The new citizen leadership was the topic that inspired the discussions around civil society in Lima during the XIV Encuentro Iberoamericano de la Sociedad Civil. 70 speakers from 10 different countries got together to reflect about democracy, development, social innovation and collaboration.

Every country in the Ibero-American region is facing particular challenges. However, civil society is trying to find answers to the difficult questions -How to positively impact the 2030 agenda? What is the role of youth in the strengthening of the social fabric? How to protect and grow the space for civil society in each country? How to articulate with the government and the private sector to address key issues?

Main reflections

Even though it is quite complex to have a magic recipe to respond to every single issue, the organizations that make up the Movimiento Iberoamericano de la Sociedad Civil endorsed the Carta de Lima, a document that reflects the main takeaways for the three days of debates, panels, conferences, and networking. They committed to:

• Supporting concrete youth-led Initiatives in education, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Also motivate the participation of young leaders in concrete activities in each country, and in the next versions of this event.
• Strengthen their advocacy efforts to promote synergies between the public sector and civil society. Promoting concrete collaboration on issues that represent the main needs of the citizens.
• Building common agendas with the private sector, to foster a culture of dialogue between them, the public sector and the civil society.
• Promoting and democratize access to technologies and social innovation experiences, for the advantage of civil society.
• Supporting social organizations to assure the participation of civil society in public issues.
• Contributing to create and boost networks where public policies for the common good are being proposed and debated.
• Supporting better ways of impact measurement to prove the importance of civil society.
• Stimulating a better relationship with academic centers and professionals, to watchdog the implementation of the 2030 agenda.

The Encuentros Iberoamericanos de la Sociedad Civil completed 25 years. The next version will be in 2020, and in the meantime, they will continue exchanging on a regular basis and articulating concrete actions to promote the role of citizenship in shaping the future of the Ibero-American region.

WINGS at the Encuentro Iberoamericano de la Sociedad Civil

Considering the importance of this kind of settings, WINGS convened its Latin America and Caribbean Affinity Group for a networking session during the Encuentro Iberoamericano de la Sociedad Civil.

Representatives of AFE, CEMEFI, GDFE, AEF, GIFE, UNACEM and IVPC discussed the importance of understanding better how the legal environment looks like in the LAC region.This is linked to WINGS strategic priority of strengthening the philanthropy support ecosystem where it is most needed, having a primary focus in this region of the world.