9th Ibero-American Civil Society Meeting

Event 9th Ibero-American Civil Society Meeting
Date 23-25 November
Venue Guayaquil, Ecuador

Promoting development from the ground up continues to be the great challenge for the civil societies of Ibero-American countries. This was one of the problems that the 9th Ibero-American Civil Society Meeting debated when it convened in Guayaquil, Ecuador between 23 and 25 November. Under the title of Local Development, Business and Citizenship, over 350 representatives of Ibero-American foundations and CSOs discussed themes which included the management of local public services, the promotion of citizenship, the role of business in civic education, migration, and cross-sector development strategies.

There are very low levels of citizen participation, organization, responsibility, tolerance and respect for the law in Ibero-American countries, the conference heard. There is a paramount need for governments to encourage citizen participation, and for the involvement of business in local development, concentrating on its areas of expertise and opening up the possibility of strategic alliances and development projects among all the sectors involved. At the same time, CSOs are in a good position to link the development efforts of public and private sectors and to make them more effective, because they are closer to the needs and demands of citizens.

Successful examples were presented of local, national and transnational citizen participation, of good governance, and of harmonious relations between business and local populations. It was pointed out that the local arena offers a good forum for the exercise of corporate social responsibility and that to be useful and lasting, any social compact has to involve government, business and civil society.

Juan Andrés García is Director of the Association of Spanish Foundations. Email jagarcia@fundaciones.org

For more information
www.iberoguayaquil2008.com