CIVIL SOCIETY SUMMIT

A 2-day Summit, with the title National Summit for Civil Society Participation under the new Cotonou Agreement, was held in Johannesburg from 12-13 August. About 150 delegates representing organs of civil society, drawn from the trade union movement, youth, women, people with disability, churches, community based organisations, cooperative associations, civic movement, business and other non-governmental organizations took part. The delegates agreed on the need to improve participation of civil society organisations within Nedlac and other relevant institutions as well as the need to ensure that civil society organisations engage proactively in the influencing and monitoring of the New Cotonou Agreement. This is the trade and aid agreement between the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries which replaced the Lomé agreement.

Under the broad heading of the implications of the implementation of the New Cotonou Agreement for civil society in our country, Africa and developing countries in general, the summit debated issues such as good governance, development financing and trade, the relationship between Nedlac and the European Union's Economic and Social Council, Ecosoc.

The Summit adopted a wide-ranging declaration, which covered issues such as:

• the need to build capacity of civil society, through, inter alia, forming partnerships with NEDLAC, the ACP Secretariat and the European Union
• Government's responsibility to promote inclusivity of stakeholder representation in all its programmes and projects;
• the need to link trade policy to industrial strategy and development policies, to ensure rural and urban development issues are also advanced through trade promotion;
• Resolving to link with civil society structures in SADC and the African Continent

The Summit further resolved to establish a national civil society forum and to convene the summit annually to consider progress being made on the ACP-EU implementation process.