FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Continuity and Change: The position of CIVICUS' Secretary General 

Release Date: 27 June 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear e-CIVICUS Subscriber,  

Last week we updated you on the positive progress CIVICUS has made with regard to the elections of the new CIVICUS Board of Directors. Through this week’s column, we want to share with you the succession plans that we are implementing at the management level. As those of you who were at the World Assembly last month will know, we have launched the search for the new Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. 

In October this year, I will be serving in the role of CIVICUS Secretary General for nine years while my original commitment was for four-year period when I started at CIVICUS in October of 1998.  Then, I was the fourth staff member in a small but very hardworking and motivated secretariat in Washington DC when I started.  With the move to our new global headquarters in Africa , I was asked to consider extending my time at CIVICUS, which I was happy to do. 

The job of Secretary General is challenging to say the least and I know better than most all the mistakes I have made along the way. When I joined CIVICUS I had a mainly, grassroots (local), provincial (state) and national experience with very limited international experience. It has been a challenging role and at the same time a very rewarding one, as CIVICUS has come to play a more active role in advancing the interests of civil society, particularly those that are committed to creating a just world for all the citizens on the planet. 

The CIVICUS Board has selected Phillips Oppenheim, a recruiting firm that focuses on the non-profit sector to conduct the search for a new Secretary General, and has formed a search committee to work with the firm through that process. The Search Committee that is led by the Vice Chair of the Board, Rieky Stuart (Rieky.stuart@sympatico.ca) who will be in regular contact with the principal from the search company Angela Henry. If you are interested in pursuing an application or if you have suggestions for potential candidates, please contact Angela Henry (ahenry@PhillipsOppeheim.com).

Preferably, the Board will announce their decision by early in 2008 and the new Secretary General will be in post no later than June 2008 before the start of the World Assembly, ideally much earlier. Following the appointment of the new Secretary General, a two to three month overlap period for internal and external induction and handover is planned. Holding the title of Honorary President I will then take a one year sabbatical. When I joined in 1998, it was agreed I would take a six month sabbatical at the end of each four year term.  Due to work volumes and other pressing matters, the first sabbatical did not materialise. Hence, the coming sabbatical in that sense is a bit of catching up really. During the sabbatical, I will reflect on what I have learnt and will write this up. I will also be available to support the incoming Secretary General as she or he deems appropriate and to fill institutional history gaps that might be helpful. In this way we anticipate a smooth transition process with the appropriate levels of continuity.

The main output from the sabbatical will be a reflective paper on lessons learned during my tenure at CIVICUS; working title ‘Challenges and Opportunities for Civil Society’s Role in Public Life’. The paper will capture conceptual and operational learning on two levels: 1) with regard to civil society more generally and 2) with regard to the challenges of CIVICUS finding its niche and purpose. This paper will be published on CIVICUS’ website and provide a resource for the Board and new Secretary General. Depending on levels of interest in the broader civil society community, CIVICUS will explore the possibility of also publishing this work as a book.

CIVICUS has undergone much change and made progress over the last eight years. The outgoing chair of the CIVICUS Board, Aruna Rao , reflected on some of these developments at the World Assembly, when she said that the transition in the Secretary General position together with the appointment of a new Board led CIVICUS to reflect on achievements over the last 8 years. What follows is a short summary of some of the highlights Aruna noted to our members meeting:

·         Global reach in terms of membership and programmatic activities significantly expanded;

·         Successful transition to the global South of the CIVICUS secretariat from our original headquarters in Washington DC and stronger incorporation of Southern viewpoints and voices within CIVICUS;

·         Successful expansion and diversification of CIVICUS staff;

·         CIVICUS shifted towards a rights-based and social justice-oriented agenda;

·         Successful diversification of funding sources with regard to donor type, country and kind of funding (core vs. programmatic);

·         New Model of annual World Assemblies successfully implemented;

·         Civil Society Index launched and taken to scale with more than 32,000 participants in more than 50 countries;

·         Established Civil Society Watch in response to growing threats to civil society actors all over the world;

·         Established CIVICUS as convenor of key international civil society initiatives, e.g. Global Call to Action against Poverty ( GCAP ) and International Advocacy NGO group (IANGO);

·         Positioned CIVICUS as an important voice for civil society in relation to governments and international institutions;

·         Provided a leading voice on the issue of civil society accountability;

·         Provided important spaces for cross-national networking among key civil society actors, e.g. Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA); and

·         Expanded CIVICUS information-sharing functions (e-CIVICUS now received by over 80,000 subscribers).

These achievements have only been possible with the support of our members and partners, the involvement and leadership of our Board members, and the commitment and hard work of the staff at CIVICUS. I would like to pay a special tribute to all those who have served CIVICUS as Board members since its inception and to the all the staff who have worked at CIVICUS since its foundation.  Any of the achievements during my tenure certainly would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of several Board members and colleagues on staff. 

So while I am not going anywhere soon, we thought that you as a key stakeholder in CIVICUS should be kept in the loop. Also, we would kindly like to to invite your thoughts and involvement in the search process of the new Secretary General of CIVICUS.

Lastly, there are several more things that I want to focus on in my remaining time at CIVICUS for which I would like to seek your support. These include the following:

·         Increasing our ability to have more of our documents and work available in more languages. For example, we have developed the capacity building online toolkits.  We will be happy to work with people who want to translate these and other CIVICUS resources. 

·         As always, all suggestions from you regarding organisations to be invited to become members of CIVICUS are much appreciated.

·         We would like to expand the subscription of e-CIVICUS so as to further amplify the voice of civil society. So if you can send a note to your circulation list(s) asking people to contact us should they be interested in receiving e-CIVICUS, we would be most obliged.

·         The numerous demands for CIVICUS involvement and engagement set against the relatively modest staff complement we have, signifies that we can only do all that we do as a result of the wonderful voluntary efforts of our interns, fellows and volunteers. Should you, or others around you, be able to support CIVICUS activities on a voluntary basis, it would really mean a lot to us and our capabilities. For, it will undoubtedly strengthen the efforts of CIVICUS highly dedicated staff, it will consolidate our internal organisational set up, and it will secure our capability to support our brothers and sisters in civil society as much as humanly possible.

·         On financial sustainability, one can never do enough, and although we have made good progress in resource mobilisation, we have some way to go to ensure that we have sufficient resources to do all we are requested to do.  Any suggestions for funding leads, any financial contribution you can make or any fundraising events you can help organise can count on our gratitude.

If you are interested in assisting with this or other ways you think you can support CIVICUS, please write to me at kumi.naidoo@civicus.org. I am looking forward to enjoying my remaining time at CIVICUS and continuous engagement with you through this column and in other ways as well.

On a personal note, while the job of Secretary General is quite tough, the hours, the travel, the loneliness of living out of a suitcase sometimes for a month or more at a time, have been more than balanced by the wonderful people I have met around the world. They have given me optimism that notwithstanding the challenges humanity faces we have the possibility to create a just world in which the role of civil society is not simply tolerated but actively encouraged. Two of the people I have drawn much inspiration from are Daniel Bekele and Netsanet Demissie who have been on trial for treason for their peaceful pro-democracy and anti-poverty activism. Tomorrow, 28 June 2007 , will be a day of international solidarity with both of these heroic civil society leaders. For more information about how you can get involved and add your voice please visit www.civicus.org/csw.

Warmest regards,

Kumi Naidoo

Below you will find all previous columns published. 

• Continuity with change: Governance change at CIVICUS

• 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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