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The African Coordination Group (ACG) wishes to inform you and ask your prayers for a consultation of Initiatives of Change (IofC) bodies in Africa from 5 to 10 March 2014 at Bonita Youth Development Centre – Debre Zeit in Ethiopia.
The purpose of this consultation is for us as a collective body of IofC Africa to spend time in retreat to recommit ourselves to the principles we embrace and propagate in IofC; It is an opportunity to look at issues of governance and other challenges teams face and prayerfully seek solutions for each situation; How to attract and sustain new people especially the young; How we relate to IofC International; Effectiveness and relevance in our countries; time to get feedback from what is happening in each country; Issues around funding; Learnings from Workshop for Africa; Election of new officers for the ACG.
Just to remind us that it was in 2007 at the Imbizo (a gathering) in South Africa with 12 African countries present, that the ACG was constituted. Its mandate is to coordinate the work of IofC in Africa and assist in fund raising where possible.
Purpose of the Group
- To give care – listen, support, nurture
- To encourage growth – refocus & recreate the spirit and purpose of the team
- To identify opportunities for networking.
- To identify needs in different situations & recommend possible solutions
Since its inception, members of the ACG have visited a number of IofC teams around Africa.
Officials were elected to carry out these mandates over a three year spell. In 2010 in Nakuru, Kenya another set of officers were elected to continue playing these roles. As a body the ACG meet physically twice in a year and more frequently by Skype.
Current members are Joanne Lubega – Uganda, Adalbert Otou – Cameroon, Nombulelo Khanyile – South Africa, Abiodun Owoseni – Nigeria and Pieter Horn – South Africa. Stephen Kimaru – Kenya, was co-opted at a meeting of the ACG in Switzerland in July 2013.
In September 2013, we met with some of the working group for Workshop for Africa to evaluate the progress of the programme and to seek the next steps. Our meetings were enriched by the presence of 8 participants of Workshop for Africa some of whom spent two months in South Sudan to assist with the desperately needed training of Peace Mobilisers and a further two months in Kenya meeting with County Administrators, youth groups, other local officials and speaking in schools. They have grown in confidence and commitment on the essence of the programme, to respond to the needs in Africa.
The ACG also took time to assess the progress of IofC teams across Africa, identify areas of need and how to respond. It became apparent that there is need to have a meeting of representatives of each national team to go through some vital issues affecting us as an organisation.
The ACG operates from a limited budget. Funds have been sourced to cover the cost of stay in Ethiopia and that each Association is expected to fund the travel cost of their one or two Board members that intend in participating in the consultation. A report will be produced and circulated after the consultation.
In preparation for the consultation may we kindly ask you to take some minutes to complete this questionnaire (Click here to fill in an online questionnaire). Your response will help inform us of your work and how the ACG can best serve you. We encourage you to answer as best as you can and please note that your responses will be kept confidential. Thanks in advance.
Click here to go to the online questionnaire. It takes very few minutes to complete and submit.
Onbehalf of ACG,
Abiodun Owoseni Email Nombulelo Khanyile Email