BALADI CAP - Call for White Papers – National Conference on CSO Accountability and Governance

About BALADI CAP:

The USAID-funded Building Alliances for Local Advancement, Development and Investment – Capacity Building (BALADI CAP) is a USAID-funded program that aims to build the capacity of local civil society organizations (CSOs) by enhancing their financial management and internal governance capacity, thereby enabling CSOs to serve as lead actors in creating a forum for increased citizen participation in public affairs and  to play a larger role in strengthening civic culture and enhancing democratic governance.

Call for Papers

BALADI CAP invites researchers, scholars, CSO practitioners and experts from Lebanon to contribute, through academic papers, working papers, or case studies of reported excellence based upon practical experience, best practices or lessons learned, to the National Conference on CSO Accountability and Governance.  The best papers will be competitively selected for presentation and discussion at the Conference by a panel of experts.

Conference Rationale

The Conference aims at bringing together academics, practitioners, experts and students to discuss issues of accountability and good governance within Lebanese CSOs, which will be the first of its kind in Lebanon. It comes at a time when CSOs are increasingly called upon to serve in their capacity as public oversight and accountability “watchdogs” over public and private sector institutions in Lebanon, while still being challenged in the development of their own internal governance and accountability capacity.

The Conference aspires to kick-start a national dialogue and increase awareness of the importance of strengthening CSO internal governance and external oversight accountabilities and addressing the challenges that are being faced in making these improvements within the CSO sector. 

Conference Details

BALADI CAP will be holding a two-day national conference in Beirut in February 2019[1] that will provide a forum to bring Lebanese CSO leaders, civil society champions, academics, and other NGO professionals together as “thought leaders” to exchange information, best practices and lessons learned on CSO governance and accountability in Lebanon.

The objective of the conference is to facilitate an open exchange of experiences, drawing on lessons learned and best practices used in the application and replication of existing CSO governance and accountability mechanisms, practices and tools being used in Lebanon, their responsiveness to adaptation, and resulting impact, as well as any new innovations.

The Conference’s main topic will focus on CSO governance and accountability, whereby participating CSOs will be able to share the results of their successful and innovative tools and practices, which  could then be replicated, adapted, or scaled up within the civil society sector. In short, participants will be able to “Share, Learn, Change, and Grow” through collective action.

The Conference will feature interactive panel discussions of leading experts led by an experienced facilitator, as well as  more informal break-out sessions and social hour discussions with opportunities to discuss one-on-one with featured experts and special guests.

[1] Exact date in February and location will be announced in October, 2018.