GNDR Global Board Meeting Minutes

GNDR Global Board Meeting Minutes

Thursday 2 February 2017-14:00GMT UK Time.

Board Participants

Marcus, Lorna, Ali, Emad, Nigel, Rod, Papiloa, Zenaida, Jose, Graciela, Kheswar, Oenone (Chair).

Apologies/Absent

Peter, Farah, Emma H, Nicole

Also attending

Jo Cartwright (Financial update), Esther Fletcher (Minutes),Jesus Cordero (Membership re-Categorisation update / coordinating Spanish interpreters); Cecilia & Virginia (Spanish interpreters)

Previous Minutes

The last quarterly board meeting was held on the 3rd November 2016.Key Actions identified and completed from the 3rd November meeting minutes are as follows:

The position, of Advocacy and Campaign Officer has been filled by Julia Taub.She will be joining GNDR from 6th February 2017 as Project Officer.
Finance and Audit Committee met 27th January 2017 to review GNDR financial situation
Strategy Committee has closed.Some members from that committee have now volunteered to be part of other Working Groups that will still report to the board every six months on progress. The first progress report to the board is expected June 2017.
Membership Working Group sent out proposals for Membership type terminology.
Membership Working Group agreed the term ‘Associates’ translates better globally rather than ‘friends of GNDR’.
USAID pre-award audit and European Commission audit for GNDR-DWF partnership have been completed. Consolidated list of recommendations prepared for implementation over coming year
Development of results-based monitoring frameworkfollowingteam plans / budgets 2017-18 agreed - Julia to work on this once established in role (previous M& E experience)
Development of RAG on-going in different regions
Partnership agreement discussions held with German government at COP22 – signed partnership expected circa April 2017.
GNDR side event application for GP-DRR May 2017 submitted and awaiting decision from UNISDR

General updates / Work stream updates

Secretariat Updates:

a)Staff Changes:

Jenna Henry’s6 month probationary contract was not renewed and she is no longer with GNDR.

Esther Fletcher has started with GNDR in the Admin Assistant role (part-time).

Julia Taub will commence work as the Project Officer on the 6th of February (full –time).

b)Regional Advisory Group’s (RAG’s)

Steady progress made throughout different regions building on initial work undertaken in the WestAfrica and North Africa / West Asia regions.ToRs for each of the RAGs’ will be adapted to suit circumstances in each region.

ACTION:Marcus / team to consider allocation ofresources fora designated support person within the Secretariatin the 2017-2018 work plan to assist with the development of RAG’s around all regions.

West Africa – ToRs agreed in consultation with regional members.Invitations to apply for the regional advisoryposition in the different countries have been sent to the members.It is expected it national posts will be selected by end February/ early March 2017.

South East Asia – In the process of adapting ToRs and awaiting further input from regional members.The possibility of changes to the name to a Regional Consultative Group to fulfil the members need to feel less hierarchical and more participatory was mentioned.

South America – Interviewing taking place for the nationally representative regional advisors A working group has been establishedto adapt and agree appropriateToRs.

Central America – Early stages of developing a RAG – no actions to report

East Africa –Led by Anne Akwango a RAG has established and draft ToR’s agreed.Group consists of advisors from 9 countries across the East Africa region.A regional face-to-face meeting s has been planned for the end of February in Uganda .GNDR will look at ways to participate (Marcus) and financially support this meeting . Once establishedthe RAG will seek to appoint a regional advisor / member who could represent East Africa on the Global Board.

North Africa/ West Asia – The value of a North Africa RAG has been discussed and TORs agreed at previous face-to-face meetings within the region hosted by RAED and attended by the GNDR Secretariat (Essam / Marcus) in 2015. With the departure of Essam this needs to be picked up by the secretariat team and futureways to engage with RAED in the absence of a regionally-based RDC to be further considered in 2017-2018 work plan.

North America – Rod will look at ways to use the forthcoming Montreal regional DRR platform (5-6th March) to discuss the establishment of a RAG with North America members of GNDR.

Pacific – the conference call connection was not working well and board members could not hear Papiloa

ACTION:Marcus (and Rouf) to follow up separately with Papiloa onprogress towards developing a RAG for the Pacific region at a more convenient time zone

Southern Africa – little progress made in this region with the loss of the RDC Michael Murphy in early 2015, who was central to the establishment of the Southern Africa civil society network for DRR.This could be an appropriate platform from which to support the establishing of a RAG in Southern Africa.Ways to support SASDRR in the GNDR 2017-2018 work plan to be considered.

Central Asia – Exploratory stages of establishing a RAG. Support and guidance is neededfrom the GNDR Secretariat.Ways to better support the Central Asia region to be considered in the GNDR 2017-2018 work plan.

