1. Neighborhood Civil Society Facility Regional Seminar Brussels, 9 and 10 February 2012
ENGAGING STRATEGICALLY WITH CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE
EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD

2. Purpose and structure of this session
Provide overview of guidance
Reflect and integrate
recent EC/EU developments: ENP review, new policies, etc.
Recent developments in ENP South and East
Present cases of Morocco and Belarus
Exchange experiences and ideas

3. PART 1: THE CORE QUESTION PART 2: CASES – BELARUS – MOROCCO PART 3: STRATEGIC AND OTHER GUIDANCE PART 4: MORE CASES – QUESTIONS - DISCUSSION

4. PART 1: The core question:
How can the EC:
engage strategically and operationally
with both the state and non-state actors
on various development related issues
when it provides Budget Support
When it engages in Sector Policy Support Programmes?
Or when it cannot engage in these aid modalities?

5. EC guidance on strategic CSO engagement: three agendas….
1. How to make aid more effective?
2. How to make development more participatory?
3. How to understand state-society relations?

6. .. And how to adapt or apply the guidance to the European Neighborhood
1. Contextual features of the European Neighborhood countries
2. EU institutional responses and changes
3. Policy responses

7. 1. Global and regional context
3. New EU policies
2. EU transformations

8. 1. Global and regional context
- 16 countries – vastly differing in socio-economic and political profiles
- Nature of partnership differs
- The Arab Spring
- Attention drawn on democracy and human rights

9. 1. Global and regional context
2. EU transformations
- Lisbon Treaty
- EEAS/DEVCO - EUDs
- PPCM,…

10. 1. Global and regional context 3. New EU policies and tools/facilities
- Modernisation of budget support
- Agenda for Change
- A new response to a changing Neighboorhood
- A partnership for democracy and shared prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean
- Civil Society Facility

11. What’s new? (Or, to what extent is this new?)
Modernising budget support
A new response to a changing Neighbourhood
The Neighboorhood Civil Society Facility
(Action Fiche)
Fundamental values
Encompass and reinforce support to NSAs
Domestic accountability
In structured way
Transparency
And move beyond “simply providing financial support”
Civil society
Towards enhancing engagement with civil society
Coordination between EC and Member States
Coordination and alignment
And increasing its involvement in policy dialogue
Differentiation
Three components 
Component 1: strengthening NSA capacities – to promote national reform and increase public accountability – stronger actors in driving reform
Component 2: strengthening NSA through support to regional and country projects – through thematic programmes and instruments
Component 3: increasing involvement of NSAs in selected EU partner countries policy dialogue and in the implementation of bilateral programmes

12. PART 2: Examples from the field
Morocco
Belarus

13. Examples from Belarus and Morocco
Non-state actors
State-society relations
EC/EU and the state -
EC/EU and state-society on development and poverty reduction

14. PART 3: operational and strategic guidance

15. The basic rationale 1. Making aid more effective
3. Improving knowledge of state-society relations
2. Making aid more participatory

16. Rationale and fit with EU policies and processes
1. Making aid more effective
Budget support
SPSPs
3. Improving knowledge of state-society relations
PPCM
2. Making aid more participatory
EU concensus
Structured Dailogue
The Project and Project Cycle Management process has resulted in relevant draft chapters on context analysis (with a concept note on political economy analysis, and an unfinished chapter on various dimensions of policy dialogue) – the concept note can be downloaded from

17. 1. Making aid more effective – Budget Support and Sector Policy Support Programmes

18. More effective aid and so-called New Aid Modalities
EC and other donors look for ways to make their aid more effective
These efforts include among other things ways to:
Align behind country policies (if these reduce poverty)
Align behind country systems (if there are serious efforts to make these systems work for the poor)
Reduce the burden on partners (through harmonization)
And move from government ownership to country ownership,
And from mutual to domestic accountability
New Aid Modalities include Budget Support and Sector Policy Support Programs

19. 1. Making aid more effective 2. Making aid more participatory

20. Participatory development and Non-State Actors
Development is a multi-stakeholder process where the central state is one of the actors
Development assistance includes support to and through NSAs
Development is a multi-actor participatory process
Participatory
development
NSAs are not only implementing agencies but also promoters of democracy, justice and human rights
Civil Society is recognised in all its diversity
EU is committed to strengthening NSAs to fully participate in political, economic and social dialogue processes

21. Potential entry points for NSA participation in context of NAM
Poverty Reduction Strategies
Etc….
Dialogue on priorities in the budget and policies
Participation in
context of NAM
Monitoring the monitors (such as parliament)
Contributing to the implementation of the policies
Monitoring the implementation (of the budget, of the policies, ..) 21

22. Yet in real life, many obstacles to overcome
Is there political will behind pro-poor policies?
Do parliamentarians respond to demands from citizens?
Is the budget transparent? Does it reflect priorities? Is it credible?
ARE YOU
KIDDING?
Does civil society have the capacities/interest to engage with the state?
Is there an open and transparent dialogue with NSAs?
Is there an enabling environment for Non-State Actors to participate? 22

23. 1. Making aid more effective
3. Improving knowledge of State-society relations
2. Making aid more participatory

24. Understanding state-society relations
In order to overcome these obstacles,
And in order to make and more effective and PARTICIPATORY,
Two more P-words matter: POWER and POLITICS
What affects the opportunities for NSAs to participate?
How are the relations between state and society? Between elites/power holders with civil society?
What are entry points for civil society to engage with the state?
What are the incentives for state actors, elites, power holders to engage with civil society?
What prevents collective action?

