News – Page 15

“Mind our business”: joint report on sustainable and inclusive business models

By Cooperatives Europe

On 1 December, Cooperatives Europe, Fair Trade Advocacy Office and CONCORD launched their joint report “Mind our business: Amplify the transformative power of sustainable and inclusive business models through EU external action”.

The vast impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown once again that the European Union and its Member States should actively contribute to reshaping the current economic system to benefit everyone and respects planetary boundaries. Sustainable and inclusive business models – with ambitions going beyond profit, including participatory governance structures and clear environmental and social impact – can help lead the way.

This report prepared within the framework of the ICA-EU Partnership on international development (#coops4dev) showcases the characteristics that different sustainable and inclusive business models have in common, what sets them apart from conventional businesses and the challenges they face in EU partner countries.

It also argues that the EU and its Member States could more effectively support sustainable and inclusive businesses across the globe to reach their full potential through development cooperation, investments, trade and economic diplomacy.

With this report Cooperatives Europe, CONCORD and Fair Trade Advocacy Office want decision-makers from the EU and its Member States to take action, by promoting a more enabling environment for current and future sustainable and inclusive businesses and providing targeted political and financial support.

You can watch the video and hear the audio recordings of the report launch, and download the report here.

MMM #RaiseAPen Campaign kicks off!

By Make Mothers Matter

Make Mothers Matter (MMM), backed by international celebrities and organisations, kicked off the #RaiseAPen campaign in November with a strong mobilisation video, answering the call of Afghan mothers for the continuation of the right to girls’ education.

Raising the voices of mothers is powerful. Not only because everybody has (or had) a mother but also because they are change agents within their families and communities. By raising their voices, mothers have the power to convince the world of the importance of girls’ education.

For MMM, the issue of education for women and girls is a fundamental human right and remains central across the political spectrum. Indeed, without education, sustainable development is unattainable.

Without education, the empowerment of Afghan women and girls and their access to equal opportunities will be compromised. Without education for all, the prospects of an inclusive, just and peaceful society will collapse.

Standing for women’s education in Afghanistan is standing for women’s education everywhere.

By prioritising these demands, the #RaiseAPen campaign will illustrate concrete examples of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4, 5 and 16 and aim to advance Agenda 2030.

Staffan de Mistura, former UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan who is championing the #RaiseAPen campaign, said: “This call is very timely. In Afghanistan, there can be no sustainable peace without education for all, but most importantly, education for women and girls who represent 51% of the population”.

Much of Afghanistan’s progress over the last 18 years can be attributed to the power of the pen and the resilience of Afghan women who have fought to bring about meaningful change.

Today, many Afghan women and girls are visible, active and impactful in diverse spheres of life, seizing opportunities wherever they find them. From politics to activism, entrepreneurship to industry, they are determined to realise their vision of an Afghanistan where every woman can live in peace and enjoy her rights.

But there is much that still needs to happen to allow more Afghan girls and women to participate in the development of their country.

According to the MMM President Anne-Claire de Liedekerke: “The #RaiseAPen campaign comes at a crucial moment in Afghanistan’s history. No one wants a reversal of progress. That is why today, with Afghan mothers and girls, we #RaiseAPen to ensure a forward movement by raising global awareness for their call”.

This campaign would not be what it is without the active commitment of two associate members of the MMM Network, the Farkhunda Trust for Afghan Women’s Education and Mothers For Peace. They have been instrumental in mobilising mothers and gaining the support of the very people who can help realise a better tomorrow for Afghanistan.

You find the link to the video of the event here: https://bit.ly/33LQ70z

A half step forward in the collective journey towards a more sustainable Europe is not enough

Reflecting on the 2020 ‘Commission’s Staff working document: Delivering on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – A comprehensive approach.’

By Yblin Roman Escobar, SDG Watch Europe

Having travelled a difficult road due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Europeans were longing for fresh and concrete news on our collective journey towards a sustainable Europe in 2030. We believed the long-awaited Commission’s staff working document on delivering the SDGs would help to accelerate progress in the right direction. Unfortunately, this document limits itself to reaffirming the Commission’s commitment and providing an overview of existing actions.

Leadership at the highest level

The good news is that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen herself is coordinating the expedition, while the Commissioners College as a whole remains collectively responsible for the overall implementation of the SDGs. SDG Watch Europe called on the Commission’s President, at the beginning of her term, to take the lead and therefore welcomes her leadership.

