Agenda of the meeting entitled: Citizens for transparent, accountable and open government -  discussion seminar of FOI watchdogs in Central and Eastern Europe. To be held on 23-25 November 2011 /language of the meeting – English, possible translation for Russian speakers/.

23 November 2011 – 10.00-18.0010.00 -11.45  Introduction to the meeting, presentation of participants Introduction to the meeting goals and getting to know representatives of the participating organizations /each organization presents its experience in the field of access to information e.g. civic education and information campaigns, monitoring, legal help, strategic litigation/.11.45-12.00

Archival Agenda of First International Meeting entitled "Citizens on Guard of Public Interest Watchdog Activities - Favorable Environment and Occurrence" - Warsaw, 13-14 March 2008

13th March 2008 (Thursday) 8.30-9.00 Registration of Participants 9.00-9.30 Introduction to the seminar • What is the purpose of today’s meeting? – representatives of the organizers: Katarzyna Batko-Tołuć and Krzysztof Izdebski (Association of Leaders of Local Civic Groups) • What makes us support watchdog organizations? – Anna Rozicka (Stefan Batory

A year ago we had a pleasure to organize the seminar entitled Citizens on Guard of Public Interest – Watchdog Activities - Favorable Environment and Occurrence. Participants took part in numerous discussions, exchanged best practices and had a rare chance to meet with representatives of watchdog organizations from different CEE countries. Our aim was to gather organizations committed to watch-dogging in several fields, to create opportunity for peer learning and to identify helpful solutions in development of civic watch that are worth promoting in participants’ own countries. We want to bring that atmosphere this year too.

During this year’s seminar entitled Watchdogs - Working Out Credibility, we want to discuss what makes us credible, and how we should act to assure citizens that main aim of our projects is to work towards the public interest. While observing different watchdog activities that were undertaken in the Central

From 13th to 14th March, a conference entitled’ Citizens on Guard of Public Interest – Watchdog Activities - Favorable Environment and Occurrence ’ was held in Warsaw. The conference was organized by The Association of Leaders of Local Civic Groups, in cooperation with the Stefan Batory Foundation. Its main objective was to organize a debate on the watchdog organizations in Poland, Central and Eastern Europe; and also to present good practices adopted by them.

A meeting of non-governmental organizations which were invited to apply for grants from Watchdog Initiatives Program 2008, took place on Tuesday, 29th of January in the premises of the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw. A total of 26 people attended a meeting. The opening speech was delivered  by Grzegorz Wiaderek

The seminar has already taken place. Archive agenda and materials of the seminar: Watchdogs – Working Out Credibility, 26th-27th  March, 2009, Zielna Conference Centre, ul. Zielna 37, 00-108 Warsaw is available below.

26.03.2009 9.30 –10.00 Participants’ registration 10.00-10.20 Opening Session •    Lidia Kołucka-Żuk – Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe •    Grzegorz Wiaderek - Fundacja im. Stefana Batorego •    Katarzyna Batko – Tołuć and Krzysztof Izdebski – Association of Leaders of Local Civic Groups. 10.20-11.30 Guardians under control.

Do we - watchdogs - remember to follow the same principles in our work as we do in monitoring transparency and accountability of public administration or business sector? Are these principles crucial for us and what may be lost if they are not respected? A hundred of watchdogs from Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries (including a number of Ukrainian watchdogs) tried to answer these questions during a two-day conference Watchdogs - Working out Credibility.

This general name covered several hours of substantive discussions about transparency of watchdog organizations and credibility of their actions. Among the speakers there were also representatives of the so called old-democracy countries: Sean Moulton of OMB Watch (USA), Martin Coyle of Action for Advocacy (UK), and Erik

On 11th and 12th March 2010 in Zielna Conference Center in Warsaw we organized the seminar for watchdogs. Soon you will find, on this website, the coverage, all the materials submitted by lecturers, as well as audio and video files recorded during an event.

(Beneath, you can find the short text of invitation for the seminar)   During the event we want to take up two issues. First is connected with the main topic of the seminar – a role of introducing social, political or legal change in watchdog activities. This is the most important