ICA International

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICA International website

To view past issues of Global Buzz: Please see here
To view past issues of Network Exchange: Please see here

To view past issues of Winds & Waves magazine: Please see here
Note: any problems previously experienced with the archived issues of the above have been rectified

Global Buzz Report: March 2015

ICAI Board Report:

At the February meeting of the ICAI Board, with all members in attendance, we agreed updates to the ICAI business planning framework for 2015-16 and a process for us to plan our work together in more detail.  We also discussed options for a face-to-face Board meeting for in-depth induction and planning for the new Board, having had five new members join three continuing members since January, and we agreed interim Board roles (subject to confirmation and elaboration when we meet face to face).

We agreed dates in May to reserve for a face-to-face meeting, and we agreed to research the relative costs and explore the potential benefits of meeting in Chicago, Kiev or Tanzania.  These were the three locations identified as most likely to offer the best value for money, as a result of flight routes and costs and opportunities for meeting and learning with member ICAs in those locations.  A regional meeting of East African ICAs is planned for May in Tanzania.

We have since begun drafting our own individual work plans for discussion at our March meeting, on the basis of the roles agreed as follows:

  • President - Martin Gilbraith, ICA:UK
  • Secretary - Staci Kentish, ICA Canada
  • Treasurer – Seva Gandhi, ICA USA
  • Vice-President (Americas) – Lisseth Lorenzo, ICA Guatemala
  • Vice-President (Europe & MENA) – Svitlana Salamatova, ICA Ukraine
  • Vice-President (West & Central Africa) – Yawo Gator Adufu,ICA Togo
  • Vice-President (East & Southern Africa) – Charles Luoga, ICA Tanzania
  • Vice-President (Asia Pacific) – Shizuyo Sato, ICA Japan
  • Vice-President (Communications) -– Seva Gandhi & Svitlana Salamatova

The ICAI Global ToP policy working group met again in February to consider how to prepare for a General Assembly vote on the topic in 2015, and the ICAI Global Conferencing working group is due to reconvene shortly in March to continue its work toward preparing a programme and budget for global conferencing in 2016 for GA approval.  The Asia region continued its monthly meetings by Google Hangout, and decided to convene a face-to-face regional meeting in India in December.  Associate membership applications are underway and/or expected from ICA partner organisations in Nigeria, Russia, Korea and the Philippines.

Plans developed last year to rebuild and redesign the ICAI website in Wordpress, for easy updating and posting by multiple users, are being revisited after a suitable volunteer has eventually come forward as a result of a vacancy posted on a recruitment site last year.  We are now in discussion with the UK-based developer and looking forward to working with him and our global communications team to develop the new site in such a way as to best support their work and the needs and aspirations of members.

Martin Gilbraith           president@ica-international.org


WINDS and WAVES Editorial Team:

 We invite your submission of articles for the next edition
of our Winds and Waves Magazine. Do you have a story to tell? Please see here



AUSTRALIA:

Good news from Congo!
Best known as the 'rape capital of the world' and for being at the bottom of the UN Human Development Index, the Democratic Republic of Congo remains a nation filled with resilient people who have many friends in Australia. Facilitated by tiny NGO HandUp Congo's Lucy Hobgood-Brown - an ICA member - supporters are rallying to hold numerous speaking engagements by Dr. Luc Mulimbalimba Masururu. Congo's youngest MP at age 30, "Dr Luc" is the founder of Mission in Health Care and Development www.mhcdafrica.org. He is an eloquent and articulate advocate for Congo's most marginalized, including rape victims and Pygmies. Luc's talks will focus on maternal health in Congo, raising awareness of the role that Birthing Kit Foundation Australia also plays in distributing materials for safer births.

Catalysts for peace - an International Women's Day celebration!
ICA members Robyn Hutchinson, Kiran Hutchinson, Lucy Hobgood-Brown and Elaine Telford are organizers of a Sydney event on March 5th that celebrates women's contributions to peace building. The event features a multicultural program that includes perspectives by China's Deputy Consul General Tang Ying on how the 1995 UN World Women's Conference launched a worldwide dialogue on gender equity resulting in a new platform for action. Women's activist networks will also participate by showcasing their projects. The event is hosted by Macquarie University's Equity& Diversity Unit and Rotary Hunters Hill (District 9685) in collaboration with Creators of Peace and UN Women Australia. For information contact ICA Australia.

Lucy Hobgood-Brown           lucy@claypartners.com



A few highlights.

ICA Australia AGM and Annual Gathering - ICA Australia continues to be a network of colleagues who are engaged in a wide range of social action endeavours, largely as volunteers. Last weekend a dozen colleagues (and three more via Skype) met in the Telfords' home in the Blue Mountains. We shared reports ranging from ongoing work in the reconciliation and recognition movement, climate change initiatives, and affordable housing in Australia, continuing work in the Congo, and Asia Pacific Regional activities and initiatives.
The day concluded with a workshop on deepening our understand of our spirit methods.

