best these policies are driven by or engage with civil society.

The Southern African Alliance for Youth Employment is bringing together organisations from seven countries, including trade unions, churches, and wider civil society to develop their ideas for policies that get young people working. The Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women is monitoring the commitments of East African governments on gender equality and has been advocating for a regional Gender and Development Bill.

‘An environment that encourages creative expression also has a part to play in enabling citizen voice and establishes a climate for fairness.’

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative from India and the Katiba Institute from Kenya are learning from each other to establish and strengthen Right to Information legislation. Transparency International Sri Lanka is doing the same, while the Network for Non-Governmental Organisations is informing the regulatory for civil society in Nigeria.

The Commonwealth Foundation supports these initiatives but also recognises that not all voices get heard through established and institutionalised ways and means. An environment that encourages creative expression also has a part to play in enabling citizen voice and establishes a climate for fairness. Anthologies of writing on small states or the experience of indentured labour encourages each of us to see through the eyes of others. Short films from new directors from Pacific Islands reveal issues of concern to new audiences.

These examples illustrate the ways in which civic voices help to determine what fairness looks like. They deepen our understanding of what fairness needs to deliver and shape the policies that will make it happen. Most importantly they help us to be true to the commitment to leave no one behind by amplifying those that are less heard. Without less-heard voices, ‘fairness’ only works for those powerful enough to define it, leaving others with a sense of grievance and injustice. ‘Governance that is inclusive and delivers development that is inclusive’: that’s what we mean by ‘A Common Future’ and it signposts Commonwealth renewal.

Vijay Krishnarayan is Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation. 

Just, peaceful and inclusive societies: CPF 2018 programme takes shape

Posted on by Shobha Das

No matter how many international events I help organise, I always face the same challenge. How do I best capture and present the priorities, aspirations and dreams of the many thousands, hundreds of thousands, or in the case of the Commonwealth, the 2.4 billion people the event is about?

In designing and delivering the biennial Commonwealth People’s Forum (CPF), the Commonwealth Foundation takes an effective approach to this challenge. Using a series of well-conceptualised internal and external processes, it formulates and validates the themes, focus areas, and aims of the event in active consultation with civic voices from around the Commonwealth.

The core conceptual framework for CPF 2018 has emerged from the Foundation’s extensive experience with and understanding of civil society priorities across the Commonwealth. CPF 2018 will focus on Sustainable Development Goal 16, and examine how inclusive governance can engender just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

This framework is being sharpened in consultation with a 7-member external Content Design Committee (CDC), which is made up of civil society actors from Bangladesh, Ghana, Jamaica, Malaysia, Malta, Samoa, and the United Kingdom.

‘Content Design Committee Members members have been at the forefront of civil society in their countries’

CDC members have been at the forefront of civil society in their countries and regions for a long time, and have an impressive breadth thematic expertise between them. The range of interests and focus of the CDC includes: human rights, access to justice, gender equality, community organising, environmental justice and advocacy, education, digital activism, LGBTI+ policy and creative expression. They bring diverse lenses with which to interrogate the purpose, content and methods of CPF 2018. Their clear vision and robust questioning helps ensure that the programme for the 3-day event is coherent in its content and flow, relevant to current civic debates, and most importantly, useful to delegates in the important work they do.

During the design process, the CDC asked challenging questions about the CPF 2018 programme. What are the difficult questions the Forum needs to ask? What are the important sessions to have, what innovative methods can we use to discuss complex themes, and who might be suitable speakers and panellists? How can we maximise delegate participation? How can we make sure the outcome document will have positive social benefits?

The process so far points to an exciting and inspiring CPF 2018. I feel certain it will be grounded in people’s everyday realities, it will challenge the status quo where necessary, and it will dare to dream about creating a genuinely inclusive, just, and accountable Commonwealth for all.

SDGs: it’s NOT just about data

Posted on by Myn Garcia

It has been buzzing in development circles. But it seems stronger now in certain places. It’s the buzz on the data revolution.

And there is also a lot of talk about the need for people in the margins to participate in the monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But what does the data revolution mean? And what would it take for citizens to be interested in monitoring the SDGs?

