When IREX asked me to be on its team of writers for its new blog, I fairly jumped at the chance. To be part of an ongoing conversation and – if this isn’t too grand – a community of practice on international development sounded exciting to me.
But when I began to think concretely about civil society topics, I was a little overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of possibilities. Several of my colleagues helped me to brainstorm subjects related to civil society, which you can see in the word cloud below.
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In my experience [7] as the former Director of Development at IREX and later as Director of its Civil Society Division, I’ve looked at civil society from both sides now, from the more theoretical project design during the proposal process to overseeing program implementation across over a dozen countries.
For IREX, civil society programming [8] frequently focuses on NGO/CSO strengthening, cooperative advocacy, leadership development, and community building, to name just a few areas. Undoubtedly, these will influence what you see on this blog, as will my own interest in civil society program best practices, how project design meets (or falls short of meeting) on-the-ground realities, and how beneficiaries can have more say in the programs that affect their lives.
But you as readers can have a voice in this process as well. I welcome your comments and ideas regarding civil society topics. Let’s see what we can learn on this journey together.
Randal Mason [9] is the Director of Strategic Development at IREX.