Executive Summary
Asia Development Alliance (ADA) is a regional network of 28 National NGO Platforms (NPF) in 19 countries in Asia. These NPF are ADA’s active members . As a legitimate catalyst and representative of the voice of the CSOs from across Asia , ADA works to strengthen the capacities of civil society to ensure the effective and efficient participation of civil society actors in official negotiations especially in SDGs of Agenda 2030. ADA also advocates for the defense of an enabling environment for civil society organisations in the context of continued shrinking civic space to influence public policy at the national, regional and international level.
ADA is also a regional network coalition among members of Forus, CIVICUS AGNA and other NPs engaged in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
During the last 7 years since its inception in February, 2013, ADA has emerged as a strong network for members; as a credible, legitimate, effective and sustainable institution with national members actively contributing to building it as an international community with growing membership with a pan Asia outreach.
ADA has also emerged as an international CSO learning platform, bringing together and strengthen CSO networks at global, regional and national level through joint collaborative efforts on preparing advocacy reports on national VNR process since last four years ,tool kit on CSOs engagement in the VNR process, national indicators for goal 16, global report on goal 16 based on national case studies in collaboration with the global platforms like TAP network, Forus etc.
ADA is reclaiming the discourse of development and connecting language, bringing forward diverse opinions of members, prioritizing areas linked to SDGs, deploying civic diplomacy to secure resources for CSO networks and helping in pushing the local agenda and defending the CS space (Central Asia, NE Asia)
In an efforts to localise SDGs , ADA has been organising training and capacity building initiatives called Glocal Advocacy for leadership in Asia (GALA) at regional, sub-regional and national levels , a bottom – up approach to train more than 500 CSO professionals/activists who have been leading their training and advocacy efforts to engage with various stakeholders on SDGs implementation, monitoring and review mechanism at the local levels apart from representation at various platforms. In last few years ADA has organised these trainings in Bangkok, Nepal, Cambodia, Bhutan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Kazakhstan , etc. to name a few with support from Forus and KOICA, TAP Network and other regional platforms.
Our Unique Contribution to Change
Our identity:
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Our diverse membership pan Asia and identity as a strong regional coalition from Asia
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Our strong mandate to defend civic space and promote civil society.
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Our focus on strengthening citizen action and civil society writ large, working across issues, geographies and organisation types.
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Our role in legitimizing the voices of the civil society with strong governance , transparency and accountability mechanism and inclusive and participatory decision-making with multi-stakeholder partnership
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Our commitment to standing in solidarity with actors across civil society on SDGs implementation, monitoring and review process
Our principles
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We believe in equality, inclusivity justice and dignity for all, on the principles of ‘Leave No One Behind’ (LNOB) of Sustainable Development Goals, hence advocating for the mainstreaming the most marginalised section
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We believe that the SDGs of Agenda 2030 is a great opportunity to work in partnership (with government, UN institution, private sector, and our diverse range of CSOs, i.e, Community based organisations, activists, trade unions , various thematic CSO platforms (SDG 17) with inclusive and participatory decision making
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We believe that people and their organisations, working together, can change the world in solidarity
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We stand for a strong, independent and progressive civil society and an important pillar for development
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We are champions of transparency, accountability, diversity and inclusion.
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We are committed to global solidarity and believe in bottom up approach and beyond borders.
We promote
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The defense of human rights
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The elimination of any form of exclusion
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The fight against inequalities and injustice
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The promotion of sustainable development
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An enabling environment for civil society
Our Added Value
ADA is the only permanent network (as opposed to time bound alliances) grouping the national NGO platforms, with a strong Global South voices.
ADA is a unique and highly valuable channel of expression for thousands of diverse CSOs all aiming at fostering the autonomy of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations, while ensuring the highest degree of organizational and programmatic effectiveness.
ADA works along a peer-to-peer interaction model with a strong emphasis on South-South cooperation.(SSC) values
ADA plays a crucial role in the structuring and strengthening of development National NGO platforms.
ADA is an advocacy organization seeking to play a significant and active role in international governance and negotiations.
ADA work is complementary to the work of other thematic and advocacy networks and therefore facilitates dialogue amongst its members and other key development actors, across and beyond region resulting in relevant and synergetic coalitions.
