The Civil Society Digest is a platform for interaction and information exchange among Civil Society actors in Ghana.

It is intended to create and promote an information rich environment for Civil Society activity in development.

The Digest will also:

• Disseminate information relevant to Civil Society in a timely manner
• Serve as a platform for information exchange for Civil Society, MDAs, development partners and the citizenry
• Advocate, promote and guide policy development, more...

'Everyone would agree that international human rights standards are the foundation of the responsibility to protect (R2P). States have an obligation to protect their populations from the worst atrocities on the basis of international human rights precepts. However, it was not until the advent of R2P that the international community accepted for the first time the collective responsibility to act should states fail to protect citizens from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes or crimes against more...

'Both nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and funders struggle with how to 'scale up' and sustain a successful program. One of the most commonly used strategies to extend a program's impact is collaborating with government. In an era of diminished public sector resources for social programs, governments are increasingly looking to NGOs to inform policies, and in many instances, to design and deliver programs that help achieve national objectives.
How can NGOs build win-win relationships with g more...

The Afghanistan Pilot Participatory Poverty Assessment (APPPA) is a project that, through civil society involvement, aims to collect, document, disseminate and advocate the ‘voices’ of poor Afghans for inclusion in the upcoming Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS), and more broadly throughout civil society. APPPA will achieve this through a research component and an advocacy component.

This paper is one of a series of advocacy papers produced in the advocacy component, the pur more...

The 3rd GuideStar Assembly entitled ‘From local to global: The importance of CSO information for citizen engagement’ was held at 2 Temple Place in London on the 2nd- 3rd December 2008. The Assembly gathered 90 people from 19 countries to discuss the ways in which information can empower civil society and decision-makers at all levels, to engage and surmount barriers that limit the civil society sector today. A report and presentations, are now available on the GSI website

'This document presents a discussion on the role played by Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) in global budget support in Mozambique. One of the areas highlighted are the dimensions of relations between CSOs from the north and the Mozambican CSOs.'

'This study reflects on ASEAN’s achievements, and on the challenges it faces as it develops into a more collective, rules-based body. It also looks at the prospects for further cooperation between ASEAN and each of the UN agencies, on a wide range of issues: trade, migration, transport, disaster preparedness, environmental sustainability and climate change, gender equality, food security, health systems, HIV/AIDS, education, statistics, and human rights and governance.'

This is the 2008 edition of the annual report of the U.S. Agency for International Development on the role of non-governmental agencies in its programs. (PDF, 190 pages.)

Calling entrepreneurs for sustainable development: scale up with the help of a 2009 SEED Award.

Do you have an entrepreneurial and innovative idea that is locally-driven and has great potential to contribute to sustainable development in developing countries?

In January 2009, the SEED Initiative will be launching its call for proposals for the 2009 SEED Awards for entrepreneurship in sustainable development. Sign up to our mailing list at www.seedinit.org to be alerted when the call opens. more...

'The purpose of this paper is to assess the World Bank's recent relations with civil society organizations (CSOs), that is, nongovernmental organizations and not-for-profit organizations, and to propose options for promoting more effective civic engagement in Bank-supported activities and managing associated risks in the future. The analysis in this paper points to four main issues and challenges for the Bank as it seeks to achieve more constructive and effective engagement with CSOs in the futu more...