Global Board Quarterly Conference Call Minutes 25-6-2015

Attendants: Marcus, Terry, Kheswar, Oenone, Graciela, Nicole, Rod, Nigel, Emma H, Ali, Lorna, John Chilver, Emma K (notes)

Apologies: Farah, Peter, Emad, Rex

Strategy Committee Update

19 May Strategy committee meeting – minutes have been circulated and strategy review process one pager sent
Consultation process begins next week with Central America and Europe & North America regional meetings.
Following inputs from the regional consultations the draft strategy will be prepared by the Secretariat with the support of the Strategy Sub-Committee. The draft will then be reviewed by the Global Board and subsequently sent to the broader membership for comment.
Each regional workshop will have an outcome statement from regional discussions. The Secretariat will distil these regional outcome papers and pull these together.
This will be a similar process to the 2012-2015 “forward together” strategy consultation process.
Rod: Will the Board be then be able to have the opportunity to review once the Secretariat has pulled it together?
Marcus: Yes - please refer to the strategy review document that outlines the process and timelines: zero draft > regional consultation > strategy committee > full board > GNDR membership
As part of the strategy review process an external evaluation will be undertaken commencing in July 2015
The zero draft strategy paper has now been sent through to the Global Board – no written comments received as yet
Nigel comments -how do we reach out beyond the DRR world? Recognise that there is an ambitious timeline to adhere to. One of the key issues from the network is around resources – should there be a greater reflection on how we do this in the strategy?
Marcus: agreed the strategy review process should consciously go beyond the DRR community for engagement and resourcing. Experience from the current strategy is that we have not been able to fulfil all the desired actions based on an aspirational budget.
Nicole: the consultation process is a good start – the regional meetings will be an important opportunity to understand GNDR members and other’s priorities. It is important to understand the perspectives from GNDR members before we can agree or comment on the zero draft.
Nicole: Comment from Swiss Gov that they are disappointed in the GFDRR just paying lip service to civil society.
Marcus: Aware that the GFDRR budget has only a limited allocation to support civil society engagement. The donors within the GFDRR Consultative Group can be influential on the GFDRR policies - need to better engage this key group.
Nicole: Disappointed that there are not more donors at the regional meeting which also coincides with a UNIDR donor meeting in Geneva.
Ali: strategy can only be implemented if members have enough capacity to contribute. How do we assess current member's capacity, and an estimation of new members that may join in the future?
Marcus: we can make more explicit in the draft strategy of the need to assess member’s capacity and how they will be engaged in the strategy.
Lorna: agree that we should open the strategy planning exercises with donors and stakeholders – particularly at the regional level (including forthcoming regional consultations).
Marcus: Donors and other stakeholders have been invited to regional meetings although we’re not sure how many will be able to attend. Once these meetings are over, will cansit down with various donors to see where their strategic priorities fit with those identified in the GNDR strategic plan.
Lorna: We need more interaction with members from national, regional and global level
Marcus: hope the regional workshops will begin this process. We were disappointed that regional online debates were limited in engagement.
Graciela: Difficult to understand everything that is being said. We are looking forward to the regional meeting, we are trying to gain some additional regional support for the meetings.
Jose Ramon: the regional meeting is important and shouldbring together a number of actors within the LAC region.
Marcus: various members of the Secretariat will be attending the regional workshops. UNISDR have been invited to the regional meetings and should be able to provide some limited financial support (circa US40k)
Ali: have spoken with regional donors (ECO?) and they are ready to consider working on DRR. Ali will write an introductory letter to them and follow up as appropriate
Marcus: in the past we have asked UNISDR to provide a letter of endorsement for GNDR. We will look to revise this to make relevant to the regions.
Marcus: encourages Board members to engage with regional donors
Lorna: good to note that UNISDR has offered to support the regional workshops. Has been working with Rouf to link up with UNISDR regional representative in Bangkok.
Marcus: encourage the Board members to get to know the UNISDR regional representatives. Grant from UNISDR is symbolic of strengthening relationship.

Governance Sub-Committee

Due to have a meeting last week, but members of the committee, other than Lorna and Oenone, did not attend, which was disappointing.
This meeting has been rescheduled for 7th July.
John Chilver will be leaving Secretariat around September 2015 once another Finance Manager has been appointed. Position is currently being advertised.

Finance/Funding

Grant information has been sent through to all Board members
Swiss Government has agreed to funding for 2 years, with the potential to extend for an additional two years
UNISDR has offered USD40,000 to fund regional workshops (contract being prepared) .
2 current bids in the pipeline – World Bank (Local recovery framework) and DEVCO (network capacity building).
Potential call with USAID (Local Works) and potential network support opportunity with ECHO that we may submit to in the next call .
18 June finance committee meeting held. Purpose of meeting was to meet with the external auditor for annual audited accounts. Auditor was satisfied. Pleased that the cashflow improved so there was no need to draw on the CAF loan facilities.
Nigel: Need to document funding pipelines more clearly. Need to be more proactive on risk register. Have met minimum requirements on three months reserves, hope that this can be improved upon (six months).
John: Secretariat business team monthly meeting was held this morning –
Company accounts and directors report have been approved by audit and Trustees.
2month report; fairly healthy cashflow due to annual Dutch grant being received.
Marcus: we do still need to substantially raise money for the network and once the strategy has been drafted we will use this to engage with donor institutions.

Action: Risk register high and critical levels to be reviewed at the next GNDR Secretariat business meeting.

Frontline Sub-Committee

This board committee has not met yet. Hoping to find a way to provide translation for Latin American colleagues.
Frontline workshop at the beginning of July where hopefully themethodology will be finalised.
Considering how Frontline can be used to engage in other frameworks: CCA and SDGs.
Conscious of the need to secure funding for the programme. Currently applying to Global Innovation Fund (DFID and USAID) and ‘Local Works’ (USAID).
Oneone: we should look for ways to use a translation facility inall the sub-committees if necessary and also the future Global Board meetings.
Terry: we have experimented and the conclusion is that we need a physical translator.

ACTION: Marcus and Terry to consider use the use of translation for sub-committee and Global Board calls.

Global Summit

Planned 3day event – 11-13thNovember 2015, Bangkok.
Currently developing a concept note for the summit
We have also prepared a budget approx. USD 300,000 – this event will requires additional funding.
The meeting is therefore dependant on funding, which we currently do not have,
If we do not receive the funding we have to look at other options: delay until we gain the funding, or consider other options to hold these meetings.
Deadline is the end of August 2015 for funding.
Nicole: may not be a bad idea to push back the Global Summit – this has been a busy year.
Marcus: One issue is the need to agree the GNDR strategy by the end of the year.
Lorna: could the Global Summit be held back to back with another global conference?
Graciela: In agreement – can we link with the international agenda

ACTION: The proposal on the Global Summit will be shared by the end of next week.

ACTION: Marcus to consider other global conferences to hold the summit back to back with

AOB

Next meeting to be scheduled for Tuesday 29 September 2015 2pm (GMT).

Global Board Conference Call Minutes | 08 December 2018 | Page 1 of 4