Introduction
Last few years have witnessed a continued shrinking space for civil society, especially the right based organizations being at the receiving end in many countries of Asia, especially the south and east Asia. The year 2019 was also marked as the fourth year of SDGs implementation. The SDG Summit held in New York on 24-25 September 2019 concluded the first four-year review cycle of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and from the discussions came a clear message –‘we are far from achieving the SDGs[1]’
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Four years after its adoption, more and more references are being made to the 2030 Agenda by international organisations, governments, the private sector and non-state actors, but they rarely question practices, nor do they initiate a transformative project.
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Governments are not doing enough to implement the 2030 Agenda. Implementation must be accelerated by 2030. Some interesting experiments exist, in particular to integrate the SDGs into budgetary processes.
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It is essential to restore the backbone of the 2030 Agenda, to develop a clear vision of what does or does not contribute to the SDGs, and to prevent the SDGs from falling victim to an overly vague game of interpretation that everyone can join without questioning the real impact of their actions on the agenda as a whole.
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To ensure the 2030 Agenda becomes a true global roadmap, it is time to move away from a form of “weak consensus” and to make this programme central to debates, particularly when they are difficult and complex.
Sadly most countries are yet to finalise their national indicators for better monitoring and review process. However, first and foremost would be localizing SDG’s through various training and capacity building program at the country level, which could also be used as better opportunities for larger collaboration with various national governments and later not only re-claiming but expanding our spaces and re-establishing as one of the important pillars of development.
Keeping the above points into consideration, the four-year action plan has been designed for better outreach, training and capacity building advocacy at the national, sub-regional, regional and global level.
Brief History of ADA – Our Work and Achievements
ADA is a regional coalition based in Asia having membership base in 19 countries from the region all across.
Membership and Outreach
Being a membership based organisation, to echo the voices of the national CSOs at the regional and the global level, ADA has been constantly making efforts to strengthen and empower its existing members apart from creating and strengthening the potential members in new countries where the civil society platforms are either not very strengthened or have not been formed. ADA has also prepared a CSO membership toolkit for creation and strengthening the national CSO coalition.
Hence, ADA has been actively working on its outreach activities in order to ensure the national civil society voices and did two national/sub regional outreach workshops in Kazakhstan (2018) (in Central Asia ) and Mongolia (2019) in North East Asia. ARGO, a national platform from Kazakhstan became its first member from the central Asia, while in Mongolia, various CSO groups gathered to attend ADA’s capacity building workshop on SDGs and decided to form a network , representing national voices.
Advocacy
ADA has been doing strong advocacy through its reports and position papers on CSos’ engagement in the VNR process since last four years and Goal 16+ by being part of regional networks like APRCEM, ADN, APSD and Global networks like Forus, A4SD, TAP Network, CIVICUS, AGNA , UN2020 and other like minded organizations besides engaging with the UN at the regional and the global level.
Since last couple of years, ADA has been co-organizing various democracy forums in Busan, Ulabataar, Tokyo ) emphasising the inter-linkages of various SDGs , especially Goal 16+ ADA also organized the Ulaanbaatar democracy forum in early February along with Asia Democracy Network, Community of Democracy , UNDP and other stakeholders on Goal 16 + being strong regional voice in advocating for institutionalising goal 16 by recognizing the same as an enabler and accelerators of all the other goals and calling the CSOs apart from the UN institutions and the member states for robust review and monitoring of the same.
ADA actively participated with its members and partners at various sub-regional forums , organized by the UN ESCAP in north-east Asia and South Asia to hold the state accountable for SDGs implementation, monitoring and review process by proposing strong recommendations. We have organized various side events during the Asia Pacific Civil Society Forum , at UN ESCAP, Bangkok. The side events were organized on the voluntary national review, Goal 16 and localizing VNRs. During these events, there have been efforts made to connect to the members states (Timor Leste, Mongolia, etc.)
ADA has participated in the global events like High Level Political Forums since 2013, Rome Conference called by the UNDESA, IDLO and the government of Italy in Rome in the last week of May, 2019. C20’s, and ADA has emerged as a strong , credible southern voice of the CSOs
ADA has also been actively engaged in the goal 16 report in partnership with Forus and TAP network. The research study is based on 11 national case studies from all across the globe (including 4 from Asia, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia and Timor Leste).
