The Belize Network of NGO's is leading the way towards the implementation of a platform for civil society organizations as actors in governance and development works.
The project is named: "Strengthening Civil Society Participation In Democracy Through Effective, Inclusive, Good Governance Reform And Oversight."
It's a mouthful, and it was signed today with the European Union which has agreed to pump $300,000 euros into the project. Here are the highlights from this afternoon's signing at the Government House in Belize City.
Emmerson Baptist, Executive manager, Belize Network of NGOs
"So today we had a project launch of a very important project entitled Strengthening Civil Society Participation in Democracy Through Inclusive Good Governance, Reform and Oversight. That's the name of the project."
"The project is funded by the European Union and the project is currently being co-implemented by the Belize Network of NGOs and the Belize Audubon Society. It's a national project and the focus of the project is to definitely kind of unify civil society organizations in Belize."
"First of all, the project is being implemented through four outputs, right? And the main focus of the project is, again, as you can see from our billboard here, it will focus on capacity building for local CSOs to engage in national level policy dialogue."
"We will also focus a lot on promoting gender equality, women and youth empowerment and inclusion. And we are focusing on promoting an environment on behalf of vulnerable communities with attention to digitization."
H.E. Marianne Van Steen, EU Ambassador to Belize
"As you probably know, I don't think that's anything new. The European Union thinks that democracy, respect for the rule of law, respect for human rights are essential and they're very high on our agenda when we work with other countries."
"So when you go to another country and you would like to contribute and make sure that there is, you know, good development in that country, you need to make sure there is a well -functioning democracy."
"So it is pretty new that we start working in different countries to strengthen the role of civil society, but that is because we have understood that in order to have a democracy that works well, you need to have a very vibrant voice of civil society."
"So it's a bit of a milestone, this project. It's a bit new. We've been working with civil society a lot, but on particular themes or objectives. But now this is really about strengthening the voice of civil society because it has an important role."
The funds amount to about 650 thousand Belize dollars.
