CLOSING FORM
1. Basic data
Project number
Project title
civil society
Organization
Period
Financing
: 105666
: Political Space/The impact of counter terrorism measures on the political space of
: Cordaid, eigen beheer/self-managed
: planned: 12 months 2011
period actually: 12 months
: Eur 300,000 (project grant overview attached – note that the grant was
integrated in the costs-benefits balance sheet of Cordaid of 2011)
total planned
:Euro 300,000
planned contribution Cordaid
: € 300.000,00
299.364.03
planned contribution third parties:
planned own contribution:
total actually
contribution Cordaid actually
: € 299.364.03
:€
contribution third parties actually :
own contribution actually:
2. Documentation
Attached are:
Updated version Friend not Foe: “Opening spaces for civil society to prevent violent extremism”.
Report of meeting at the Roosevelt House on engagement with the UN and memberstates: “Towards
and effective and inclusive global counter terrorism strategy”.
Draft report FATF commissioned by the team and conducted by StateWatch/TNI
Talking notes Lia for Counter terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council (link to Webpage of the
Center for Global Counterterrorism Cooperation)
News paper article in Trouw by Fulco van Deventer and Bibi van Ginkel (Clingendael)
Report from GPPAC on the collaboration for engaging the UN and the working on the Peace Portal
3. Goals/results
Planned goals/results on:
The planned goals were achieved:
The Political Space team organized between 2008 and 2010 a series of regional workshops in Maastricht,
Colombia, the Philippines and Uganda. We invited civil society organizations that are affected by counter
terrorism rules and regulations of their governments, or overseas funders (e.g. USAID) that impacted
their political and operational space. Over 400 civil society organizations, and a number of diplomats and
development and human rights policy makers attended these workshops. The experiences of these
organizations were presented in the first version of “Friend not Foe: Civil Society and the Struggle against
Violent Extremism” and in a book with narratives of civil society activists: “Countering the politics of
Fear”. These activists described and analyzed the way the War on Terror and subsequent measures
were used to clamp down their space to take up issues on social, economic, cultural and political rights
of marginalized and excluded groups. Violent extremists and non-state actors considered the non-violent
activities of the activists as undermining their agenda, while the governments and security actors
accused them from siding with terrorists.
Further meetings were organized in Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, and India to discuss the way civil society
organizations, e.g. CINEP, WinG, Human Rights Alert, Imparsial, Deniva, were able to lobby UN counter
terrorism entities on the importance to civil society participation in the design and implementation of
regional and national plans that aim to counter violent extremism. The meetings with Indian partners,
were mainly conducted outside of the country as it was difficult (and later impossible) for Cordaid to
obtain an entry visa to the country. In 2011 we planned to update the first “Friend not Foe” report in
collaboration with partners from Uganda, India, the Philippines, Colombia and Kenya. We also wanted to
organize a preparatory meeting for the 2012 review of the UN Global counter terrorism strategy to
which we invited a number of civil society with whom we have been engaging on the issue since 2008.
This meeting took place at the Roosevelt House in NYC and was hosted by Hunter College. We organized
the meeting in close collaboration with ICCT (International Center for Counter terrorism) and GPPAC
(Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict).
Parallel to this capacity development process, the political space team lobbied a number of UN member
states and UN policy makers of the counter terrorism entities (CTED, CTITF), and other relevant UN
organizations to attend the meeting at the Roosevelt House. The partners we worked with engaged UN
entities in their countries, and where feasible their governments on the planned meeting.
One of the issues a number of partners brought to our attention was the growing difficulty of accessing
foreign funding for their work due to domestic or donor restrictions that came under the banner of
counter-terrorism. A number of them mentioned the influence of the Financial Action Task force, a
highly influential global standard setter for anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism
rules and regulations. Over 180 countries implement the standard. One of the recommendations of the
standard concerns civil society or not for profits, that are considered to be particularly vulnerable for
terrorism financing. The Political Space team commissioned a study to State Watch and Transnational
Institute to study the influence of FATF on the financial space of civil society. A first draft is ready and will
be finalized in 2012.