Training and Capacity building
ADA has been organising various national/sub-regional/regional training program on SDGs called Glocal Advocacy Leadership Academy (GALA) in the last 7 years in Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Myanmar, Bhutan, Vietnam, Kazakhstan ( for 5 countries of central Asia) Mongolia, with participation from the CSOs across Asia, apart from Pacific, Europe and Africa in order to capacitate the CSO professionals to actively engage in the national SDGs implementation, monitoring and review mechanism by providing training on VNRs, SDGs plus and linking them with the human rights issues and many GALA trainees were able to make CSO statements and actively got engaged in the HLPFs during the past HLPFs (S. Korea, Timor Leste, Mongolia, Cambodia, Pakistan , Kazakhstan, to name a few)
ADA has also been closely monitoring the VNR process in these countries and helping the members getting engaged in the process at the regional and global levels
In NutShell
In the last 7 years, ADA has emerged as a strong network for members; credible, legitimate, effective and sustainable with national members actively contributing to building it as an international community with growing membership.
ADA has also come up as an international CSO learning platform, bringing together and strengthen CSO networks on global, regional and national level through join collaborative efforts on preparing reports on national VNR process since last four years ,tool kit on CSOs engagement in the VNR process, national indicators for goal 16, global report on goal 16 on the basis on national case studies in collaboration with the global platforms like TAP network, Forus etc.
ADA reclaiming the discourse of development and connecting language, bringing forward diverse opinions of members, prioritizing areas linked to SDGs, deploying civic diplomacy to secure resources for CSO networks and helping in pushing the local agenda and defending the CS space (Central Asia, NE Asia)
External Analysis
ADA has three main areas of concerns for following four years:
CAR:
Capacity Development for its members and partners - Training & Capacity development and ToT of Civil Society organisations, Strengthening Membership and outreach
Advocacy on SDG policies prioritization, financing, and monitoring (VNR/VLR), -Monitoring and Review of SDGs of Agenda 2030 , Engagement with the UN and the member states, Research and position papers
Resource Mobilization: as funding from Western countries has reduced drastically and South- South Cooperation[1]has been strengthened which is way beyond providing financial assistance but encouraging multi-stakeholder partnership and skill exchange between and among the global south so ADA role is to create, connect, and influence for resources and technical assistance and partnership within the global South for the members
In the last three years, ADA did several evaluations during its GALA training and most of the survey results came up with the following suggestions:
Training and Capacity Building
Glocal Advocacy Leadership in Asia (GALA) training has been immensely successful at national, sub-regional and regional level , attended by civil society professionals, government officials and the UN professionals. The five to seven days training program has been highly engaging and trained the participants on SDGs, VNRs, linking development, democracy and human rights and there has been demand to organise the same at the national level, and organising ToT for more outreach , with focuses on
Identifying training focus in new region/countries (Central Asia, SE Asia)
1. Uzbekistan, Kyrghystan, Turkmenistan, Tajiskistan with help from ADA’s new member Kazakhstan (ARGO) in central Asia and Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, Timor Leste, Thailand , Cambodia
2. Helping the CSOs in preparing for VNR’s, shadow reports, research report, engagement with various regional and global Platforms
3. Translation of training materials in the local language
4. Strengthening updating and contextualising GALA training programme for members/partners, by preparing the GALA toolkit (an inclusive efforts coming from the GALA alumni)
5. Moving activity implementation by members
6. Piloting of new learning models; experimentation; innovation labs; joint research with academics; peer to peer; learning by doing (GALA Tool kit)
2. Joint Advocacy/Campaign (business, media, governments, members, intergovernmentalorganisations (EU & UN), KOICA, INGOs, CSOs, donors, citizens, among others.)
a. Convening, advocacy & partnership: this area aims to increase the connections both between ADA members and with key external allies. Key potential focuses included:
Building more spaces for joint research, reflection, sharing and learnings among members; (four years VNR analysis in the Asian countries, Yearly VNR analysis, Goal 16 reports on the basis of national case studies with refined methodologies with Forus, TAP Network, G20 position papers, apart from any other research projects as and when coming in from members.
Building links and partnerships with like-minded progressive allies (e.g. progressive funders, ethical private sector, ethical media, progressive trade unions, social movements); KOICA has been supporting ADA since its inception in almost all regional/sub-regional and national GALA training, research support and we propose to strengthen this bond in future as well)
Representing ADA for networking , laisoning, visibility and strong partnership with existing and potential allies through its publications, (side) events at various sub-regional, regional and global platforms
3. Process of Institutionalisation of ADA:
a. ADA New Secretariat: Since ADA was registered in S Korea, which is also an OECD country, fund transfer to Seoul office couldn’t be possible and hence ADA signed the MoU with Code NGO , its member in Philippines to function as financial agency for EU fund transfer. Now, we have been considering registering ADA in a developing and non-OECD country and after doing the mapping exercise,
Nepal and Cambodia has the most favourable situation for NGO Registration, however, Cambodia has better environment for ADA registration.
