Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness

The Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness was the medium for a process led by civil society organizations (CSOs), between 2008 and 2012, to agree common principles and guidelines on CSO development effectiveness and bring the collective vision of organized people's groups into international development policy and practice.

Origins

The Open Forum was a temporary part of the "effectiveness movement" on international aid and development cooperation that started in the early 2000s. At first, discussions on aid effectiveness had mostly been led by aid donor and partner governments. But the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), which was agreed at the second of four High Level Forums on Aid Effectiveness, recognised that CSOs played a significant role in aid effectiveness; CSOs were represented at its signing ceremony. CSOs were then mobilised to play a greater part at the 3rd High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness to be held at Accra in 2008. This mobilisation partly arose from consultative meetings of an Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (AG-CS) that had been formed by the OECD's Development Assistance Committee. Open Forum was born at a three-day meeting of over 70 CSOs in Paris in June 2008. It's purpose was to take forward a global process towards agreeing a CSO-suitable effectiveness framework, and arriving at a common CSO negotiating position in time for the fourth High Level Conference in 2011.

Worldwide consultations

To achieve its objective, Open Forum facilitated numerous national, regional, global and thematic consultations with CSOs around the world regarding the standards that guide their work.

International framework

The agreement coming out of the Open Forum consultations is titled the Siem Reap Consensus on the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness. It is a collective statement by CSOs from different countries and regions on the common standards guiding their development work. The International Framework is notable in that it consolidates inputs of a multitude of civil society actors from across the world in one statement. It was finalized at the Open Forum Global Assembly in Siem Reap, Cambodia (June 2011).

Istanbul Principles

The eight Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness are part of the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness. They came out of the Open Forum consultations as the guiding values for the development work of CSOs. The Istanbul Principles were endorsed at the Global Assembly of the Open Forum Istanbul, Turkey (September 2010) and include:

1. Respect and promote human rights and social justice;
2. Embody gender equality and equity while promoting women and girls' rights;
3. Focus on people's empowerment, democratic ownership and participation;
4. Promote environmental sustainability;
5. Practice transparency and accountability;
6. Pursue equitable partnerships and solidarity;
7. Create and share knowledge and commit to mutual learning;
8. Commit to realizing positive sustainable change

Global Partnership

The 4th High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (Busan, Republic of Korea, 2011), or HLF4, was the first time that civil society officially took part in negotiations on aid effectiveness on an equal basis with partner governments and donors. The outcome agreement of HLF4 – the Global Partnership for Effective Development – includes both the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness and the Istanbul Principles in its Article 22

In conjunction with HLF4, the Istanbul Principles have received recognition from individual development stakeholders including the United States and the European Union.

Talaat Abdel-Malek, who formerly chaired the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/DAC Working Party on Aid Effectiveness, explains the structure of the new Global Partnership in an interview in the magazine D+C Development and Cooperation.