By Ingrid Srinath, Secretary General, CIVICUS
A few weeks ago I wrote of the semi-annual CIVICUS Board meeting and the key issues the Board would be deliberating. My thanks to all those who sent in their suggestions and input. A significant agenda item at the meeting was the re-structuring of CIVICUS to better deliver against the expectations of our constituents. Particular thanks are due to the students and faculty at the Moynihan Institute at Syracuse University whose work has helped frame our thinking.
The civil society leaders who founded CIVICUS envisioned "A global alliance of individuals and organisations which might strengthen civil society institutions, advocate for the cause of civil society among the world's decision-makers, and stimulate dialogue among civil society organisations and across the nonprofit, business and public sectors." 16 years on, it appears we have stayed true to their intent and continued to evolve, responding to constituent needs and a changing environment for civil society.
Each frontier that civil society has opened to include meaningful citizen participation has, however, provoked strong resistance in the form of greater constraints and more aggressive challenges. Geopolitical and economic developments have also significantly altered the landscape. Consequently, CIVICUS' 2008 Strategic Directions identified 3 core themes that have emerged over the past decade - protection of civil society rights, fostering of best practice - especially in the area of civil society accountability - and building civil society capacity to influence policy.
The re-structuring exercise at CIVICUS aims to optimise our organisation's structure to achieve those goals effectively and efficiently, and to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values. At their February meeting, the Board of CIVICUS reviewed the proposed new structure which reconfigures the current long list of programme departments into 2 departments - Policy & Research and Outreach supported by an Operations department. Over the next few weeks we will work out the details of the new modus operandi. It has been particularly heartening that the process thus far has lived up to our belief in inclusive, participatory decision-making.
You may recall that CIVICUS is also currently developing an Impact Planning and Learning Framework (IPLF) which aims to improve our ability to track, report and learn from our performance. The new structure, combined with the IPLF, will help CIVICUS achieve better synergy and coordination between programmes and ensure that CIVICUS' constituents play a more central role in its governance.
We will keep you posted on significant milestones as we progress and look forward to your input and feedback at each stage.
