Category: Novedades

On August 31, the RACI team will offer the Workshop “Increasing the impact of Civil Society Organizations: Fostering networking and institutional strengthening”. This will be carried out thanks to the support of Banco Galicia, Estudio Beccar Varela and Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The main objective of the workshop will be to strengthen the Civil Society Organizations of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires so that they can access various resource search strategies and main sources available to Organizations, as well as develop and optimize the resources of their own CSO based on the importance of strengthening the Institutional Development Area.

During the day, there will also be a Legal Training for Organizations that will seek to address issues of Labor Law, FIU, Intellectual Property and personal data from a useful perspective for organizations. This training will be run by the Thomson Reuters-TrustLaw Foundation and the Estudio Beccar Varela.

The workshop will take place at the Estudio Beccar Varela, Auditorio, 2^nd floor, located in Tucumán 1, Buenos Aires.

If you want to participate, sign up here.

We look forward to meet you!

Charity Aid Foundation annually publishes its World Generosity Index, a report aiming to provide information on the scope and nature of generosity on the global scale. Its seventh edition, published in September 2017, presents data from 139 countries around the world for the period 2012-2016.

The report is based on surveys conducted by Gallup, the market research firm that also provides data for publications such as the UNDP Human Development Report and the OECD Better Life Index. To make sure that generosity is understood in its many aspects, the Index focuses on three key questions: In the last month, have you helped a stranger? Have you donated money to charity? And have you volunteered for an organization? The overall score for each country is the average of the answers to these questions.On the global scale, Myanmar (65%) tops the list for the third consecutive year, followed by the Indonesia (60%), and Kenya (60%). Among these, only Myanmar also ranked first in one of the indicators; 91% of people in the country donated money to a charity. Besides, Indonesia, for its part, positioned itself first in another indicator; 55% of the people did some kind of volunteering. The indicator is embedded by Sierra Leone, where 81% of people helped an unknown. For its part, Argentina was ranked 83^rd worldwide with an overall score of 30%. Although the score is low, there is an improvement over the previous year, where he ranked 108^th with a score of 25%. With regard to Latin America, among the 19 countries surveyed (all except Cuba), the best positions were Dominican Republic (41% and 32° worldwide), Honduras (30% and 40°) and Guatemala (39% and 41°). Argentina is ranked 14^th, just above Perú, El Salvador, México, Venezuela y Paraguay. In comparison, the neighbors Chile (37%) and Uruguay (34%) had the best scores in South America, reaching positions 40^th and 60^th worldwide.That does not mean that Argentina, compared to the rest of Latin America, has poor percentages in each of the indicators: 56% of the people assisted unknown people and 20% were voluntary in some organization. These percentages are much higher than those of the previous year, leaving it 45^th and 68^th respectively, with similar levels to the rest of the South American countries and above the world average. What ultimately leaves the country in a low general position is the scarce 15% in money donation. This is the only indicator that did not increase (and even more, declined) from the previous year, leaving Argentina ranked 109°. But what does this mean? According to these data, Argentina is a country with inhabitants willing to help, both particularly and using their time in organizations. But when it comes to donating money the provision seems to be less. It is worth remembering that this does not mean that the amount donated is less than in other countries, but the amount of people who donate is less. If you want to know more about this report, go to https://www.cafonline.org/about-us/publications/2017-publications/caf-world-giving-index-2017.

Source: https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/caf_worldgivingindex2015_report.pdf?sfvrsn=c498cb40_2.

PLATAFORMA ODS (https://plataforma-ods.org) is the first space that makes visible the projects of all the social organizations of Argentina and its contribution to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Argentine Network for International Cooperation (RACI) with the support of the United Nations in Argentina and Cablevision-Fibertel launched a digital tool allowing to visualize which and how many Civil Society Organizations in Argentina are currently working on the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), outlined from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The event was held in the Auditorium of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) for Argentina, and Uruguay was attended by Tamar Hahn, Director of the United Nations Information Center; Guillermo Correa, Executive Director of RACI and Mariana Giacumbo, Manager of External Communications of Cablevision-Fibertel.

With more than 100 active projects, the interactive platform offers an opportunity of visibility mainly for the Third Sector, allowing the same organizations to carry their projects, classifying them according to the SDG to which they contribute, their geographical location in the country, the type of organization running, and the targeted population. As such, “Plataforma ODS” is a reliable source of information for the public, private and academic sectors.

“RACI works unceasingly in strengthening the Third Sector and in generating productive and sustainable alliances that contribute to development,” said Correa at the launch event, adding that ” ‘Platform ODS’ is a tool where the public sector, the private sector and Civil society will be able to support and leverage when seeking allies in all regions of the country according to different themes, thus creating synergies.

