There are two inter-related global and inclusive civil society processes working for greater effectiveness in international development- the BetterAid Platform, and the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness. Both are born out of the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, 2008.


The BetterAid Platform and the Open Forum are two distinct, yet complementary global CSO-led processes.
•    The Open Forum focuses on how Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) can improve their own effectiveness as development actors, including by improving the environment that is provided by official donors, governments and other development stakeholders for CSOs.
•    The goal of the BetterAid Platform is to monitor and influence how official donors can improve their effectiveness as development actors, particularly in regards to the implementation of the AAA.

While both processes are closely linked, their mandates, objectives and working methods are distinct and complementary to each other. To reach their goals, both processes will build upon CSO-led consultation processes, at different levels with distinct objectives, and including a coordinated dialogue with official donors, governments and possibly other development stakeholders. Because of the diversity of CSOs and the distinct mandates, the two processes will often include different sets of CSOs in their work. For example:

•    The consultations related to the BetterAid agenda, following an advocacy logic, will gather policy-oriented CSOs to monitor and influence implementation of the AAA and contribute to policy directions for the HLF-4.
•    The Open Forum will build on the expertise of a much wider mix of CSOs as development practitioners, policy interveners, social mobilisers and constituency-based organisations, and focus on the enabling conditions within and between CSOs and in official donor and government policies that are determinants in CSOs’ development effectiveness.

You are invited to visit the Open Forum website for more information on their contributions to the ongoing CSO development effectiveness process.