Looking at this, the process of registration will begin in March 2020.
b. Process of Approval for ADA draft Constitution, 4 years Action plan and 10 years ADA Strategy document : These documents are proposed to be shared with ADA members for their approval and once approved these documents will be legitimatised. The next step will be preparation of ADA constitution based on the local laws of the country of registration
4. Membership and solidarity: this aims to reinforce the membership base and build connections and solidarity among members. Key potential focuses included:
1. Membership Survey
Mapping of members’ priorities, expertise and thematic interests;
Focussing membership outreach in SE and Central Asia
2. Mapping of members’ members and partners; (ADA NGO Directory)
3. ADA to concentrate more for membership base in Central Asia, SE and S Asia in the coming 4 years
4. Reinforcing communications between members through storytelling, spaces to share experiences (in general or on specific themes) such as by creating a knowledge hub/ working groups for members;
5. Strengthening membership through more personalised/human communications;
6. Building solidarity through co-creating content and resources; where no one is only a “consumer”
7. Increasing funding and resource mobilisation to/for members
Internal Analysis
The above points shows our strength on these different fronts as it boosts NGO capacity to interact with national governments and authorities while providing knowledge, intelligence, support and solidarity across countries and regions at the same time.
We want to capitalise on these strengths:
- Our collective achievements so far as described above.
- A Committed leadership from the governance board (ADA Steering Committee)
- Long-term support from Forus/EU and intermittent support from global platforms like TAP Network, Action For Sustainable Development which has allowed continuity and flexibility over the first period of building ADA capacities up to now.
- Representativeness with active members in 19 countries all over Asia.
- Good relations among members based on trust and respect.
- Strong relationships with other CSOs networks and platforms (CIVICUS, AGNA etc.) and the potential of strategic partnership development with other key players (
Our Weaknesses
- Facilitation/coordination capacity at secretariat aiming at developing clear and ‘winnable’ advocacy strategies need to be reinforced
- In-house expertise related to and relevant for international agendas needs to be further developed
- Informed and detailed knowledge of national priorities needs to be captured in order to build bottom-up agendas for advocacy through mapping exercise
- Resources to support regional and national capacities and priorities have to be increased
- As far as an increased coordination capacity at secretariat is concerned, it is clear that the ADA Secretariat and governance bodies need to be reinforced to be able to unleash and channel the collective potential in a more effective way.
- Last but not the least, the issue of sustainability for ADA even after establishing itself as a credible regional coalition , we lack multiple funding support to sustain ourselves.
1. We are yet to start the process of membership fees since we are only 7 years old organization and not yet institutionalised with a permanent secretariat. So far ADA membership is considered as a matter of solidarity , but we need to seriously deliberate the issue of membership fees for our own sustainability and valuing our work and efforts for our members
2. Absence of funding partnership due to limited human and financial resource
(ADA Focus countries for membership : Marked in Blue)
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Sub-region |
Countries and Territories |
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South Asia (8) |
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka |
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Southeast Asia (11) |
Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar(Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, |
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Northeast Asia (6) |
China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan |
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Central Asia (5) |
Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan. Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan. |
Where do we want to Go from here
While we have successfully managed to build trust within our membership and acquired a fair level of recognition and visibility from key external stakeholders based on tangible outputs throughout the years, this next four years action plan must see our network reach its full operational potential. In this respect, we believe continuing our existing capacity development and learning modules as absolute pre-requisites to achieve our long-term goal of influencing public policy shaping so that a fair, sustainable and inclusive development for all can be achieved. We have the ambition to become a partner of choice in this most crucial area thus contributing to high impact advocacy.
The ADA members have also reaffirmed that the capacity building and organizational development of the our members (NGO platforms) and the non-registered but credible national CSO coalition should be recognised and consider them for the ADA membership .
As we strive to ensure synergies with other key players, ADA might operated a shift as regards its work on the enabling environment for CSOs. From being a fully-fledged priority, this area of work has rather become a crosscut- ting goal to which ADA will contribute through enhancing the capacities of its members both in terms of knowledge and advocacy force.
We also strive to ourselves as a fully transparent , independent and independent institution representing global south and hence we need to have a functional ADA secretariat in the global south.
