Turkish-African Civil Society Organizations Forum

Turkish-African Civil Society Organizations Forum

Turkish-African Civil Society Organizations Forum will be realizing in Grand Cevahir Congress Center, Istanbul between the dates of August 14-15, 2008 by Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Research (TASAM). Totally 100 Civil Society Organizations, participant observer from international organizations and representatives of premier media from 44 African States will participate to the forum.

Chairman of TASAM Mr. Süleyman Şensoy notes that the importance of Civil Society Organizations which is a serious indicator of democratization keeps increasing each passing day. And these civil associations intending to undertake social responsibilities voluntarily contribute in maintaining social peace between the society and the government in their own countries and play important roles in establishing cooperation among nations and founding dialogue and tolerance between cultures.

According to Şensoy: “Turkey has close relations with the African nations not only geographically but also emotionally. All through the history, positive developments observed in political and economic relations regarding decisive and systematic politics implemented for the purpose of strengthening our relations with Africa within the framework of friendship and brotherhood based on mutual benefits to meet the requirements of today’s world, have to be reduced also to individual level. Through the meetings to be held within the framework of exclusive discipline of the leading CSOs representatives of Turkey and Africa, it shall be possible to determine the common cooperation fields and to develop constructive dialogues aimed at our date and to future as the result of sharing knowledge and experiences already gained.“

African Institute of Turkish-Asian Center for Strategic Studies (TASAM) Assistant Director, also who coordinator of this forum Mr. Ufuk Tepebaş notes that “In the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the 57th Ordinary Session of the General Assembly of the UN, the importance of the CSOs have been emphasized and it has been stated that the efforts spent in this aspect are to affect the said process positively. In this context, we believe that this forum could be a way for to develop cooperation between Turkey and Africa.“

Representative of TASAM Ankara Office, Ambassador (Ret.) Assoc. Prof. Ali Engin OBA summarizes to forum’s goal: “Through the meetings to be held within the framework of exclusive discipline of the leading CSOs representatives of Turkey and Africa, it shall be possible to determine the common cooperation fields and to develop constructive dialogues aimed at our date and to future as the result of sharing knowledge and experiences already gained. In this context, we aim to identifying the continent more closely regarding wide scope projects to be prepared concerning Africa to give more tangible results; producing and implementing projects that contribute in development of bilateral, regional and multi-lateral relations and reduce already available problems.“
The aim of the Forum is determination the cooperation fields between the leading organizations of Turkey and Africa and to develop a joint vision and sharing knowledge and experience by forming a broad scale cooperation platform among the CSOs.

Cooperation between the Continents

First day of Forum will be held on four session, which those “Economy and Development“, “Sectoral Cooperation Possibilities: Education, Health, Culture and Environment“, “Cooperation Possibilities and Civil Society Dialogue“, “Position of Africa in International Conjoncture and Role of CSOs. In the session in 15th August, there will be four workshops about the same topic with first day of the forum that all CSOs may participate to the sessions.

Some presentations of Forum are: Jamillah Mwanjisi, ANEW Coordinator “Meeting the MDG Targets- what our leaders should do?“; Edwin Mang’eni Barasa, Director of Programmes, Africa Peace Forum “The Role of Civil Society in Peace Building and Conflict Resolution“; Dr. Simon Mamosi Lelo, Director General of CAFRAD “Enhancing Capacity in Leadership and Public Policy: Collaboration in an Executive Capacity Development Program for African Countries“; Mahmood A. Ayub, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative “Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) and Africa“; Ugoh SUNNY, ECOWAS Secretariat “The ECOWAS Experience in Regional Integration and Prospects for Regional Integration“; Makha Dado Sarr, Former Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNECA and Former Special Coordinator for Africa and Least Developed Countries “The Role of CSOs in Promoting Africa’s Regional Integration and External Partnership“. Totally 100 Civil Society Organizations and representatives of premier media from 44 African Countries will participate to the forum.
Civil Interaction between Turkish and African Community

Chairman of TASAM Mr. Şensoy notes that “We organized much arrangement meeting for this forum. First one was realized in 24th July 2008 in Ankara about common project in international area by participating Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, ambassadors of African countries who is consular assignment in Turkey, CSOs representatives. Second meeting was realized in 05th August in Istanbul among Turkish CSOs. The last one will be realized in 12th August 2008 in Istanbul among Turkish mass media’s representatives. All these arrangement meetings gave us many new information and we would like to echo these views to the forum.

Şensoy said that; “We would like to develop a cooperation a broad platform where the representatives of the leading CSOs in Turkey and in the African continent come together and discuss the problems regarding increase of civil activities between the African and Turkish people compliant with the summit goals and search for ways of solutions and to issue a joint declaration, prior to the “Turkish-African Cooperation Summit“ foreseen to be held with the attendance of Heads of State/ Government and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the African Nations under the organization of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of TR between the dates August 18-21, 2008.