FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Continuity with change: Governance changes at CIVICUS

Release Date: 20 June 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear e-CIVICUS Subscriber,  

As many of you know, managing change in civil society organisations is a challenging and difficult task. For CIVICUS this is made even more challenging since we are global and we are membership-based organisation. CIVICUS is managing two transitions at the moment: governance and management. Next week I will reflect on management changes. This week, I wanted to share with you in greater detail the outcome of the CIVICUS Board elections. 

We have successfully completed the election of the new CIVICUS Board. This followed an extensive elections process which started at the end of 2006. After more than 100 excellent nominations were received, an independent nominations committee, led by former CIVICUS Chair, Aruna Rao , short-listed 26 candidates. Other members of the nominations committee included outgoing chair of the CIVICUS Board Programme Committee Chair Alan Fowler, Sylvia Borren, Executive Director of Oxfam Novib, Atila Roque, co-director of INESC in Brazil and Mahnaz Afkhami, the President and CEO of Women’s Learning Partnership from Iran .   

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the 100 or so candidates that made themselves available for election. The nominations committee had a tough job deciding on a slate of 26 candidates that were put to our members for them to select 13. Voting took place until mid-April when a team of CIVICUS staff members counted the votes. A certification committee made up of senior representatives from Action Aid, the South African Council of Churches, the MOTT Foundation, the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) and Global Campaign for Education met with the CIVICUS staff team on 20 April to certify the accuracy of the counting process. The candidates were presented to the members meeting at the CIVICUS World Assembly and the first meeting of the new Board took place on 28 May in Glasgow . With these first board activities already behind us, it is time we introduce to you our new board members to you.  

The new Chair of the Board is Anabel Cruz from Uruguay , who is the founder-director of the Institute for Communications for Development and a former activist against the military dictatorship in her home country. Anabel was previously the Secretary of the Board of CIVICUS.   

Rieky Stuart, the former head of Oxfam Canada is the new Vice Chair and the Chair of the Governance Committee of the Board. Rieky recently chaired the Strategic Planning Committee of the Board.   

Maja Daruwala, the Executive Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, is the new Secretary of the Board. Maya is from India and will bring a wealth of experience in human rights work to support CIVICUS Civil Society Watch Programme.   

Peter Shiras, from the United States who is the Vice President of the International Youth Foundation, is our new treasurer. Peter was previously the Vice Chair of the CIVICUS Board.  

David Bonbright, who heads the London-based Keystone, which works to strengthen civil society accountability, is the new Chair of the Programme Committee. 

Martin Sime, the head of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, will continue to co-chair the World Assembly Programme Committee and SCVO will host the next CIVICUS Assembly in June next year.  

Marta Cumbi, who is head of advocacy and programmes at the highly respected Foundation for Community Development will serve on the Programme Committee, as will Debbie Kaddu-Serwadda, a gender activist from Uganda .  Also serving on the Programme Committee will be Cecilia Dockendorff, from Chile , who heads Fundacion Soles Dongyu Gan from China , who is the Vice President of Junior Achievement and the former Vice President of the Chinese Youth Development Foundation.  

David Robinson from New Zealand , from the Society and Civil Policy Institute in New Zealand will join the Governance Committee as will Ziad Abdel Samad who heads the Arab Network on Development.   

Although all of board members are of exquisite quality, we take special pride in introducing to you the youngest person every to be elected onto the CIVICUS Board. Rajiv Joshi, the President of the Scottish Youth Parliament, and who led the organising of the first ever CIVICUS Youth Assembly, which attracted 150 delegates from 66 countries last month, will also serve on the Programme Committee.   

We will be putting up their full bios on the website shortly so that you can get to know them better and for you to reach out to them particularly if they are from your country or region.   

Please join me in welcoming all of them to the CIVICUS Board and in thanking them for taking time from their busy schedules to serve on the CIVICUS Board.  

Many thanks and hope all is going well in the important work that you are doing. And here’s hoping that you will some day in the future consider making yourself available to the CIVICUS Board.  

