CIVICUS CIVIL SOCIETY NEWS
International Civil Society Index Workshop: A time for Reflection
World Assembly: Glasgow, Scotland 19 - 21 June 2006
The CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) implementation phase 2003-2205 is coming to a close in more than 50 countries around the world. A final workshop will be held next week to discuss the project findings.
The International CSI (ICSI) Workshop will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, from the 19th to 21st of June 2006, prior to the CIVICUS World Assembly. This event is a milestone for the CSI, as it brings together over a 100 participants from all over the world. The ICSI Workshop provides a forum for CSI project partners and selected stakeholders, such as International Steering Group members, donors, academics and other stakeholders, to identify key findings of the CSI, evaluate the CSI project phase 2003-2005 and chart ways forward for the future of the CSI.
For two and a half days participants will share lessons learnt and insights about the state of civil society around the world. On day one of the workshop, participants will engage with the CSI findings on a regional level, as they attempt to pin point regional trends related to civil society issues. The six regions discussed at the workshop will be 1) Africa 2) Asia 3) Latin America 4) Middle East and Mediterranean 5) Post Communist Europe and Eurasia and 6) Western Europe.
On the second day of the workshop, participants will engage in discussion groups focusing on issues such as: civil society-donor relations, civil society’s impact on public policy, networks and infrastructure of civil society and the definitions of civil society used around the world. A night cap discussion is also scheduled, where representatives from various civil society measurement projects, such as the Commonwealth Study, John Hopkins Non-profit Sector Project, as well as the Civil Society Index, to discuss and share the challenges and insights of measuring civil society worldwide.
The ICSI Workshop is an exciting opportunity for participants and the general public to gain knowledge about the current state of civil society around the world. The CIVICUS CSI team will document and publish the proceedings of the workshop online to make the key findings of the workshop available to all those interested. In the meantime, a paper titled, CIVICUS Civil Society Index: Preliminary Findings Phase 2003-2005 is already available for download. The paper gives a glimpse of the preliminary findings of the CSI phase 2003-2005. For more information about the ICSI workshop and CSI programme please visit the ICSI page of the CSI pages of the CIVICUS website, www.civicus.org.
