As
Advocate of Policy and Institutional Reform
ANGOC has developed the skills in linking
grassroots action with macro-policy interventions. This competence is
highlighted in its past projects: a) the Citizen's Campaign on the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) and b) People's Participation in UNCED and Beyond.
MDB Campaign
ANGOC began working with the Friends of the
Earth-US to pioneer the citizen's campaign to reform the ADB, which aims to
bring a fundamental shift in the Policies and practices of the bank towards
one that is more people-centered and sustainable. The campaign has now
evolved into a formal institution called the NGO Forum which aims to:
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Generate increased public interest and
policy support (with banks and governments) for direct environmental
projects;
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Explore and promote alternatives in
dealing with issues of foreign debt, and;
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Increase the public accountability of
Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and governments by instituting a
principle of transparency and by assigning to NGOs an increasing role in
needs assessment, project review, environmental impact monitoring and
evaluation and direct implementation of projects.
Since 1988, ANGOC has been undertaking
policy researches, facilitating information exchange among NGOs and
initiating dialogue with bank officials.
Much has been achieved in terms of broadening public awareness on the social
and environmental impact of bank policies and development approaches. As of
May 1996, 112 NGOs and community-based organizations from 21 countries have
participated in the NGO Working Group on the ADB. NGO Working Group on the World Bank In recognition of its ADB work, ANGOC was
elected in October 1992 into the NGO Working Group on the World Bank and
into its Steering Committee in October 1993. the World Bank campaign saw
ANGOC engaging the Bank on public policy debates on issues of IDA lending,
popular participation, debt and structural adjustment, and the social and
environmental impact of WB lending and projects.
ANGOC has also conducted studies on the mapping of WB-NGO Relations and the
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Assessment in Cambodia and Vietnam. UNCED and Beyond In 1989, ANGOC together with two regional
networks and four national NGO focal points formed the South East Asia
Consortium on Sustainable Development (SEACON) to influence governments'
positions in various development and environmental issues at the Earth
Summit in Rio. SEACON grew out of a series of local and national
consultations involving some 500 NGOs.
In the same year, ANGOC organized an inter-regional consultation on
"People's Participation in Environmentally Sustainable Development". It was
attended by more than 30 NGO leaders from Asia and the Pacific, the
Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and North America. The consultation yielded
a "Declaration on People's Participation and Sustainable Development" which
henceforth became the framework for a series of regional and national
seminars on NGO roles on Sustainable Development. These consultations aimed
to formulate the NGO input to the global conference on environment and
development.
