Over fifty civil society activists from Indonesia and across South East Asia will take part in the upcoming round of civil society meetings and workshops organized by the Community of Democracies and the U.S. Department of State in Jakarta on January 21 -23, 2015.
The Community of Democracies began civil society consultations in May 2014 to better understand how the CD and the international community can better support civil society in Southeast Asia through innovative technological, financial, logistical, and representational mechanisms.
The meetings in Jakarta will address ways in which the international community and the Community of Democracies in particular, can continue to improve its support to civil society, and how the Community of Democracies can better facilitate broad engagement within its civil society pillar.
In addition to regional consultations, the Community in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State hosts capacity-building workshops known as TechCamps. TechCamps provide civil society activists with training and access to technological tools and expertise, focusing on issues such as democratic governance, interactions between government and civil society, and government transparency. In the TechCamp’s highly collaborative and technology-focused environment, participants will consider ways their organizations can better use technology to engage their countries’ citizens and facilitate a more productive exchange with government.
This will be the fifth in a series of civil society consultations and capacity-building workshops hosted by the Community of Democracies. The 2014 events were held in Mali (May), Botswana (June), El Salvador (July) and Kyrgyzstan (October).
For more details, visit the Community of Democracies website (www.community-democracies.org) or contact the project coordinator at the Permanent Secretariat of the Community of Democracies, Ms. Milka Zagloba: mzagloba@community-democracies.org.