However, SDG Watch regrets that five years into this important journey, we still lack an overarching EU strategy for Sustainable Development, with a specific implementation plan and timeline.

The Commission does highlight its strategy in the staff working document, presenting it as pragmatic and focused on the implementation of the SDGs through the Commission’s priorities-particularly through the EU Green Deal – a flagship EU initiative. And, it claims to take a whole-of-government approach through mainstreaming of the SDGs at all levels. However, the staff working document provides insufficient detail on EU governance for SDG implementation. It remains unclear how this will translate into practice or how the mainstreaming will be done, both within the Commission and beyond. In this respect, it seems that as far as this journey is concerned, we are still around the base camp, and haven’t begun the ascent yet.

The staff working document is a good exercise in identifying which way the different Commission policies, actions and initiatives all contribute to materialising the SDGs. We recognise that this scanning exercise allows an initial diagnosis of where the EU situates itself in the SDG journey; helps it to take stock of its strengths and gaps, and set concrete objectives and agree on an accompanying action plan.

Recognising the fact that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put climate and environment and an economy that works for people at the heart of her political guidelines, we see and celebrate all the initiatives listed in the Commission’s staff working document. Nonetheless, we also believe that it paints a biased picture of reality because it does not take into account, together with the bright side of the narrative, its drawbacks and downsides too. The Commission describes how well it is equipped for the journey, the beautiful landscapes on the way, but forgets to report the risks and difficulties too. Let’s look at the following examples:

EU engagement in the world

It is promising to see the Commission having an in-depth analysis of the challenges COVID-19 presents to the countries in the Global South, reaffirming its commitment to support them in their journey towards implementing the SDGs.

It is very welcome that the Commission highlights the coherence between domestic policies and external action. The stated intention to prevent EU spillovers is a new and very welcomed approach.

Trade, for example, is featured in the document as a relevant road to supporting EU partner countries. However, Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and former Special Rapporteur on the right to food, warns that the EU’s trade policy today encourages social and environmental dumping due to the ambition of eliminating all barriers to imports. Friends of the Earth Europe, SDG Watch member, in its paper Setting course for ‘sustainable trade, a new agenda that serves people and the environment’ argues that continuing the current trade trajectory will aggravate economic insecurity and deepen global inequality, setting us on a collision course with planetary boundaries.

The EU must live up to its commitment under the 2030 Agenda to address the negative spill-overs of EU’s trade. In its report ‘Who is paying the bill? (Negative) impacts of European Policies and practices in the world’ SDG Watch Europe calls on the Commission to monitor the spill-over effects of EU policies and to set goals to limit them and to avoid causing harm in the Global South.

Ensuring policy coherence for sustainable development (PCSD)

The document paints a landscape of deep EU commitment to PCSD, including all policies and all levels, within and beyond Europe.

The work of the Commission on policy coherence builds on its longstanding experience and the provision of the international agreements, the Lisbon Treaty (art.208) being the most recent, and it is implemented mostly via the working of DG Development Cooperation (DG DEVCO). Yet, some worrisome developments suggest a weakening of PCSD in the Commission. DG DEVCO is being reorganised into DG INTPA (for International Partnerships) that will be officially launched in January 2021. Tanya Cox, Director at CONCORD Europe, has flagged that PCSD has disappeared off the map. DG DEVCO used to have a dedicated PC(S)D Unit, while in the new DG INTPA, it no longer exists. If we consider that DG DEVCO and DG ENVI (DG for Environment) are the traditional drivers of the 2030 Agenda, this development would risk letting the entire Commission off the hook. How will PCSD then be safeguarded?

European Green Deal

The European Green Deal which is the cornerstone Commission initiative linked to the SDG implementation proposes a welcome strategy to transform the EU into a fair, inclusive and prosperous society. As the Staff document (p.3) (visually) illustrates, it will contribute to 12 of the 17 SDGs. Yet, in the same illustration, the social and gender aspects are missing. The absence of SDG 5, for example, exposes the Green Deal gender-blind-spot. How can this strategy be called inclusive when it overlooks at least 50% of the population?

Furthermore, in the absence of an overarching Sustainability strategy, policy areas remain siloed, and the potential success of the European Green Deal itself is put at risk.

