FIM @ the CIVICUS World Assembly!

From September 8th through 12th FIM participated in the tenth CIVICUS World Assembly, one of the world’s largest gatherings of activists, scholars, donors, media and international institutions concerned with civil society. Held for a second year in Montreal under the theme, “Civil Society and Global Governance: Doing it Better,” the World Assembly brought to the fore issues that have been at the core of FIM’s work, including civil society and democratic space. FIM contributed to the World Assembly programme on the topic of civil society and democratic space through workshops, and participation in a number of moderated panels.

Heather MacKenzie, FIM’s Director, Programmes led a FIM buzz session with Seth Lartey of the Commonwealth Foundation and Rajesh Tandon of PRIA (also Chair of FIM’s board).Entitled Principles for Civil Society Engagement with Multilateral Bodies: An Open Dialogue, the two-hour session wasinspired and driven by a FIM paper of the same name. Engaging directly with the evolving document, participants had the opportunity to explore the underpinnings of the principles and how they could be or should be best applied within their own work, both within small groups and presenting to the rest of the workshop. The Commonwealth Foundation’s contribution to the session, building upon this summer’s People’s Forum, highlighted the recently adopted Civil Society Strategy, which advocates for a common position on global governance issues as diverse as Indigenous People’s rights, peace and security, and climate change.

Citizen Participation Models and Public Governance: Five case studies (local and international) was a panel session, moderated by FIM’s president, Nigel Martin. The multilingual panel, included contributions from the City of Montreal’s Office of Public Engagement, PRIA, Vivre Saint-Michel en santé, CIDADE of Porto Alegre, Brazil and the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND). All highlighted case studies grappled with how citizens could better engage and influence the decision making processes affecting their local communities and larger societies. While strategies varied by the local context, the link amongst all presenting was the sustained belief in civil society’s right to existence, a conviction all the more meaningful in cases where democracy and the rights that come with it, cannot be taken for granted.

Further bolstering FIM’s line up at CIVICUS, Dr. Rajesh Tandon, along with David Brown (Hauser Centre for Nonprofit Organizations), Brian Pratt (INTRAC) and Cristien Temmink (PSO), lead an extremely well attended session, Civil Society at a Crossroads, the third and final day of the World Assembly. Exploring the disconnect between formal civil society and many grassroots movements, the session, as with much of the content over the World Assembly, asked participants to reassess the role, structure, management and agendas that have both fuelled past growth and led to the challenges the sector now faces. What emerged was a call to reimagine civil society: a call for civil society to reconnect with to itself, its values and its larger society.