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Civil Society Index - the What, Why and How

Civil society has been defined as the space between state, private sector and family or community. Today, we are witnessing what we could call a phase transition in the make-up of civil society space world wide. Traditional boundaries between the state and the private sector have been blurred. Read the invitation and the programme

New media provide new ways of social organization to negotiate civil society space to provide for equal opportunities. The increasing importance of international governmental relations as a result of economic independency due to the globalization of industries demands increased connectivity between civil society actors world wide to guard civil society space.

CIVICUS, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, has developed the Civil Society Index, composed of SMART and SPICED indicators. The CSI provides an opportunity to take a snapshot of current civil society space and it’s strength. In recognition of CIVICUS endeavor several Northern-European civil society actors are currently engaging with CIVICUS in the roll-out of their methodology.

Guest of Honor

Netsanet Demissie Belay - Director, Policy and Research

Netsanet joined CIVICUS in September 2009. He is the founder of the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia (OSJE), a public interest organization established with a mission to promote human rights and foster social justice, democracy and good governance in Ethiopia. He served as the Executive Director of OSJE during November 2002 to November 2005. In 2005 he led the creation of a network of Ethiopian CSOs that observed the controversial election in the country.

He was also the national coordinator of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in Ethiopia. Netsanet had to face persecution for his activism as he was prisoner of conscience for two and half years. He co-authored the National "Civic and Ethical Education" text book for junior and high school students. He also served as an assistant Judge at the Federal First Instance court in Ethiopia for two years. Netsanet holds LLM degree in Law and Development from Queen Mary, University of London and LLB Degree from Addis Ababa University.

To facilitate learning amongst Dutch development actors PSO is organizing a seminar on the concept, relevance and use of the Civil Society Index. CIVICUS will present the concept in order for PSO member organizations and other interested parties to familiarize themselves with the CSI. You are therefore invited to participate in a seminar on April 7 on this subject organized by PSO, followed by a workshop in the afternoon focusing on civil society space in the Netherlands as a way of practicing the learning results of the morning session.

Contributions & participation
The seminar will provide government, private sector and NGO perspectives on the CSI and is open to participation from each of these actors. We are also open to receive specific requests as to the content and coverage of the program which you may send to Reinier van Hoffen (Hoffen@pso.nl).

Registration
Please provide the names of (maximum) two staff members who will join the deliberations on behalf of your organization by March 28 to aanmelding@pso.nl  “CSI Seminar”.

Registration fee for this seminar and workshop is €100 per participant. Here you can find the programme details.

The meeting will be held at Madurodam events where the seminar starts at 9:30 AM, followed by a workshop with an introductory lecture at 1:30 PM. Here you can find the directions to Madurodam.