Civil Society Covenant launch
On Thursday 17 October the government announced its new Civil Society Covenant, which originated with NCVO and ACEVO’s voluntary sector manifesto. The government is inviting feedback until 12 December.
The covenant aims to “reset the relationship with civil society and build a new partnership that can harness civil society’s full potential to rebuild our country and deliver against the government’s 5 missions.” There are four high level principles:
- Recognition: to ensure a strong and independent civil society
- Partnership: to ensure effective service delivery and policy making, and shared learning of best practices
- Participation: to ensure people and communities can be heard and make a difference
- Transparency: to ensure civil society and government have the information needed to best serve people and communities
The consultation will involve questions such as:
- are the four key principles recognition, partnership, participation, transparency the right ones?
- what are the enablers of effective partnership and what are the examples of best practice?
- what are the barriers to meaningful partnership and collaboration?
- how do we ensure this Covenant holds weight and is effective?
- how do we harness the excellent ability of civil society to innovate and find new solutions to societal problems and how do we support that spirit to spread across the sector?
- how do we make the new relationship a reality, especially in the current economic context?
Views are sought from:
- charities
- community groups
- social enterprises
- cooperatives
- funders
You can find out more on the NCVO’s website here. A final covenant will be published in the new year.