2007/11/21

Somali Civil Society to join Social Watch Network

Social Watch

Thirty participants attended a workshop held at the Mogadishu' Sahafi II hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday 20th and 21st of November 2007. SOCDA organised the gathering in order to highlight the importance of civil society networks.

The two-day event, was aimed at emphasising the importance of cooperation, especially through information sharing. The facilitators introduced the participants to the existence of a worldwide movement called Social Watch (SW), a network of civil society organisations fighting to achieve gender equity and the eradication of poverty and its causes.

Established in 1995, after the UN World Summit for Social Development held in Copenhagen (Denmark), the Social Watch is an international network that strives to ensure the equitable distribution of wealth and the full enjoyment of human rights.

The participants learnt about the structure of Social Watch network, the roles of its Coordinating Committee, International Secretariat and General Assembly, and the unique position of the over 60 national coalitions worldwide.

The workshop participants in Mogadishu were interested to learn that it in order to establish a SW chapter in Somalia the appropriate tools for policy and advocacy should first be put in place.

The participants of SOCDA's community networking workshop ended the workshop promising to refer the information and knowledge received to their institutions. Many vowed to convince their executive bodies to join the emerging SW chapter in Somalia.

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