Global Buzz 2015 05 01

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ICAI Board Report:

Final planning is underway for the ICAI face-to-face Board meeting in Tanzania May 12-17. It promises to be an engaging, productive week and an opportunity for each Board member to share both their ideas and facilitation skills with our team.

Our current plan is to begin our time together with in-depth introductions and conversations about our hopes, expectations and about what ICA and being an ICA mean to each of us. Next we'll ground ourselves with the start of a Wall of Wonder about the history and future of ICAI that we'll come back to and continue with folks at the East Africa gathering opening May 17th. We'll end our first day with a thorough sharing on the goings on of the network worldwide and an online Q&A about ICAI's governance with Bill Staples from Toronto, Canada.

Day 2 will include a review of the current ICAI vision, what's going well, our areas of concern, and the current draft of the 2015 ICAI Business Plan. We'll also have the first of two online meetings about global communications that will include the editorial and technical teams related to the Global Buzz, Winds & Waves and the ICAI website.

Our third day together will lead us to deep thinking about our strategies for this and future years as a Board and how we intend to put our plans into action. We want to spend good time working with the critical questions raised by the network and thinking through how we as a Board can best support current and emerging initiatives.

During our final full meeting day we'll make decisions relating to the how-tos and practical aspects of our work together to ensure we're able to act on our strategic and peer-to-peer support plans most effectively and collaboratively.

Before we join our East African colleagues for a day of deep discussion and exchange on the 17th, we'll spend a day with our Tanzanian host and fellow Board member, Charles Luoga, learning about and visiting local projects while experiencing and developing a deepened understanding of local culture.

Our intention is to share daily reports with the network as we work through our week together. Please watch out for those and feel welcome to virtually join the conversation with any questions or comments, by email or by Facebook or twitter etc.

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

COTE D'IVOIRE:

Dans le cadre du renforcement de capacité prévu dans le projet de réinsertion des jeunes à risques de la région d’Agboville, nous avons reçu madame Shizuyo Sato Directrice de ICA Japon du 13 au 25 avril 2015. Pour cette première visite, elle était accompagnée de Monsieur Hideki Kambé coordonateur Japonais du projet. Elle a effectuée une visite dans les six (6) villages qui bénéficient du projet de cette année pour rencontrer les bénéficiaires, la chefferie et aussi voir les activités qui ont été faites dans chaque village.

Du 18 au 20 elle a donnée une formation à un groupe de 40 personnes en leadership à Agboville. Cette formation a permis aux bénéficiaires du projet des 6 villages de comprendre leur rôle de leader de groupe et de savoir qu’ils doivent entretenir une bonne communication dans leur groupe pour le bon fonctionnement de ce groupe et pour la réussite du projet. La méthode TOP qu’a utilisé Madame Shizuyo a permis à chaque participant de pouvoir s’exprimer facilement et ressorti ce qu’il voulait partager avec les autres bénéficiaires.

WithIn the framework of strengthening our capacity to provided for the reintegration of young people at risk in the region of Agboville, we received Shizuyo Sato, Director of ICA Japan, from the 13th to the 25th of April, 2015.

For her first visit, she was accompanied by Mr. Hideki Kambe the Japanese coordinator of the project. She visited six of the villages which are benefiting from the project this year, to meet with the beneficiaries, the chiefdom, and also see the changes that have been made in each village.

From the 18th to 20th she provided training to a group of 40 people, in leadership, for the project in Agboville. The training has enabled the beneficiaries of the project to understand their role as a leader of a group, and to know that they must maintain good communications within their group for the success of the project. The TOP method, that was used by Madam Shizuyo, has enabled each participant to easily express themselves and to find the way they wanted to communicate with the other beneficiaries.

In addition

Training Workshop Report
of the leading beneficiary villages Leadership

Please see attached PDF for above report

NEPAL:

DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE HITS NEPAL APRIL 2015
EARTHQUAKE RELIEF & RECOVERY ACTIVITIES REPORT

Report Submitted by:
ICA Nepal
Kriti Marg, Koteshwor Kathmandu Nepal
info@ica-nepal.org
www.ica-nepal.org

Please see attached PDF for above report

Earthquake Relief Fund
Institute of Cultural Affairs Nepal

Kathmandu along with other peripheral districts were struck by a devastating earthquake last Saturday afternoon (25th April, 2015). This has caused immense damage in an lready financially strapped nation. Although it is reported that the death toll is over 4500 so far (as of April 29th) it is highly likely that the number will rise exponentially as the rescue efforts have not reached to some of the worst hit areas that are largely outside the Kathmandu valley.

An ICA team visited the earthquake affected areas inside the Katmandu Valley and learned that there are still many people trapped in the debris of the fallen houses. Several heritage sites are completely or partially damaged. The continued tremors (aftershocks) could cause further casualties and loss of properties. It has been reported that the earthquake was more intense in and around Kathmandu where the population density is abnormally high.

ICA has been active for almost two decades in contributing to the well-being of the disadvantaged people of Nepal through its various development activities. Additionally, it is committed to provide support to the affected people particularly during the emergencies. The Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. Sushil Koirala, has reiterated the need for international support to tackle this devastating cause of human tragedy.

