The Power of Civil Society

Report on the CSB Network Seminar

Tags: Civil Society Building
Additional tags: Civil society building, Africa, Peru, Tanzania

Hivos and ISS jointly organised a Network Seminar for the fourth time on 27 November and 9 December 2008. The case studies presented explored the diversity of roles and strategies employed by civil society organizations based on the recent field research of four ISS MA students supported by the Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme in 2008. The aim of these seminars was to better understand the power of civil society to influence the state around issues such as HIV/AIDS, women’s rights, reproductive rights, and intellectual property rights.

During the two afternoon seminars (with more than 40 participants), each MA student had about 20 minutes to present the major findings, followed by feedback from Hivos and ISS staff members, and discussion with the participants. The reflection and debate during the seminar were guided, firstly by the underlying questions of the Knowledge Programme and the contributions of these research projects to answering these questions and, secondly, the value of collaboration between a knowledge-based organisation (ISS) and a practice-based organisation (Hivos).

Read the report which highlights some of the most important points of discussion raised. In conclusion, some general lessons and implications for the Knowledge Programme are listed.