1. CIVICUS: World Alliance for
Citizen Participation:
Affinity Group of National
Associations (AGNA)
Annual General Meeting
2012

2. Agenda
Oli Henman: current AGNA chair,
Welcome and opening of the AGM NCVO.
Start: 9:30 - 9:40 Katsuji Imata: Acting Secretary
10 minutes General, CIVICUS.
Andrew Firmin: Convening/
Communications Manager,
CIVICUS.
9:40 - 9:50 am Approval of last year’s minutes Megan MacGarry: AGNA
coordinator, CIVICUS.
9:50 - 10:10 Report back about year’s activities by Oli Henmann
AGNA Chair
10:10 - 10:20 Financial reporting Megan/ Oli
10:20 – 10:40 Morning tea break
10:40 – 12:30 Feedback from 5 working groups: Each session to be presented by
1. Government/ civil society relations. the elected leader of each
1 hour, 50 minutes: 2. Legitimacy, transparency and working group
approx. 20 minutes per accountability.
group 3. Enabling environment.
4. Global advocacy.
5. Membership strategies.
Two sections to present:
- Past activities achieved over 2012
- Future plans for 2013.
12:30 - 13:00 Group discussion and feedback Megan as facilitator
13:00- 13:45 Lunch break

3. 13:45 - 14:00 Discussion on other AGNA activities Megan and Oli
14:00 - 14:15 Q&A session: open to the floor Megan as facilitator
14:15 - 14:40 Membership and new partnerships Oli
discussion
14:40 - 15:20 Most important session of the day: The way Megan and Oli to lead group
forward for AGNA discussion
15:20- 15:40 Afternoon tea break
15:40 – 16:00 CIVICUS’s role as secretariat and future Megan and Andrew
engagements
16:00 – 16:15 Announcement/ Election of new Chair and Megan
Steering Committee members
16:15 – 16:25 Any other business Megan
16:30 Close of meeting Oli
www.civicus.org

4. •
•
Objectives
•
• Assess progress made on annual goals and objectives of the
network (set during the 2011 AGM)
• Report back on financials
• Present activities from the previous year: feedback from chair,
steering committee and working group activities
• Discuss key issues and leading priority concerns for national
associations
• Identify priorities, goals and ways of working for the year ahead
• Elect new steering committee and chair for the upcoming year
ahead.
www.civicus.org

5. Financial report
• Great news is that C S Mott Foundation has approved
the AGNA grant for another two years! So the network
has a renewed $ 60 000 for the next two years.
Activity Costs
7 peer learning exchange visits $ 13 500
WA bursaries $ 22 000
Bursaries from CIVICUS $ 9 000
Human resources $ 25 057.18
Professional (consultants) $ 6 061.17

6. Shared CIVICUS costs $ 1 953.71
Miscellaneous $ 2 812.04
Indirect expenses $ 1 953.71
Planning and learning $ 1 486.77
Members contributions $ 18 000
Total expenses including $ 101 824.58
contributions from members and
CIVICUS
Total expenses excluding $ 74 824.58
contributions from members and
CIVICUS

7. Feedback
Working Groups:
1. Government- civil society relations
2. Legitimacy, transparency and accountability
3. Enabling environment
4. Global advocacy
• Past activities achieved over 2012
• Future plans for 2013

8. Other activities
• AGNA newsletter
• Outreach opportunities
• Social media presence strengthened
• Website redevelopment
• Promotional materials
• What other opportunities do members want to
see?

9. Membership
• How to bring new members into the network and
grow AGNA
• New partnerships and network connections: IFP
and ENNA as examples. Forge new connections.
• What do members need to grow and extend the
network? And to strengthen their members.
• Regional growth and networking
• Forging new ties in countries that don’t have
national associations

10. Future of AGNA
• Where to from here? What do members want to see?
• Need to improve current systems: recent mail outs
suggest contact problems which means members
aren’t getting information or able to participate.
• We need new members and greater regional
presence, better CIVICUS programmatic integration
and mainstreaming, more peer learning exchanges,
and to become better resourced.
• Stronger and bigger international presence/ better
networking and connections.

11. Strengths
• Great bank of knowledge, skills and expertise
within the network: very good information exchange
and peer learning. Great potential to create good
resource guides and use them as resource hubs.
• A core strong group of members who are very
active, with a good regional coverage.
• Great potential outreach with network membership:
all partners within network have members, so need
to maximise this

12. Challenges
• Outdated contact lists means number of
members are not getting information or
updates.
• Limited resources for all.
• Need for a tighter, more connected network
and secretariat.

13. Opportunities for future
• Need more members in the network.
• Network needs to be more active with each other –
strengthen the connections and linkages between
partners.
• Stronger commitment from the secretariat
• Need to develop further working methods?
• What are the new approaches and technologies?