CIVICUS and the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), our partner organisation in the Philippines, co-organised a two-day workshop titled, "Strengthening Accountability of the Civil Society Sector on the 14th and 15th of December 2011 in Manila.

Dear friends, partners and supporters, What a year 2011 was! Often I found myself quoting Lenin: 'Sometimes decades pass and nothing happens, then weeks pass and decades happen.

The regional workshop on democratising governance through citizen participation brought together representatives of civil society organisations, international organisations and participatory governance practitioners from Ethiopia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to share experiences in advancing participatory governance, identify key gaps in participatory governance processes at local, national and continental levels and propose solutions aimed at filling these gaps and making participatory governance effective at all levels.

1 November was the official close of the call for submissions to the compilation document for Rio+20.