Last week also,
a number of ICA colleagues joined the state funeral for Faith Bandler, long time social activist for Indigenous rights. She is most famous for leading the 1967 referendum, giving voting rights to the First Peoples of this country!

WRN (Women's Reconciliation Network)
This is a strong network of dedicated women, which has met for over 20 years. Long term members, Deborah Ruiz Wall (Filipino Australian social activist, ICA member) and Aunty Ali Golding (Indigenous Biripi elder) were invited to tell stories of their engaging partnership in shaping attitudes and understandings through story telling and their artwork. This was filmed as part of a series by Why Documentaries - a beautiful event shairng the larger reconciliation journey, that we are all a part of.

Sutherland Reconciliation Network, (also a long term network of caring Indigenous and non-Indegenous individuals) held a showcase of how attitudes and understandings are being transformed through an extensive network of preschool programs upward, linked with the university, in a most conservative area of Sydney. A wonderful example of grass root cross cultural and Indigenous collaboration! This is one of a number of awareness raising activities held throughout the year, each year by the group.

Robyn Hutchinson           rjhutchinson@optusnet.com.auDate


BANGLADESH:

The Phulki street children project is now in its 6th year. Admissions for this year are still going on.

Several meetings were held in February for training and office management affairs.

The training team has worked on the translation of our manual.

Our training task force coordinator, Fuad, has informed us of his busy schedule for his primary job at BNWLA and his family life, and he has apologized for not being able to give enough time to ICA, and therefore, not being able to continue in his role, for personal reasons.

ICA Bangladesh has submitted some research proposals to a number of organizations including SSRC, DMP and NHRC.

On February 27, ICA Bangladesh intern, Mansura Akter, flew to the USA for attending a conference in Orlando.

Ali Ahmed has completed three months of his internship at ICA.

Aziz had a meeting with the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission.

Staff            admin@ica-bangladesh.org


GERMANY:

ICA Germany will be hosting this years global, Future Search Network Learning Exchange, from August 24-26 2015 in Berlin (Kreuzberg) in cooperation with the Future Search Network and the Berlin open space cooperative. We will meet in the historic Bethanien Seminar Building in the same neighborhood where ICA Germany was founded in 1976 and actively involved in community projects for many years and again now.

Mia Konstantinidou and Michael Pannwitz of ICA Germany, chose a venue that is located in a family friendly environment right next to where the wall divided the city. Kreuzberg is still one of the most diverse districts in Germany now bordering on the new central business and government district and increasingly dealing with gentrification.

We are organizing preconference workshops with Sandra Janoff, co-developer of Future Search. For the first time we are offering a four day Future Search workshop (instead of three days) resulting in a real time Future Search simulation with family friendly workshop hours and plenty of time for self organized networking and other activities.
For more information and detailed workshop schedules please go to the following link (or contact us directly at ICA Germany): http://www.boscop.org/data/user/PDF-Dokumente/Workshop___FSN_LE_2015_INFO.pdf.
ICA Germany's website www.ICA-Germany.org will only go back online later in March 2015 and will still need some work to be fully up to date.

In 2014 we have once again reconnected with Yvonne Ford and the community in ICA Germany's Frankfurt House through Sabine Winteler and are envisioning more cooperation. The first step is to relaunch our website. Currently Michael facilitates TOP workshops at conferences dealing with school development and participates in national conferences on inclusion. The vision on inclusion is undergoing a slow paradigm shift here in German society towards a broader understanding of including all - work that we would love to grow through ICA Germany. In our experience Future Search can be a very helpful strategic approach at the local and regional level to shift paradigms.

We would love to see you (again) at the Learning Exchange or one of the workshops to learn more from one another. And please do be in touch when you are in Berlin for other reasons.

Michael Pannwitz           m.pannwitz@ica-germany.org


NEPAL:

ICA Nepal with the support of MISEREOR, Germany, organized a regional seminar on the 4th of February 2015, at Mahendra Nagar, Kanchanpur. Altogether 65 people representing local NGOs, CBOs, Task Forces and Income Generating Groups, etc., participated in the seminar. The majority of participants were women, so-called lower caste group, addressed as “dalit”, and youths of Darchula, Bajhang, Bajura, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Baitadi and Dadeldhura districts of Far Western Region of Nepal. The key speakers of the seminar were Mr. Thaneswor Bhatta, Senior Advocate and Former- Judge in the Regional Court of Surkhet District and Ms. Sarada Chand, Local Women's Leader and Social Worker.

When raising the issues of peace and development, there was a great deal of disappointment shown due to the failure of the political parties to meet the deadline of 22nd of January 2015, for the drafting of the constitution of Nepal. The fact that the political parties had committed themselves to the 22nd of January 2015, to draft the constitution of Nepal, had raised hopes for youth. Now that hope was gone. The seminar concluded that their political leaders, in resolving their own political interests, were wasting considerable time in solving the issues of women’s rights, youth employment, and the rights for all etc. Participants, like all the Nepalese, wanted all regular strikes to be called off.

In view of this, a one day orientation program on Social Artistry for Peace Building was conducted for promoting the peace and development process in the community.

