CSO
representatives from countries across the Asia Pacific
expressed resounding concern last March 10-11 over the
shrinking civil society space in the region in the
recently concluded Asia-Pacific
Regional Consultation on Building Evidence in
Seoul, Korea.
“Organisations
who are into public policy or are into rights-based work
are severely curtailed,” according to CSO Partnership
for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) Asia Focal Person
Azra Sayeed as she discussed some of the challenges
faced by Asia Pacific CSOs in defending enabling
environment in law and in practice.
“It just
shows you the level of barriers that we really have to
overcome just to ensure some amount of credibility to
our work,” she added.
The two-day
meeting is part of a series of regional consultations
that aim to gather inputs from all stakeholders to shape
the substance of the first Global Partnership for
Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) High-Level
Meeting (HLM) in Mexico this coming April.
Tied Aid and
the Private Sector
Seeing the
strong push for private sector involvement in
development, CSO representatives signaled caution on the
increasing role of multinational corporations and tied
aid in closing spaces for civil society engagement.
Private sector-led development is also an issue of
urgent concern to Asia Pacific CSOs as businesses in the
region often operate freely without regulatory
mechanisms that ensure compliance to human rights
standards.
Jiten Yumnam
of the Center for Research and Advocacy in Manipur
(CRAM) reiterated the need to establish regulatory
mechanisms that will ensure respect for human rights and
democratic ownership of development results at the
country level. He further noted the situation of
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in India that in many
cases distort national priorities and disregard human
rights standards.
In his
presentation, Yumnam made reference to large-scale dam
and mining projects in India that lack public
consultation and often lead to widespread displacement
and violation of indigenous peoples’ rights. He also
pointed out the limited space for communities to seek
redress for human rights violations and emphasized the
need to include civil society voices in determining
local development priorities.
“If private
sectors are to be true partners in development, they
must collaborate in ways that improve the social and
economic rights of marginalized populations,” Yumnam
added.
Don Marut of
YAKKUM, in his discussion on Middle Income Countries,
cited cases in Indonesia where ‘aid is tied to giving up
national resources’ only to be exploited by corporations
that are based in donor countries. Furthermore, Ahmed
Swapan of VOICE raised questions on how local industries
in Bangladesh pay taxes thrice as much as those imposed
on MNCs. Swapan also made reference to as much as US$10
billion of illicit capital flows in Bangladesh caused by
big multinational corporations evading local taxes.
“It’s a whole
breadth of profit-making agencies who really want to
ensure that they have easy access to our resources and
to our lands, and that nobody creates any hurdles while
they extract,” quipped Sayeed as she explained the
alarming link between private sector involvement and
shrinking space for civil society action.
‘Progress is
undeniably slow’
Banking on
the promises made in Busan, Asia Pacific CSOs also
expressed frustration over the slow progress of
implementation especially on CSO enabling environment
commitments.
CPDE Co-Chair
and IBON International Director Antonio Tujan, Jr.
particularly mentioned the failure of development actors
to create an enabling environment for CSOs and further
pushed for the HLM communiqué to make reference to
‘shrinking CSO spaces.’
“Our overall
assessment is that two years after these [Busan]
commitments were made, there is lack of political will
to implement the overall agenda, and progress is
undeniably slow,” said CPDE Co-Chair and PIANGO
Executive Director Emele Duituturaga during her
presentation in the session on inclusive development and
progress since Busan.
“Let’s keep
the promise of Busan at the forefront of our minds, lest
we forget,” she reminded.
During the
communiqué consultations, Tujan demanded ‘stronger
wording’ on the full implementation of Accra and Paris
commitments. He also pointed out the need for an Action
Plan that will accelerate the implementation of Busan
agreements.
Among other
issues, Tujan also raised the possibility of a
non-executive co-chair in the GPEDC that will represent
civil society, parliamentarians, the private sector and
other non-governmental development actors. The presence
of a non-executive co-chair, according to Tujan, would
make the leadership of the Global Partnership ‘truly
inclusive.’
The outcome
of the Asia-Pacific consultation is set to feed into the
Communiqué that will be agreed by heads of governments,
civil society representatives, United Nations officials,
business leaders and international organisations in
Mexico City on April 15-16.##
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