The Participate Initiative’s Policy Brief, Using knowledge from the margins to meet the SDGs: the real data revolution says that ‘the ultimate success or failure of the SDGs depends, in large part, on inclusion.’ Indeed, inclusion is key. But what does inclusion look like? What does it take for the SDG process to be genuinely inclusive in a governance context? SDG 16 is regarded as the goal that would ‘unlock’ the SDG framework and fulfil the ‘ambition to leave no one behind.’ But how?

‘Arguably, localisation is about taking the SDG agenda back to its roots, where the difference matters and where it actually matters most.’

Domestication and localisation of the SDGs is an effort that is currently underway in many countries. Dissecting how it works allows us to understand facets of inclusion. To say localisation gives one the impression that the process now should be driven from the top to the ground after a set of global goals have been agreed. Lest we forget, the goals were arrived at after civil society, community-based organisations and NGOs were consulted (perhaps over consulted) in developing the architecture for the Post 2015 Development Agenda. Arguably, localisation is about taking the SDG agenda back to its roots, where the difference matters and where it actually matters most.

One of the tasks at hand for the sustainable agenda “unanimously adopted by 193 UN members” is to ensure the domestication of the agenda into national development plans and / or poverty reduction strategies of countries and that these are informed and influenced by local development plans developed through processes that are participatory, formal and informal.

‘Inclusion in governance undeniably requires political will and is complex, embedded in a system.’

A decentralised structure of governance allows for people’s participation at the local level with citizens engaging with local authorities and councils. Conversations with civil society, local authorities and local councils in some Commonwealth countries raised the challenges to decentralisation. But they also pointed to some of the enabling processes:

  1. Formal, institutional spaces designed for citizen to engage and have the authority to input in or influence decision-making processes such as local planning and budgeting. This may come in the form of membership in local councils and service delivery committees, among others
  2. Informal engagements such as citizen led mobilisation, advocacy campaigns and community-based dialogues on issues that policy makers would be able to consider for the agenda of both the executive and legislative council, for example
  3. Raising awareness of citizens’ rights in areas that matter to them such as delivery of services; enabling citizens to engage more constructively and confidently
  4. Citizen-generated and evidence based data which includes citizen scorecard and gender barometer and individual or collective stories and testimonials which would facilitate dialogues and other inclusive processes between government and citizens
  5. Citizens access to information and protection of fundamental freedoms
  6. Collective action and social movements that connect people in the margins to people in power- in government, civil society and wider society including the media, donours and the private sector

Inclusion in governance undeniably requires political will and is complex, embedded in a system. Inclusion engenders accountability which should be understood within a system characterised by the nature of power and economic, cultural and social contexts. It requires an integrated approach at different levels in a web of interconnections. It certainly can’t work through ‘one-off processes of consultation or narrow citizen-monitoring mechanisms‘. It is definitely not just about data.

Myn Garcia is the Deputy Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation. Image credit: Flickr CC Judson Weinsheimer

Healthy discussion: but will Ministers listen?

Posted on by Vijay Krishnarayan

Anton Kerr, former Director of HIV/AIDS alliance and chairman of Commonwealth Health Professions Alliance, makes the case for increased spending on health. Photo credit: Leo Kiss

But will Ministers listen? That was the thought that nagged away throughout the short flight from London to Geneva as I travelled to attend this year’s Commonwealth Heath Minister’s meeting. They meet in the wings of the World Health Assembly and we work to bring civic voices to that Commonwealth ministerial gathering. Naturally civil society organisations across the Commonwealth have an interest in trying to influence the outcomes of the ministerial meeting. To do this we convened a policy dialogue at the Commonwealth Civil Society Forum that addressed the themes that would come up in the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting, which met under the banner “Sustainable Financing of Universal Health Coverage as an Essential Component for Global Security Including the Reduction of All Forms of Violence. But would they listen?

I came away from Geneva understanding that I had been asking the wrong question. It’s not a question of getting ministers to listen – rather the challenge is getting ministers, officials and civil society to talk with each other in order to find workable solutions to the health challenges we face. The approach we took this year was two-fold.