According to Hahn, “the project carried out by RACI is, for us United Nations, a very valuable contribution to improving coordination between civil society organizations, public and private sectors, using information and communication technologies. Communication (ICT)”.

“We know that the platform will be a success in Argentina, and we hope to serve other countries in the region and in the world,” the representative of the UN concluded.

At the moment of his intervention, Giacumbo stated that “since the beginning of our commitment to the community, at Cablevision-Fibertel we work to strengthen the technological capabilities of organizations.”

“The platform is a great first step that has the potential to generate new alliances in pursuit of the UN agenda by 2030, to encourage support for more vulnerable sectors or geographies with hard information, and the possibility of replicating and scaling up development towards other types of organizations and other countries in the region” Giacumbo concluded. The “Plataforma ODS” project; implemented by RACI, is part of the Voluntary National Review that Argentina presented during the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York, United States, on the last 17^th of July 2017. This meeting reviewed partial implementations in the countries that volunteered to show the work they have been doing since the approval of the New Global Development Agenda.

After having undergone the process of membership, 27 organizations formalized their entry into the Network upon the signing of their respective agreements.

On August 8th, the Argentine Network for International Cooperation received its new members at the headquarters of AMIA. There, the team of RACI made its institutional presentation in which it exposed, in addition to its axis of work and activities, the benefits, commitments and responsibilities that each of the new partners must assume as a member.

As part of the meeting, Kurt Frieder, Executive Director of Fundación Huésped y Bárbara Kuss, Executive Director of Fundación Huerta Niño, welcomed as members of the Executive Committee of RACI. From their experience, they commented on how the work on the net is, what are the benefits of articulating with other organizations and the important role of RACI in all sectors.

After a brief presentation from each member, an approach was immediately generated between all those organizations that identified potential networking opportunities.

To conclude the event, the Executive Directors proceeded to sign the agreements with Guillermo Correa, Executive Director of the Argentine Network for International Cooperation.

We welcome our new 27 members!

• Fundación Convivir
• Servicio Evangélico de Diaconia Asociación Civil (SEDI)
• Fundación Salud sin Daño
• Fundación León
• Fundación Estudiantes Internacionales Debatiendo por el Saber (EIDOS)
• Asociación civil madre Tierra
• Voy con Vos Asociación Civil por la educación
• Educar, Integrar y Crecer Asociación Civil
• Emanuel Asociación Civil Cristiana Evangélica
• Asociación Civil Unidos por el Deporte
• Fundación Todavía es Tiempo
• Scouts de Argentina Asociación Civil
• Perro Comunitario
• AVOME Asociacion Voluntarios de Mendoza Niñez y Familia
• Fundacion Ser Activo
• Fundación Paz por la No Violencia Familiar
• Asociación Civil Sustentar para el Desarrollo Sostenible
• Asociación Civil Misiones Rurales Argentinas
• Fundación MicroJusticia Argentina
• Fundación América Solidaria
• Fundación para el Desarrollo Regional
• Centro para la Información Ciudadana Asociación Civil
• Asociación Civil La Poderosa. Integración por la Educación Popular
• Fundación Rosario
• Civil Proyecto 7 gente en situación de calle
• Fundación Magister
• Fundación para el Análisis y la Reflexión de la Argentina (FUNDARA)

The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development took place in New-York, from the 17^th to 19^th of July. This Forum is a place of major significance on the global scale for the following-up of the 2030 Agenda and, on this occasion, 11 countries from America Latina and the Caribbean presented their Sustainable Development Goals on the national scale. As such, political guidance is required to comply with the ODS, in particular for the 1^st (No Poverty), 2^nd (Zero Hunger), 3^rd (Good Health and Well-being) 5^th (Gender Equality) 9^th (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and 14^th (Life Below Water).

Given the context, the CEPEI performed a qualitative analysis on the presentations of the countries of the region in order to have a first outlook of the reports that were presented. The methodology used was based on the tracking of words and concerted expressions around a group of pre-selected variables. This analysis has as purpose to evaluate the capacity of reports to be part of a “review cycle”, in which it is understood that they must be a part of a continuous, over-time process. Thus, it seeks to produce commitment on the part of the states.

