Asia Development Alliance
Strategic Plan
Introduction
It was decided at the SC meeting during the preparation for 2021 GBM to make a review of
the ADA Strategic Plan for 2020-2022 with the goal to draft the ADA Strategy for 2023-2025.
The review was done by the ADA Steering Committee members in relation to implications on
ADA advocacy at national, regional and global level from the impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic on the civic space, socio-economic conditions, inflation and crisis caused by the
Russian war in Ukraine. The review along with ADA activities laid the basis for some changes
which were reflected in the parts of external and internal analysis and strategies of the ADA
Strategic Plan for 2023-2025. The review discussed by the SC members, circulated through
ADA membership and approved at the GBM of 2022.
This strategy is built upon a set of foundational pillars that form the basis of ADA’s work,
including the organisation's Vision, Mission, Core Values, and Working Principles.
Vision: Strong CSO Platforms and the representing inclusive voices and the citizens enjoy all
human rights .
Mission: Strengthening civil, society action through capacitating, communicating,collaborating & coordinating and advocating

Brief history of ADA: Our work and achievement
Asia Development Alliance (ADA) is a regional network of 31 National NGO Platforms (NPF)in 25 countries in Asia. ADA works to strengthen the capacities of members to ensure theireffective and efficient participation in achieving the SDGs of Agenda 2030. ADA also
advocates for the defense of an enabling environment for civil society organisations in thecontext of continued shrinking civic space to influence public policy at the national, regional
and international level.
ADA is also a regional member of Forus, CIVICUS AGNA, TAP and other global CSO networks
and coalitions engaged in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Since its inception in February, 2013, ADA has emerged as a strong network for members, asa credible, legitimate, effective and sustainable institution, actively contributing to building it
as an international community with growing membership with a pan Asia outreach.
As an international CSO learning platform, ADA brings together and strengthens CSO
networks at global, regional and national level through joint collaborative efforts on
preparing advocacy reports on national VNR process, issues of policy coherence, climatechange, producing a tool kit on CSOs engagement in the VNR process, national indicators forgoal 16, global report on goal 16 based on national case studies in collaboration with theglobal platforms like TAP network, Forus etc.
ADA is reclaiming the discourse of development and connecting language, bringing forward
diverse opinions of members, prioritizing areas linked to SDGs, deploying civic diplomacy tosecure resources for CSO networks and helping in pushing the local agenda and defending
the CS space (Central Asia, NE Asia)
In an efforts to localise SDGs , ADA has been organising training and capacity building
initiatives called Glocal Advocacy for leadership in Asia (GALA) at regional, sub-regional andnational levels, a bottom – up approach to train more than 500 CSO professionals/activists
who have been leading their training and advocacy efforts to engage with various
stakeholders on SDGs implementation, monitoring and review mechanism at the local levels
apart from representation at various platforms. ADA has organised these trainings in
Bangkok, Nepal, Cambodia, Bhutan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Kazakhstan , etc. toname a few with support from Forus and KOICA, TAP Network and other regional platforms.

Who we work with
Asian civil society: By Asian civil society we mean firstly our member national platforms,
individual CSO members working for achieving the SDGs in their home countries advocating
at sub-national, national, regional and global levels, other local level civil society
organizations and movements working on human rights, environment and development
issues relevant to the SDGs, particularly those of youth, regional and national networks whoare challenging the structural challenges in engagements for a just development policies andpractices.
Strategic partners: Including but not limited to, international and regional non-governmentalorganisations, international and regional networks & alliances, funders and non-traditional
allies such as artists and art institutions, academia, research institutions, media andadvocacy platforms to build solidarity and amplify our strategic interventions for achieving
the SDGs, introducing human rights based approach, enhancing civic space fordevelopment policy strategy and planning in Asia.
State institutions and policy makers: Institutions and/or mechanisms for influencing pro
SDGs policies and regulations and enhancing accountability at the national level such as
Development Planning, Managing and Oversight Institutions (ministries, committees orcommissions), likeminded parliamentarians, executives including ministers and officials.
Mechanisms: We facilitate the participation of member national platforms, individual
member CSOs, Asian civil society representatives and conduct advocacy with internationaland regional mechanisms such as the United Nations High Level Political Forum on the SDGs,
UN ESCAP Asia Pacific Forum on SDGs, sub-regional Multi-stakeholders Forums on the SDGs,
C20 forums...

