Civil Society and Private Sector:Working with all Societal ActorsScanteam works with civil society actors like NGOs and professional organisations, as well as with the private sector (see more on private sector here). Many of our interesting tasks are with NGOs, where we work with large international NGOs with global programmes to smaller organisations with more specific agendas. We have worked with large Norwegian NGOs, assisted them to re-think their international strategies or carried out organisational reviews, and helped them prepare better proposals or facilitate internal learning events. We also work with local civil society organisations on the ground in developing countries. One common characteristic is that they are often at the forefront of building local capacities, addressing environmental problems, supporting gender equity and providing other forms of advocacy, further developing the concept and contents of Rights-based Development. They are therefore key actors in generating lessons for future Rights-Based development programmes. We therefore both assist these actors improve their performance and think critically about the "lessons learned", while we ourselves also learn immensely from interacting with them. |
Donor Funding of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)Scanteam was asked by a consortium of six donors to review their support to CSOs based on field studies in six countries. This task was done in collaboration with the Overseas Development Institute/UK. The report noted the trends towards more joint funding, increased use of various intermediaries, and more funds for core programs rather than just for projects. But the increasing pressures towards Alignment pose particular problems for CSOs engaged in advocacy and human rights work, since they have a different agenda than the government. A lack of consistency and transparency on the side of the donors is evident also in other fields, leading to a series of proposals. The report was presented at an international conference in Sweden as an input to the review of the Paris Agenda foreseen in Accra in 2008 |
