Civil society plays an indispensable role in holding government institutions to account, promoting openness in Commonwealth societies and enabling the fair and efficient application of law and public services.
Yet civil society organisations themselves are coming under increased scrutiny today. With pressure from donors, governments and the public, they must be wholly transparent about their own operations, activities and sources of funding.
Using our unique position as an intergovernmental organisation in the Commonwealth, civil society groups gain unrivalled access to their leaders at CHOGM and other high-level meetings on finance, education, health and women’s affairs. With our grant funding, we encourage diverse voices to be heard, strengthen relationships between individuals, groups and governments and stimulate a conversation among equal partners.
We generate practical resources, research and case studies on principles of transparency and accountability for CSOs working in Commonwealth countries. We help CSOs to apply principles of transparency and accountability to their own work.
Bolstering skills in areas such as monitoring, reporting and complaints redress, we also promote strong links and knowledge sharing among likeminded organisations.
Projects
• Accountability
Identified as a priority across the Commonwealth, the programme will build upon six country accountability toolkits , to undertake institutional and sectoral capacity development work on accountability across the Commonwealth. The programme is supporting, through funding, training and convening, civil society organisations to gain knowledge and disseminate practices and tools which strengthen the sector in the area of accountability.
• Pacific and Caribbean
Informed by our research and inputs from partners, we are developing a Special Project that recognises a pressing need for accountability capacity development, for CSOs in the Pacific and Caribbean regions. The programme is currently working with local partners on a multi-year project to develop a framework and suite of activities to strengthen the accountability of civil society in these regions.
• Participation and citizenship
Civic education guide: Building on the Citizens’ Education Action Learning Guide (CEAL) to promote and facilitate people participation in governance, the programme is working to review and disseminate this work more widely across the Commonwealth. We are working to make the guide accessible as an e-learning module and a visual media tool. As part of this project the programme will be delivering training to national partners on the use of the guide and supporting dissemination work.
• Accountability Toolkits, (2011)
The Commonwealth Foundation identified a common need across the Commonwealth for tools on civil society accountability. From this, working in conjunction with national partners, was born the Civil Society Accountability: Principles and Practice toolkit series, which are six country specific accountability tools which highlight common principles of accountability for CSOs, identify current good practices and provide practical steps to help CSOs realise their own accountability needs. Although country specific the tools have been developed in recognition of the relevance to any country working in similar contexts. The countries are Belize, India, Sierra Leone, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and the Pacific.
• Accountability forum, (2010)
Recognising the need for cross sector discussion about transparency and openness, the Commonwealth Foundation convened an online discussion group of civil society, public servants and ministers to take part in the debate. This forum gave practitioners and interested parties the space to ask questions to a group of highly experience individuals from the civil society and government sector.
• Policy makers and civil society partnerships, (2010)
Utilising its unique position as an intergovernmental organisation the Commonwealth Foundation, with the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM), convened a group of civil society practitioners and policy makers to explore issues around effective partnerships. The results of this group were used to inform discussion in the lead up to the Commonwealth People’s Forum 2011.
• Participation and citizenship, (2005)
Born out of a large scale research project which interviewed 10,000 people in 47 Commonwealth Countries, the Citizen Education Action Learning Guide (2005) was developed to challenge the limited participation of citizens in governance. The guide was designed as an interactive learning publication for facilitators, trainers and community leaders to provide them with the tools for citizenship education.