After the official Call for joining the Regional Accountability of Practice (RACoP), on 30th November, BCSDN held a launching event for all CSOs practitioners who expressed willingness to join the regional community. This initiative comes after a long process of assessing the state of civil society in the region and the ongoing adverse trends, furthering the shrinking of the civic space. The initiative further encompasses all our efforts for building a more accountable, transparent, and resilient civil society in the Balkans.
The tone of the event was set by Ms. Anja Bosilkova- Antovska, BCSDN’s Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, explaining the broader context in which the network is setting this initiative, and BCSDN’s membership in the Global Standard for CSO Accountability. In the opening remarks, she emphasized the need and the relevance of establishing the community.
In addition, after a practical exercise on dynamic accountability, Ms. Marija Vishinova, BCSDN’s Communications, and Information Officer, “unpacked” the concept and elaborated on the community’s characteristics and upcoming activities. The presentation was followed by participants’ input on the expectations and their contributions to RACoP.
Considering that RACoP was inspired by the global dynamic accountability community of practice (DACoP), the event was followed by a presentation delivered by Ms. Bao Han Tran Le, Membership and Reporting Coordinator, at Accountable Now (the Secretariat of the Global Standard for CSO Accountability). By focusing on the success as well as the failures of the global community, Ms. Tran Le shared the experience of initiating and functioning the Dynamic Accountability Community of Practice (DACoP).
The event concluded with the announcement of the community’s next steps and participants’ commitment to be a part of a group and to jointly contribute to advancing CSO accountability efforts, strengthening the civic space, and building more resilient communities in the Balkans.
All CSOs and networks in the Balkans interested in our joint accountability discussion while enhancing their accountable work, could join the community, by expressing their interest at: executiveoffice@balkancsd.net.
