Let’s talk about … social movements

Workshop on challenges and questions of social movement support

The workshop is a joint effort of the ISS-HIVOS Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme and PSO. Building on your own experiences and on the preliminary first results of the Knowledge Programme, we invite you to reflect with us on the interaction between NGO’s and social movements.

Social movements are seen as an older, looser and possibly more authentic form of civic action. World-wide, NGOs have shown a keen interest to work with social movements in the South. The informality of social movements, however, sometimes poses challenges to the way the prevailing aid system works.

The experiences and challenges of the participating organizations are the starting point of the workshop. How are social movements defined? How to value the contribution individual social movements could make towards development? What is the relation between social movements, capacity building and development? Based on case studies the workshop aims at increasing understanding of the dynamics of social movements. We will explore questions such as: how do (Southern) social movements and the (Southern) partner-NGOs (that in most cases form the usual channel for Northern NGO interventions) relate? Is it possible to strengthen social movements through outside intervention at all, and if so, what can be said about the do’s and don’ts?

Practical information

What: workshop on civil society and social movements
Where: ISS (Institute of Social Studies), Kortenaerkade 12 ,The Hague
When: Wednesday, 9th of June, registration 9.30 – 10.00, closure and drinks at 16.30
Aanmelding: aanmelding@pso.nl, reference ‘social movements June 9th’
More info: Cristien Temmink PSO Temmink@pso.nl