Plenary: Designing the Governance Model of the Future
Chair: Dean Hirsch, World Vision International
The first working group reporting back suggested that there was nothing new in the ideas suggested. Then came the question – so why are we not doing it? Is it our limited resources? Are we blinkered by the existing structures?
Later groups suggested that the organisations would benefit from opening up for peer reviews from other CSOs. It was stated that there is need for specialised knowledge within the boards and that the board members need to be involved in the action. Furthermore, the boards should be challenged for diversity.
The plenary was then split up in three groups, gathering the environmental organisations in one, the ones focusing on poverty alleviation in another and the children’s organisations in a third. Each planned their immediate next steps:
Climate
Boards of environmental organisations should engage more with other boards in order to mobilise them on climate change. Furthermore, climate celebrities like Al Gore should be invited to join the board of GCCA. There is also a wish to engage more with governmental and business representatives.
Poverty
What we could improve is to listen more carefully to our constituencies, bring in more people from the south into this organisation and include external perspectives in the boards. Moreover, it is seen as useful to have external evaluations of the boards.
Children
The one big challenge is child participation in the governance of the organisation. One idea is to ask about the impact of discussions on children at each board meeting - every 5 minutes. Another is to have sub-committees with children in them. A further suggestion is to work more with scenario planning to see how climate change is linked to the situation of children and to study training cycles about climate. In the end it was stated that, again, this is actually nothing new but what is new is that there is now hope that action will be taken soon.
