In recognition of the increasingly prominent role global civil society networks play in promoting citizen action, addressing common challenges and sector-wide issues and providing opportunities for joint advocacy and campaigning, knowledge sharing and peer learning for civil society organizations, CIVICUS has restructured its programmes to bring together the Secretariats of two global civil society networks (the Affinity Group of National Associations and the International Advocacy Organisations Workshop) under one Programme: the Civil Society Networks.

Affinity Group of National Associations

The Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA) was launched at the 2004 CIVICUS World Assembly in Botswana to convene national umbrella associations of NGOs and NPOs for the purpose of creating a forum to share knowledge and experiences on generic civil society issues and of encouraging civil society engagement and co-operation across national boundaries in the pursuit of mutual interests. AGNA aims to address needs that are particular to national associations which provide and give a collective voice to civil society, serve as interlocutors between civil society and other sectors and struggle for the creation of an enabling environment for civil society by providing services to members and the sector as a whole.

In 2006, CIVICUS consolidated its secretariat role for AGNA, provided administrative support for the AGNA Steering Committee, translated a number of AGNA materials into French and Spanish, updated the AGNA website on a regular basis to provide useful information for national associations and conducted aggressive outreach efforts, increasing AGNA's membership to 53 national associations globally. Additionally, AGNA conducted scoping research and analysis of national associations and designed and collected over 50 surveys of national associations in order to better understand the composition, challenges, activities, needs and expectations of national associations from AGNA. The results of these surveys, along with consultations with members, formed the basis for AGNA's operational plan for future activities.

Specific achievements include:

While much was achieved in 2006, a lot more needs to be done to enable AGNA to fulfil its potential of serving its members and consolidating the work of national associations globally. Limited capacity among some AGNA members in terms of staff and technology, domestic priories and the divergence of needs among members has led to challenges in maintaining a high level of involvement among AGNA members in between face-to-face meetings. CIVICUS hopes that the recently received grant from the Ford Foundation and the employment of a permanent part-time AGNA Coordinator can give CIVICUS more leverage in supporting a greater number of peer-learning and capacity-building activities throughout the year. AGNA remains a nascent initiative, and its future success and development largely depends on the active involvement and commitment of its members.

International Advocacy Non-Governmental Organisations Workshop

Now in its fifth year, the International Advocacy Non-Governmental Organisations (IANGO) Workshop provides a space for leaders of IANGOs to engage in collective reflection, personal learning and strategic thinking in order to enable individual and collective action on common challenges and opportunities. One tangible output of the IANGO workshop is the launch of the Accountability Charter in June 2006, which sets a common code of conduct for organisations that work trans-nationally on the promotion of public goods. CIVICUS functions as the secretariat for the Accountability Charter and as co-facilitator (with the Hauser Center) on the IANGO Workshop.

In 2006, the IANGO Workshop co-facilitators (Hauser and CIVICUS) organised the Annual Workshop hosted by Amnesty International in London. Over thirty leaders of IANGOs focusing on diverse issues such as poverty eradication, environmental advocacy, human rights, women's rights, labour rights, citizen participation and good governance participated in the meeting. At the meeting, the Founding Signatories consisting of ActionAid International, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Consumers International, Greenpeace International, Oxfam International, International Save the Children Alliance, Survival International, International Federation Terre des Hommes, Transparency International and the World YWCA officially launched the International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGO) Accountability Charter, publicly outlining their collective commitment to progressively apply the highest standards of professional and moral conduct to all their operations, policies and activities and to provide annual reports of their compliance with the Accountability Charter.

In 2006, CIVICUS was able to consolidate its Secretariat function for both the IANGO Workshop (formally hosted by Hauser) and the Accountability Charter (newly launched), develop systems to manage communications between multiple stakeholders, organise regular teleconferences between the IANGO Steering Committee and the INGO Charter Steering Group, and started planning for the 2007 Annual IANGO Workshop.

Specific achievements include:

The launch of the Accountability Charter is merely a starting point in setting and implementing a system that will improve the accountability of INGOs. With the development of this accountability mechanism for International Non-Governmental Organisations, CIVICUS, in its dual role of the Secretariat and Founding Signatory of the Charter, will face new and complex challenges. We hope that facing them will improve our own accountability as an organisation and promote the values of accountability and transparency across the civil society sector.

Diana Eltahawy
Civil Society Networks Coordinator 2006