Update of Friend not Foe report and dissemination of the report at UN and other relevant policy
circles like the EU, the US State Department and USAID. A number of Cordaid partners and other
civil society organizations from the “Global South” contributed to the updated version.

The Political Space/CTM team provided capacity development for partners in among others
Colombia, India, the Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, and Indonesia on engaging the UN on the
importance of political space for civil society. This led to a working conference with UN officials
and member states at the Roosevelt House, hosted by Hunter College in New York. The working
conference is a preparation for the review of the UN Global Counterterrorism report (scheduled
for June 2012). The meeting’s report was disseminated widely among civil society, UN and
member states.

A first version of a report on FATF/Financial Action Task Force: Counter terrorism Policy
Laundering, and the FATF, Legalising Surveillance, regulating civil society to be reviewed by the
Political Space Team and a number of partners.

A CTM community on the Peace Portal.

A number of public presentations and publications on civil society space and CTM (Trouw
newspaper article, article in the Danish newspaper, presentation for members of the Security
Council Counterterrorism Committee, various presentations at the International Center for
Counterterrorism/ICCT).

Collaboration with GPPAC on Human Security and engagement with the UN

Two FTEs are financed from the budget.
4. Final valuation
The project achieved its objectives. The initiative is mentioned in Cordaid’s “jaar verslag” for the
Ministry and in its public jaarverslag, and was featured in the Cordaid newsletter (presentation at the
UN Security Council)
5. Lessons learned
 The Political Space/CTM initiative is currently closely linked with the peace building community
through its collaboration with GPPAC and the Kroc Institute of the Notre Dame University. This
has been advantageous as together we can leverage support and effort to effectively lobby the
UN. However, a number of the partners from Cordaid that are hit mostly by counter terrorism
measures and shrinking space of civil society are human rights and development organizations. It
is important that the initiative will actively seek their collaboration too. The upcoming concept
and work on human security may become the focus which the initiative requires to further
elaborate its work.
 While a number of colleagues at Cordaid works actively with the project, others are more
hesitant to collaborate, though their partners are keen on learning more about the impact of
counter terrorism measures on the space for civil society.
 We will have to actively start using the CTM community on the Peace Portal, though we are not
entirely sure whether this portal is sufficiently user-friendly and whether non peace building
organizations and actors will want to become a member of the portal.
 We need to work on a strategic plan for our FATF related work and use the final report for
engaging with the organization and building a community of interest for lobby and advocacy on
the issue.
 The working relation with ICCT and Clingendael is becoming more prominent as they are seeking
collaboration on the nexus between security and development and the role of civil society in
countering violent extremism. In the follow up project we need to specify the scope and depth of
the collaboration from both a strategic and operational angle. We also need to balance our
working relationship with ICCT and the Centre for Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation as
these institutes are possibly in competition on resources and strategic partnerships with
organizations in the development community.
CLOSING FORM
2/3
Title
: Lobby General 2011
Country / location
:
Programme officer (pv)
and Fulco van Deventer)
: Renata Ranchor on behalf of the Political Space team (Lia van Broekhoven
Financial officer (fm)
: Mohamed Ahajjaj
Manager (rm)
: Joep van Zijl
Date of commitment
: datum_commitering (zelf invullen)
Contribution cordaid
: project_valuta bijdrage_cordaid (zelf invullen)
Total accounted for
: project_valuta totaal_verantwoord (zelf invullen)
Date
Narrative Closure
Conform conditions contract:
Remarks:
yes / no
PV/PM
Financial Closure
Completely accounted for financially:
yes / no
FM/AFM
Project balance not zero:
Project balance:
Conform conditions contract:
Consequences for
follow-up
Deviation from
project plan *
yes / no / n.a.
635,07
EUR
yes / no
Remarks:
The project will be extended in 2012 for one year.
PV/FM
Date: 2012
RM
Approved: Approved
* ONLY WHERE APPLICABLE
Initials