Kiev 8th - 10th December 2014 Black Sea Region NGO Forum

I was invited to the Black Sea Region NGO Forum that took place in Kiev, Ukraine, 8-10 December 2014, as coordinator of the Spanish chapter of Women in International Security, (SWIIS) and to give voice to WIIS Belgium who could not attend the Forum.

It was the first meeting of the Forum that took place outside Romania, country that has coordinated the Forum since its creation in 2007. Romanian FOND is a platform of 36 Romanian NGOs working for international development and is an active member of the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development (CONCORD).

This year´s Forum: “Enabling Environment for CSOs: Towards a Strategy of Civil Society in the Black Sea Region”  was organized with the financial support and active participation of the European Commission, the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) and local support of the Ukrainian Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum among others.

The Forum main objective was to debate on the essential role of CSO s in the region at a time of great and common challenges, but also opportunities, in the countries invited and represented by NGOs from Romania, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Moldova, Albania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.  The conference looked into three dimensions:

1.       Universally accepted human rights and freedoms affecting CSOs

2.       Policy influencing

3.       Donor – CSO relationships

The 3 day encounter was very well organized with different panels, some as plenaries with speakers from EU External Action and the European Commission, CONCORD, CPDE and many other CSO initiatives and platforms.  All of them, aiming to create a Strategy of Civil Society in the Black Sea Region. Several workshops were also structured where we could work in smaller groups on this issue and also in thematic issues such as Democracy and Human Rights, Local Development, Child Protection, Social Economy and others.  As Coordinator of SWIIS, I missed, however, the gender perspective in the thematic workshops.   One last interesting panel dealt with Donor involvement in the region; mainly EU, EBRD and EED, but also larger NGOs from EU countries and US.

In Busan it was agreed that CSOs be Independent Development Partners, and the Forum tried to work as a follow up to the CSO work.

This type of forums helps to create networking, reinforces the legitimacy of CSOs and the multiplier effect of their work.  Some common spaces of the different countries were also mentioned, as global trends, such as, restrictions to foreign funding, difficulties for some NGOs to register and restriction to freedom of expression (Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey).

Important to develop and share best practices and lessons learned and a feedback mechanism, the analysis of the CSOs is done by the EU Delegation in each country, where EU priorities are also taken into account.  With this input roadmaps for different countries are created.  The challenges are based on the lack of institutional capacity of some of these NGOs, questions to their advocacy work, unwillingness of governments to work with NGOs (when they do, their independency is questioned), policy influencing and financial sustainability. Another main issue mentioned is the culture of democracy, not enough in some of these countries to take on a serious role.  One barrier stated related to receiving foreign funding is the poor use of English language, when projects mainly have to be presented in English; another is the conflicts in some countries.

Civil society has to be seen not just as a player, but as an asset. If we secure the enabling environment for civil society, we will have achieved our goal. I brought back home many different ideas: the work of CSOs in peace building and monitoring, CSOs as watchdogs, service providers and agencies that are closer to those most vulnerable.  Many cross border programs are in place in the region and working safely. Needs and challenges were discussed in all parallel groups, as well as the role of CSOs in confronting those challenges.  As a conclusion and future follow up, the need to enhance cooperation and democratic institutions building was identified.

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