The Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness is a global process set up by and for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) worldwide. Its goal has been to create a shared framework of principles that defines effective CSO development practice and elaborates the minimum standards for an enabling environment for CSOs, while at the same time promoting civil society’s essential role in the international development system.

The Open Forum was formally established in July 2008 in conjunction with the 3rdHigh level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, in response to various calls to civil society organizations to sign up to the Paris Declaration. Instead of signing the Paris Declaration, civil society pushed to define their own effectiveness as distinct but equal development actors. The mandate of the Open Forum runs until the Fourth High Level Forum (HLF4) at the end of 2011 in Busan, South Korea, where the Open Forum conclusions will be presented for acknowledgement by all participants (donors, developing country governments and CSOs). At the same time, the outcomes of the Open Forum process serve as a long-term reference point beyond Busan, for civil society organizations to improve their own effectiveness as independent development actors.