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Chairs of Bond groups contribute to Bond Strategy 2011-16 consultation

24 May 2010

The group chairs' consultation meeting, held on 10 May, provided an opportunity for the chairs and committee members of the 16 Bond groups to contribute their valued ideas towards the development of the Bond Strategy 2011-16 (log in required)

The event opened with an introduction from Nick Roseveare who explained the strategy, its themes, and the ways that Bond groups can feed into the process.

Participants then identified some of the key challenges facing the international development sector including climate change, bringing development and the environmental agenda together, inclusion of Southern voices, the role of Bond in public support for development and how groups can engage in national, regional and international processes.

Participants also had discussions around the three key organising themes for Bond - connect, influence, and strengthen. There was a consensus on the need for groups to share experience and work together in order to have more influence on lobbying and bringing desired change to policies.

Among other interesting suggestions, participants would like the network to have achieved the following by 2016:

A secure funding base for UK NGOs
A world in which the poorest and most vulnerable are able to hold powerful institutions accountable to decisions that affect their lives
A strong unified sector dealing with new UK Government
More engagement in EU and international advocacy and with international CSO coalitions
Working closely with new UK Parliament
Exploring working with other actors including think tanks and academics

The meeting ended with participants pledging to involve members of their different groups in putting together a joint response which will be fed in to the final strategy document.

The Bond Strategy 2011-2016 consultation runs until 18 June 2010. We encourage all Bond members to have their say by responding to the consultation questions directly and/or attending the final consultation meeting on 3 June 2010.

Full details are on the members' area of the website (log in required). Contact the Membership and Communications team by email or on 020 7520 0259 if you have any difficulties logging in.

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