World Wild Foundation International, SDG Watch member, and other civil society organisations, for example, has argued in an open letter that the position agreed in the European Parliament and Council on the CAP reform endangers the realisation of the EU Green Deal (and the associated Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategies). This is because they allow harmful subsidies, put most of the money into funding business-as-usual practices, and actively limit Member States’ environmental ambition. Our members call on the Commission to develop a new proposal that safeguards the EU Green Deal, and consequently the implementation of the SDGs.

Monitoring and reporting. Fit for purpose?

Monitoring and reporting on the SDGs is another example of an incomplete picture. The process, as carried out by Eurostat, is showcased as a robust approach to keeping track of our journey towards a Sustainable EU by 2030. The staff working document specifically mentions the EU indicator set was developed in a very ‘broad consultative process’. But expert commentators Schiltz et al. say in a recent study ‘The EU’s SDG monitoring and reporting not yet fit for purpose’, that neither EU institutions, such as the European Parliament, nor civil society, have been structurally integrated into the process of indicator selection. it is argued that the current monitoring does not allow for any specific role for civil society. Furthermore, according to the study, the current set of indicators is not able to fully capture the most relevant aspects of sustainable development in the EU context.

None of these arguments is considered in the working staff document. SDG Watch Europe in its report ‘Time to reach for the moon – the EU needs to step up action and lead the transformation to sustainability’, demonstrates the serious issues that remain unaddressed with the Commission’s “GPS” for monitoring the EU’s progress in this journey. How can we know we are advancing in the right direction and at the right pace if our GPS is not fit for purpose?

The engagement of civil society

The Commission recognises that the implementation of the SDGs demands involving civil society and other stakeholders but it does not provide a clear depiction of how it will achieve this. The new European Climate Pact and the Conference on the Future of Europe are presented as the new public fora for an open inclusive, transparent and structured debate on the SDGs. Still, the document does not specify how this will happen. Furthermore, both spaces suffer from weaknesses. The Climate Pact, as it names indicate, only addresses climate issues, thus failing at having a broad definition of sustainability including all economic, social and environmental issues embedded in the SDGs. The Conference on the Future of Europe is set to be a temporary participatory exercise over 1 or 2 years with the role of civil society organizations still not clear, thus failing at being a formalized long-term civil-society engagement mechanism.

The Commission concludes its staff working document by saying: ‘This is a journey towards a Union that thrives while leaving no one behind and preserves the long-term viability of life- and prosperity supporting ecosystems for this and future generation.‘

SDG Watch Europe understands the aim of this EU journey towards sustainable development to be the achievement of well-being for all, here and elsewhere, now and in the future.

SDG Watch Europe, with its more than 100 member organisations, is ready to support the EU and its Member States to advance further in this important journey.

Gender Equality on the Ground: Feminist findings and recommendations for achieving Agenda 2030

By wcef

We are proud to share with you our #Women2030 global shadow report titled ‘Gender equality on the Ground: Feminists findings and recommendations for achieving Agenda2030’.

This report contains the findings from national assessments on how to ensure a gender-just and transformative #Agenda2030 in the key priority areas of climate and environmental justice, redistributive and economic justice, political participation, Gender Based Violence, and gender stereotypes. It also highlights structural barriers across countries, as well as best practices and opportunities for change. Check out the demands, recommendations and practical examples of what grassroot feminist solutions look like on the ground.

Over the past five years (2016-2020) Women2030 partner-countries have produced 38 shadow reports to government Voluntary National Reviews on the status of SDGs implementation. These reports are based on desk research, multi-stakeholders’ consultations and participatory gender assessments involving 2,414 people across 20 countries, based on a bottom-up methodology captured in the Women2030 gender impact assessment and monitoring tool.

The global shadow report aims to capture the inspiring and diverse range of work that has taken place through the Women2030 programme over the past five years. It provides bottom-up and evidence-based civil society perspectives on SDGs and gender equality progress with a focus on key feminist priorities, structural barriers and opportunities for change. The report ends with feminist recommendations and a call to action for governments, international organisations, women’s rights movement and other civil society to make sure we achieve Agenda 2030 for all.

