Introductions

I am the General Coordinator of the NGO Liaison Committee in Congo. Indeed, the NGO Liaison Committee in Congo is a federalist type body that includes NGOs, groups of NGOs and coordination. He positions itself on the one hand as an interfacing between the local NGOs and the INGOS, between the NGOs and the public authorities on the others hand.

My role consists in coordinating and orienting the action of this platform, which to this day counts close to 60 NGO affiliated members.

Fields of contribution of the Liaison Committee (CLONG) are varied and reflect in fact the fields of member NGO actions. We work in the following sectors:

Sustainable development
Health and quality of life
Hydraulics
Renewable Energy
Education and Training
New Technologies of information and communication
Agriculture and breeding
Housing and sanitation Culture of Peace and Democracy
Culture of Peace and Democracy
Human rights

The NGO Liaison Committee in Congo is considering holding in Brazzaville a Forum of the NGOs of Congo with two fundamental objectives:

The re-energization of the Congolese civil society
The setting up of an Agency for the Development of NGO initiatives. This Agency will gather support funds for NGOs.

We wish to interest a big number of people in this project, as for the Forum ACP-EU, I think that it is a useful exchange place and especially of major decision making in the direction of energizing the ACP civil societies, African in particular, because only strong civil societies can lead the governing authorities to change their mentality and to apply rules of good governance. I expect that the Forum will take the initiative to recommend to heads of state to earmark in the national budget a percentage to finance and to back their civil society.