Issue of Sustainability
It’s to be noted, that ADA is comparatively a newer regional coalition in comparison to other regional coalitions around the globe. ADA started off to capacitate the national coalitions through few funding from CIVICUS and KOICA and it established itself as a credible organisations not only among its members but also among other regional coalitions. ADA has played an important role in connecting the voices at the regional level from the national level and sharing them at the global level. However, in this process, somewhere, we missed creating sustainability measures for ourselves as we also lacked sufficient human and financial resources to sustain our core funding.
ADA has been receiving funding from Forus (erstwhile IFP) since last four years, which played a major role in shaping ADA and its activities in real sense , where we identified and made new members especially in central and NE Asia in last three years. We have also supported our members to raise their voices at the regional and global levels , however, we did not yet start the membership fees , as we have been wanting to establish ourselves as a credible membership based organisation by sharing and supporting .
Another issue is also related to the process of institutionalisation of ADA. Ada was registered in S Korea, which is a OECD countries, but after much deliberation within the members and steering committee, we just started the process of registering ADA in a non OECD and LDC in global south . Once registered, we would move a step towards sustainability with its own office .
Hence , we expect continued support from our existing donors apart from looking at potential donors who could help ADA for another 5 years before we are on the path to sustainability , with continued membership fees, and generating more funds with support from our global platforms and looking at the potential of joint funding opportunities .
Our Theory of Change
Goal and Objectives
Goal : ADA together with its members aims to strengthen the capacity of national CSO platform to enhance and influence public policies and effectiveness and impact of civic engagement and advocacy on SDGs at the local and national level , regional and global levels with focus on monitoring and review of UN Sustainable Development Goals
Objective 1: Strong Institution and Outreach
To strengthen the ADA’ institutional, organizational and operational capacities
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(Expected Outputs) |
Action |
Indicators (Yearly basis) |
Means for Verification |
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(Expected Outcomes) |
Action |
Indicators (Yearly basis) |
Means for Verification |
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The ADA’ organizational and operational capacities have been reinforced |
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One intern and one finance staff is hired from 2020 March (if we manage to get additional resources) ADA’s additional headquarter apart from Seoul |
ADA 6 monthly/yearly report ADA’s organogram |
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ADA’ leadership and governance bodies have been strengthened (having equal gender representatives across all the regions of Asia) and are better equipped |
Preparation of Strategy document, 4 years action plan and draft constitution - Sharing the documents with the members - Inputs from ADA Steering Committee Inputs from ADA members
ADA Steering Committee Election Election of Co-Conveners and Chair ADA Monthly Steering Committee Calls (Online and face to face) to review ADA work and making crucial decisions ADA Annual General Body Meeting
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ADA has become a fully-fledged entity with a stronger, wider and active membership in most of the countries of Asia |
ADA Membership Survey ADA Capacity building and advocacy workshop Visit to two new countries for membership mission [1]VANI, ADA member from India will host C20 in 2022, ADA members actively participate in global and regional events |
At least 1 new member added to ADA (yearly) At least 4 members financially supported to attend regional and/or global events At least 4 members contribute to research reports At least 2 CSO reports from it’s member countries At least 2 members have speaking roles at national/regional/global events (HLPF, C20, APFSD) every year
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ADA’s membership directory ADA newsletters, various mission reports Research reports Event/Mission reports (HLPF, C20, APFSD) |
Objective 2 : Training and Capacity Building
To become one of the key players on training and capacity building for effective advocacy and campaign through the human rights-based approach to development (HRBA) from national to global levels.
