NATIONAL PLATFORMS COALITION OF ASIA

ABOUT US

The demands of globalization and its discourse led to a non-governmental diplomacy initiative six years ago. Initiated by the Fench National NGO Platform – Coordination, it was systematically built as a strong and legitimate voice of the national civil societies and its articulation. The endeavour involves and brings together National Platforms of Non-Governmental Organisations to emerge as a credible national voice in this scenario. What was a project on non-governmental diplomacy involving five National Platforms from Asia, Latin America and Europe led by Coordination SUD - France, ABONG - Brazil, ACCION – Chile, CONGAD – Senegal, and VANI – India has now triggered the emergence of over hundred national NGO platforms coming together. The task underway is initiate and/or strengthen the process of developing regional coalitions that will serve as genuine civil society voices on key international issues under negotiations along with strengthening national platforms and their mutual relationships.

Asia, the largest continent holding the bulk of humanity arrived into this global initiative through the Asian NGO National Platforms Coalition in 2007 at a meeting in Bangkok. A delegation representing all the countries participated in a meeting in Paris to take forward this task of networking to develop status/position papers for international gatherings, to build solidarity and sharing in a region with a history of colonial domination that even now witness curbs on democratic spaces. Thus each NGO national platform has its own history and its recognition is built around select principles guided by a document known as the criteria and grid for National Platforms. Currently the Asian platform represents countries in the East of Pakistan and many new member countries joining this global initiative, as it gathers momentum. This is a time consuming process as we recognize the nuances of the emergence of National Platforms that suit the criteria in the context of its historical background and civil society struggles. So while being organized we are still to evolve an organizational structure with the interim period being served by a secretariat located in Southern India.