The country reports provide an evidence-base for monitoring government action and progress on women’s rights and, are used as advocacy tools in different policy processes including the High-Level Political Forum and Commission on the Status of Women. Four regional reports covering Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia were produced by the coalition partners. This global shadow report provides a synthesis of the findings within national and regional reports and the experiences of Women2030 over the past years.

Recognizing the diversity in country reports in terms of focus and data availability, the report highlights key feminist priorities, progress and structural barriers across countries, as well as best practices and opportunities for change. A systemic, feminist and intersectional lens has helped to analyse systemic barriers and dynamics of power, inclusion and exclusion that are crucial to address when working to achieve the SDGs – SDG 5 in particular.

The Women2030 partners are proud to share this work with you and keen to work together towards a gender just sustainable world.

You can download our report here.

SDGs News from Ireland: Parliamentarians for the Global Goals

By SDG Watch Europe

The positive vision & blueprint offered by the SDGs are more important than ever in a time of global crisis. Senator Alice-Mary Higgins launched the Oireachtas All-Party Parliamentary Group on the SDGs as part of the launch of Parliamentarians for the Global Goals (PfGG) at the United Nations General Assembly earlier this year. PfGG is a new initiative by and for parliamentarians to promote the SDGs through parliamentary actions around the world. The group will be working to implement the SDGs in bringing together the environment, equality, society, economy and culture and which offer a shared and transformative vision of what it might look like to live together on this planet.

“Our Group on the SDG’s is part of Parliamentarians for the Global Goals, a wider network of public representatives from across the world driving the decade of action on the SDGs I was glad to give one of international testimonies to mark UN launch of the PfGG”, Senator Higgins remarked.

2030beyond is a non-profit do-tank for the 2030 Agenda, supporting Parliamentarians and people to accelerate action for the Sustainable Development Goals.

https://www.2030beyond.org

Marc O’Casathaigh, Green Party TD & Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the SDGs, introduced a proposal to the Dáil Reform Committee that the SDGs be enshrined in the Standing Orders of the committees, which was adopted. As a result, the SDGs will now be enshrined in all of the committees programmes of work. SDGs targets will be mapped onto the work of the specific/relevant committees.

Key functions of the committees are:

Legislation – scrutiny of draft legislation in advance of its publication or before Committee Stage; consideration and amending of Bills on Committee Stage; and consideration of draft EU legislative proposals.
Scrutinising the work of Government Departments – Ministers appear before Oireachtas committees to answer questions concerning all policy, expenditure and governance matters regarding their Departments.
Advising on policy issues – seeking submissions from and holding hearings with third parties; and conducting off-site visits and drafting reports outlining the committee’s findings and recommendations with a view to influencing policy decisions or legislation.

There are calls to align the SDGs into county development plans and to urge the relevant committees to start with hearings to critically consider the coherence among the SDGs.

The 2020 ASviS Report “Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals”

By ASviS

The annual Report prepared by the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), now in its fifth edition, assesses the progress our country, its regions and the European Union have made in achieving the SDGs. The Report also sets out the areas where action is needed to ensure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of our growth model. The Report for 2020, drafted by experts from the Alliance’s over 270 member organizations, offers a wide-ranging view of the situation in Italy and in Europe vis-à-vis the various aspects of sustainable development, and with composite indicators, measures the progress of Italy and each EU Member state on all the SDGs. For the first time, ASviS also produced an estimate for 2020 for Italy, taking the pandemic into account. This showed that Covid had a negative effect on SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 and 17, a positive effect on SDGs 12, 13 and 16, while for the other Goals it was impossible to estimate the impact. The Report also offers concrete proposals for policies capable of improving people’s wellbeing, reducing inequalities and increasing the quality of the environment in which we live addressed at the government and other institutions.

The Report was presented during the event “Italy and the Sustainable Development Goals”, that took place on October 8th at the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio and EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni among other in attendance, is available on the ASviS website: https://asvis.it/rapporto-asvis-2020/ An English translation is underway.