Europe – no information provided- to provide regional update next call

South Asia- no information provided-to provide regional update next call

NOTE:A core purposes of the RAG is to support regional governance arrangement and strongercommunications between regional members and with the regional board and secretariat staff (regional and global)

c)Partnerships

Twonew partnership agreements are currentlybeing negotiated: One of these is a new multi-year agreement with the German Government (see further details below) andthe other is for the extension of an existing partnership agreement with the Swiss Government. GNDR will also seek to extend its grant funding with the US OFDA

Membership Working Group (MWG)

Proposed membership categories as follows; Full Members – CSO’s, Associates – non CSO’s, Affiliates – Individuals from Full Members.

No discussion as of yet on fees for different member types, since this is the remit of the Resources Working Group.First step towards developing a membership subscription is to have clear membership categorisation, supported by clear criteria. In general, the board members felt the membership re-categorisation process would be beneficial in understanding who their members were with the region.However,there were still some questions as to the best membership categories, particularly the need for both ASSOCIATE and AFFILIATE membership.

Ali asked for clarity on the difference of roles, responsibilities and benefits for the different categories.

ACTION:MWG to send board members a summary document to clarifythe three broad membership categoriesproposed and relevant criteria for each category.

ACTION:Board to feedbackquestions / suggestions within an agreed timeframe to MWG.

ACTION:Once agreed, the proposed changes would be shared with the wider membership in a consultative process.

Communication Working Group

Surveys have been conductedwith Board, Secretariat staff and others. This process was helpful inidentifying critical issues with communications and ideas have been received for improvements.The 30 reports received back from interviews will go into a consolidated report summarising results from the surveys and interviews and suggested ways forward.

Financial Update

Discussions have been ongoing with the German governmentto secure a partnership agreement for a 2million Euro grant over a 3-year period. It is expected that this agreement should be ready to sign in April 2017

Discussions with the Swiss Governmenthave been on-going to develop the extension of their current partnership agreement.Final negotiations are expected to take place in February 2017

Australian government have offered a contribution of AUS$ towards the implementation of the VFL 2017 in the Indo-Pacific region

A funding application for an ECHOcapacity building grant has beensubmitted end of Jan 2017 – results of bidding expected March 2017

A further grant application / extension to the US OFDA will be submitted February 2017

A proposal application to the UK AID CONNECT fund will be submitted early 2017

Regional discussions with donors (USAID / EC) have been taking place in South America and Asia regions.

Internal planning and budgeting for the 2017-2018 work plan has now started within the secretariat in consultation with the Finance committee based on projected donors incomes as outlined above. It is important the wider board members are kept informed of these planning processes, with the board fully engaged at key decision-making stages in the planning / budgeting process to ensure transparency and accountability.

ACTION: Finance committee/ Secretariat to keep full board members informed and engaged in finance planning processes

Forthcoming Events

Global Platform Cancun Mexico22-26 May 2017.GNDR is an organising partner for the NGO Major Group.GNDR side event applicationhas been submitted – awaiting feedback from UNISDR

ACTION:EMAD requests that all Board members who have applied for side events inform the rest of the board once they hear back from UNISDR – this can helppossible co-ordination ofevents.(Send details to GNDR Secretariat who will prepare summary list)

ACTION: Secretariat/ Lucy to send a list of 15 frontline members /Countries that GNDR is sending to Global Platformto the Board with support from the OFDA Frontline grant

ACTION:GNDR Secretariat to forward overall plans for the Global Platform to the Board members as these are being developed

ACTION: Financecommittee/ Jo to inform Board on GNDR budget to see if there is funding availablefor individual Boardmembersto attend the Global Platform.

AOB

GNDR’s tenth year anniversary to coincide with GP-DRR May 2017.Short briefing paper has been circulated to Board members although no time on this call to discuss in detail

ACTION:All Board members to reviewGNDR – Ten Years Together summary sheet and send comments, ideas, suggestions back to Marcus

Board Membership:Rod’s position on the board was discussed as he has now left his role with the American Red Crossto takea position in the private sector (whilst still working on DRR / Resilience / Climate Change).Rod has a long history of association with GNDR and has been a highly supportive and appreciated member of the GNDR Steering Group/ Global Board .Rod expressed his desire to remain a member of the GNDR board providing his new employer would be open to this.

Marcus commented he felt GNDR would benefit from Rod’s continued association with GNDR although given GNDR’s current membership criteria he would not be able to remain the North America civil society representative.Possible option might be for Rod to be nominated an independent board member (similar to Zenaida) with expertise in the corporate sector constituencywho GNDRneed to develop futurerelationships with.

ACTION:Governance Sub-committee look into Rod’s situation and report back.Board to send any feedbackto the Governance Sub-committee regarding Rod future role

ACTION: Esther - Separate Action list from this call to be produced and emailed.

Marcus thanked everyone for attending the call, to Oenone for chairing the call, Esther for taking minutes. Overall a busy and engaging call with strong inputs from the board members and an improved translation facility.

Next Global Board Meeting:Thursday 4th May 2017 14h00 UK time(BST)