Romania, Finland and Croatia recently published the Trio Programme for their upcoming EU Council Presidencies. The Trio Programme sets the joint political priorities for the presidencies and does not suggest radical changes, but puts emphasis on jobs and growth. European NGOs would like to see human rights based policies aiming at well-being within planetary boundaries.
The Cotonou Partnership Agreement is coming to an end in 2020. To ensure a fair ground leading to a “partnership of equals”, CONCORD has developed a list of recommendations, serving as a contribution from civil society to the ongoing EU-ACP negotiations to ensure mutually beneficial priorities.
After five years of activity, the Beyond 2015 project closes doors on 31 March 2015. What can we learn from this global campaign? What is the legacy that Beyond2015 will leave behind? Discover the intersecting perspectives from Seamus Jeffreson, CONCORD director and Leo Williams, Beyond2015 project Coordinator. Both will agree: we have a lot to take from this experience!
2015 was without doubt an important year, with Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement pointing the world in promising new directions, and with the adoption of the Sendai Framework and the Addis Ababa Financing for Development Agenda as additional important milestones. 2015 can also be described as a year in which landmark decisions were made in meeting rooms and conference halls.
When Neva Frecheville joined CAFOD in November 2012, the role included co-chairing the Beyond 2015 with her friend and colleague, Mwangi Waituru, and convening advocacy for the Participate initiative, a global network of 18 organisations aiming to bring high quality evidence on the reality of poverty into the post-2015 debate.
Remember that Goal 8 of the MDG’s agenda was to “develop a Global Partnership for Development.” It is one of the ‘non-achieved’ goal. Although the ‘targets’ to achieve were very diverse in nature (debt, ODA, LDC, the private sector, etc.), it is surprising that civil societies involved in the MDGs agenda would not proposed for themselves an ambitious ‘target’ about our own partnerships?
Anyone who has hung around with Dominic Haslam for long enough in the last four years knows well just how central a role Beyond2015 played in his professional life in that period. He was delighted to be asked to write a blog about the experience, in response to the comprehensive evaluation.
A fiscal agent for all partners and taxpayers? Yes, initially successfully located in the North and subsequently located in the global South with a responsibility to serve the work of the Beyond 2015 Campaign on all continents. While the flow of development aid and finance is usually from the North (developed countries) to the South (developing countries), the Beyond 2015 Campaign chose, on merit and after a competitive process, a unique organisation as its fiscal agent: the Africa Disability Alliance (ADA) based in Pretoria, South Africa.
Reviewing the advocacy work of a campaign such as Beyond 2015 is not an easy task. As expressed in the campaign’s external evaluation: “The legacy of any advocacy campaign goes well beyond words. Having said so, UN officials and representatives of Member States seem to have genuinely welcomed and thoroughly considered the inputs of the campaign”.
How to build a global campaign? Good question! This evaluation will give you incredible insight about critical lessons we learned from the Beyond 2015 experience. In essence, it outlines how to build a global campaign. When Beyond 2015 was in its beginnings there was no manual for how to set up an international civil society campaign.