Firstly, we broadened the debate so that a wider cross section of civil society was able to participate in the discussion. Not only did this bring a Commonwealth agenda to a new audience – it also provided an opportunity for voices less heard to be given a platform. We convened a working group comprising the Commonwealth Health Professionals Alliance, Third World Network and the International Community of Women Living with HIV in Eastern Africa so that civil society organisations were designing and steering the process. They also delivered the three policy papers that formed the basis of the discussions at the civil society forum. Those papers included policy asks of Commonwealth Ministers. Those policy asks drew on the inputs of more than 100 other civic voices from across the Commonwealth through a survey. The process also drew in new stakeholders.

Secondly we deepened the discussion so that Ministers were provided with perspectives from civil society that they might not have considered or previously been exposed to. The three papers explored each of the strands on the Ministerial agenda: adding a gender equality dimension; exploring the utility of the concept of well-being; and provoking a discussion on the financing of universal healthcare.

The papers stimulated discussion in different ways. The paper by Saamah Abdallah on the Politics of Wellbeing challenged conventional metrics of development. It posited wellbeing as a sustainable condition that enables the individual to develop and thrive. Its holistic approach encourages ministries and agencies to collaborate. In data collected to date it seems there is a correlation between high levels of wellbeing in a population and “good” governance. The paper on structural violence and its impact on women’s health was powerfully delivered by Lillian Mworeko. She cited instances of forced sterilisation of women living with HIV. She made the point that when institutions visit this violence on women they foster discrimination and stigma and this despite progressive laws and policies. Tony Nelson presented on financing Universal Health Care. The provocative thesis suggested that spending more on health care doesn’t always result in better health outcomes and that greater accountability is needed on way that resources are allocated and spent.

But would Ministers listen? The chances of giving the issues raised by civic voices a proper airing is constrained by the format of the Ministerial Meeting so we invited policy makers to sit with civil society at the Forum and respond to the policy changes being suggested. The Minister of Health for Barbados, Hon. John Boyce provided new insights on the potential of alliances between civil society and Ministries of Health. He described moves to address sugar in soft drinks in Barbados, where collaboration had worked well. Dr Jabbin Mulwanda, the Permanent Secretary for Health Services in Zambia affirmed how helpful civic inputs were for civil servants charged with finding solutions to public health challenges. Their willingness to engage at the Forum helped to achieve our objective of dialogue. Without them the Forum would have been one more civic gathering and there are plenty of spaces where civil society can talk to itself. I know colleagues from governments valued the exposure and I dare say we enhanced their Commonwealth Health Ministerial Meeting experience.

We provided a Commonwealth space that encouraged the co-creation of new policy thinking in a collegial and informal setting. We went some way to making room for less heard voices and south-south exchange. The process worked well and everyone got a boost from the attendance and participation of the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Hon. Patricia Scotland QC. It was the first time that an SG had actively listened to what civil society had to say about the Health Ministers’ agenda and her assurance that the policy asks made would be given proper consideration was widely appreciated.

But did Ministers listen? The crude indicator in these matters is the final statement that Ministers issue at the end of their meeting. These statements are brief and summarise the main points. In the Commonwealth system they generally serve to signal intent rather than bind governments to specific commitments. Last year the Ministers’ statement included the line: “we note the civil society participation and contribution to discussions on sustainable financing and encourage their ongoing participation in health policy.” This was a disappointing result and perhaps responsible for that nagging refrain that wouldn’t go away – “Will Ministers listen?”

I looked at this year’s statement with hope restored. In paragraph 12: “Ministers noted the report from the Civil Society Forum Policy Dialogue which highlighted the need for a universal health system that provides basic minimum package of services to all as a key priority; emphasised well-being as core to health policy and being more than just absence of disease; and, raised the issue of structural inequalities and violence and their impact on the utilisation of healthcare.” This year it seems, at least the substance provided by civil society at its Forum had been registered.

Yes, Ministers of Health did listen to what civil society organisations had to say but now I was left with a new concern. If the priorities in the Ministers’ statement are going to be implemented – the position of Health Ministers in national administrations needs to be strengthened. My new question was “Does anyone listen to what Ministers of Health have to say?” Surely dialogue and alliances between health ministries and civil society for a common cause can only improve the chances.

What next for peacebuilding in Africa?

