Constructive Engagement with Government
The relationship between civil society and government is complicated and sometimes constraint by a number of factors. The lack of understanding of each other’s goals, the restrictive government procedures or policies, problems of attitude and distrust on both sides, lack of clear government policy on civil society, poor communication between CSOs and government, contrasting top down government’s approach and the participatory bottom up approaches of CSOs are amongst some of the factors that inhibit collaboration. Our work supports an enabling environment for CSOs to constructively engage with government through dialogue and consultation. We explore new ways of improving state- civil society collaboration while remaining independent in our thinking and approach as civil society.
Our work has led to the creating of the Civil Society Forum on Transparent Governance which is a regional platform for improving good governance and increasing dialogue between civil society and public authorities. In 2021, the strategic plan for this dialogue forum was elaborated and you can see details here
