Zambia can sound like a success. One of sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest-growing economies – with an average annual expansion of 3% between 2004 and 2013 – it was classed by the World Bank as a lower-middle-income country in 2011.
Groups representing citizen interests around the world are under pressure. Funding cuts and restrictive laws are curtailing their freedom to operate, and many participants at the 2016 Policy Forum on Development (PFD) and Civil...
16-year-old Astghik is an old hand at civic engagement. For the past four years she has been working with fellow citizens and World Vision Armenia to improve local services in Yerevan, with tangible results. Can examples like hers...
“Although development is a global [issue], the implementation is always local. Because it’s at this level that it is most effective,” said Mr Khalifa Sall, President of United Cities and Local Governments and Mayor of Dakar. He...
Director General of DG DEVCO and Chair of the Policy Forum on Development (PFD), Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, opened the forum’s meeting in October last year by talking about the importance of 2015. "It is the end of the Millennium...
For European Union delegations and member states, working effectively with civil society organisations presents different challenges. In Chad it takes five days of desert travel to reach organisations in the north; in Azerbaijan...
How to strengthen the involvement of civil society in public life? Three new case studies from EuropeAid illustrate good practice from three different corners of the world.
The European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative calls on the involvement of civil society in the negotiation and implementation of their Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) with timber...
It has been a year since the European Commission adopted ‘The Roots of Democracy and Sustainable Development: Europe’s Engagement with Civil Society in External Relations‘ Communication, which promotes a more strategic engagement...
FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) are bilateral trade agreements between the European Union (EU) and partner countries aimed at guaranteeing that wood exported to the EU...