NATIONAL SUMMIT FOR CIVIL
SOCIETY PARTICIPATION UNDER THE NEW COTONOU AGREEMENT
13 August 2002
A successful 2-day civil society summit has ended in
Johannesburg with civil society groupings agreeing 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.
The summit, held under the auspices of the National Economic
Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), brought together 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.
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 need to build a partnership between the government and
civil society organisations to promote growth, advance development
and create economic opportunities for all.
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.
13 August 2002
Contact: Jennifer Wilson on 011 328 4211 / 083 652 8524