By Liliana Rodríguez Burgos - Luz Ángela Ramírez Ruiz  

This article has been written by the Colombian Confederation of NGOs - CCONG, a member of Forus, as part of the capacity building process it is carrying out with the support of the French Development Agency (Agence Française pour le Développement).    

The new strategic framework for the CCONG's action, which will frame its Value Offer between 2023 and 2026, is the result of a process of consultation with the different development actors with which actions are articulated, and of course in consideration of the changing context of the conditions of the enabling environment and the social, political and economic situation of the country, the region and the whole world.   

It is for this reason that this new CCONG's plan contemplates as a strategic framework the actions of value with which it will manage all its processes such as autonomy; advocacy for the guarantee of the enabling environment and enabling conditions; self-regulation and self-management; social ethics, transparency and public social accountability-RSPC; solidarity and associativity; the pedagogical balance; and will continue to build on what has been built; seeking with this that the capacities of the CSOs allow them to:  

•     Reduce transaction costs (which always seek to be win-win) 
•     Reach, comply with and respect consensus and agreements 
•     Recognise knowledge, know-how and practices, which enable the social circulation of knowledge and cross-learning 
•     Coexistence and coordination between different flows: flows of goods, services and knowledge 
•     Coherence and integrity in the midst of a constantly changing environment. 

Thus, it proposes as its mission: to promote the collective and solidarity-based actions of CSOs and the different forms of articulation of CSOs, with the other actors of development in democracy, for the promotion, defence and guarantee of an Enabling Environment, increasing citizen confidence in the social sector; and as a vision:  By the year 2026 "CCONG is recognised in national, regional (Latin America and the Caribbean) and international scenarios, as a reference in the promotion and defence for the guarantee of the enabling environment; and in the generation of information that strengthens and makes visible the contribution of the social sector in democracy, development and peace in the territories".  

To give effect to this mission and vision by 2026, the CCONG innovates by adopting 3 strategic lines for action, which have goals and services offered to both CSOs and other development actors, namely:  

Line 1: SHARING, COMMUNICATING AND TRANSMITTING, whereby actions of value will be implemented to promote, encourage and share the knowledge of and with the sector (i.e. with the different forms of gathering that represent the collective interests of sectors, populations and territories) around their identity, legitimacy, roles, social ethics, self-regulation, self-management, value offer, technical, political and financial sustainability to communicate, to citizens and other actors of democracy and development, the impacts and transformations resulting from collective action and to transmit for the defence and guarantee of the Enabling Environment and the promotion of a citizen culture that has to do with citizen and social recognition and support for CSOs.   

Line 2: JOIN, ADD AND ARTICULATE: implementing actions of value to promote, consolidate and encourage the coming together of peers (i.e. between CSOs, and of these with other actors of development in democracy in the territorial, national and international order) around common objectives and articulated actions; for the sum of actions, of forces-power, and the amplification of voices around the rights of CSOs and for the guarantee of the Enabling Environment.   

Line 3: WITH ACTION, CARE AND INFLUENCE: with actions of value to promote, consolidate and encourage the participation for the incidence of CSOs (that is to say, the different forms of gatherings that represent the collective interests of sectors, populations and territories), in the scenarios and instances of Participatory Democracy with the power to influence the decisions of public policies that make effective the rights of CSOs and to care for the Enabling Environment.  

With this strategic framework, the CCONG will face the challenges of the next three years, with the set of pedagogies, systems, instruments, strategies, which it has (and which will be designed in the future), and which seek to satisfy and respond to the specific needs and demands of CSOs and other actors in the field of participatory democracy.