Laos, September 14 – 18, 2015: Approximately 50, representatives NGO staff from Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam came together for the Mekong Learning Event and Governance Citizenship Knowledge, organized by Oxfam in Vientiane. Development Issue Program (DIP) of the NGOF also presented during the occasion.
The five-day event was organized in order to build a strong foundation for collaboration and a springboard for multi-country programmes. This workshop aims to strengthen the group’s understanding of two critical areas for rights-based sustainable development: civil society space and fiscal accountability (tax justice, budget monitoring and citizen participation).
“This workshop has helped us to expand the way of thinking; for an instant, on how we work to open and protect the space civil society organizations,” Ms. Kim Nay, DIP Manager shared. “The following days we have learned to create the strong foundation on what it means to work on tax, gender budget analysis and active citizenship perspective and how we can work together to make use of the space we have to achieve changes in fiscal policies and practices.”
She supplemented that the course allowed her to be able to prepare the ground for programme design by analyzing the fundraising opportunities; influencing opportunities and how to ensure measures our impact effectively.
On the very last day, the program followed by the wrap up with a day of mapping on the regional areas of collaboration and setting out next steps for concept note writing and donor engagement on the two areas of work including protecting civil society space and influencing change in fiscal policy.