Austria Experts discuss the changing role of civil society in development

23 Nov 2009 |

Vienna, Austria. As one of the first activities of the renewed project ‘TRIALOG IV’, aimed at the integration of New Member States into the development agenda of the EU, a seminar was organised to prepare an international conference on the role of civil society in development in Nicaragua next year. The conference is meant to be a follow-up to the 2008 Conference in Prague, entitled Are we on the right track?

The 50 participants that represented a good cross-section of development NGOs in Europe discussed four main themes: the changin role of civil society in development, legitimacy of NGOs, possible code of conduct for development NGOs and donor-CSO relations.

Based on the discussions and proposals during the seminar, a draft program will be developed for the 2010 conference. At the same time a draft declaration will also be put together which will be widely consulted among NGOs both in Europe and in the Global South before the conference. The goal of the organisers is to adopt the declaration during the conference. [JA]