It is late Sunday afternoon and the end of the second day of the 10th CIVICUS World Assembly, being held in Montréal. There is one more day to come. I am a bit weary and almost ‘conferenced out’ but I’ll use this post to offer some initial observations. At the end of the conference, I’ll provide another post with some concluding comments.

This is the fifth World Assembly I have attended since my first – in Manila in 1999. I’ll touch on a few differences I have noted between this and the earlier World Assemblies. In the interests of full disclosure, it should be noted that I served as Board Chair of CIVICUS from 2001 to 2004, which may colour these comments to some extent.