Center for Organized Participation
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Resources of the Center for Organized Participation Available on the Internet
PURPOSE
The purpose of the Center for Organized Participation is to strengthen the participation and actions of civil society in Central America by working together with civil society organizations to consolidate their proactive role in the development of the region.
OBJECTIVES
The following goals guide the work of the Center for Organized Participation:
To promote coordinative structures among Central American civil society organizations through communication and dissemination of information.
To promote, through joint action and consultation of all sectors of society, a legal framework which will facilitate the creation of an enabling environment for the participation of civil society organizations in development.
To build the capacities of civil society organizations so that they may contribute to human development in a sustainable manner.
To consolidate democracy in Central America by improving NGOs capacity to affect policy making.
PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS
The Center for Organized Participation has developed a work plan to carry out its Central American efforts through the following programs: Communication and Coordination, Law and Civil Society, the New Mechanisms for Resource Mobilization and the Formation of a Democratic Culture.COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION
Communication and coordination are key elements in strengthening civil society organizations in Central America. The Center for Organized Participation feels that by using current information and communication technology, it can play a decisive role in creating partnerships among NGOs, helping to facilitate the exchange of information and bridge regional distances.
Ceiba Data Base of Central American Non-Governmental Organizations
The Center for Organized Participation initiated the Ceiba data base in 1993, with the centralization of information contained in two NGO directories published by the Arias Foundation. The data base has grown from this original group of 580 not-for-profit organizations, and currently offers information on more than 1,000 NGOs. Its contents cover a spectrum of organizations working towards the sustainable development of the region, spanning the social, environmental and economic arenas in all six Central American countries. Recently, we have begun to include NGOs from Belize.Ceiba On-Line
As the data base has become more streamlined, and information technology more readily accessible to Central American grassroots organizations, the Center for Organized Participation felt that it was in the best interest of its target audience to place Ceiba "on-line". Thanks to the technical assistance of Fundación Acceso and the Earth Council, the Center has been able to pioneer a new venue for Central American civil society: placing the first directory of Central American NGOs on the Internet.The data base is currently accessible in a text mode, in the Institute for Global Communication's (IGC) Gopher, and in a graphic mode on the World Wide Web.
The Ceiba newsletter serves as a printed record of the Center's activities. Designed and produced by the Center's staff, its goals are to inform the NGO community about the Center for Organized Participation's current projects and to create a forum for the discussion of themes that concern civil society organizations in Central America. Since 1993, the Center for Organized Participation has made an effort to distribute Ceiba on a trimestral calendar, and has developed a circulation of over 500 readers, from the Central American and international development communities.LAW AND CIVIL SOCIETY
The Center for Organized Participation began its Law and Civil Society Program with the formulation of diagnostic studies of each Central American country (1993). The purpose of these studies is to generate information on the juridical situation of each country's non-governmental sector.
The general objective of the Law and Civil Society Program is to promote, through joint action and consultation among all sectors of society, a legal framework which will facilitate the creation of an enabling environment that strengthens the participation and actions of civil society.
The specific objectives of this program are:
In the last three years the Center for Organized Participation has made significant progress in the discussion and promotion of a solid legal framework for civil society organizations. We can affirm that over the past three years that the Law and Civil Society program has been effective in the areas of organization, education, network-building and the diffusion of information to the different sectors of civil society as well as local and national governments. In this way, the Center for Organized Participation has been an active agent in ensuring that the legal and fiscal issues which affect civil society have been brought into a common forum where various social actors have the opportunity to participate in the debate over their future.
- To generate knowledge of and reflection upon the legal and fiscal situations affecting Central American NGOs.
- To build public awareness about the role of civil society organizations in development.
- To create joint action mechanisms within civil society, the government, and the business sector to formulate and implement legal reforms.
Five of the six national working groups that the Center has convened have already drafted a law proposal that will serve as a basis for negotiations with governments and parliaments. Nonetheless, there is still a necessity for a presence to ensure the continuation and improvement of this process. This has to be a multilateral process which consults not only the NGO sector, but also the private sector and appropriate government agencies, as well as community organizations.
NEW MECHANISMS FOR RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
The specific objectives of this program are:
- To identify and promote self-financing mechanisms that can be used by civil society organizations to support their sustainability.
- Identify and promote self-financing mechanisms that can be used by civil society organizations to support their sustainability.
- To promote strategic alliances between OSC, organizations in the private sector, international organizations interested in cooperation and other actors in the development process, within the framework of sustainability.
- To create a fund to support Central American OSCs in their efforts to acheive sustainability.
To date, the Center for Organized Participation has developed the following two projects to work towards the stated goals and objectives:
Information on the Creation of Resources Project
Recent studies have confirmed that civil society organizations must learn more about the different aspects of the generation of resources and the intricacies of international cooperation. The publication Once Enfoques Hacia la Cooperación Internacional (Eleven Approaches Towards International Cooperation for Central America) fills this need by offering critical analysis on the current state of affairs between international donors and Central American NGOs as well as providing donor profiles on eleven international organizations that have demonstrated interest in the region. Moreover, Eleven Approaches... aims to stimulate an interactive discussion between NGOs and international donors on this topic.
Self-Financing and Private Sector Cooperation Project
Given the reduction of international cooperation, it is imperative that NGOs make use of local resources and identify alternative mechanisms to achieve sustainability. The sale of goods and services, the creation of parallel enterprises, or businesses which exist for the sole purpose of financing their specific NGO sponsors, and strategic investment are examples of self-financing activities which NGOs use towards this end. The Self-Financing and Private Sector Cooperation Project's main goal is to produce a study on these creative economic alternatives and thus provide an impetus for their continuation and development.
Once completed, the study will produce a detailed analysis of these self-financing mechanisms and will provide local examples of approaches used by Central American NGOs, citing their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, it will offer a look at some examples of interaction between the NGO sector and the private sector, including instances in which the private sector has played a role in Central American development projects.
THE FORMATION OF A DEMOCRATIC CULTURE IN CENTRAL AMERICA
The Formation of a Democratic Culture in Central America program was initiated in 1996 with the financial support of the European Community. Its general objective is to contribute to the strengthening and consolidation of democracy in Central America by achieving more active and effective participation of civil society organizations in decision making processes. NGOs as Advocates for Social Change
Throughout the development of a Central American democratic culture, NGOs have taken on advocacy roles and have elaborated various strategies and methodologies to make their voices heard. The "NGOs as Advocates for Social Change" project seeks to investigate these strategies and to identifying organizations' strengths and weaknesses in advocacy.The specific objectives of the project are:
- To identify the advocacy strategies used by CSOs and determine their strengths, weaknesses and needs.
- To develop a "training of trainers" session on advocacy techniques.
The program consists of three stages:
- A series of national meetings, which comprise an interactive diagnostic study to identify advocacy strategies employed by Central American NGOs, and their strengths and weaknesses in this area.
- The creation of a set of advocacy training materials.
- The training of a group of civil society organizations at both the national and regional level.
In order to work towards these goals and objectives, national diagnostic studies have been conducted in each of the six Central American countries, in addition to one regional study . The national studies provide information about the advocacy activities that are occurring within a representative group of NGOs. The regional study has shed light upon civil society organizations' lobbying activities in the Sistema de Integración Centroamericana (SICA), or System of Central American Integration.
Simultaneously, a set of training materials are being created that focus upon the methodologies identified in 11 advocacy case studies from throughout the region. These case studies, along with the national and regional studies, will figure prominently in a regional training workshop scheduled for June 23-27, 1997, to be held in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.
cpo@arias.or.cr
