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2020-01-17
GivingTuesday;
Giving Tuesday's 2019 Impact Report shares the results of GivingTuesday 2019; but also offers a glimpse into the implications of the generosity that occurred on the day, challenging us to imagine a world where radical generosity is unleashed every single day.
2020-01-30
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace;
In the past two years, the Russian public's appetite for change has increased considerably. A small but growing group of Russians blame President Vladimir Putin for the country's problems, and his capacity to deliver change is now being questioned. Yet the demands for change are taking very different forms, not only in open protests but also through latent discontent, and the public has not identified a specific alternative leader as a potential agent of change.In July 2019, the Carnegie Moscow Center and the Levada Center, Russia's main independent polling agency, conducted a third poll in two years asking 1,600 Russians about their readiness for change. The results show some striking new trends. A total of 59 percent of respondents—17 percent more than two years before—said that the country needed "decisive comprehensive change" (see Figure 1). The Russian publication of this research in November 2019 attracted a lot of attention from the media and political class. An answer came in January 2020 in a form of constitutional changes and the resignation of the government. In his annual address on January 15, Vladimir Putin said: "Our society is clearly calling for change. People want development. . . . The pace of change must be expedited every year and produce tangible results in attaining worthy living standards that would be clearly perceived by the people. And, I repeat, they must be actively involved in this process."
2020-02-01
Open Society Foundations;
Civil Society Organizations and General Data Protection Regulation Compliance: Challenges, Opportunities and Best Practices, a new report from the Open Society Information Program, looks specifically at the ways that the world's most comprehensive data privacy law impacts nongovernmental organizations.It examines, in practical terms, what these kind of organizations have done to comply with the law. It also presents research showing ways that governments, businesses, and some powerful individuals have tried—so far unsuccessfully—to use the law to prevent these organizations from pursuing public interest research and reporting.Finally, the report provides a best practices guide that can be used to ensure compliance and limit risk.
2020-01-28
West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI);
The effective implementation of WACSI's interventions is dependent on civil society's contributions and feedback on the Institute's work in promoting an open, safe and prosperous West Africa. WACSI's interventions are guided and inspired by the critical voices from key stakeholders and engagement by different communities and groups across West Africa. At WACSI, we are conscious that civic space affects everything civil society does and everything civil society does affects civic space. A safe, open, free and enabling space for all to form and voice opinions, debate, be heard and peacefully protest, is also an essential prerequisite for achieving the ECOWAS Vision 2020. Civic freedoms including the freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, safe environments and effective participation are therefore essential. This Op-Ed critically assesses the civic space environment in 2019, predictions for 2020 and issues that need more introspection and collective action.
2020-03-04
West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI);
Social accountability is an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement in which citizens participate directly or indirectly in demanding accountability from service providers and public officials. It usually combines information on rights and service delivery with collective action for change. It has become a tool for direct engagement with service providers to ensure that citizens get adequate services or adequate explanation when those services are not available. When social accountability mechanisms are weak, the context becomes more challenging for communities or individual citizens to play a powerful role. Also, social accountability is fundamentally and ultimately a question of power as it requires both social and political pressure to ensure that duty bearers are kept on their toes. This piece will therefore explore the tools and approaches that some African social movements used to effectively drive the social accountability agenda. The tools we are exploring here are respectively social media and creative arts, while the approaches will be based on their ways of mobilising and organising. We conclude by making some recommendations for donors, government, citizens and other stakeholders.
2020-03-10
Center for Economic and Policy Research;
This study focuses primarily on the 'Final Report' of the OAS audit of the election results and shows how the authors of that report misrepresent the data and evidence found in the audit in an attempt to further bolster their claims of intentional manipulation on the part of Bolivia's former electoral authorities. The OAS Final Report identifies many real problems with the management of the elections that should be addressed. However, despite claims to the contrary, it does not provide any evidence that those irregularities altered the outcome of the election, or were part of an actual attempt to do so.
2020-04-20
Center for American Progress;
the COVID-19 outbreak has laid bare the need for a more proactive and integrated approach to fight infectious disease epidemics, which are becoming more common in many regions around the world. Specifically, alongside investments in epidemiological research and healthcare, we need to address the problem at its root: the destruction of nature.
2020-05-01
Donors and Foundations Networks in Europe (DAFNE);
This handbook provides practical guidance for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to advocate and litigate using EU law to protect their rights and civic space in the EU.It aims to be a user-friendly guide for CSOs who want to know::What EU law is and how it affects individuals and organisations;When and how CSOs can challenge national provisions or measures that impact their mission, activities and operations on the basis of EU law, including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR);Which legal avenues and resources are available for CSOs to defend their civic space within the EU law frameworkA list of resources as well as practical tools can be found in the last part the document.
2020-01-01
West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI);
Despite the recognition of the instrumentality of governance and leadership to the sustainability of nonprofit organisations by researchers and practitioners around the world, there is still very limited knowledge on the effectiveness or otherwise of governance in Ghana's civil society sector. This paper is based on an extensive research into governance systems institutionalisation and effectiveness in selected civil society organisations (CSOs) in Ghana which revealed among other things that governance systems and structures of many CSOs in the country are poorly instituted and largely ineffective. It also discovered ineffective management of executive transitions and abrupt departures of key staff and leaders which were due mainly to the absence of succession plans and roadmaps. The paper argues on the basis of the evidence that in the absence of sound governance systems and structures, a CSO cannot be properly described as sustainable irrespective of the amount of financial resources the organisation can mobilise.
2020-05-23
West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI);
From the Niger Delta in Nigeria to the southern part of Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa is blessed with a vast array of natural resources. To paint a more vivid picture, Ghana is endowed with a vast deposit of gold, manganese, bauxite and diamond. Similarly, vast deposits of manganese, gold, copper, uranium, bauxite and limestone can be found in Burkina Faso. Furthermore, Niger is the fourth-largest producer of uranium globally; while Mali is the third-largest producer of gold, and Guinea is home to 50% of the global bauxite reserve.
2020-05-01
West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI);
The outbreak of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to the organisational health of community-based organisations (CBOs) especially in the global south. CBOs are important public health system stakeholders as they provide numerous, often highly valued COVID-19 response services to the members of their communities. The Coronavirus pandemic has broadened and increased the complexities related to the operations and strategic focus for most CBOs. Therefore, concerns about CBOs' capacity for sustainability have become essential as it has significant implications for achieving the sustainable development goals.
2020-04-14
West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI);
The phrase 'back to the basics' is a stark reminder of the importance of enhancing capacity. Capacity strengthening is the basic foundational pillar that ensures the viability of an organisation. Interestingly, we often must be reminded of the importance of building our organisation's capacity.Just like in the business sphere, CSOs are formed with the intention of operating successfully and sustainably. The only difference is that the formation of CSOs is often driven by a social need or a community problem instead of a profit motive. Therefore, capacity development is essential to ensure that CSOs do not only survive but also thrive.
