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IFRTD Executive Committee adopts new governance structure
2008-12-04
Hosted by one of IFRTD's core donors, Sida, the IFRTD Executive Committee met in Stockholm from 26th to 28th of November, 2008. The annual meeting is the cornerstone of IFRTD’s participative governance structure where the Secretariat are accountable to representatives from the wider network and vice versa.
This ECM was a particular exciting one as we move closer to IFRTD's independence from its host Practical Action, scheduled for April 1 2009. As part of this process a small task force made up of regional representatives, the Chairman and Executive Secretary developed a draft for the new governance structure. In addition the Secretariat sought ecommendations for a founding board and we are pleased to report that the new structure as well as the founding board members have been approved by the ECM! In the new structure, which will be online soon, the Executive Committee is responsible for the strategy of the IFRTD network and will continue to monitor this while a Board of Directors, comprising regional representatives, governs the IFRTD Secretariat for its financial and legal affairs. For the first two years a small founding board (pictured above) has been approved consisting of:
- Chair (Asia) Danang Parikesit, Professor Gadja Mada University, Indonesia
- Treasurer (UK) Roma Thomas, Communications Consultant, Transport for London
- Latin America, Roberto Aguerreberre, Institute Mexicano del Transporte, Mexico
- Central and West Africa, Sirpe Gnanderman, University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
- Eastern and Southern Africa, Nite Tanzarn, Gender and Transport Specialist, Uganda
With this new governance structure in place the IFRTD Secretariat will now be able to move ahead with the process of registering the IFRTD Secretariat as an independent charity, which will include establishing a new financial and HR system subject to the approval of the new Board.
As part of the strategy the ECM also looked at the way the network is structured and how to better define IFRTD membership. An attempt was made to develop new membership categories and the Secretariat has been requested to formalise the recommended categories and share this for approval with the EC and wider network.
The last day was devoted to organisational learning and this year the focus was upon the links between agriculture and rural transport to highlight IFRTD's new partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The minutes of the meeting will be uploaded soon and if you are interested in receiving a CD with the presentations please contact ifrtd (at) ifrtd.org with your full postal address.