Warmest regards,

Kumi Naidoo

Below you will find all previous columns published. 

• From a whisper to a whimper: Reflections on the on the G8 Summit

• Will the G8 deliver according to its broken promises?

• CIVICUS World Assembly need you to set the agenda 

• "We' re Living in a World of Global Economic Appartheid" 

• Renewed dedication to the Call for Poverty Eradication and Equality  

• Wolfowitz must resign to regain World Bank's credibility  

• Criminalising Human Rights in Zimbabwe

• Who's accounatability to who and why?

• Civil society and the progress of the feminist movement in transitional democracy

• The role of civil society organisations in promoting corporate citizenship

• Civil society faces increasing challenges in Zimbabwe

• The road to Accra: Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

• CIVICUS Youth Assembly to urge for ‘Accountability to Future Generations’

• International Women’s Day, 8 March 2007: Men will never be free until women enjoy full gender equality

• The World Economic Forum is too important to be left to economists alone

• From Nairobi to Davos: Reflections on the World Social Forum and World Economic Forum

• The role of civil society organisations in managing for development results

• World Social Forum 2007: Another World is Possible for Africa

• The importance of civil society in the year 2006

• International Advocacy NGO Accountability Charter: Walking the talk

• Human Rights Day: Righting the Wrongs

• Sharing member impressions and why civil society should be part of CIVICUS’ alliance

• 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

• CIVICUS strategic planning takes centre stage

• Reflections on the CIVICUS Civil Society Index country reports

• Civil society and the challenge of Regional Integration in the Pacific

• Over 20 Million People 'STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY' to Set New Guinness World Record

• People created poverty. Only people can eradicate it." World-wide commemoration of October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

• Campaigning Works!

• If only civil society was taken seriously: Reflections on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy of 11 September 2001

• Help set a Guinness world record by standing up to poverty

• Civil society takes centre stage at the AIDS Conference

• Can we reform the International Finance Institutions?

• Article on the Doha collapse

• Civil Society and the Middle East Conflict

• Reflections of a Meeting with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin

• You can participate in the CIVICUS World Assembly even if you are not going to be there in person

• Can Civil Society make a difference in Iraq?

• The Ethics of Cherry Picking: The dilemma of where you live, work and play!!!

• Former CIVICUS Board Member passes away

• Reflections on a visit to prison

• The struggle for justice is a marathon not a sprint: A personal reflection

• Can Civil Society make 2006 a year of more and better coherence, coordination and communication?

• What 2005 means for civil society?

• Argentina: Thriving without the IMF

• Can legal frameworks strengthen civil society? Is the time right for a Campaign for Civil Society Rights?

• Why trade justice matters to you

• December 2005: Determined, Dedicated and Diverse Dimensions to Direct Action For Justice, Human Rights and Equality

• Reflections on the United Nations Summit

• Civil society gears up for the UN World Summit

• Reflections on the G8 Summit

• Nelson Mandela: Inspiring civil society efforts to create a just world

• Children, youth and the struggle for a just world

• So we think democracy is growing?: Rethinking social exclusion

• You can make difference on ‘Whiteband Day’ - 1 July 2005

• CSW Monthly Bulletin provides a global forum to protect the rights of civil society

• What does democracy really mean today

• The absence of democracy at the World Bank

• Grassroots activism: ordinary people making an extraordinary difference

• Madrid, Manhattan, Manica and Musina: Civic activism driving the agenda for social and political justice

• On International Women's Day civil society wonders if this is Beijing Plus Ten or Beijing Minus Ten

• Internal governance: Responding to the challenge of civil society legitimacy, accountability and transparency

• Poverty or social exclusion - What unites civil society in the North and South?

• Should civil society engage with governing institutions even when they have deep democratic deficits?

• One month gone, eleven to go: Is 2005 the year civil society focuses on its common shared values and agrees to disagree on strategy and tactics?

• The beginnings of the biggest ever mobilisation against poverty launched at the World Social Forum

• Civil Society gears up for a major global campaign against poverty

• What the Tsunami Tragedy means for Civil Society.

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