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Expected Outcomes |
Action |
Indicators (Yearly basis) |
Means for Verification |
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ADA members have the capacity to be legitimate and influential actors representing NGOs’ voice in their national environment. |
ADA’s organizes training and capacity building events (GALA) at sub-regional/national/and regional levels Visit to national (potential and or existing) member countries |
At least 2 capacity building events organized (GALA) in a year ADA support at least 2 members to participate in national/regional/global events |
ADA yearly /annual report ADA’s Newsletter ADA’s website ADA facebook page ADA Twitter account |
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ADA has established strategic partnerships with key global, regional and national Capacity Development and Learning practitioners to implement high quality and innovative programs |
ADA co-organises side events in partnership with UN institution/member states/ CSOs’ platforms at national, regional/global forums Research reports/Position papers in collaboration |
At least 2 side events each at regional and global forums (UN/member states) At least two report/position papers yearly in partnership At least two CSO reports Number of ADA’s intervention |
ADA Newsletter Research reports/Position papers CSO Reports Mission Reports ADA Website/Facebook and twitter page |
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The foundations for establishing an international expertise and resource center supporting NGO capacity are laid down. |
Training of trainers co-organised during any event by ADA Mapping of experts based in Asia and beyond |
At least one training of trainers organized in a year Directory of mapping of experts
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ADA’s experts/resource persons directory |
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ADA is on the way to champion in advocating for efficient and flexible funding schemes enabling civil society to play its diverse roles, including on capacity development and structuring
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ADA devotes at least a couple of sessions on financial sustainability and invites key experts to share the knowledge during it’s capacity building sessions at national and international levels ADA prepares directory of experts on financial sustainability ADA keeps updating various funding schemes through its newsletters or on the website |
At least a two couple of sessions are introduced on financial sustainability during ADA’s capacity building (GALA) workshops One Expert directory having expertise on financial sustainability is prepared |
Directory on financial sustainability experts Event reports |
Objective 3 : Advocacy
Enhance effectiveness in representation and coordination among Asian CSOs at international level (regional and global)
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Expected Outcomes |
Action |
Indicators (Yearly basis) |
Means for Verification |
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ADA capacity to take the lead on international advocacy initiatives and to influence decision making processes have been strengthened |
ADA’s organizes side events during regional and global events like APFSD, HLPF, C20 , various democracy forums and other events ADA’s participation/representation at national/regional/global platform |
At least 2 ADA members speak as resource persons at various national/regional and global forums (APFSD, HLPF, C20) - C20 India hosted in 2022, spearheaded by ADA member VANI ADA support at least 2 members to participate in national/regional/global events At least 2 CSO reports every year |
ADA yearly /annual report ADA’s Newsletter CSO reports ADA’s website ADA facebook page ADA Twitter account |
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ADA has become an efficient and proactive vehicle to articulate advocacy civil society positions and strategies from the national, regional and international levels on Agenda 2030 |
ADA co-organises side events in partnership with UN institution/member states/ CSOs’ platforms at national, regional/global forums ADA co-authors research reports / position papers , shares with UN institutions/member states and present them at various national and internal forums |
At least 2 side events each at regional and global forums in partnership with various stakeholders of development At least one member state is invited in ADA’s side events with national member initiative At least two research reports in a year Number of copies (of reports) shared online and in hard copies |
ADA newsletter Mission reports CSO/parallel reports Research Reports
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Resources required for
- Mobilize more people and resource for next HLPF
- More resources for National and global reports
- Annual ADA meetings, Annual General Body Meeting
- Outreach programs
- Available Funds : Forus, KOICA/KHRS, A4SD, TAP (occasional)
Engagement with international organizations
ADA engages with the following key inter-governmental and multilateral institutions and processes in Asia and global as priority;
① UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF)
② UNESCAP – Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD)
③ UNDP Regional Knowledge Exchange (RKE)
④ Asia Development Bank (ADB)
⑤ G20 Summit (G7, BRICS, MIKTA)
ADA Partners/Allies - Global level
ADA is the recognised regional coalition of Forus, TAP Network , CIVICUS and AGNA, whereas partners with A4SD , GCAP, UN2020 with other global platforms.
Forus is a global network of 69 National NGO Platforms (NPF) and 7 Regional Coalitions (RC) from 5 continents. The NPF are, according to our Statutes, Forus’ active members, while the RC are associate members. As a legitimate catalyst and representative of the voice of NGOs worldwide, Forus works to strengthen the capacities of civil society to ensure the effective and efficient participation of civil society actors in official negotiations. Forus advocates for better resourcing of civil society and the defense of an enabling environment for civil society organisations to influence public policy at the national, regional and international level.
CIVICUS is a global alliance of civil society organisations and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world established in 1993 and since 2002 having headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with additional hubs across the globe. CIVICUS is a membership alliance with more than 9,000 members in more than 175 countries.
Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA)
The AGNA network brings together national associations and regional platforms from around the world to foster greater cooperation across national and regional boundaries, including innovating new ways for civil society organisations to collaborate. By strengthening the power of people to organise, mobilise and take action, AGNA builds meaningful opportunities for networks to come together to participate in and influence global governance institutions and processes.
