Civil society organizations (CSOs) have strived improve their own effectiveness and accountability as independent development actors since the landmark adoption of the 8 Istanbul Principles for CSO Development Effectiveness in 2010, and the Siem Reap CSO Consensus on the International Framework for CSO Development Effectiveness in 2011. These were documented in the publication Journey from Istanbul, which highlighted case stories from 19 countries describing civil society’s continuing efforts to promote and implement the Istanbul Principles through trainings, advocacy, and developing educational materials.

The CSO Partnership on Development Effectiveness (CPDE) Working Group on Development Effectiveness (CSO DE WG) has conducted the Global Training of Trainers on CSO DE in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2013. There were also numerous workshops at the country and regional levels to introduce and follow through on the Istanbul Principles and to support civil society organizations develop their roadmaps towards the creation of national CSO accountability charters, where there are none. The Istanbul Principles self-assessment checklist was relaunched into CSO Awareness Check (#CSO Check)- a new web-based tool to help CSOs around the globe to check their progress in implementing the Istanbul Principles.