GENDER EQUALITY: A DATA AND POLICY DIALOGUE FROM THE BEIJING DECLARATION TO THE COVID19 PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

By Forus International

25 years after the adoption of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 2020 was meant to be a milestone for reducing the gender gap, but in fact, we might be witnessing a dramatic backstep in the achievement of gender equality and SDG number five. As part of their global politics series, UN DESA hosted a global policy dialogue on gender equality, where a panel of nine women from different horizons gathered to discuss this new normal, from the Beijing Declaration to the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

A global pandemic, conflicts in the US elections, protests for social change in Latin America, disasters emerging from nature’s pain and humans causing pain to each other. The year 2020 has been defined by a set of events that will steer the future of society as we -used to- know it, creating a “new normal”. A reality that doesn’t recognize borders and where one’s problems are also our neighbours’, where standing alone is not an option and governments need to work together to find collective solutions for a better tomorrow.

In this new normal, we find ourselves both in a reflection and inflexion point. For far too long, we have been living in a society where “different” is synonym of “wrong” and more differences means more marginalization. The simplest differences, such as being a man or a woman, have proven to be the most determinant factors to have an impact on the way we live and cope with this new normal. But what does this mean to gender equality in a context where we are entering the final lap, the last ten years, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the realization of Agenda2030? As the clock ticks in this fast-forward and changing context, where are we into achieving gender equality?

As we try to understand this new reality, we’ve been relying on research and data, to make informed decisions and be in a position to create accurate policies that respond to the needs of the people.

The 2020 Worlds’ Women report, presented by Francesca Grum, lead author of the report, shows that there has been significant progress within gender equality indicators over the past two decades. Education seems to be a success, as we’ve achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education at the global level. Women are marrying later and are having fewer children, and there’s a feeling of increased empowerment. Power and decision-making positions have seen some progress, with doubled women’s participation amongst parliamentarians, tripled amongst ministers.

However, we are still far away from the 30% gender quote and far behind the 50% gender parity. Today, the hard-earned gains in gender equality are being challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, that has been produced since 1990, highlights the importance of mainstreaming a gender-based approach in data collection, as an incomplete picture risks taking us to the wrong direction. Without gender-disaggregated data, inequalities are made invisible.

Numerous challenges persist until the Beijing promise becomes a reality. Sarah Hendriks, from UN Women, stressed the importance of addressing women’s and girl’s unique needs and priorities when responding to the covid-19 pandemic. According to the World’s Women report, data shows that in spite of efforts being made around the globe to address gender-based violence (GBV), progress is yet to be made. Violence against women has increased in light of the imposed lockdowns, and there is no evidence of this getting better as lockdowns are eased.

Jayati Ghosh, the Chairperson of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, explained that a vicious cycle has been created, as the economic situation of households has been negatively affected by the pandemic, the emotional stability has also worsened, and that frustration is taken on women.

Gender inequalities are also observed in the labour sector, especially as there are little initiatives to address this issue, that has a tremendous impact on women’s economic security. With the lockdowns also came the remote work. Working from home doesn’t mean having a safe space to work.

According to Manuela Tomei, from the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than 9 million people have shifted to mandatory remote working, she added that “those who have managed to do so, can be considered as privileged”.

Indeed, a new set of challenges has emerged from this shift that go beyond the digital divide, from an increase in domestic violence to mental health problems that result from combining paid work and increased responsibilities within the family sphere. ILO’s household surveys show that there’s a dramatic decline in women’s employment rate, particularly for those in the informal sector and those with children.

For the workers in the informal sector, remote work is not an option as they rely on their mobility to be able to carry out their work. The ILO estimates that 140 million jobs will be lost by the end of the year because of the pandemic, and if the second wave is accentuated, the estimation could reach 340 millions of full-time jobs. A vast majority will affect women, especially as 40% of employed women are working in the sectors most hit by the pandemic such as working in food services, hospitality and accommodation, and manufacturing in the garment industry.

When referring to a “future normal”, hopefully, an improved version of our current reality, Tomei highlighted the need to invest in the care industry as the crisis has made evident the core role of childcare services. We need to reflect on how to combine policies related to parental leaves with a provision of services by the State.

As seen during this pandemic, crisis can go beyond borders. Alliances and building collective resilience are more important than ever. Ana Guezmes, from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), stressed that the regional level has a key role to play in the way we respond to the crisis. CEPAL’s primarily approach has been to put gender at the core of the region’s development agenda, “we need to go beyond our normal standards and means to put in place a transformative recovery”, she added.

If we aim to strengthen our policy outcomes we need to bring a wide diversity of voices into the discussion. In responding to the covid pandemic, civil society actors, particularly national NGO platforms, have played a key role in coordinating responses with local governments.