Before focusing on the case of Argentina, we need to take into account several fundamental aspects. First, according to World Bank’s updated data (2016), the country has a population of 43,847,430 inhabitants, a GDP of 546,866 (in trillions of USD) and a Gini coefficient of 42,7 (2014), qualifying it as a Upper Middle-Income Country. Regarding the Human Development Index (HDI), and according to the PNUD, Argentina is ranked 45th. From this perspective, we can delve into the synthesis of Voluntary National Reviews, which shows clear-cut indicators and establishes intermediate goals to be achieved on the way to final compliance with the ODS by the year 2030. In that way, it is incorporated as part of a technical and participatory process that was commissioned to the National Council for Coordination of Social Policies.

The challenges that Argentina will have to face, according to the analysis made by CEPEI, are as follow: consolidation of monitoring; reduction of inequalities and gaps; ensuring availability of budgetary resources; legal mechanisms to reach these established goals and articulate, coordinate and integrate work with other powers and sectors. Equally, the 2030 Agenda has a wide territorial range and covers topics that concerns the provinces because of their primary responsibility for education, health, security ,etc. Therefore, the local adaptation of the Agenda in Argentina is of particular importance.

Regarding non-state actors and multisectorial alliances, the report points out that from the executive branch, spaces for participation at different levels of government were created, not only as a way to strengthen people’s rights, but also to promote better policies that have more positive results.

The Executive Branch’s decision to carry out the 2030 Agenda has led the Government to have sectoral strategic goals and plans, so that it facilitates the alignment with ODS goals. In order to finance the implementation of the Agenda, the budget grew by $222,324 million, which represents an increase of 22.1% over the initial budget. The most important social functions were Social Promotion and Assistance (+43.4%), Social Security (+25.5%), Science and Technology (+22.8%) and Water and Sewerage (+22.4%).

The report refers to the three dimensions of Sustainable Development: social, environmental and economic. Argentina, with respect to the principles of Agenda 2030, has a global vision of a development that “leaves no one behind.” At the regional level, it strongly committed itself to addressing the so-called “big data” in order to move towards better monitoring of these issues. On the other hand, at the national level, the priority goals of the 17 ODS were selected according to the objective of eliminating poverty and the priorities of the National Government. From this situation, the government’s comprehensive strategy was elaborated for the fulfillment of its priority goals in connection with the ODS mentioned above. In this sense, in relation to ODS #1, the Universal Allowance per Child (UAC) refers to approximately 3.7 million children and adolescents up to 18 years of age, 9.3% of the country’s population . Additionally, the Pregnancy Allowance reaches 78,600 pregnant women. With regard to ODS #2, it was set as a goal to increase the percentage of registered family farmers by 20% by 2030. On the other hand, for ODS #3 it is indicated that there is a Universal Health Care which guarantees the population access to health services. With respect to the fifth ODS, the final goal is that 90% of reproductive age, sexually active women use a contraceptive method. The National Water Plan (ODS #9) is expected in the medium term to provide full coverage of drinking water and sewage to 75% of urban households. Lastly, for ODS #14, the final goal was to achieve that the percentage of coastal protected areas reach 9% of the total by 2030.

For more information, visit http://cepei.org/gobernanzas/analisis-cepei-de-las-revisiones-nacionales-voluntarias-de-los-paises-alc/

On July 5^th and 6^th Danny Sriskandaraj, CIVICUS’ General Secretary, World Alliance for Citizen Participation, visited our country for the first time. During his stay in Buenos Aires, RACI took him to meetings with representatives of the Civil Society, Government and Private Sector.

Throughout his visit, the General Secretary of CIVICUS could meet up with Tamar Hahn Director of the United Nations for Argentina and Uruguay; Josè Ugaz, Transparency International’s President; Hugo Wortman Jofre and Pablo Secchi, Poder Ciudadano’s President and Executive Director respectively; Anabel Cruz, CIVICUS’ President; Maria Julia Diaz Ardaya, GDFE’s President; Guillermo Correa, RACI’s Executive Director and the Executive Committee.

Within his agenda, and with the aim of listening the greatest diversity of voices as possible, Danny Sriskandarajah met the National Development Minister, Carolina Stanley, to know her viewpoint about the reality of the Argentinian Civil Society.

To conclude his stay, RACI realized an event with its partners where it was possible to discuss and share different positions about the Civil Society’s status worldwide and in Argentina in particular; and where the CIVICUS’ General Secretary, could be interviewed by different media.

Part of the RACI team went to Dayton, Ohio in the United States, where it continued with the workshop about Deliberative Democracy that provides the Kettering Foundation.

With a working dynamic fully renewed, and the development of an application specially thought for the participants; the Kettering Foundation welcomed guests from all over the world with the goal of learning and sharing experiences about the deliberative methodology that teaches the Institute of Deliberative Democracy each year.

