Draft Minutes of GPDD Task Force Audio Conference on

March 14, 2006

Participants

On the call

Ashish Kumar (on behalf of Sundeep Khanna)

Bob Ransom

Judy Heumann

Kalle Konkolla

Andreas Pruisken

Diane Richler

Harold Snider

Euphrasia Mbewe

James Mwandha

Ronald Wiman

Not on the call

Philippa Lei

Francois de Keersmaeker

Agenda

Chair: Kalle Konkolla

  1. Updates – (5 minutes)
  2. Updates from working groups (no more than15 minutes)
  3. Task Force Spring meeting agenda (20 minutes)
  4. Membership – introduction of current considerations (10 minutes)
  5. Adding a person from the Latin America region to the Task Force (3 minutes)
  6. AOB

Updates
  • The Italians have signed the Multi-donor Trust Fund agreement with the Bank – awaiting formal communication to arrive.
  • Jud and Marco had meeting with Ian Johnson, Chairperson of CGIAR, last on Wednesday March 8, 06. Ian Johnson was present at the GPDD planning meeting in Italy in 2003. Judy would like to recommend to the group to hold the next Task Force meeting in DC in May. GPDD is at a stage where it needs to learn from others on issues governance, management, organization and membership. Target date week of May 22.

Updates from Working Groups

Youth group

– Judy’s proposal on a Youth Working Group needs more work

A concern was expressed that this would also require us to think about other specific groups such as women, elderly, and other groups

It was agreed to do a broader review of the Working Groups – how many and which. This can be done at the Task Force meeting in May

Disasters, Emergencies and Conflicts - Harold

Fundraising for international meeting on the issue:

Met with Lloyd Feinberg from USAID

Met with Dan Southerland who is Director of Civil Liberties, Homeland security – asking about potential international money

Starting in the US, contact in DFID and ask about money for this issue

Andreas, Francois approach governments, EU – funding for international meeting

Still working on draft of survey

IDDC collaboration – how is that going to work, complete transparency necessary

Judy will meet with DFID in London next week and will bring up the issue – Harold will send a couple of paragraphs to clarify and these will also be sent to Andreas for follow up with EU, German government

Education - Diane

Diane was in Washington a couple of weeks ago and spent some time with Judy and Lene meeting people in the World Bank (longer meeting with Bob Prouty) and others to talk about issues of education and development

Focus was on efforts surrounding the Fast Track Initiative – (FTI) is a global partnership between donor and developing countries to ensure accelerated progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015.

Follow up – meeting in Moscow – Consultation in advance of G8 meeting

Participated (education) and nominated others

Basic recommendation was to give money to the Fast Track Initiative and promote an Inclusive approach.

Next chair of G8 Is Germany, CSO from Germany present in Moscow.

Another planning meeting for the G8 in May, presence at that meeting is very important

Inclusion International reacted strongly to report by UNESCO and UNICEF on children out of school which did not include or even mention children with disabilities. A response from them was received within 24 hours. Diane did not find the response adequate and finds that there is too much hit or miss in the approach to inclusiveness.

The report, Diane’s response and the UNESCO response will be circulated

A suggestion was made to include people from the UN agencies in the upcoming meeting in DC.

Poverty reduction - Andreas

1. Meeting of the VENRO working group "disability in developing countries"

on Feb. 22.

We met with senior representatives of BMZ, KfW and GTZ to discuss

a) A discussion paper on "the inclusion of disability in German

Developmental Cooperation" BMZ is presently working on such a paper and intends to issue this paper jointly with VENRO. We will receive the draft within the next 4-6 weeks and will be asked to comment.

b) VENRO proposed:

- Appointment of a Disability Advisor for BMZ based on the example of the World Bank

- Appointment of a Disability Advisor for the EU developmental cooperation

- Making disability and development a feature within the upcoming German

EU Presidency

BMZ responded with some reservation and referred to the fact that the

German Government has already a disability advisor and the fact that "working time" has already been chosen as the topic for the key feature in developmental cooperation.

VENRO will now once we have received the discussion paper of BMZ, ask for a meeting with the Disability Advisor of the German Government to discuss the proposal.

2. CBM met a few weeks ago with Pelé in Sao Paulo to discuss the possibilityof him acting as a Good Will Ambassador for CBM and People with Disabilities during the World Cup in Germany. If that can be realized, we can consider asking Pelé at the appropriate time, if he could imagine an involvement with GPDD for example during the next World Economic Forum in Davos. We understand that he was at the last one together with Bono.

Task Force Spring meeting

Possible agenda – this will be left in the hands of the Working Group on planning

A conference call will be set up – possibly including representation from CGIAR

The CGIAR meeting should take place in the beginning of the Task Force meeting

It was suggested to take advantage of meeting in DC to meet with Interaction the largest alliance of U.S.-based international development and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations.

Planning committee – to also discuss membership issues in advance

Future meetings and offer from India

Dates: May 23 – 26

Membership

Planning Working group/Membership Committee - Bob

10 lists – have been sent out for review as well as a partnership info form in draft format

Issues around application forms were discussed and an objection was raised saying it was not a good idea – organizations are not applying for membership we are inviting as agreed in Addis.

Bob’s proposal for the discussion:

Concerning the issue of GPDD "membership", please refer to the 2 basic

GPDD reference documents, "Alliance for Disability and Development:

Categories of Participation" (adopted by the TF in Nov. 2005) and the

"Guide for Member Organizations" (adopted by the TF in Jan. 2006).

The basic concept, as I understand it, is that any individual ororganization can be a GPDD "Partner". This is the "inclusive" levelof membership in the Alliance, which permits anyone to say they are aGPDD "Partner" and to promote the GPDD Objective. In order todocument who are GPDD "Partners", I agree it would be good to send a"GPDD Partner Information Form" to any person or organizationrequesting to be associated with the GPDD. Attached is a first draftof such a Form.

However, there is also another level of membership in the GPDD.

This is composed only of organizations that meet certain criteria andagree to take greater responsibility for the sustainability of theGPDD and for the achievement of its Objective. The concept, as Iunderstand it, is that the GPDD Task Force determines who should beinvited to be a "Member Organization", after a review of thatorganization's policies, practices and commitment to participating inthe further development of the GPDD.

A final consideration: GPDD Member Organizations will eventuallyparticipate in the "governance" of the GPDD and be responsible for itsfuture. It is therefore important that the TF only selectorganizations, representing all categories of organizations, that itis confident have the capability to take this responsibilityseriously. Member Organization status is not for every organizationthat expresses an interest in the GPDD.

Discussion/decisions on membership:

See it in an individual context, some need personal contact and others are represented on the TF e.g.

Move forward with inviting the organizations on the lists

Some may need more personal approach –this will be determined on a case by case basis.

To do’s:

Bob to revise partnership form

Philippa will send ADD contact

Adding a person from Latin America to the Task Force

Suggestion is to hold off until after May meeting

Not gotten any applications from affiliates or task Force organizations

English language can be a barrier – how to get representation from non-English speakers?

It was also noted that for audio conference to run smoothly it is a priority that the Task Force do not expand much beyond its current number

AOB

Next audio conference will be Tuesday April 18, same time that is 13;00 GMT (please note that some of your locations may be observing daylight saving time)

Planning committee will convene beforehand.