CIVIL SOCIETY AT THE SUMMIT:
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Closing Debate at the Boell Forum
Date: Wednesday, September 4
Time: 14h00-16h00
Venue: Boell Forum at the People's Global Forum + [ where is it ]

The World Summit has seen an unprecedented participation of civil society organisations from all regions. On the other hand, the geographic dispersion of civil society over different venues and the lack of strategic coordination in the lead-up to the Summit have lead to criticism that the civil society's showing at the Summit was disappointing and less effective than it could have been. NGOs that were actively lobbying in the halls of the Sandton Convention Center rarely found there way to the People's Forum at NASREC. On the other hand, most civil society representatives were lacking access to the official conference site.

The Heinrich Boell Foundation has invited five discussants from different sectors of the international NGO community to share and discuss their observations on how civil society did in Jo'burg and where we should go from here. We are looking forward to a fruitful discussion.

Speakers include Juergen Maier, German NGO Forum Environment and Development; Nnimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth Nigeria (invited); Yma de Almeida Johnson, Generation Jo'burg; Yonas Yohannes, Generation Jo'burg; Maria Ivanova, Global Environmental Governance Program, Yale University; Aseghedech Ghirmazion, Nairobi Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation and Liane Schalatek, Washington Office, will facilitate the debate.

The debate starts at 14h30. It will be preceded from 14h00 to 14h30 by the last show of "Fair Wealth", atheatre play inspired by the Jo'burg Memo, by the Sibikwa Community Theatre Group.