Diplomatic community, bilateral and multilateral development and financial organizations:
Including embassies, missions and international development organizations, developmentbanks and their representatives at international, regional and national level from across theworld to influence their agenda, discussions and to achieve outputs in favor of Asian civilsociety partnerships to contribute in achieving the SDGs in particular the SDG16 with all
targets, SDG17.14, SDG17.16 and SDG 17.17 targets in their countries

The context we work:
External analysis: The current context is characterized by uncertainties and changes,
including democratic backsliding, disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging
diseases, global financial crises, the worsening climate emergency and environmental
degradation, economic recession caused by Russia-Ukraine war and overall shrinking civic
space. Whether direct or indirect, all these impact the progress in achieving the SDGs. In
response to the challenges Asian governments tend to adopt authoritarian models ofgovernance. This can be observed through the cases in number of Asian countries like
Myanmar, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and many others how autocratic regimes
come to replace democratic institutions. CSOs in Asian countries face common challenges
with the fragile democracy and hostile governments. CSOs access to foreign funding has
been restricted by different laws such as the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA) in
India, or the Foreign Donation (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act in Bangladesh . It
becomes a common trend in developing countries to tighten the regulations on financialtransaction and reporting in the name of prevention from terrorist attacks and money
laundering. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war are othercontributing factors hindering Asian civil society to source and mobilise financial resources
for sustainable operations.
Despite these challenges and the context ADA is situated in, we are encouraged by ourmembers and partners’ advocacy work to mobilise for achieving the SDGs, protecting civic
space, democratic governance, access to information, the right to participation in decisions
for development priorities, demanding accountability and effectiveness from governments
to deliver their commitments to sustainable development. A growing number of civil society
beyond the ADA membership are equipped to engage with regional and international
mechanisms on the SDGs, especially the UN HLPF, in attempts to amplify voices of people byproviding firsthand messages of their issues. ADA will continue its role to encourage andsupport members to build their capacity for engaging with governments to improve policy
coherence for sustainable development (SDG 17.14 target), to enhance global partnerships
complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge,
expertise, technology and financial resources for achieving the SDGs (SDG 17.16), to monitor
and demand the commitments of governments to encourage and promote effective
partnerships including civil society partnerships building on the experience and resourcing
strategies of partnerships (SDG 17.17).

Internal analysis: The above points shows our strength on these different fronts as it boosts
NGO capacity to interact with national governments and authorities while providing
knowledge, intelligence, support and solidarity across countries and regions at the sametime.
We want to capitalise on these strengths:-

Our collective achievements so far as described above.
A Committed leadership from the governance board (ADA Steering Committee)
Long-term support from Forus/EU and intermittent support from global platforms
like TAP Network, Action For Sustainable Development which has allowed continuity
and flexibility over the first period of building ADA capacities up to now.
- Representativeness with active members in 19 countries all over Asia.
- Good relations among members based on trust and respect.
- Strong relationships with other CSOs networks and platforms (CIVICUS, AGNA etc.)
and the potential of strategic partnership development with other key players
Our Weaknesses•••

The registration of ADA is still in the process and not completed.
One person secretariat ( with one RF) with limited capacity to develop and fulfill
fund-raising strategy to secure funds for effective work.
ADA receives and disburse fund through a financial agency ( Code NGO)

Strategic goal
ADA together with its members aims to strengthen the capacity of national CSO platform toenhance and influence public policies and effectiveness and impact of civic engagement andadvocacy on SDGs at the local and national level , regional and global levels with focus on
monitoring and review of UN Sustainable Development Goals
Objective 1: To strengthen the ADA’ institutional, organizational and operational capacities- Develop and implement ADA funding strategy (possible actions: setting up a team frommember organizations on resource mobilization, mapping up potential donors and build andkeep regular communications, drafting project proposals for seeking funds, and implement a
special plan for it etc.) ;- Building and strengthening ADA institutional capacity for strategy development, review of
implementation, review of policy and procedures by setting up a strategy team;-Establishing among members sub-regional groups: SA, SEA, CA, NEA etc. for easy organizing
and advocacy to engage UN ESCAP sub-regional forums on SDGs for-example.
- ADA resource mobilization team and ADA strategy development team will consist ofmember organizations from each sub-region.

