Engaging with civil society organizations (CSOs) is fundamental for the African Development Bank (AfDB) in its assistance to governments and project beneficiaries. This helps the institution listen to people, take stock of their needs and impact positively their lives.

To that end, the AfDB has embarked over the recent months on a series of dissemination activities of its new Framework for Enhanced Engagement with Civil Society Organizations, adopted in October 2012. Meetings were held both at Headquarters and in countries.

The objective of the dissemination meetings, organized by the Bank' department in charge of CSOs was to ensure ownership of the framework by both CSOs and ADB staff. The first meeting, entitled "Dissemination of the Bank Framework for Enhanced Engagement with CSOs: Seminar on the Way Forward", took place on January 29-30 in Tunis and aimed to present progress on ownership and reaching consensus on the way forward.

Interdepartmental meeting brought together various Bank staff members on February 26, 2013 in Tunis. The objective was to better sensitize them on the Framework. Two decentralized meetings, entitled "Dissemination of the Bank Framework for Enhanced Engagement with CSOs in RMCs: Translating Commitment into Actions" followed in Ouagadougou on March 12, 2013 and in Kampala on March 26, 2013.

Overall, the meetings aimed at broadening the operationalization of the Framework with the following three objectives:

i) disseminate the Framework among the Bank's senior management, the Bank staff in FOs and headquarter, and some major African CSOs known for their continental specificity and/or their performance;

ii) share ideas on the best way for its operationalization; and finally

iii) exchange views on appropriate strategies of communication within and outside the Bank.