Open Doors 2009 Forum Statement
OUR FORUM STATEMENT
We, the participants of "Open Doors 2009: Regional Forum on Procurement Monitoring as a Social Accountability Tool Advancing Citizens' Engagement with Government," recognize this event as a significant part of the process of helping improve governance in the East Asia and Pacific region.
We hereby take stock of the following milestones:
• The experience has inspired us to cultivate procurement as a special field of interest in learning, advocating and capacity building. It also made us believe that it is important to make a beginning, however tentative it may be.
• The insights and lessons have moved us to reflect on the complex world of procurement monitoring, but, at the same time, have pushed us to explore the many, different ways of applying social accountability to make it accessible and meaningful to the citizenry.
• The interactions with our fellow participants (whether from the government, civil society, development partners, among other sectors) have reminded us of our unique and diverse, yet complementary roles, as well as our own strengths and limitations, which define the kind and degree of contribution we can make to advance social accountability in procurement.
• The collective plan of action has presented us opportunities to enhance our competency, improve communication, coordination and networking, bring advocacy to a higher level of constructive engagement, and mobilize resources for procurement work, but it has likewise challenged us to turn these opportunities into reality.
• Finally, the connection of our personal lives with the lives of people in our country and the region, especially the poor, marginalized and all those who are at the heart of development, led us back to the higher purpose of this event, which is service for and accountability to the common good.
Read on the 11th day of November 2009 in Hong Kong.