In Bolivia, UNITAS, has put forward the need to implement safeguarding practices in this new environment. To do so, they have been coordinating efforts with the local authorities to distribute flyers with information and phone numbers to help women denounce domestic violence cases. When looking at the country level, it is by zooming in at this scale that we really perceive the intersecting inequalities and challenges sub-groups face. UNITAS is one of the many members of Forus International, a global network of national NGO platforms and regional coalitions that have had to adapt their work because of the constraints of the pandemic, particularly in light of the shrinking space for civil society and the absence of enabling environment for their work.

“We have a major policy task, we can’t treat women’s challenges as extensions of our work, we need to really focus on them and think to what extent we can mobilize our work to tackle them”, said J. Ghosh.

We need to understand women’s challenges by analyzing what they do, who they are, how they live, etc. Although policy outcomes might not be visible in the short-term, sometimes because of the multiplicity of variables that can steer the result and its timeline, it is clear that data is a tool that can be mobilized as a means to empower populations. It is the kind of tool that once it is integrated, it can have long-lasting effects.

As Martha Chen, from Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing & Organizing, said: “data in the hands of workers is power, If they could have access to this data, they could effectively negotiate with governments, and other stakeholders”.

Data doesn’t have to be exclusively at the service of policy-makers, it needs to be available and accessible to the rightsholders for them to organize and decide what their priorities are and be able to have a saying in the decision-making process.

Mapping innovation thinking, culture, and practice in civil society

By Forus Internacional

As part of its 2021-2025 strategy development process, Forus conducted in 2020 a study to map innovation thinking, culture, and practices among its members. Today, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society organisations (CSOs) worldwide find themselves having to navigate increasingly uncertain realities, in a context of global environmental, social, political, and economic instability. Managing uncertainty is key to innovating successfully in the social sector, and amidst ongoing transformations and the Covid-19 pandemic, innovation has been increasingly hailed by practitioners, policymakers, and donors as an answer to international development challenges.

Forus collaborated with Ana Luísa Silva, researcher at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon, to understand innovation practices and opportunities better. Two webinars in April explored innovation among Fours members and allies in the areas of advocacy and peer learning. Between May and September, an online survey and remote interviews gathered the views of twenty Forus members from around the globe.

So, what did we find out?

Definitions first

Many have argued that innovation is a fuzzy concept, used so often and in so many different contexts that it is now hard to know what we mean when we say innovation. As it often happens in international development, innovation risks becoming a buzzword. Plus, innovation can easily be connected to well-known managerial trends that put efficiency first, making us forget to ask important questions related to the politics of innovation, such as: ‘Why are we innovating?’, ‘Who is innovating?’, ‘How are we innovating?’, ‘And for whom?’.

During our study, Forus members submitted broad but rich definitions of innovation in the context of their work. These definitions reflected, on the one hand, the varied nature of the work carried out by CSO platforms, and on the other hand, a certain lack of clarity of what innovation means in practice.

These rich and varied views on innovation indicate two main directions for innovation in the work of CSO platforms, similar to what has been observed in other studies of innovation in international development: inwards innovation (directed at the work done internally for the benefit of their members) and outwards innovation (in the form of external advocacy for wider social change).

For NGO/CSO platforms that took part in our study, to innovate is to use evidence-based and collaborative approaches to improve the support to members, to help them address current challenges and be more accountable to the most vulnerable populations, and to find creative solutions to achieve wider goals of social transformation and systemic change, in light of local and global challenges, working in collaboration with other development actors and stakeholders.

Learning as a key dimension of innovation

Most survey participants consider themselves innovative: all but two stated that they were involved in innovative initiatives during the past three years. For 85% of the respondent organisations, innovation is either a high or a very high priority, while learning is either a high or a very high priority for 90% of the respondents. However, between innovation and learning, the latter ranks higher in the priorities of survey respondents: learning is a very high priority for 50% of the respondents, while the former is a very high priority for only 30% of the respondents.

Changing processes and changing paradigms

Forus members’ innovative initiatives range from formal to informal projects/activities, externally and/or internally resourced, developed alone or in collaboration with other actors/organisations. Although there are NGO/CSO platforms developing new products and services for their members, such as the Cambodian platform CCC’s Civil Society Fund and the Philippine platform CODE-NGO’s Center for Humanitarian Learning and Innovation, process innovations (i.e. initiatives that change the way platform products and services are provided to platform members) are the most common among the initiatives identified.

