By Fiona Veitch from NICVA
Published on 03 Jun 2008
The Civic Forum is to be reviewed and a public consultation is taking place as part of the process. What could a new body look like?
The Civic Forum comprised representatives of ten sectors of civic society, including the business, trade union and voluntary sectors. It was established to act as a consultative mechanism on social, economic and cultural issues but was unable to meet during the suspension of the devolved institutions in 2002. The period of appointment of the original members has now lapsed and the time is ripe for a comprehensive review.
Commenting on the consultation which he and the Deputy First Minister announced, Dr Paisley said: “As the nature of civic society here has changed since the Forum was first established, we believe there is a need to fundamentally review the structure and role of the Forum to ensure that our mechanisms for engaging with civic society are appropriate.”
Mr Martin McGuinness added: "The review will examine the effectiveness and appropriateness of the current structure, operation, composition and membership of the Civic Forum and draw on experiences elsewhere. The review will seek to canvass as wide a spectrum of opinion as possible."
The review will seek the views of individuals or organisations with an interest in how the Civic Forum and civic society might contribute to good government in Northern Ireland.
The review will also take account of other models of civic partnership, both here and elsewhere, and will recommend how any future Forum should operate and interface with government.
You can follow the progress of the review at www.ofmdfmni.gov.uk/civic-forum-review
NICVA was very enthusiastic about the formation of the Civic Forum after the Agreement was signed and played a major role in the selection of representatives from the sector. However, last year chief executive Seamus McAleavey wrote to OFMDFM saying that NICVA believed it would be a mistake to reconvene the Civic Forum in its existing form.
NICVA believes that social partnership has a key role to play in the future governance of Northern Ireland. As a mechanism it extends participative democracy and can offer a range of additional voices to contribute to the process of making better decisions at a political level. The Civic Forum should embody this potential and as such, should be structured as a proper social partnership forum.
The National Economic and Social Council in the Republic Of Ireland was offered as possible future model which could "take such a broad view of the issues facing Northern Ireland, provide advice and evidence to government on these issues and thus enhance the decision making processes of governance".
NICVA said it was keen that a future Civic Forum should learn from previous experience and to this end we would recommend that the review process which was begun in 2002 should be restarted and a wide range of views sought from within and beyond the Forum on its aims and effectiveness. Only then should there be a process of looking to form a new body.
There is no appetite in our sector for a return of the Civic Forum in its previous form.
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