Task Team’s First Country-level Workshop

June 2019

The Task Team is co-creating a workshop with the Government of Kenya’s National Treasury and Planning, Reality of Aid Africa, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, on CSO Development Effectiveness and the CSO Enabling Environment from 27-28 June, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. The theme of the workshop is “Going Further Together”. 

The overall objective of the workshop is 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 aims 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.

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.

Task Team bi-annual meeting

November 2018

The Task Team held its latest bi-annual meeting on 28-29 November at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. Participants spoke about implementation of its Strategy 2019-2021, including activities related to the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation and the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as country-level pilots anticipated for early 2019. 

With respect to the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, the Task Team amongst others discussed the Senior Level Meeting in New York in July 2019. For the Sustainable Development Goals the Task Team discussed its engagement in the upcoming July 2019 High Level Political Forum in New York. Participants furthermore talked about its country-level work, with multi-stakeholder pilot workshops anticipated for early 2019, as well as the Task Team’s tenth anniversary which will be celebrated in June 2019 in Paris.

The meeting was attended by 9 participants from the CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE); 9 partner country government participants; and 13 donor participants (representing 9 donor agencies). The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation’s (Global Partnership) Joint Support Team (JST) was also present for day one. A representative from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) participated as an observer, while an ISS professor was present for the Studies session.