Resources

This is a digital resource that allows users to direct and monitor their learning on facilitation at their own pace. It has been compiled for use by a diversity of people who have different levels of understanding and practice of facilitation, and comprises two CDs. The first is designed to give the user a choice of learning pathways appropriate to their interest or needs. These include personal assessment and reflection, interactive games and exercises, video clips and stimulating questions to challenge and probe the learnerÆs thinking processes. The second CD is aimed at those who would like to think about training others to become better facilitators and includes a comprehensive set of training materials and some video material of other trainers in action.

This article introduces the 51st edition of PLA Notes, on civil society and poverty reduction. The PLA notes edition aims to capture the experiences of southern civil society organisations (CSOs) that are engaging in monitoring, evaluating and implementing poverty reduction strategy (PRS) processes. This introductory article describes how the authors involved in this edition of PLA notes came together for a writeshop in Nairobi, Kenya, July 2004. The key issues identified include the diverse nature of civil society; the conditional nature of poverty reduction strategies; the quality and degree of participation of CSOs; and the existing power dynamics that challenge the effective monitoring of poverty reduction funds and consequently the implementation of policy reduction policies. The article concludes by looking at issues of capacity building, shifting accountability relationships, and strengthening facilitatory partnerships between CSOs. In the final section, the authors look at how we can build on these reflections and move forward.

This article looks at the experiences of the Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa (SEND Foundation) in building the capacity of civil society groups and local government officials in resource-poor northern Ghana. The article uses these experiences as a case study to explore how the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) engages pro-poor and grassroots civil society organisations in facilitating participatory economic development in their local communities. The article has a two-fold focus on capacity building: increasing knowledge and understanding of the GPRS with civil society, and developing participatory monitoring and evaluation skills. The focus is on the Ghana HIPC Watch, which is a pilot project that aims to be a mechanism through which civil society organisations can engage in policy monitoring and evaluation. The central concerns of equity and accountability, particularly in terms of gender, emerged as important issues.

The Access Initiative (TAI) has developed this interactive toolkit CD-ROM to stimulate national progress on the access to environmental decision-making. It provides over 100 indicators that civil society organizations can use to monitor government performance in implementing public participation in decisions that affect the environment. Twenty-five civil society organizations from nine countries pilot-tested the original methodology and helped TAI identify global standards for public participation and information. These universally applicable benchmarks help civil society coalitions identify ways that their countries can move toward compliance with global norms for access to information, participation and justice in environmental decision-making. The methodology specifically measures the following: comprehensiveness and quality of the general legal framework for access to information, participation, and justice; degree of available access to selected types of information about the environment; degree of public participation in decision-making processes in selected sectors by actors in the development process at various levels; the accessibility of justice, both redress and remedy; and comprehensiveness and quality of capacity building efforts to encourage informed and meaningful public participation. The CD-ROM includes an interactive database for recording research and a detailed "How-to" Guide that provides user-friendly instructions for all phases of the assessment, including assembling a coalition, launching a study, selecting cases and research methods, finalizing data, and using the findings to stimulate tangible results. Additional resources such as a glossary, Internet links, PDFs with TAC publications and other background information is also included.

This publication reports on the findings of an advocacy Working Group of NGOs in the Philippines. The study documents the experiences of the NGOÆs in influencing public policy and provoked reflections on the current conduct of advocacy in the country. It identifies competencies and techniques useful in effecting policy changes, and identified the capacity-building needs of NGOs and the requirements for developing a discipline for advocacy. A case study method is employed to look at policy-influencing experiences from 1990 to the present, of advocates working on cooperatives, gender, ancestral domain, agrarian reform, labour, aquatic reform, local governance, debt and taxation, and social services. The cases examine processes and techniques for achieving policy reform and focus on the interaction between public policy makers and social actors. The study is also based on reflections and information emerging from discussion fora with key informants (academics, government, etc). Eight case studies are presented and analysed in the report, examining levels of advocacy within the organisation and action impact on policy. In conclusion, the study lists some of the reasons for success and failure in advocacy and gives recommendations for capacity building for supporting advocacy, which concentrates on: enhancing a framework; integrating research and information management; research; skills for market research; ability for negotiation; broadening linkages and networks; strengthening organisation and management; and developing the discipline Finally it proposes some general and comprehensive indicators on measuring advocacy outcomes.