Nairobi, 1st November2013 GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF FEMNET: OUTGOING CHAIRPERSONs REPORT Re: Chairperson’s report on the occasion of the Network’s Ordinary General Assembly (who is unfortunately absent due to reasons beyond her control). Dear partners and members of FEMNET, accept my warmest regards and greetings. As my team and I take this opportunity to thank you once more for the confidence invested 3 years ago to the elected Board of Administration of FEMNET and to myself as the Chairperson of this institution, at this moment of checks and balances, I would like to give account of the term of office you so trustingly gave us. My experiences at the head of FEMNET have been deeply enriching. In spite of the enormous difficulties and challenges we faced, we were able to carry out a certain number of actions which considerably increased the visibility of the Network’s image at home and abroad, Here under are some of the achievements amongst others; The present report aims at first of all by briefly presenting some key achievements, then some challenges faced during our tenure of office and last make some recommendations to improve the functioning of the network. • We built strategic partnerships with key institutions and partners like the Institute for Security Studies (Abbis Ababa Office), the African Development Bank, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian network CISPI within the context of Nobel Peace Prize for African Women, the Rita Levi Foundation, former Presidents Pierre Buyoya of Burundi and Jerry Rawlings of Ghana with whom I have had important discussions on which they promised to support to the best of their abilities the work of network, etc. • The purchase of land for the construction of the African women power house that will host FEMNET offices and thus reduce the financial burden of the organization while redirecting funds to other activities; • Mobilization of additional funds by the Board of Administration for the construction project through a resolution during the first meeting of the Board in April 2011, requiring each member of the Board to make an annual contribution of a minimum 200USD to that effect; • Constant support to the translation unit to reduce the secretariat’s workload; • The adoption of important policy documents of the network; • Significant recruitment of more than sixty new members, including 44 in 2011, which contributed significantly to increase the visibility of the network; • Considerable improvement of FEMNET’s participation at the CSW, in particular through better organization of the African women’s caucus and the presentation of the African Womens Caucus Declaration at the UN Commission which resulted among others in the creation of the NGO CSW Africa and later on to the designation of FEMNET as Co-Chair of the NGO CSW New York; • My personal involvement in lobbying and advocacy activities at the African Union and the SOAWR Coalition which resulted in the ratification of the AU PROTOCOL by Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon; • Interpretation during international meetings (CSW AID EFFECTIVENESS, AU etc when the network could not raise funds to this effect. Dear members and partners, we could have done more if we did not face serious challenges most of which were intentionally made by some people including threats of sabotage of the mandate by one senior staff. These include the following: • Insubordination and deliberate refusal of Executive Director to follow constitutional procedures and implement the Board decisions ; • Mismanagement of funds and social assets of the network since numerous cheques were not approved by competent officials. It is also worth noting that the resident trustee disapproved payments and did not sign any cheque concerning the EOGA because of the numerous irregularities noted, but the said EOGA took place all the same with FEMNET’s funds. Moreover many other instances of mismanagement still persist for instance some people using network’s funds for private trips (case of Emma Kaliya in March 2011 in New York). • Multiple intentional hindrances manifested among others by outright refusal to communicate and withholding information on the activities of the organization by the Secretariat and some Board members, and the confiscation of funds meant to cover the Chairperson’s participation in the network’s activities; for example the summit of African Heads of States in January 2013, the CSW in March 2013 and many other hardships that led her to go into debt up to the amount of 9350 USD to validly represent FEMNET; her driving force being a great passion for women’s promotion and success ! . • The high and fulhardy interference of former ED Norah Natovu Winyi who even though she had resigned from Femnet after the discovering of her fraudulent manoeuvres and smuggling acts, she continued to interfere with the running of the organization; for instance she continued taking decisions as ED; She also represented the Network at international meetings level, withdrawing and signing in the Network’s budget, influencing decisions through in-house staff Etc • The interference of some founding members and technical and financial partners; • Strong hostility towards some Board members particular the Resident Trustee and the Chairperson manifested through acts of moral and psychological torture, humiliation, isolation and threats of law suits, kidnapping (attempted kidnapping of the Chairperson at Nairobi international Airport while in transit). Another example is that of the Founding member Ms Njoki Wanaina who had the courage to utter insults on the chairperson by quoting the woman in the Holy Bible in Proverbs 14 v 1. • The organization of an illegal Extraordinary General Assembly on 26th and February 27th, 2013, in flagrant violation of the Network’s Constitution and, and solely to take the opportunity to dispossess some members the Board of their powers, especially the Chairperson, the Resident Trustee and some other board members; Assembly which portrayed the dictatorship of some members and workers of the network on nearly 400 members. Indeed, the EOGA was convened with a list of 62 members only against out of almost 400 as of that date; • The practice of the divide and rule system in the Secretariat and the Board of Administration; • The manipulation of some Kenyan institutions in the process of destabilization of FEMNET; To that effect, would like to point out a very critical issue which is that of the host country. The fact that FEMNET is hosted by Kenya has led to a lot of interference not only from Kenyan members but also from the Kenyan officials (eg: Court case). The danger is that all these influences will always get repeated each time a Kenyan staff will have an issue with the governing body of the network. • The opacity in the mailing list of the network and its highly discriminatory management ensuring that all members are not at the same level of information even being in the same country ; • The recruitment of some consultants who do not honor their commitments but are still paid and the unjustified renewal of some internship contracts supported by some program managers without a valid cause; • Lack of coherence within the Executive Board, and very low participation of some of its members during discussions. • In addition, there is no mechanism for assessing board’s performance; • I would like to note with regret the complicity of some technical and financial partners whose mission, in my opinion, is to support the oorganization in achieving its mission; SOME RECOMMENDATIONS Drastic reforms need to be implemented in order to save the network First of all, to restore legal and moral order in the network; Before any other proceedings, it is highly imperative to do an independent management and financial audit of FEMNET funds ad assets; Respect of constitutional procedures and implementation of principles of democracy and solidarity; Need for systems and legal review to plug gaps in the governing systems; Strong need for communication system review to avoid discrimination and exclusion of some members; Need for staff to give priority to office work and ensure valuable time is not consumed by conferences; Create a favorable working environment in the network; Need to review existing job descriptions, ensure that each staff is meaningfully engaged and unassigned out of their area of competence; Need to respect constitutional procedures when recruiting and staff; Restore confidence between members, friends and partners of FEMNET so that they can work together to rebuild the image and credibility of the Network; Conclusion To conclude, I would like to express my deep disappointment following the conspiracy to confiscate FEMNET. Although feeling strongly abused, I would like to wish long life to the network while pointing out that no one will ever, for personal and subjective reasons, exclude me from FEMNET which I joined in 2004 from my national organization. Finally I would like also to thank to all the members, friends and partners of FEMNET who supported us during these three years. Sylvie Jacqueline Sylvie Ndongmo Chairpserson
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 06:41:36 +0000
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