25. Some generic guidance Consider NSAs as full fledge actors
Analyze state-society relations systematically
Explore full potential within and beyond NAM
Be prepared to play new roles 25

26. Operational Guidance: potential entry points in state-society
Participation in policy dialogue, sector coordination, mid-term and joint reviews
Participation in formulation PRSP and sector policies
Performance, budget monitoring and users consultation
Contributions to implementation and service delivery

27. Operational guidance: Entry points in the EC cycle of operations
programming
identification and formulation
implementation
monitoring
E.G Type of questions in Programming:
With regard to NAMs, the challenge in this phase is to decide whether or not to programme budget support based on three criteria spelled out in the EC Guidelines:
Taking into account these challenges, EC Delegations could consider – in the light of country conditions and the nature/strength of civil society - the following roles/entry points for NSA engagement in the programming process:
- Participation in the analysis of the country situation, including state-civil society relations;
How to defend/protect space for meaningful NSA participation? This is particularly challenging in authoritarian states that are hostile to the involvement of an autonomous civil society or in weak democratic systems, characterised by limited state-civil society interactions and major capacity constraints?
Identification and Formulation
In First step:
Carrying out a comprehensive country/sector analysis
Assessing eligibility based on the seven areas of assessment
Defining the objectives, purpose and expected results of the proposed GBS/SBS programme and any complementary support
In the second step in the country/sector analysis, particularly when use is made of more analytical approaches (focusing on governance and accountability relations, or political economy dimensions).
Participation in the definition of the national development strategy or the sector policy –which constitutes one of the key eligibility criteria and general conditions for disbursement in budget support operations
In 3rd step:
How to facilitate the direct participation of NSAs, where relevant and feasible, in the design of the various components of a GBS/SPSP?
How to integrate directly or indirectly NSA perspectives in assessing each of the seven key areas?
How to identify the relevant NSAs to be involved - taking into account their levels of representation, legitimacy and capacity? (NSA mappings should show their value here)
Implementation and Monitoring:
Step 1>
Ensuring an effective NSA participation in the implementation of SPSPs focused on service delivery. This may boil down to making ‘public-private partnerships’ (PPP) work in practice. It includes issues such as contracting of services, dialogue, quality control (= addressing upfront the “missing middle” in service delivery mentioned in chapter 1.4);
Organising an effective, ongoing multi-actor dialogue (both formally and informally) at political, strategic and technical levels;
Supporting the production of local evidence by NSAs and other stakeholders on key issues of service delivery (quantity, access, quality, equity) with a view to feed both national policy processes and donor-related support schemes;
Step 2.
Participation in the delivery of services in programmes supported through an SPSP (e.g. in the sectors of health, education);
Participation in the ongoing policy dialogue on GBS/SPSP;
Participation in performance monitoring processes;
Participation in review processes .
Step 3.
How to create more space for the involvement of a wide range of NSA service providers with the ability to lobby for the inclusion of their (pro-poor) interests in sectors supported through an SPSP?
To what extent and how can conditionality's/performance indicators be used as a ‘trigger’ to foster NSA participation?
How to help organising the required legislation, mechanisms and funds to facilitate an effective sub-contracting of NSAs?

28. Guidance in the Reference Document includes:
WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED IN EACH PHASE?
WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL ROLES AND ENTRY POINTS FOR NSAs PARTICIPATION?
WHAT ARE THE MAIN STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED?
EMERGING GOOD PRACTICES?

29. Points of attention: develop knowledge about state and non-state relations
Participation in dialogue on poverty reduction strategies and sector policies
Engagement in sector coordination
Involvement in performance budget monitoring
Efficient service provision
Capacity development with other NSAs
EC will have to address capacity shortages if necessary
Better understanding of “politics” helps explain where aid has been effective and where not
A political economy analysis helps to understand:
If and how state-society bargaining takes place
Whether, how and around which interests citizens organise collectively
How elites reach political settlements, for example over taxes, or over the distribution of resources such as aid
Who in and outside government backs poverty reduction strategies and sector policies, if there are coalitions or not
And whether there is a credible budget to cover the costs…
This knowledge is very country or context specific

30. Points of attention: Ensuring Complementarity of Instruments
Support to NSAs within new aid modalities
Support of NSAs around new aid modalities
Preparing the ground for NSAs involvement in NAMs
Remaining engaged….

31. Points of attention: promote Smart Partnerships
With other donors (division of labour, complementarity, harmonisation, etc.)
With domestic state actors
With domestic non-state actors
Facilitate smart partnership between NSAs and Local Governments
Promote transparency

32. Points of attention: new roles for the EC
What does it mean for the EC to adopt a political facilitation role?

33. PART 4: How does all this relate to the field – the EN?
What are entry-points for engagement with CS?
Around these aid modalities?
Operational, funding, policy related issues?
Are there opportunities to engage more strategically?
What would help? What is holding you back?

34. Practical info: where to find? Tools and practical Guidance
The Approach
Tools and guidance
Treat NSAs as Actors
Mapping methodology
Governance Analysis Framework
RD: Methodological tool 1, 2, 6
Analyze state-society relations systematically
RD: Methodological tool 4
Capacity4Dev (Political Economy Analysis)
Explore and support the full potential of NSAs involvement in and beyond NAM
RD: Key questions to be posed through policy cycle (4.3)
RD: Methodological tool 1
RD: Dialogue with NSAs, capacity development, combining tools, instruments and approaches (4.4)
Do no Harm-be prepared for new roles
RD: EC new roles (6)
RD: Methodological tool 5, 6, 7

35. Thank you
Jan Vanheukelom