CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation:

Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA)

Annual General Meeting2012

Agenda  Start: 9:30 - 9:40 10 minutes

 Welcome and opening of the AGM

Oli Henman: current AGNA chair, NCVO.Katsuji Imata: Acting Secretary General, CIVICUS.Andrew Firmin: Convening/ Communications Manager, CIVICUS.

9:40 - 9:50 am Approval of last year’s minutes Megan MacGarry: AGNA coordinator, CIVICUS.

9:50 - 10:10 Report back about year’s activities by AGNA Chair

Oli Henmann

10:10 - 10:20 Financial reporting Megan/ Oli

10:20 – 10:40 Morning tea break

10:40 – 12:30 1 hour, 50 minutes: approx. 20 minutes per group

Feedback from 5 working groups:1. Government/ civil society relations.2. Legitimacy, transparency and accountability.3. Enabling environment. 4. Global advocacy.5. Membership strategies. Two sections to present: - Past activities achieved over 2012- Future plans for 2013.

Each session to be presented by the elected leader of each working group

12:30 - 13:00 Group discussion and feedback Megan as facilitator13:00- 13:45 Lunch break

13:45 - 14:00 Discussion on other AGNA activities Megan and Oli

14:00 - 14:15 Q&A session: open to the floor Megan as facilitator

14:15 - 14:40 Membership and new partnerships discussion

Oli

14:40 - 15:20 Most important session of the day: The way forward for AGNA

Megan and Oli to lead group discussion

15:20- 15:40 Afternoon tea break

15:40 – 16:00 CIVICUS’s role as secretariat and future engagements

Megan and Andrew

16:00 – 16:15 Announcement/ Election of new Chair and Steering Committee members

Megan

16:15 – 16:25 Any other business Megan

16:30 Close of meeting Oli 

www.civicus.org

www.civicus.org

Objectives

• Assess progress made on annual goals and objectives of the network (set during the 2011 AGM)

• Report back on financials • Present activities from the previous year: feedback from chair,

steering committee and working group activities• Discuss key issues and leading priority concerns for national

associations• Identify priorities, goals and ways of working for the year ahead• Elect new steering committee and chair for the upcoming year

ahead.

• • •

Financial report

• Great news is that C S Mott Foundation has approved the AGNA grant for another two years! So the network has a renewed $ 60 000 for the next two years.

Activity Costs

7 peer learning exchange visits $ 13 500

WA bursaries $ 22 000

Bursaries from CIVICUS $ 9 000

Human resources $ 25 057.18

Professional (consultants) $ 6 061.17

Shared CIVICUS costs $ 1 953.71

Miscellaneous $ 2 812.04

Indirect expenses $ 1 953.71

Planning and learning $ 1 486.77

Members contributions $ 18 000

Total expenses includingcontributions from members andCIVICUS

$ 101 824.58

Total expenses excludingcontributions from members andCIVICUS

$ 74 824.58

Feedback

Working Groups:1. Government- civil society relations2. Legitimacy, transparency and accountability3. Enabling environment4. Global advocacy

• Past activities achieved over 2012 • Future plans for 2013

Other activities

• AGNA newsletter• Outreach opportunities• Social media presence strengthened• Website redevelopment• Promotional materials

• What other opportunities do members want to see?

Membership

• How to bring new members into the network and grow AGNA

• New partnerships and network connections: IFP and ENNA as examples. Forge new connections.

• What do members need to grow and extend the network? And to strengthen their members.

• Regional growth and networking• Forging new ties in countries that don’t have

national associations

Future of AGNA

• Where to from here? What do members want to see? • Need to improve current systems: recent mail outs

suggest contact problems which means members aren’t getting information or able to participate.

• We need new members and greater regional presence, better CIVICUS programmatic integration and mainstreaming, more peer learning exchanges, and to become better resourced.

• Stronger and bigger international presence/ better networking and connections.

Strengths

• Great bank of knowledge, skills and expertise within the network: very good information exchange and peer learning. Great potential to create good resource guides and use them as resource hubs.

• A core strong group of members who are very active, with a good regional coverage.

• Great potential outreach with network membership: all partners within network have members, so need to maximise this

Challenges

• Outdated contact lists means number of members are not getting information or updates.

• Limited resources for all.

• Need for a tighter, more connected network and secretariat.

Opportunities for future• Need more members in the network. • Network needs to be more active with each other –

strengthen the connections and linkages between partners.

• Stronger commitment from the secretariat• Need to develop further working methods?• What are the new approaches and technologies?