Citizen’s Continental Conference

Civil society organisations will hold a Continental Conference in Sharm El Sheikh ahead of the African Union Summit on June 22 and 23. The Continental Conference will provide space for African citizens from all parts of the continent and the Diaspora, CSOs, and other concerned bodies to discuss the pertinent issues on the summit agenda, as well as key issues within the continent.Continental_Conference_Agenda.doc

Background

The transformation of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union in 2001 was the landmark moment. The African Union strategic plan for 2004-2007 set out five ‘priority programmes’. The second programme is to ‘actively involve African citizens at large and members of the Diaspora in the process of building continental integration.’ Accordingly African people are expected to drive the agenda of the Union to bring about integration of African people and not just Heads of States and Governments. To this end, different stakeholders mainly African based CSOs, have been organizing consultation meetings at various levels with the idea of informing the people of Africa about the current process including their voices within the decision making bodies of the AU.

African Civil Society organizations and coalitions have been more active in engaging the continental body. However, there is still a lack of coordination and missed opportunities for working on the African Union especially around the AU summits.

Due to this fact on March and November 2007, two training workshops on the African Union were organized in Ghana and Ethiopia ahead of the June and January African Union Summits. These workshops successfully built the capacity of both Ghanaian and Ethiopian NGOs to engage the African Union and also to participate on the African Union Summit. Moreover two bi-annual continental conferences were organized by these CSOs just before the actual Summit.

In addition to recognising this potential of enhanced AU-CSO engagement, the Centre for Citizens Participation in the AU (CCP-AU) was established at the end of the training workshop in Ethiopia. The CCP-AU is an informal platform aiming to facilitate and coordinate African CSOs’ engagement with the African Union. The CCP-AU and its founding organizations have contributed to the continental conferences and CSOs training.

As part of this series the CCP-AU held a training on 24-25th of May 2008 for Egyptian and other North Africans CSOs on the opportunities of engaging with the African Union.

In addition to the training workshop, CCP-AU plans to organize a Continental Conference in Sharm El Sheikh before the commencement of the Summit whereby African citizens from all parts of the continent and the Diaspora, CSOs, and other concerned bodies will gather to discuss the pertinent issues on the summit agenda, as well as key issues within the continent.

Objectives
The objectives of this continental conference are:
- To allow CSOs to network and update each other on various problems/struggles on the continent as well as to coordinate their actions and engage policy makers at the national and regional level
- To create a platform where structured debate and collation of views will be made among stakeholders across the continent focusing on the following issues:
• The Theme of the Summit: “Water and Sanitation”
• The performance review of the AU
• Peace and Security situation in Africa
• Millennium Development Goals
• Social and Economic Justice in Africa
- To maintain a significant influence of CSOs in addressing and lobbying decision makers on behalf of citizens of the continent on every ordinary summit of the African Union
- To discuss and present a communiqué to national delegations attending the Summit on CSO policy recommendations.

Expected Outcomes:

By the end of the conference we shall have:

• Convened at least 60 CSOs from Egypt and each of the five regions of Africa
• Discussed and issued a common communiqué/declaration that will be used as a lobbying tool to influence the decision making processes of the 11th Ordinary Summit
• Agreed and reached a common stance on the most pressing issues of the continent with stakeholders committing to continue engaging their policy makers on the national and regional level
• Discussed and agreed on common collaborative efforts and strategies towards ensuring the meaningful involvement of the citizens of Africa into the entire decision making process of the African Union

Proposed participants
There will be at least 60 participants drawn from a broad representation of academia, independent think thanks, gender-oriented groups, Pan-African and International development NGO communities in Africa and the Diaspora, as well as activist NGOs at national levels. The organizers are planning to bring at least four people from each of the five regions of Africa to participate with at least 20 Egyptian CSO leaders. In addition, the organizers will issue an open call on the http://www.aumonitor.org for participants who can come to the conference at their own expense.

Working languages
• English
• Arabic
• French

Format of the Conference

The conference will take the form of panel/roundtable discussions in plenary aimed to promote debate abs dialogue, while small group breakout session will follow for more interactive and deliberate discussions. Each session will focus on specific issue aided by analytical discussion paper presentations. A CSOs delegation will then travel to Sharm El Sheik to lobby and engage official delegations to the Summit.

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