The Amani Africa and Open Society Foundation will organise a two-day conference in Addis Ababa, on the margins of the 36th Ordinary AU Summit, to be held on 17th-18th February 2023. The gathering of selected CSOs has as a primary objective to reinitiate the CSO engagement currently outside the AU mechanisms of ECOSOCC and CIDO and primarily around the AU Summits. The AU is leading the celebration of its 20th Anniversary and has called for the upcoming AU Summit to culminate a six-month- long commemoration. The CSO gathering provides an ideal occasion to take stock of the reality of the ideals enshrined in the AU Constitutive Act and other leading policy instruments for ensuring citizen participation and leadership. Such a gathering, underpinned by the principle of collaboration, aims to ultimately scale up the meaningful involvement of African CSOs willing to engage the African Union within the continental framework. It contributes to demystifying the CSO-AU engagement process, reducing the barriers and ensuring proximity to decision-makers and processes, ensuring the quality of civil society contributions, and continental policy advocacy.
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