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Non governmental diplomacy
Inesc presents the manifesto of NGO national platform for the creation of International Resource Centre and the reinforcement of non governmental diplomacy. NGO National platforms occupy a special place in the international solidarity movement of associations. They are at the service of their member NGOs to help improve the quality of actions undertaken for the most vulnerable people living in all countries in the world. They also help mobilise the member NGOs to give a joint response to national, regional or international issues. In this way, they help give shape and strength to what we call “participative democracy”, which complements and gives more meaning to representative democracy.
Manifesto of NGO national platforms for the creation of International Resource Centre and the reinforcement of non governmental diplomacy
16 May 2007
NGO National platforms occupy a special place in the international solidarity movement of associations. They are at the service of their member NGOs to help improve the quality of actions undertaken for the most vulnerable people living in all countries in the world. They also help mobilise the member NGOs to give a joint response to national, regional or international issues. In this way, they help give shape and strength to what we call “participative democracy”, which complements and gives more meaning to representative democracy.
Coming from various continents and regions of the world, we strive, each of us in our respective regions, to create and/or strengthen the dynamics of cooperation between national platforms of the same region, and engender regional coalitions, which become legitimate and natural interlocutors for the regional public institutions.
We feel that international grouping of national platforms or cooperations among regional coalitions help mobilize all the NGOs organized at national and regional levels to participate in international public debates and interact with international negotiators.
NGOs, founded on the right of association and created by citizens to respond to humanitarian crises, to support partners that are victims of situations of under-development or disregard of human rights, or to protect the environment against onslaughts, are most deeply committed to people or communities to help them fight against these onslaughts. In order to be effective, NGOs must also be organized at different geographical levels to denounce the rules and practices that are partly responsible for the problems encountered locally. It is only then that they can propose negotiation of new rules and new rights enabling each and every one to take part in the construction of local, national, regional and, one day, international democracies.
Without underestimating the respective roles of the big international NGOs and federations of NGOs belonging to the same family that are active in many countries, we are of the opinion that NGO national platforms and their regional coalitions that mobilize all the NGOs, those that are recognized by the quality of their operations and actions, bring a new democratic dimension to the international movement of NGOs.
The purpose of creating the International Resource Centre (IRC) is to support NGO national platforms and their regional and international cooperations and help them take part in international public debates and interact with international negotiators. It is an instrument for what we call « non governmental diplomacy ». This phase of conception and inception of the IRC is supported by five national platforms – ABONG/ Brazil, ACCION/Chili, CONGAD/Senegal, Coordination SUD/France and VANI/India -, and it intends to expand to many other constituted national platforms and regional coalitions, beginning with the CONCORD/European Union, Mesa de Articulacion/ Central and South America and REPAOC/ West and Central Africa coalitions, which are already partners in the project. In this Prototype phase, the IRC is being established with support and advice from some foundations (Ford Foundation, Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation), International organisations (UNDP) and bilateral cooperations.
