Programme

8.45am

Registration.  Refreshments and networking

9:45am

 Welcome and introduction to the day

• Anna Feuchtwang, Chair, Bond Board

10.00am

 Keynote address

Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Secretary of State for International Development

Read the transcript of the speech and subsequent questions from members.

10.45am

Break.  Refreshments and networking

11.05am

 AGM business and Q&A

12:15pm

Moving forwards together: Bond Strategy 2011-16

Working in small groups, members shared and discussed ideas on how to take forward the Bond Strategy 2011-16, focussing on the early priorities of where we should invest our energy and resources.

 1:20pm

Lunch

 2.20pm

Interactive parallel sessions

Delegates attended one of six participatory sessions.

 1. Maintaining and building public support for development

Leaders and senior professionals explored emerging thinking on how to sustain and grow UK public support for international development.  They will shared ideas on:

• How to deepen our collective understanding of UK public perceptions of development so that we can communicate effectively
• Our learning about actively making the case for development against significant opposition, scepticism and competing priorities
• What our shared strategic vision and programme should be so that we can reach out to active and interested audiences    

 2. Good, better, best? How can we prove and improve our value?

As our sector comes under increasing pressure to prove and improve the value of what we do, we need to be clear about who are we doing this for, why, and how.  This session updated members on the Bond Effectiveness Framework and offered a chance to feed ideas into its development.  How should we test it and what will it tell us?  We also considered how it relates to the Bond Statement of Principles which will help us to promote and achieve best practice in organisational conduct in our network.

Who should attend: Chief Executives and Directors

3. Advocacy Leadership Forum

This leadership session provided an important opportunity to build and direct the momentum of UK civil society advocacy on international development.  Six months into a new UK Government and a changed political map, and following the UN MDG Review Summit, what is our emerging programme of action to influence the UK Government to continue to improve its own policies and practice on international development?  Internationally, how are UK NGOs playing our part as global civil society seeks to renew the struggle for justice and equity with a transformative agenda? 

4. Good practice in institutional and trust funding: the principles of good donorship and NGO grant management

Bond is developing good practice guidelines for donors and recipients of institutional and trust funds to determine the principles of good donorship and NGO grant management. We debated these principles and discussed ways to promote the recommended good practices, both in our own organisations and to donors and trusts through Bond.

5. The tip of the iceberg

Sustainable management of natural resources is a fast growing global concern, as awareness of the impacts of climate change and human activities grow. It is vital that development NGOs understand the links between poverty and natural resource management, and are at the forefront of shaping this agenda.

6. Should we work ‘in, on or around' conflict and insecurity?

Effectively engaging with UK policy on conflict and security is crucial for the development and humanitarian sectors, but critically assessing and constructively responding to policy responses is difficult without a vision of what humanitarian assistance and longer term development is about in ‘fragile states'.  This director level debate, relevant to all Bond members, explored the relationship between development, humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding to help develop strategic responses to conflict and security policy.

3.50pm

Break.  Refreshments and networking

4.10pm

The role of Northern and Southern civil society in African development

Distinguished panellists from inter-governmental, private sector, donor and civil society organisations debated how big a contributor civil society can be to development efforts in Africa. It also tested our assumptions, and challenged our certainties, highlighting how the role of Northern NGOs must change if we are to stay relevant.

Panellists:

• H.E Bience Gawanas, Commissioner of Social Affairs, African Union
• Michael Anderson, Director General for Policy and Global Issues, DFID
• Ingrid Srinath, Secretary General, CIVICUS

Moderated by: Mike Wooldridge, BBC World Affairs Correspondent

5.20pm

Closing remarks

Nick Roseveare, Chief Executive

Drinks reception