10th meeting IAEG-SDGs

October 2019

The tenth meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators, hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, will be held from 21 to 24 October 2019 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (IAEG-SDGs). The Plenary Session is taking place from 22 – 24 October. The Task Team will be monitoring the outcomes closely and is particularly interested in any discussions revolving around the absence of a SDG indicator measuring the inclusion and participation of CSOs in the development process (achievement of the SDGs). More information on the IAEG-SDGs meeting can be found on the UN website.

November 2019 Task Team Meeting

September 2019

The next Task Team Meeting will be held on Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 November 2019 in Dublin, and will be hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade of Ireland. The meeting is scheduled back-to-back with the International Donor Group Meeting (Wednesday 27 November) as well as the first meeting of the OECD Community of Practice (Thursday 28 November).

Task Team’s First Country-level Workshop

June 2019

On 27-28 June 2019, the Task Team co-created its first country-level workshop in Nairobi (Kenya), together with the Government of Kenya’s National Treasury and Planning, Reality of Aid Africa, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The theme of the workshop was “Going Further Together”, and focused on civil society organisation (CSO) development effectiveness and the CSO enabling environment. Watch a summary video of the workshop here.

The overall objective of the workshop was to generate an understanding of the international commitments on CSO development effectiveness and enabling environment; what this means in practice for different development actors; and the benefits that can ensue through means of good practice examples from other countries. The workshop aimed to contribute to SDG 17 (multi-stakeholder partnerships) by providing a starting point for a multi-stakeholder dialogue platform, and more understanding of stakeholders’ varied roles in advancing CSO engagement to achieve the SDGs.

A key outcome of the workshop was agreement amongst participants to start drafting a partnership framework for Kenya towards more meaningful and frequent multi-stakeholder dialogue.

Civil Society Days, Paris

April 2019

In April 2019 the Task Team reached its 10^th anniversary. This was celebrated during the Civil Society Days on 4-7 June, 2019. The event is co-hosted by the OECD and the Task Team, and took place at the OECD Conference Centre in Paris. More information on the Civil Society Days is available on the official event page and on our website under past activities.

Civic Space Conference

March 2019

An international conference on “Claiming Civic Space Together” was held in Copenhagen on 4-5 March 2019. The conference was attended by NGOs, government and private sector representatives. From the Task Team, numerous participants as well as a member of the Secretariat were in attendance.

The conference brought together civil society from different parts of the world that experience different forms of civic space restrictions, as well as private sector actors and governments, with the aim of identifying tangible strategies to protect and enhance civic space globally. The conference was organized by Danish civil society organizations under the auspices of the Global Focus NGO network and hosted by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

New Task Team Co-chair

November 2018

The Task Team is happy to welcome its new Co-chair for the official donor community: Ms. Orla Mc Breen, Director of the Civil Society and Development Education Unit at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Ireland. She replaces former Co-chair: Mr. Cornelius Hacking, Lead Education Specialist at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to whom the Task Team extends its gratitude for his contribution over the years.

Since joining the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2000, Orla has held a number of senior and interesting positions. She worked in the EU Division, in the Council of Europe, and in the Anglo-Irish Division, working on Justice and Security. She later moved to New York where she worked for five years as Permanent Mission of Ireland to the UN with responsibility for Human Rights and Gender Equality. She then took on the role of Consul General at the Irish Embassy in Chicago before returning to Ireland in 2016 to become Head of Public Service Reform at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Orla participated in her first Task Team meeting in The Hague, which was held on 28-29 November 2018 in The Hague, The Netherlands. The Task Team looks forward to a fruitful collaboration.