This is an interview with Benoît Fontaine (Advisor with the King Baudouin Foundation) who is working on developing GuideStar in Belgium. He talks about:

* The civil society sector in Belgium
* The reason for GuideStar interest in Belgium
* The main partners for the initiative
* Where the data for GuideStar Belgium will come from

The latest GuideStar International Newsletter is now available (April 2009). In it you can find an update on GuideStar International, news from our partners and relevant articles about what is happening in the CSO sector.

The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) has published a dossier on capacity development for local governance and rural decentralization in the South.

In development cooperation and related literature, the term “capacity development” is alternately used to refer to an objective, approach, process, input or result. It remains a complex and elusive concept, but is relatively unanimously considered to be a “key issue” for development. It is seen as an important element to improving the process more...

'Agriculture has experienced serious problems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) since 1990. Outputs and/or yields declined for most crops and in most countries during the 1990s. In addition, agriculture has not by itself addressed the consumptive interests of rural areas, such as recreation and nature conservation. As a result, agriculture has not been an engine of rural development, contributing instead to the concentration of poverty in rural more...

This background note aims to identify organizations that are working to influence policy and build capacity around pro-poor trade in Latin America. This mapping provides an important baseline for the work of Comercio y Pobreza en Latinoamérica (COPLA, www.cop-la.net), a project funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) on trade, poverty and social exclusion in Latin America, and may also be useful for others concerned with the pro-poor dimensions of Latin American trade a more...

Civil society organizations (CSOs) make a difference in international development. They provide development services and humanitarian relief, innovate in service delivery, build local capacity and advocate with and for the poor. Acting alone, however, their impact is limited in scope, scale and sustainability. CSOs need to engage in government policy processes more effectively.

The first part of this report shows why and how better use of evidence by CSOs is part of the solution to increasing more...

'The report centres-in on the developmental role of civil society in light of worldwide government recognition of the pivotal role of civil society, and particularly think tanks, which are increasingly being invited to contribute to social policy formulation. Building on the previous Egypt Human Development Report, which identified the need for a new social contract, this year’s Egypt Human Development Report aims to highlight the key role of civil society organizations; their key role as part more...

'This paper examines fifteen cases of collective action in six villages in rural Bangladesh. The types of collective action identified were catalyzed by marriage; dowry and domestic violence; disputes over land; illness, injury and death in accidents; and theft and cheating. The role of development NGOs was less significant than would be expected considering their visibility in rural Bangladesh. The study suggests that ‘everyday forms’ of collective action often occur spontaneously and infor more...

In the context of the unfolding financial and economic crises, the need for concerted European Union action is a hot topic. A new independent study examines existing EU institutional mechanisms and argues for reform to enable greater citizen scrutiny.

'How can civil society and NGOs be supported by donors? This paper reviews experiences in Tanzania, looking at different models for supporting civil society and investigating possibilities for improving and increasing effectiveness of direct support to NGOs/CSOs. The authors consider how this can be done through country level support models and consider different examples of donor joint funding, which is helping other donors who might not have capacity to deliver their programmes to CSOs directl more...