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Democracy Dialogues: NGOs and Policy Advocacy

Courtesy of Stephan Klingelhofer

Stephan Klingelhofer Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2007 Time: 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) View Webchat Transcript

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can play an important role not only by providing services, but also by advancing citizens’ interests in a wide variety of policy sectors. Just as individual citizens can bring information and knowledge to policy and legislative debates that would otherwise be unavailable to decision makers, so the participation of NGOs or civil society organizations (CSOs) that represent the interests of groups of citizens in particular issue-areas can be critical to the development of sound public policies, as well as appropriate legislation and regulations to implement those policies. Join Stephan Klingelhofer, senior vice president of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, for a webchat on how NGOs can best contribute to and make their influence felt in the policy process.

Guest Biography:

Stephan E. Klingelhofer is senior vice president of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) in Washington, an international nonprofit organization that seeks to establish a legal framework for a strong and effective global civil society. As part of ICNL’s senior management team since 1994, Klingelhofer has assisted countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia/Pacific and the Middle East in drafting organizational and fiscal laws and developing implementing regulations governing the not-for-profit sector. He also has led seminars on NGO law and taxation and regulatory implementation in a number of countries, taught courses on NGO law at several universities and written extensively on subjects related to laws and regulations that affect civil society.

Klingelhofer also works as a mediator and private attorney. He holds a B.A. from Yale University, a JD from Duke University and an M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary.