Strengthening the role of civil society in multi-stakeholder fora - how to do it?

The workshop is organised by the Citizens’ Global Platform and the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy.

Multi-stakeholder processes often have a negative ring to NGOs, mainly because the balance of power in these mechanisms often works against them. However, this way of working has become a mainstay in political processes, and this seminar explores possibilities of reinforcing civil society input in multi-stakeholder fora.

The panellists will look at strengthening the role of civil society at different levels of governance, and in different contexts.

They include experts of political processes:

Mr John Evans, General Secretary, Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD, UK; Helsinki Group member
Ms Heidi Hautala, Member of Parliament, Finland; Helsinki Process
Mr John Foster, Principal Researcher-Civil Society/Governance, the North-South Institute, Canada
Ms Rebecca Muna, Co-ordinator of Citizens’ Global Platform, Tanzania
Mr Kumi Naidoo, Civicus, South Africa (tbc)

There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion.

Date:
31.5.2005 time 9:00 - 10:30

Location:
Global Democracy 2005 Conference, Montreal , Canada

Resources Global Democracy 2005 Conference [link] Citizens' Global Platform [link]