Background In recent years, Climate Action Network – International CAN has developed

Report on CAN Pre COP Workshop, Addis Ababa, 19‐21 Oct 2011 2

1. Background In recent years, Climate Action Network – International CAN has developed

Southern Capacity Building Programme SCBP in order to bolster the voices of developing country member organizations and partners working on climate advocacy at both domestic and international levels. Often, due to resource constraints and lack of information on the issues, voices from developing countries have been marginalised. What’s more, it has often been the case that participation from developing country advocates has been inconsistent and often with limited knowledge on the subject matter due to lack of exposure. Through the work of the SCB programme of CAN over the last two years dedicated policy analysts and activists have been empowered, with some building their capacity so far as to become experts in their fields. This program has helped CAN’s Southern NGOs and networks to build their knowledge and experience in the areas of policy advocacy, lobbying governments, media relations, and mobilization around policy work for broader civil society agenda. It has further built their relationships with their respective governments and to influence them through their ability to articulate policy perspective and their agenda of the poor and vulnerable people. As a part of capacity building and to enhancing the dialogue on policies issues within CAN members and partners in the Global South CAN organized a Pre COP capacity building and knowledge sharing workshop. Attending the international climate negotiations alone will not be sufficient. Participants will also have to share their knowledge and skills gained at the negotiations with other civil society members and government in their country and region. Given the political dynamics in climate change negotiations, it is becoming a complex phenomenon. In this context, it is important that more southern people build their knowledge and capacity to work around these issues. In order to do so, they will have to engage in dialogue and discussion among themselves and have time and space to further sharpen this debate. This workshop is a milestone in achieving such goal. 2. Pre COP workshop in Addis Ababa CAN International organized a Pre COP Workshop for developing country CAN members in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 19th to 21st October 2011. This is a part of CAN’s ongoing efforts under the Southern Capacity Building program. Roughly 50 participants from over 35 countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific regions attended the workshop. This event was primarily for civil society members in the Global South, and aimed to Report on CAN Pre COP Workshop, Addis Ababa, 19‐21 Oct 2011 3 strengthen its participants’ capacities and work towards a common Southern civil society voice within CAN and like minded organisations in the lead up to COP 17. This event built upon the similar and successful pre‐COP workshop held last year in Mexico City in which roughly 50 CAN members and partners attended. The CAN‐International Secretariat had the pleasure to plan the workshop in collaboration with a large variety of CAN members and partners, whose financial support not only made this event possible but also whose engagement brought richness to the discussions. CAN‐International received support from the Heinrich Böll Foundation Ethiopia Office, Bread for the World, Greenpeace International, WWF‐International, Oxfam International, the Norwegian Environment ForUM, the Development Fund, the Southern Voices Program consortium and CARE Denmark. We’d like to thank these organizations and partners for making this event a success. 3. Objectives of the workshop Primarily, this program aimed to strengthen the capacity and voice of CAN southern members and like‐minded organisations on climate policy to advocate at the national, regional and international level. In addition, the workshop aimed to build their capacity to influence the climate negotiations and engage in constructive debate while they also had the opportunity to share their experiences in network institution strengthening. Their active participation helped enhanced their ability to articulate policy, understand the complexities of climate negotiations and work in cooperation with wide range of networks. Some of the specific objectives included: 1. Provide space for developing country CAN members and other stakeholders to work on a common and unified southern voice for greater influence at the Seventeenth Conference of Parties in Durban. 2. Strengthen the South–South dialogue and discussion in order to support the CAN‐International policies to have impact in the climate negotiations through broader understanding and knowledge base. 3. Strengthen and reinforce the connections between the southern civil society members to continue dialogue and strategize for future advocacy and actions in their respective country and regions. 4. Have dialogue and interaction with African governments andor the African Union.

4. Workshop methodology Different methodologies were practiced in