Hub Cymru Africa - Partnership Board Meeting
2pm Wednesday 13th April 2016
Temple of Peace, Cardiff
AGENDA
- Review of previous minutes
- End of year activity report (draft)
- 2015/16 budget report
- 2016/17 budget and narrative for approval
- 2016/17 main activities
- Review of WCIA position paper on national assembly elections and EU referendum.
- A.O.B.
In attendance:Selena Moyo; Phil Fiander (for Peter Davies); Tony Jewell; Noel Lloyd; Chris Johnes (Chair); Simon Pickard; Cat Jones; Liz Rees
Apologies: Peter Davies
Agenda item / Discussion / Action1 / Review of previous minutes and matters arising
The minutes of the board meeting on the 15thJanuary 2016 were approved as submitted, conditional of an amendment to the wording of section 3 on budget underspend. It was agreed that ‘WCIA cost recovery’ should be renamed ‘WCIA hosting costs’ for clarity in public facing documents.
Aspects of the following actions remained outstanding:
Cat to review the policy priorities and prioritise the 3 identified areas – The chair asked for an update on policy work at the next board meeting in July. / Cat to amend wording of minutes and recirculate, and amend wording of budget to match.
Cat to update the board on policy work at the next meeting.
2 / End of year activity report (draft)
The board considered the draft end of year report produced by the Head of Partnership and suggested amendments to wording and content throughout.
WFAHLN/SSAP/FTW to add a case study/paragraph to the report about their activity.
The suitability of the format of the report was discussed. Issues with the format have been raised to Welsh Government (WG) previously; a number of questions are not framed in a way which enables a clear and full representation of HCA work to be provided.
The board discussed feedback received from WG following submission of the mid-term report. Concerns were raised with the lack of formality of this feedback, and it was agreed that the Head of Partnership would request to formally submit the end of year report to them and minute any discussions that take place at this meeting.
A discussion took place around the monitoring of grants and the appropriateness of assessment visits to African partners. It was agreed that any visits that did take place should follow a more systematic process. / Cat to amend report in light of the board’s suggestions and recirculate.
Cat to coordinate contributions from partners to feed in to the report.
Cat to request a meeting to formally submit the report to WG.
Cat to prepare a paper on project report monitoring for the next meeting.
3 / 2015/16 budget report
The Head of Partnership presented the budget report for the 2015/16 financial year for the board’s consideration. The board were broadly satisfied with the contents of the report, with the Chair noting satisfaction with the end of year balance.
It was suggested that further information should be provided on the line relating to camera equipment.
It was noted that within the full cost recovery section there was reference to ‘note 2’, which was not explained elsewhere on the report and referred to an internal WCIA calculation.
4 / 2016/17 budget and narrative for approval
The board considered the budget and narrative produced by the Head of Partnership.
The board discussed concerns around the secondary breakdown section of the budget spreadsheet, which illustrated the funding split between partners.It was agreed that this should be removed from the budget for submission to WG and kept separately to meet internal processing needs.
Whilst the main budget breakdown was agreed for submission to WG, this was without implication of agreement with this secondary section. This would be treated as draft until the 2015/16 work plan was agreed.
Concerns were raised as to the apparent lack of ring-fenced funding for health staffing, comms and activities. To increase visibility it was agreed that the Head of Partnership would create an estimate of expenditure on health this year and a report of what was spent on health last year for the board’s perusal.
A query was raised as to the salary for the SSAP staff member, as is was not clear from the spreadsheet that this was 50:50 managed and financed by SSAP/HCA.
The Head of Partnership informed the board that a member of staff currently on maternity leave would be coming back in June for 3 days a week, using her accrued annual leave to cover the remaining 2 days up until November. It was agreed that underspend on the salary line could be used to continue employing the current mat cover for 2 days a week throughout this period. From November onwards the substantive post holder wishes to continue working part time, 3 days a week; the Head of Partnership will seek HR advice from WCIA about whether it will be necessary at that point to undertake open recruitment to fill the post, or whether the current mat cover can continue in this role. / Cat to separate the two parts of the spreadsheet and submit the main budget only to WG for approval.
Cat to develop an activity budget which highlights health and inclusion work
Cat to add notes to the spreadsheet for clarity where needed.
Cat to speak with WCIA HR about recruitment for part time post.
5 / 2016/17 main activities
It was agreed that a work plan should be presented to the board detailing main activities for 2016/17, clearly labelled as SSAP/WFAHLN/FTW where appropriate. / Cat to prepare a work plan on 2016/17 main activities.
6 / WCIA election and EU referendum position paper
The board reviewed the position paper provided by the Head of Partnership. The Chair requested that the adoption of this by SSAP/FTW staff be discussed and agreed with them separately. / SSAP and FTW to raise any objections to the paper after discussion with their boards.
7 / A.O.B.
The Head of Partnership provided the board with a summary of applications received in the recently closed grants round, the panel for which is due to sit on 28th April 2016. 72 applications have been received, 69 of which are eligible, requesting a total of £576,922.21 of funding.
Eligible applications by thematic area
Climate change and environment - 10
Health - 11
Lifelong learning - 29
Sustainable livelihoods - 19
Eligible applications by grant category
Up to £1K - 15
Up to £5K - 21
Up to 15K - 33
Hub Cymru Africa, Temple of Peace, King Edward VII Avenue, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3AP +44(0)2920 821 057