CODE-NGO Participates in CSO Global Action for Effective Development Cooperation

The 2012 Seoul Civil Society Forum (SCSF) on the Busan Partnership was held last February 2-3, 2012 in Seongnam, SouthKorea with the theme “The Role and Strategy of Civil Society Organizations in the effective implementation of Busan Partnership”. The forum was a joint initiative of KCOC (Korea NGO Council for Overseas Cooperation) and KoFID (Korea Civil Society Forum on International Development Cooperation) with the support of KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency). 

It was aimed to help build public awareness of international development cooperation and enhance the CSO advocacy capacity in the post-Busan context by providing opportunity for assessment, analysis and planning from the CSO perspective. It also provided a venue for CSOs to identify and discuss main challenges and tasks ahead for the implementation of the “Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation”, the outcome document of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 4th High Level Forum (HLF-4) on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan, South Korea in November 2011.

CODE-NGO Chairperson, Patricia M. Sarenas, presented a paper for CODE-NGO, the Philippine National CSO Platform, outlining the coalition’s plans for the implementation of the “Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation”, particularly its provisions on CSO’s role in enabling people to claim their rights, on promoting rights–based approaches, on shaping development policies and partnerships, and on overseeing their implementation and transparent and responsible co-operation.

In her presentation, Ms. Sarenas relayed that “CODE-NGO continues to facilitate broad information dissemination about the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation and the Paris Declaration and Istanbul Principles on aid effectiveness.  It also participates in tri-partite CSO-government-donor community dialogues on effective development cooperation to facilitate agreements on minimum standards for government and donor policies, regulations and practices that create an enabling environment for CSOs.  As the national CSO platform, CODE-NGO has always been involved in dialogues on aid policy development and implementation of programs to strengthen development cooperation, as it continues to advocate for development effectiveness through development cooperation practices that promote human rights standards and focus on the eradication of the causes of poverty and inequality.”

The 2012 Seoul Civil Society Forum (SCSF) on the Busan Partnership was a follow-up to the 2011 Seoul Civil Society Forum on Aid and Development Effectiveness held in Seoul last September 1-2, 2011, which Ms. Sarenas also attended, as well as the Busan Global Civil Society Forum (BCSF) held in Busan last November 26-28, 2011, prior to the OECD HLF-4 on Aid Effectiveness in Busan.

Representatives from other CSO national platforms attended the CSO fora held in September 2011 and February 2012, namely  India, People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Nepal, South Korea, Cambodia, Japan and Mongolia.  Mr. Henri Valot, Director for Outreach of CIVICUS and representatives from Better Aid Coordinating Group (BACG) and the Open Forum for Aid Effectiveness’ Global Facilitation Group (GFG) also attended the forum held in Seongnam.