The Civil Society Division

Background

The Civil Society Division is under the Directorate office of the Department and take directives and instructions from the Directorate office. Its core mandate is to mainstream civil society contributions through all aspects of AU principles, policies, and programs.

The primary constituents of the division are civil society organizations. They include but are not limited to:

• Social groups such as those representing women, children, the youth, the elderly and people with disability and special needs;
• Professional groups such as associations of artists, engineers, health practitioners, social workers, media, teachers, sport associations, legal professionals, social scientists, academia, business organizations, national chambers of commerce, workers, employers, industry and agriculture as well as other private sector interest groups;
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs) and voluntary organizations
• Cultural organizations; this includes social and professional groups in the African Diaspora organizations in accordance with the definition approved by the Executive Council”.

Core Responsibilities of the Division

• Work with member states and partners to create and strengthen social integration system by ensuring that the contributions of civil society are mainstreamed through all aspects of the AU principles, policies and programs.  
• The Division is responsible for mapping civil society organizations on the continent. It is assigned to develop a database of African civil society organizations that will serve as a repository of information on these organizations.
• The division also facilitates the identification and utilization of expertise that abounds within civil society organizations across the continent.
• Ensure effective participation of civil society in the activities of the African Union by organizing relevant workshops on understanding the African Union. This helps facilitate the understanding of the African Union, its organs, key structures and decision-making process by key civil society across the continent.
• Encourage the support for inter-continental consultation partnership: AU-EU, FOCAC, among others. These consultations help to ensure that African civil society organizations make regular inputs into the various partnership processes in order to reinforce people to people interaction across the world to support Africa’s integration and development agenda.
• Organize sectorial Dialogues such as the AU/OATUU Trade Union Partnership forums and African Union interfaith dialogues to promote serious and critical interactions with key sectorial groups in support of African’s integration and development agenda.

Head of Division: Mr. Jalel Chelba

Factsheet
Download the Civil Society Divsion factsheet here

Contact Information
Website: www.au.int/en/cido
Email: cido@africa-union.org
Facebook and Twitter: @AUC_CIDO
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