Posted on by Commonwealth Foundation

At Wilton Park’s third meeting on ‘Peacebuilding in Africa’ series, participants were asked about the biggest opportunities or hindrances to sustainable civil society engagement in the African peacebuilding process.

Myn Garcia, The Commonwealth Foundation’s Deputy Director, spoke about the importance of localised civil society action to peaceful development and the need to acknowledge the multitude of national and local perspectives in the African context.

Previous events in Wilton Park’s ‘African perspectives on peacebuilding’ series have assessed the development of African approaches to peacebuilding in response to the changing dynamics of conflict and emergence of new conflict actors on the continent.

For more details explore Wilton Park’s website.

Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting: Civil Society Forum 2017

Posted on by Commonwealth Foundation

With support from the Commonwealth Foundation, the Civil Society Forum was jointly hosted by the Commonwealth Health Professionals Alliance, International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) and Third World Network, and took place on 20 May 2017 prior to the World Health Assembly and in conjunction with the Commonwealth Health Ministers’ Meeting (CHMM).

Objectives: to present the Commonwealth civil society position on issues discussed at the Commonwealth Health Ministerial Meeting 2017, and produce a policy statement that will be heard by Ministers attending the  CHMM 2017.

Methodology: The forum followed the format of a policy dialogue bringing together civil society representatives and policy makers.  It included a presentation of policy briefs that are the result of a consultation process in which civil society voices throughout the Commonwealth were reflected.

The policy briefs presented to ministers can be downloaded below:

Bringing the sustainable development goals home

Posted on by Commonwealth Foundation

The Commonwealth Foundation (CF) spoke to Namhla Mniki-Mangaliso about her role in domesticating and implementing the sustainable development agenda in African countries. Namhla is the Director of Africa Monitor, which currently acts as the Africa Working Group (AWG) secretariat, a broad regional coalition of African civil society organisations. The Commonwealth Foundation has funded and supported AWG since 2014.

CF: Namlah, welcome to the Foundation. Could you start by introducing Africa Working Group (AWG) and the Africa Monitor’s role as secretariat?

Namlah: Thank you so much for having me. Africa working group is a coalition, or let me say it’s a platform, of well over 150 civil society organisations operating in Africa, working on various aspects of sustainable development. We’ve been in existence for the last 4-5 years and working to make sure we can inform and shape the evolution of the sustainable development agenda in Africa. We started during the negotiation process and now we are very well positioned as civil society […] to influence the accelerated implementation and domestication of the sustainable development goals [SDGs]. African Monitor is one of the founding members of the working group and is also the secretariat. Our work at the organisation is to enhance sub-Saharan African citizen agency […] to build the capacity of ordinary citizens to engage well with their governments. And so there is a complete alignment with what we do and the intentions of the African Working Group in making sure that African Civil Society is engaged and influences the policy direction that Africa takes as it correlates to the sustainable agenda.

CF: What are the benefits and constraints of the work of the AWG as a loose association of organisations?

Namlah: It is a loose network. We did not want to institutionalise it and turn it into a [formal] organisation: it is a coming together of a multitude of organisations. […] We wanted the likeminded to come together, as long as they care about sustainable development and as long as they cared about improving the real lives of people on the ground in Africa. I think the benefits have been the automatic commitment that organisations have to the cause because it is the coming together of the likeminded. The way that things happen in the African context is that there is a lot of influence in the collective […] you can achieve a lot more if you operate as a collective than if you operate as individual organisations. […] The challenge I think has been to work through how then do you put in place systems for accountability, governance and transparency. How then do you make decisions? Particularly the strategic [decisions] around what you focus on. And I think we had to be very careful in […] how you govern and coordinate, how you spread the responsibility of doing the […] work throughout the members. But I dare say that we’ve done much of that now. The AWG has a secretariat, there are core group of organisations that are Founding advisory members, there are working groups within the AWG, and there are co-chairs within those working groups. And so there are continuous processes of engagement, we do [web conference] calls and those kinds of things, so that we are continuously talking […].

CF: The Commonwealth Foundation supported AWG engagement with colleagues at the UN in New York while the SDGs were being negotiated – could you describe that and tell us about the impact of that work?

