Wednesday, December 22, 2010

New Year Heralds Federation

The Federation of IAP2 commenced on January 1st 2011. Thank you to all the work done locally in countries around the world to build the governance infrastructure to create national and transnational Affiliates. It has been a wonderful year of member engagement at all levels across the association.
When the Federation meets for the first time in February 2011 those sitting around the table will be from: Australasia, USA, France, UK & Ireland, Southern Africa and Canada. There are four groups working to become Affiliates in 2011 and they are in Portugal, Italy, Indonesia and Western Africa. There is also interest in The Netherlands, Poland and Yemen.

The new year commences with an Innovation Summit in Australia to review and re-design the training framework for the Certificate in Public Participation and leaders in the field will be advising IAP2 in this work. Invited to the Summit are distinguished educators, researchers, practitioners and trainers from Australasia, Europe and North America. Amongst the Summiteers will be Lars Kluver from the Danish Board of Technology and 2010 winner of IAP2's Jim Creighton Award; US advocates and networkers in the field of public participation Sandy Hierbarcher (NCCD) and Matt Leighinger (DDC) and internationally recognized for her leading research in random selection and deliberative democracy Prof Lyn Carson from Australia.
There will be regular updates and an opportunity for participation in the Summit via an online blog and input will be most welcome and contact IAP2 HQ to find out how ot link into the event.
Happy New Year to all members of IAP2.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Welcome to Two New Affiliates

Today the Board welcomed two new Affiliates to the IAP2 Federation - Southern Africa and UK & Ireland.

The opening of the Southern Africa Affiliate's submission set the scene and context for their application by saying:

"The practice of public participation in South Africa has flourished over the last decade due to legislative requirements as well as increased emphasis placed on it by the private sector and international organisations. As the practice continues to evolve in Southern Africa region, it has seen a wide range of applications both in terms of methodology and the ability to ensure successful outcomes. The diversity of Southern Africa communities, languages and cultural traditions also requires specialised approaches and expertise, which are enriched by both local realities as well as African traditions of consensus building. For these reasons, it is important to establish a professional body to the Southern Africa experience with linkages to an international body of knowledge. Such an entity could foster the need for a rigorous and ethical approach to public participation - as promoted by the international body - whilst building the capacity of local stakeholders to engage in such processes. "

The UK & Ireland Affiliate are on the cusp of growth and in their sights working the public policy space with government, commerical and not for profit sectors "to understand the public participation processes in developing better decisions which have the buy in of their respective constituents." UK & Ireland IAP2 President wrote in their submission "We are intending to establish a chartership to give professional credibility to the industry and to promote best practice in the UK & Ireland."

Board welcomes with acclamation the two submissions and are looking forward to receiving a submission from Canada next month.