Platforms are first and foremost concerned about providing better services for their members. This does not necessarily mean new services, but better services, that can respond to the current and changing needs of their members. Many are therefore reinventing the way they engage with other development actors (e.g. the Bolivian platform UNITAS, Foro Político Multiactor), finding new ways to help their members engage with the 2030 Agenda (e.g. the Canadian platform CCIC, Greening CSOs) and using ICTs to deliver training to their members (e.g. the Portuguese platform PPONGD, Covid-19 Webinar Series).

Platforms are also working to change the paradigm of civil society and development in which they normally operate. The Brazilian and Spanish platforms ABONG and Coordinadora ONGD, through collaborative and multi-partner initiatives like Pacto pela Democracia and Quorum Global, are using their structure and existing services to fulfil a wider enabling role for other civil society actors, notably citizen activists and social movements. At the same time, they assert a more politically active role for themselves and their members, against threats to national-level democratic participation and to our collective existence.

What next?

Forus is committed to supporting members to adapt to the profound international and national transformations that are changing the operating context of development NGOs and threatening civic space in many places around the world. The Learning Agenda included in Forus’ 2021-2025 Strategy includes a strong emphasis on learning about civil society’s role and to explore innovative approaches.

The active promotion of peer learning exchanges among platforms will be key to support members on learning and innovation. The research highlights the following three areas where Forus will provide support to members to promote innovation:

Provide training, capacity development and resources
Facilitate access to funding
Promote peer learning, dissemination, knowledge exchange among platforms

As Forus and our members engage in a new strategic phase, we are looking forward to using innovation and learning to promote civil society organisations’ role and influence towards more inclusive and sustainable societies.

ECO-CHANGE: active youth for global change in Strasbourg!

By ALDA

Over the summer, the ALDA office in Strasbourg carried out a special intensive project in the city: “ECO-CHANGE – Active Youth for Global Change”. With climate change being not just a major environmental and development-related challenge, but also a key factor affecting people’s decision to migrate and their ability to do it safely, the project aimed to promote inclusiveness and solidarity among young people with different cultural backgrounds and to raise their awareness on the existing link between migration and climate change.

In cooperation with the Stamtish Association, ALDA set up two different kinds of activities for the youth involved: a waste collection in various places of Strasbourg; and eco-responsible cooking workshops. On August 22nd and 29th, hence, around 20 motivated young people took care of the ecosystem of Heyritz Park and Citadelle Park, collecting hundreds of cigarette stubs and several bags of waste – while on August 23rd and 30th they met at La Petite Cantine to cook multicultural food together.

It was a great experience of intercultural promotion, collective caring for common issues, and an important occasion to stimulate young people’s active citizenship in Strasbourg. As it insisted on the fundamental role of youth in becoming “actors of change”, in addition, the project contributed to the achievement of some of the Sustainable Development Goals, namely SDG 10 – Reduced Inequalities; SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities; SDG 12 – Sustainable Consumption and Production; and SDG 13 – Measures relating to the fight against climate change.

Funded by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs through FONJEP, ECO-CHANGE was coordinated by ALDA together with Stamtish, a Strasbourg-based NGO whose mission is to promote the integration of people with migrant background through culinary and eco-responsible events.

Towards an EU Wellbeing Economy: How to build back better

By WWF

The WWF European Policy Office (EPO) has just launched a new report ‘Towards an EU Wellbeing Economy: a fairer, more sustainable Europe after COVID-19’, calling for the EU to shift to a ‘wellbeing economy’ to successfully recover by using the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as a framework to achieve a just, socially inclusive recovery within planetary boundaries.

A ‘Wellbeing Economy’ is an economy that serves people and the environment, rather than just pursuing conventional economic growth through narrowly defined indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). WWF’s report provides examples of countries around the world already shifting to a Wellbeing Economy, such as Iceland and New Zealand, and recommends the EU takes steps in this direction, by adopting wellbeing indicators, improving accountability and coordination within the EU institutions, and prioritising sustainability in impact assessments and evaluations.

For more information, don’t hesitate to contact Agnieszka Zimoch at WWF (azimoch@wwf.eu).