About - Citizen Participation Forum

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NETWORK

Citizen Participation Forum is a network of Bulgarian civil society organizations from across the country. We work in different spheres of the community life. In the network we are united by the idea that citizens and NGOs should participate more in politics and when important decisions are made by the politicians and the institutions.

AIM

We are working to create a community that participates actively, freely and responsibly when decisions are being made and policies on local, regional, national and European level are being elaborated.

VALUES

In our work and our relations we stick to the following values:

Representation
Activity
Empathy
Stability
Trust and respect
Equality and non-discrimination

STRATEGY

Empowering the citizens, changing community attitudes and fostering citizen participation.

SPECIFIC AIMS

While following this strategy we have other smaller aims to achieve. We are trying to introduce working mechanisms for citizen participation that will help so that the reasonable recommendations made by citizens influence the policies both on national and local level. Another objective is to increase the network’s participation the policy-making processes at European and international level. We also take care of our network – to develop it sustainably, to create a positive public image and increase the capacity and motivation of our members.

MEMBERS

Apart from our activities outside the network, a great part of our work is focused on our members- more than 100 NGOs in the whole country. We keep our house tidy by staying in direct contact with them, we are interested in their opinion, we elaborate and stand for our common positions, organize thematic working groups on different topics that are connected to the work of institutions, citizen participation, influence on policies and programs as well as communities and the media.

We develop our network, organize meetings and training our members and improving our capacity. We get to know each other, co-operate and together we follow the same path.

Activities

What are we aiming at

We aim at finding opportunities to influence the public environment through improving the working setting for the civil society organisations.

Why? Because the civil society sector is the voice of important causes, which make the world a better place.

We read

We read legislative drafts for bills, regulations, as well as strategic and programming documents and programmes related to local, regional and national policies.

Why? Because these lenghty documents, which look tedious at first sight, are actually the backbone of our society. They regulate how we live and what development opportunities we have or don’t have.

We disagree

We disagree if we see that decision-makers haven’t taken into account the public interest when drafting some of the above-mentioned bills, regulations or programmes.

Why? Because we feel that we, as civil society representatives, should stand firm when the policy-makers do not work to the interest of all citizens regardless of their social status, gender, religion, profession or any other ground.

We propose

We propose a push for change in order to work through irregularities by public positons and proposals or statements, with which we demonstrate our understanding of the issue. Then we propose specific steps to resolve the issue.

Why? Because if we remain silent, nothing will change

We ask for support

We ask for support: Not only from our members, but also other networks and like-minded partners and together we withstand our poisitons.

Why? Because plurality of opinions bring better decisions.

We exert (democratic) pressure

We exert pressure on the ones on which change depends. In case we cannot succeed through official correspondence, we continue with advocacy campaigns.

Why? Because we believe that persistence and strong will lead to results and bring the desired changes.