The Global Board of GNDR and the Senior Management Team of the Secretariat met in Istanbul, Turkey for two days on 25th-26th October 2018, to discuss and decide face-to-face on important governance and strategic issues and to provide the Secretariat an opportunity to report on the status of our Strategy, finance, programme and membership.
Among the most important decisions to be made was the approval of the revised version of the Governance Manual of GNDR, to bring it in line with the current membership structure after the recategorisation. The Governance Manual is currently being finalised and will be shared with members in early 2019. It will include updated roles of the Board and a succession procedure, in order to increase accountability and monitor performance.
The 2019 election of board members was discussed to find a balance between maintaining historical knowledge and welcoming new representatives into the Board. The Board discussed the role of the Regional Advisory Groups (RAGs) and decided to formally include these as part of the GNDR governance structure in the Governance Manual, on an advisory role.
The board was introduced to the findings of the Institutionalising Sustainable Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) project, including the ingredients and recipes of the Cookbook on Institutionalising sustainable CBDRM that was launched previously this year. They then brainstormed on how they could help ensure the Cookbook is used in their respective regions.
The Secretariat also shared the findings of a mid-term review of our GNDR 2016-20 Strategy to celebrate the achievements to date, reflect on potential areas to improve performance during the second half and to inform the development of our post-2020 strategy. A plan was proposed to the Board for the development of the new strategy.
The meeting was attended by the following Board members: Emma H (Treasurer and Trustee), Farah Kabir (Chair), Graciela M. Salaberri Vacani (Vice Chair), Jose Ramon Avila Quinonez (C. America), Kheswar Beeharry Panray (S. Africa), Loreine B de la Cruz (S.E. Asia / E. Asia), Nicole Stolz (Europe), Peter Curran (Trustee), Prime Nkezumukama (E. Africa), Rod Snider (Independent), Sarah Henly-Shepard (N. America) and Zenaida Willison (Independent).
The Secretariat was represented by Bijay Kumar (Executive Director), Emma Kerr (Network Development Manager), Lucy Pearson (Programme Manager) and Nick Roberts (Finance Manager).