To meet the national expectation, ICA Nepal eagerly looks forward to the support of ICAs from all over the world, associate members and their network that is intended to provide relief and recovery of the affected people. Your support will be utilized on disaster recovery and relief activities that include providing food, clean drinking water, fuel, shelter, hygiene and sanitation products.

We will continue our presence to enable the affected people to recover from the impacts in the longer term. We will update all the donors regarding the use of their support.

UKRAINE:

ICA Ukraine launched a new project -ToP Facilitators Lab – space designed for those who have just received the very first skills in using ToP tools. This is a laboratory for experimenting with the results of new ideas and testing new practices. We hope that the ICA Ukraine experience can help the ICA Global Community. We hope everyone will have a lot of successful projects. Here we have our first confessional.

By - Irina Prikhodko
Translation – Yuliya Kriventseva

The very first self –made facilitation – a beginner’s experience.

As we have just graduated from a ToP training program, conducted by Natliya Karpova, and as members of a group called “Deep” we asked ourselves a trivial question: what ‘s next. Someone emailed us the idea of facilitating this dilemma, so we did, it appears to have been a good thought and this is what happened.

After fast organizing things we we’re sitting in a room to plan the event, with a strong intent to practice and gain a good result. Eight persons were ready to invest their time. We thank Nadezda Kopanitsa for her help in preparing and hosting the event, also for suggesting ideas for the vision of our future work.

We started with the tradition of introducing ourselves. With assistance from Vitaly Maystrenko we discovered that we made a group of 5 business skills trainers, 1 coach, 4 professional facilitators and 4 facilitators-beginners. We came up to everybody’s expectations. A wonderful team! Unfortunately I do not have a picture of Vitaly at the sticky wall.

Using the ORID method we started with establishing what is a “correct” question to work with for consensus. Vladimir Nikulin lead the task. Though it was not that easy… Facilitators need to think with ORID, it needs to be installed and become a part of you. It’s not usual for beginners.

We brainstormed ideas and decided on the first priority, checked and looked for any arguments, struggled, and finally, after an hour and a half of work, we gained our consensus. We had a key question to proceed and work with: what do facilitators-beginners need to do next to get the necessary skills and start the facilitator career?

The next step is to find consensus for the suggested question. And this was the time for my show! How does a beginner feel when facilitates for the first time? Surely everybody remembers this moment. Inspiration, excitement, and doubt, especially when your teacher is a member of your group. This is how I felt.

The team’s work was thoughtful, fast and united, even faster than me, as it was noted in the feedback. Technology just works !

In less than an hour we got 9 clusters for the direction of further steps. Everything is sharp, clear and well structured. Using the results, anybody can make a suitable plan for the next steps, the facilitator’s way. We were inspired by the result!

But the most exciting thing was just on the way: Feedback - looking at it from a distance. This is the most valuable experience after the real work we did. When you get 7 opinions about your work, you understand and analyze that you are really moving forward in your career.

We are grateful to all the participants especially to Svitlana Salamatova and Nataliya Karpova for being with us, their patience (sometimes rather difficult) and valuable feedback which definitely helped to move us forward.

Of course, we understand that not everything is ideal, but at least we know what not to do and where to go.

In conclusion we found that the biggest part for the the success of facilitation is in the preparation!

Everything started with the simple question: what to do next?
While we prepared to conduct discussions, the usual facilitating session turned into a regular meeting format for joint practice named, “Young Facilitators Lab”. Our vision is to create a project to help and support ToP training graduates who wish to make a career of being a facilitator. Practice is necessary for a professional start! And once or twice a month everybody can get it in the Lab.

Young Facilitators Lab has a right to live!
First of all because this is a space for the safe practice where you can make mistakes or even get training wounds.

Secondly, you may solve many problems for both young and experienced facilitators, and share the thoughts, experience, and ideas.

Third: you can get careful feedback and supervision from like-minded people.

And finally: with no practice, a beginner would never become a professional!

So, anyone interested in joining the GROWth and movement is welcome to the lab. We are open for suggestions and feedback.

We hope this project is going to be a resourceful input into ICA UA development.

P.S. We are happy to share our experience, and believe it will be helpful for facilitators-beginners.

Wishing you further GROWth,
named as “Lab mom”

Irina Prikhodko (svetasalamatova@gmail.com)

UNITED STATES:

City Roundtable Highlights and Next Steps

On March 23, 18 Chicago Sustainability Leaders Network (CSLN) members met with City of Chicago Chief Sustainability Officer Karen Weigert for 1 hour to introduce ourselves and the CSLN and discuss synergies between our work and Sustainable Chicago 2015. Karen specifically asked us to help her understand: what should the City be doing to help communities? In addition to CSLN hubs, she is interested in working with the CSLN moving forward to talk about particular issues and ideas that the network identifies as important, and especially to explore how policies are playing out in communities.

At our CSLN meeting on April 8th, we had an Open Space meeting to debrief and discuss next steps. We integrated the roundtable work into a new Policy-focused Working Group and will meet again on May 7 (see announcement above). Working Group goals include establishing relationships with policymakers--including City and State--to help them establish stronger connections with neighborhoods. In particular, goals articulated after the roundtable include helping policy-makers prioritize equity and institute stronger processes for community-centered planning.

Our first project is to identify 2-3 key issues that we can present to the City as possibilities for exploring/working on together, possibly focused on community data collection. At our May 7th meeting, we will put together a plan for identifying these issues by early summer. Please join us!