On 24th of February 2015, a monthly magazine, Sarthak Swar, A Significant Voice, was inaugurated at ICA, Koteshwor. ICA Nepal and BB Trust were joint facilitators in helping the magazine to be published. The program was attended by the representatives of more than thirty organizations working for socially marginalized groups of society. With its aim of reducing the vulnerability of differently abled people in our society, the magazine raises strong and serious concerns for this group of people. The magazines articles are on the special needs for the disabled, success stories of women entrepreneurs, and health awareness articles, as well as concern for the constitution and political stability. This way the magazine has incorporated different spheres of our social life. The program was concluded by referring to the magazine as a new born baby, the baby that is yet to grow and make a productive contribution to society and also to be an influence in the life of the disabled. The management Committee acknowledged ICA Nepal and its teams for their continuous support and encouragement. ICA Nepal is currently working on capacity building for these organizations.

Also, on the 26 February, a partnership agreement was made between the Institute of Rubber and Jatropha Research (IRJR) - Nepal, (USA McKinney, Texas), and ICA Nepal. Prof. Dr. Megha Nath Parajulee, president of IRJR-Nepal (USA), and the Chairperson of ICA, Mr. Hemant Pokhrel, formally signed the contract. Dr Parajulee in due course described the rubber plantation as one of the major possibilities for enhancing the livelihood of rural farmers and also for fostering industrialization in the country. The rubber produced in Nepal may have to bear competition with Indian rubber, in terms of price, but Nepali rubber has a better grip quality because of the soil nutrient. Hence, rubber plantation in Nepal can have a bright future. ICA Nepal is excited and is exploring more options for rubber plantation and the ways that it can help uplift marginalized farmers and other social groups across Nepal.

Ishu Subba           ishu@ica-nepal.org


UNITED KINGDON

ICA:UK held its Annual General Meeting at the end of January 2015 and we have appointed two new Trustees to our governing body, which is exciting - both bring new skills and experience to the Board, and we are looking forward to working with them.

We are now embarking on a review of all our ToP courses and modules with a view to updating them and marketing them more creatively and more in tune with people's needs.

Some recent work:
At the end of last year Village Volunteers supported an Impact Assessment process for the Tujiendeleze Youth Trust Fund in Kenya, enabling to do a thorough review of their work and the difference they have been able to make. We hope that the process developed for that will be of use to other ICAs who are interested in carrying out a relatively low cost exercise to assess impact and consider the progress they are making towards their mission.

Together with the Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex, Aptivate and others we have recently completed a Guide to Evaluating Digital Citizen Engagement for the World Bank. It should be published in the next few months. It is exciting to see ICA's expertise in participation being applied and recognised in this way.

Jonathan Dudding           : jdudding@ica-uk.org.uk


UNITED STATES:



Like us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFebruary 2015 | SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
 
Meet the New CEO/President of
The Institute of Cultural Affairs,
Ted Wysocki

The Institute of Cultural Affairs' Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Ted Wysocki has been appointed as the new CEO/President of ICA-USA. Ted will join the ICA early this spring. The decision was approved by the ICA's board on Feb. 16, 2015.

Ted brings over 30 years leadership experience to this position, having served as the President and CEO of the Local Economic & Employment Development (LEED) Council (now known as North Branch Works) and the Chicago Association of Neighborhood Development Organizations (CANDO). He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he completed a Master's Degree in Political Science. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Providence College, Providence, RI.

Ted believes that collaboration and consensus building are the best tools for working together - to make our world a better place for all. As the CEO of CANDO, he built the organization into the largest citywide coalition of economic-development organizations in the US, with members from over 80 non-profit organizations and over 120 citywide non-profit and for-profit firms.

Ted expressed the following about ICA: "I have appreciated ICA's vital facilitation work since 1984 when I became CEO of CANDO, and ICA was a member. ICA's mission to build a just and equitable society resonates with my 40-year community development career. I entered the field working for Gale Cincotta, recognized as the 'Mother of the Community Reinvestment Act.' As my mentor, she further instilled in my core values that change can come when people work together.

"I especially welcome this opportunity to collaborate with ICA's board, staff, and constituents on restoring our society in harmony with our planet at this challenging time of climate change. ICA's GreenRise Uptown Learning Laboratory is a national model for deploying renewable energy. The Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network's engagement of communities to pursue local actions is an example of the cultural paradigm shift required."

Kadi Sisay, the current Chair of the Board said: "The Board of Directors is confident that under Ted's leadership the ICA will continue to grow and develop programs and services consistent with the ICA's mission. We are looking forward to an exciting future!"

Terry Bergdall, the outgoing CEO also conveyed his confidence in the appointment. "Ted's impressive experience in non-profit management, community development, and sustainability issues, along with his personal familiarity and connections with ICA since the mid 1980's, positions him well to continue and advance ICA's efforts for social change."

If you would like to become better acquainted with Ted, please read his blog at: https://u2cando49.wordpress.com/ or see details about his previous work history here.

Richard Alton          richard.alton@gmail.com


flash