UNDER THE SUN - Capacity4Dev

CIVIL SOCIETYAs of June 2012, the SUN Civil Society (CS) Platform (or Network) in place in Bangladesh is the mostpalpable outcome of the SUN initiative at country level. The CS platform started emerging mid-2011 inBangladesh under the impulsion of the SUN Global CS Network, which has been led by several internationalNGOs active in the nutrition sector. About 50 CSOs are today part of the Bangladesh CS platform. It includesdifferent kinds of organizations, national and international NGOs, many of them involved in the delivery ofprogrammes to communities in Bangladesh, but also some media, academia and right based organizations.After the SUN Global CS Network informed organizations in Bangladesh of the opportunity for fundingthe activities of the newly established SUN CS Platform, it was urgently requested that the platform put inplace a governance structure including a Secretariat that will be tasked to manage the funds received. Afterorganizations in Bangladesh worked together to put in place such a governance structure, involving theelection of a Secretariat and Executive Committee, significant problems and conflicts appeared betweendifferent organizations and individuals. This culminated with a contested election of the Executive Committeefor the Secretariat in May 2012, and two parallel SUN CS Platform meetings, called on the same day onJune 7 2012, by two different organizations in two different locations.As of July 2012, following these contested elections, two groups (or two leaderships given that membersmay actually be mostly the same) have taken shape and worked in parallel to develop their membershipcriteria, draft management structure, action plan, and one of them even obtained a Trade Mark License fromthe GoB for the name of the SUN civil society Platform.Whereas the election modalities and criteria have been put in question, the conflict appears to be primarilydue to the tensions over the fact that the new Executive Committee will be responsible for the managementof funds for the platform. The vision for the management of these funds, recommended by the Global SUNCSO Network, is that the Executive Committee will manage the funds whereas members will bid – makeproposals- in order to receive parts of these funds.Overall objective of the CSO Platform in Bangladesh 41To create a strong, coordinated and vibrant civil society constituency in support of thefurther development and wider implementation of the nutrition agenda that will result in thesustainable reduction of undernutrition in BangladeshObjectives and key expected outcomes1. To establish an inclusive and influential civil society led platform that fosters theimplementation of common, coherent and strategic advocacy2. To influence policy and ensure the meaningful engagement of civil society in nutritionpolicy development and implementation3. To create a popular mobilisation campaign to increase accountability on government’sand donors’ commitments on nutrition41 - Adapted from cso platform concept noteUNDER THE SUN19