The Transparency, Accountability & Participation (TAP) Network is a broad network of CSOs that works to ensure that open, inclusive, accountable, effective governance and peaceful societies are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and that civil society are recognized and mobilized as indispensable partners in the design, implementation of and accountability for sustainable development policies, at all levels.
Action 4 Sustainable Development -A4SD
A4SD is a global platform having membership of over 3,000 organisations and activists from over 155 countries (over 80% in the Global South) who are committed to ensuring a transformative agenda is delivered. A4SD was formed in April 2016 to raise the voices of the civil society and ensure that the key principles of the 2030 Agenda to deliver a more just and sustainable world in which no one is left behind and which ensures a model of economic development within our planetary boundaries.
Global Call for Action Against Poverty - GCAP
Launched in 2005 at the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre with the symbol of the whiteband, GCAP has mobilized hundreds of millions of people and co-organised the world’s largest single issues-based campaign to ‘Stand UP’ Against Poverty – certified by the Guinness World Records with 173 million people in 2009.
ADA Partners/Allies - Regional level
At the regional level, ADA is also a member of APRCEM, ADN and APSD apart from many regional platforms.
Asia Pacific Regional CSO Mechanism
APRCEM is a civil society platform aimed to enable stronger cross constituency coordination and ensure that voices of all sub-regions of Asia Pacific are heard in intergovernmental processes in regional and global level. The platform is initiated, owned and driven by the CSOs, and seeks to engage with UN agencies and Member States on the Post-2015 as well as other development related issues/processes. As an open, inclusive, and flexible mechanism, RCEM is designed to reach the broadest number of CSOs in the region, harness the voice of grassroots and peoples’ movements to advance development justice that address the inequalities of wealth, power, resources between countries, between rich and poor and between men and women.
Asia Platform for Civil Society on Sustainable Development - APSD
APSD is an open, inclusive and independent civil society platform of CSOs/NGO, social and grassroots movements in Asia, engaged in advocacy on issues related to sustainable development specially implementation of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs in short). The objective of APSD is to create and provide space for information-sharing and critical thinking and analysis about sustainable development and climate change. It also aims at networking and coalition-building for cross-fertilization of ideas and mutual learning among sub-national, national and international CSOs and facilitate capacity-building on issues related SDGs and climate issues.
The Asia Democracy Network (ADN) is a regional network in Asia of independent civil society organizations (CSOs) engaged in democracy promotion and committed to the full realization of democratic and human rights principles.
Reference
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/progress-report/
[1] The Civil 20 is a unique platform and is one of the many engagement groups utilized by Civil Society Organizations for feeding policy inputs into the G20. Indeed, the objective of the C20 is to galvanize the participation of Civil Society Organizations from across the world to interface with G20 presidencies and present their demands.
Since 2011 C20 has been shadowing the G20 presidency and is organized on rotating basis in the host country. It is recognized that Civil Society is integral to the modern-day polity and with their experience in being directly involved with people at large is valuable for inclusive decision making and achieving policy coherence. G20 policy actions have far reaching ramifications across the world and the C20 presents itself as a voice of the common people in projecting long-standing aspirations, desires and experiences.
Similarly, it is a productive engagement strategy that is utilized to buttress G20’s efforts to find ways and means for the most pressing problems of the world. The emergence of Agenda 2030 and recognition by G20 to use the SDGs for achieving critical objectives pushes for an increased participation and partnership with Civil Society.
In 2019, JANIC (C20 2019 report) ADA member from Japan, organised C20 in Tokyo where 800 civil society organisations from all over the world worked together through the C20 to engage with the G20 on the most critical challenges that the global society face today. From December 2018 to November 2019, the C20 developed eleven policy papers with specific recommendations and one Policy Pack that summarise the recommendations to G20 governments, including C20 Communiqué and Tokyo Declaration on Peace, Human Rights and Democratic Governance: Towards Improvement of Civic Space for the SDG 16+. C20 also published Immediate and Emergent Statement as a reflection to the Leaders’ Declaration of the 2019 Osaka G20 Summit.
In 2015, VANI carried an extensive analysis of four thematic areas which are pursued by the G20 Development Working Groups. A series of consultations were also organized to nurture awareness and draw concrete linkages of issues from the Local to the Global Level. As India prepares itself to host the G20 in 2022, Indian Civil Society will be mobilizing itself to interact with the Government of India and submit recommendations which are hoped to be addressed under the Indian presidency of G20. This is especially important considering that it will be 8 years before the Agenda 2030 is fulfilled.