Namlah: Let me contextualise New York a little bit. When we did the New York mission […] at the time the negotiation around the SDGS were starting and […] accelerating. The United Nations (UN) system is set up in such a way, that the African Group [AG], in other words the African ambassadors [had] no systematic engagement with […] African civil society, in fact there was barely any presence of independent African civil society within the UN system. And so the Commonwealth Foundation came at the perfect niche, the perfect time in terms of the support and the boost we needed to get going with what turned out to be a fairly important relationship that we established with the African Group. And that was about three years ago already now and I think since then, not only were we able to continuously engage with the African Group in New York to the extent that they now know who the AWG is, which means that we continued to have the political space to shape […] the sustainable development goals. What that means for us is that the perspective of African people, our constituents, found voice and space. We wanted to make sure that the agenda on the SDGs is about people, is about the poor, is about the excluded and the vulnerable. The terminology of ‘leave no one behind’ was at the core of some of the things that we were negotiating for. We wanted to make sure that there is a very strong focus on young people, because Africa is a young continent. And we wanted to make sure that there were real conversations around structural issues, that make economies function well, […] inclusive economies, economic justice and so on. And then we wanted to make sure that governance was a central part of the agenda and so some of the big, big achievements I think [reflect] what we had been fighting very hard for. So New York was the beginning of something that continued up to December 2015 where we continued to engage. What that meant was is that we had impetus, as the civil society network, to continuously position ourselves and get ourselves organised [and] to go back as civil society leaders and say there is a real need for our continued engagement in this space, and so how do we shape that engagement with the African Union [AU], how do we shape that engagement at the national level with our presidents and our ministers and so on and I would say that moment was a really important accelerant to the work we’ve been able to do since then, […]. I think once the negotiations were completed and September 2015 happened a number of other amazing things and big milestones were achieved, I can sit here and say in most of the countries that we work there are SDG civil society platforms that exist, that have in large part been initiated by African Working Group members. So whether you are thinking about Tanzania, Cameroon, Ghana or South Africa, the SDG platforms that exist in those spaces are in fact initiated and co-coordinated by AWG members. Beyond that civil society networks at the national level are actively engaging with their own governments to ensure that the SDGS are domesticated, that accountability and review mechanisms [are in place] to ensure that the SDGs are going to be implemented. Another angle that I think AWG are working very hard on is around the issue of data. In other words, what’s the role of citizens in producing the kind of data and knowledge that can actually inform and influence review processes? So citizen driven data is a strong element of what we’re working towards both to improve national accountability systems and therefore improve national governance mechanisms, but also to improve global and regional accountability.

CF: Why were Cameron and Tanzania selected to localise the SDG agenda and what have the successes and challenges been?

Namlah: So both Tanzania and Cameroon exist within the context [of] AWG […] working across all the major countries to ensure that the SDGS were domesticated. The civil society organisations both inside Tanazania and Cameroon are a part of the Africa Working Group, so we already had very fertile ground in relation to the engagement of civil society in those spaces. When we started last year we said that we wanted a pilot programme, something that essentially would give us a model on how civil society can engage in the domestication agenda. Now you must remember that the background to this is that we had spent three years in policy advocacy trying to shape the agenda, and then we were realising that it was time to implement and to make sure that it comes back to the national level. That meant a couple of things. It meant that there needs to be policy integration, that we need to take the 17 SDGs and make sure that they are integrated with the national development plans. There [also] needs to be the institutionalisation of multi-stakeholder systems that would make sure we can jointly plan and jointly make decisions and review the SDGs. And then implementation approaches so the SDGS can be implemented […]. Tanzania being in East Africa and Cameroon being in West Africa … also gave us a really nice spread in terms of the geography of the continent. We also wanted to make sure that we could learn from the results of what was happening in both of those countries and it’s been exciting because I think there are a couple of milestones that we can look at that have happened. The first of those, was can we make sure that civil society gets its act together and positions itself well to engage as a value creating partner in the SDG agenda? What does that mean? That essentially means the establishment of the civil society SDG platforms… this idea of saying that all of civil society […] engaged in the SDGS must come together and think creatively about how to effectively engage.