This year, part of the RACI Team went to Dayton with the aim to share the project “Leave no one behind”, conducted during last October in the Embassy of Canada, where were put into practice several characteristics of the methodology promoted by the Foundation. The Argentinian case study was a trigger for the opening of one of the session in which participants from South Africa, India and Fiji shared as well their experiences.

As part of the changes, the Foundation developed an application which, apart from including contacts of every participant, week’s agenda and the materials which will be used; had interactive spaces where was able to make comments or to ask questions in real time about speakers’ presentations, and to make group exercises during the sessions. Another great new was the presence of designers who captured each session with drawings and graphics which decorated the event rooms’ walls during the full week.

In a unique opportunity to create networking with people from all over the world, the team had the chance to make contact with representatives from public sector, private sector, the Academy and Third Sector which made easy the sharing of experiences and possibilities to form potential alliances which would lead to common projects in the future.

Among all the activities promoted by the Network, since last year, RACI continues to implement a schedule of visits to partner organizations with the objective of bringing the teams closer together, knowing the themes in which they work and the communities they support on a daily basis.

On this occasion RACI visited Tzedaká Foundation, an organization with more than 25 years working in the sector focused on the fight against poverty mainstreamed by different complementary programs that make the integrality with which the problems in the Foundation are treated.

Over the years, the Foundation has been able to develop different accompanying programs that are divided into the following axes: education, health, housing, childhood and old age. Among all the activities carried out within the different axes of action, we highlight the uninterrupted receipt of donations of medicines which are classified, systematized and re organized to be donated again.

During the visit, the group of volunteers, together with the Tzedaká staff, explained the exhaustive procedure of analysis of donations that has a first stage of discarding those drugs that are due or about to expire. Those that are in conditions to be consumed are grouped according to their drug and dose and the carton is classified and any other material that can be recycled.

In the same process, the volunteers, and later the team of pharmacists, systematize all the data that allow the organization to obtain the traceability of each drug before being sent to its final destination: direct beneficiaries of a Tzedaká program or indirect beneficiaries such as hospitals.

Thanks to the commitment of a large team of professionals and the volunteer network they have developed, they provide direct assistance to more than 11,000 people and approximately 35,000 indirectly.

From RACI we thank the Foundation for having received the team and let you know more about the excellent work they do.

On June 23, 2017, the Argentine Network for International Cooperation organized the launch of its new publication “Strengthening the local private social investment agents. Disseminating ideas, creating links” at Telefonica Foundation.

Thanks to the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, RACI was able to gather experiences from key representatives of the Private Sector, with the objective of strengthening the process of Local Private Social Investment for development in Argentina. This publication seeks to create the basis for private social investors to increase their impact and articulation with different actors.

During the launch day, both civil society organizations and representatives of the private sector were present at the event that had a panel composed of: Carlos March, Director of Strategic Communication of AVINA Foundation; Inés Castro Almeyra, Executive Director of Navarro Viola Foundation; María Julia Díaz Ardaya, President of the Group of Foundations and Companies (GDFE) and Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility Grupo Clarín and Agustina Catone, Director of Fundación Telefónica.

They were responsible for sharing and exchanging experiences and ideas with the public to analyze the contributions made by the Private Sector in the Third Sector and vice versa.

Publication will be available soon for free download in the Virtual Library of our website at: https://raci.org.ar/biblioteca-virtual/?lang=en

CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, in which RACI is member, published its annual Civil Society report. The report analyzes main facts and events that are relevant for global civil society.

 The first part of the brief is focused on two disturbing problems: the shrinking space for civil society and regressive policies revival, complemented by the rise of right-wing politics leaders.

The world faces a democratic crisis because civil rights had been restricted: right of free speech, freedom of assembly and association. The report highlights how dangerous it is to challenge the power and the risks that are involved in the mere fact of dissent.

The special issue of the 2017 edition addresses the relationship between civil society and the private sector. The main idea analyzed this year is the urgent need to convince companies of the importance of civic space. The relevance of companies at a global level is becoming larger; According to the report three quarters of the world’s 100 largest economies are corporations and national states. The growing influence of the private sector can play an important role in safeguarding civil liberties. And so the report presents a series of responses and recommendations to work together and urge companies to take an active engagement with civil society.

The report also features a series of interviews with people involved in the main stories of the moment, an annual survey of the members of AGNA (Affinity Group of National Associations) and 27 articles about the relationship of civil society and the private sector written by representatives of Civil Society Organizations, public and private sector.

To read the full report, visit: http://www.civicus.org/index.php/state-of-civil-society-report-2017.