Objective 2: To develop capacity of members for effective advocacy at national, regional andglobal levels-Needs assessment survey among members on critical development issues and certain skills
development,-Organize capacity building trainings, workshops, experience sharing dialogues/consultations
according to the needs- Set up a team from members on membership development which may help in conducting
needs assessment survey, training, workshops, experience sharing dialogues/consultationsetc.
Objective 3: To conduct advocacy through members for creating effective development
policy monitoring and accountability mechanisms at national, regional and global levels-Continue policy research and may repeat research on same theme to make more in-depth
analysis;-Produce position papers for advocacy purposes at different levels;-Organize workshops on policy challenges and solutions at national, regional and global
levels;-Assessments of advocacy activities results;-Set up an advocacy and campaign team from members.

General observations:
1. Research
Past few years there has been an increase in the government legislation and requirements in
response to the money laundering and terrorism financing laws in most of the regions,especially Asia for instance. Many ADA members are already working with CSOs across theregions, and it is an area ADA can focus on as well.
a. Enabling
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operational

environment

for

civil

societyoperations

Rebuild
themechanismfordeveloping
documentation(Good
practices/achievements) on contribution of CSOs across the region, to improve ourown narrative and proposed research ono Law on Association and NGOso Finance for Developmento Cyber Law and National Internet Gatewayo Mid-Term review of National Strategic Development Plan and theirimplementation
Those research processes could have crosscutting issues such as the importance of
decolonization of the systemic process to resources and research based advocacy on
how to collaborate with ethnic and indigenous and marginalised communities.
Also, research on what's done on civic space in the region? (using both primary or
secondary data)
Continued work on CSO accountability - SDG 16 Plus
The need to strengthen the CSOs to be more transparent and accountable about thework they do, to strengthen the narrative about the importance of CSOs.
Evidence generation on implementation of global commitments especially SDGs and
UPR by national governments and then advocacy on findings to hold governments
accountableb. Sustainable Development Goals
Policy Coherence in Sustainable Development
Monitoring of SDGs in terms of financial gaps and multi-stakeholders partnership andsupport for CSOs partnership
ADA should be a good network for going crises to crisesc. Climate
Community-led led relocation as a result of climate change impact needs a united CSO
voice to advocate for the impacted communities.
Climate governance / justiced. Business of Human Rights•

2.

Research on how the businesses ( corporate sector) and Public Development Banks
are operating ( whether and what governance and accountability measures in place)
Advocacy

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Advance in the creation of a storyboard session, as a pilot set in Asia.
Knowledge exchange with members and their experiences of advocacy at the subregional level.
Small funding for decentralised activities with a regional view.
Look at cross-cutting issues from inter and intra-regional experience sharing
ADA needs to focus on coordination with the national and the regional CSO coalitions
by identifying common agendas for advocacy actions at the regional and global level.
o Deliberations on shrinking financial resources , finance for developmento Climate justice, people's vaccineo Connect national agendas with international issues.
▪ Take into account the sub-regional scenarios of advocacy (SAARC,
ASEAN etc).
▪ Week of United Action around Global events- HLPF, APFSD, C20, G7
o make use of the available data- ADA could take that survey
o Follow SDGs calendars for campaigns
Advocacy on pro-people's policy
The gap created as a result of the disconnect between national NGOs and theGovernment needs to be filled. This is to be done through constant engagement withthe government mechanisms at all levels.
Engage more with regional bodies including the UN ECOSOC on cross-boundary issues
like civic space, increasingly challenging democratic context (coups d'etat), andincreasingly obnoxious NPO regulations.

Few specific advocacy potentials Asia
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Involvement in the sub-regional forums like ASEAN, SAARC
Engaging with the UN ESCAP’s Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development andPeople’s forums
Writing policy papers on C20, Voluntary national review, finance for development etc

Capacity Building

Currently, most of the ADA members are working with state Networks/ coalitions to improve
the operational environment at the sub-national level, thereby expanding its reach tograssroot organisations within the state.

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Enhance the capacity of the member organizations.(finance and technical)
Preparedness for disruption by using collective voice from the members

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We depend heavily on legitimacy from Govt, focus more on community work

Organizations specific Capacity Building Proposals• ADA can facilitate the capacity building on SDGs, linking human right, democracy anddevelopment apart from creating shadow reports and CSOs statement• Offer capacity building to other ADA members on advocacy and policy influence, civic
space, and resource mobilization.
• Strengthen the capacities of organizations in advocacy and share good practices.
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Outreach
ADA outreach narrative to attract new actors and members
Presence and participation in the Civicus Civil Society Week. How to work as a network
in different regions, facing different challenges.
Choose a problem to deepen, make an awareness campaign, do some fundraising andmake a collaborative project (national organizations as regional focal points)
What the organizations shut up and what we do not share. Peer experience.