Interestingly in most of the countries, civil society has come to the same conclusion about their role in monitoring and review in the data processes, […] in joint planning, joint decision making processes… and that’s the first milestone that I think we were able to achieve in each of the countries. In Cameroon they developed what I think they called the civil society chatter that essentially was a framework of how civil society would engage with other stakeholders, particularly government in the SDG process both from the policy integration perspective and the joint planning perspective as well as the monitoring and review perspective. Interestingly in Cameroon, the government hadn’t begun to think about how it was going to engage with other stakeholders, and so the process that civil society started, with the support of the Commonwealth Foundation, eventually ended up being endorsed by the planning ministry as a way forward in terms of making sure that there was going to be multi-stakeholder engagement.
In Tanzania, a similar process unfolded where civil society set-up what they called the civil society SDG platform and developed a monitoring and evaluation framework that then was the basis for negotiations with government. Because the Tanzania government decided that the institute for sustainable development would be the lead agency for the domestication of the SDGS, they’ve got political commitment to establish a multi-stakeholder forum, where government, business and Civil Society Organisations come together to work on the SDGs. The AWG members that are presented as a part of the CSO collation.

So [these are] huge millstones that would not have happened if civil society wasn’t organised and hadn’t positioned themselves well. The big task is that it’s not enough to have the institutional systems in place, the SDGS are about implementation. What do you prioritise? How do you budget in such a way that those that are in the frontline are now in the position of benefiting from implementation and services? That’s what we are engaged in now […] now the institutions are in place, how do we prioritise, plan properly and implement so that we leave no one behind. The next 13 years is going to tell us how successful we are.

CF: What aspects of partnership with the Foundation have been valuable to the AWG and the localising process? What distinguishes the Foundation as a partner?

Namlah: I think probably the most important characteristic is something that we’ve found very difficult to get funders to understand, because funders work in very traditional ways […] they look for an organisation and they look for established track records and there is usually very little understanding of how change works in the African context: that you need to operate by coalition […] and the model of the African working group is very unique in that sense, because we are not an institution, we are the coming together of different organisations and networks that want to make an impact in Africa. I think what, for me, distinguishes the Foundation has been the ability to understand those organic processes and the willingness to listen to what would work and why we are organising this way […]. I think this fits in very well around the new strategy of the Foundation, which is around civic voices because it’s about understanding the very many ways citizens can organise themselves, in order to improve governance and in order to improve democracy, not for its sake but to make real impact in the lives of people. Being able to work together in that space and being able to co-lend and co-create together has been wonderful, and we talk about development effectiveness and the idea that the solutions for problems must come [from those] at the helm of those problems and I think that the Foundation has an amazing ability to come in, listen in, and say what are the big problems, what aligns with our strategy, what can we add value to, while leaving the decision making powers to those that are involved and I think that has been our experience. I mean we are talking about a modest sum of resources, but I think it has given us the impetus that we needed at critical moments […] to make important impact. I do hope that becomes the example [for] more funders […]. […] It is important to safe guard civil society and civic space in Africa, we can’t talk about democracy in Africa without talking about how you protect civic space […]. [Funders] understanding why that’s important, I think would make a huge difference.

CF: What does the future hold for the AWG in the context of civil society supporting SDG? Could you identify gaps and potential gains?

Namlah: The bottom line is that we want the lives of African people changed in radical ways, and […] while we are still in the continent with the most young people in the world, the most resources under the ground, we still are faced with absolute poverty, huge unemployment issues and huge problems with governance. The SDG framework provides an opportunity within which that can change, but that’s not going to change by having the right policies in place, it’s going to change by implementation. And it’s our job, because we are civil society and we are independent from governments, [that] we work as a value creating stakeholder within the sustainable development agenda. It is our job to hold our governments accountable, to make sure that the resources that belong to the peoples of Africa are actually used to benefit Africa. […] so we’re not just going to challenge the status quo at the national level, we’re going to challenge it at the regional level [and] you can be sure we are going to challenge it at the global level because we know that it is the global dynamic that creates the mess in Africa, in terms of global resources [being] used and stolen and hidden […] and I think that the responsibility of the network is to be useful, directly in the lives of people, but also […] in giving voice to Africa’s aspirations globally and regionally.

CF: Namlah, thanks for giving us this insightful interview.

Namlah: Thank you.

ENDS