INSTITUTIONAL NEWS - December 2009
Location of the Secretariat
At the International Strategy Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2008, ESCR-Net's General Assembly decided to "... mandate the Board and the Secretariat to initiate a process for exploring alternative locations for the ESCR-Net Secretariat, and to make any necessary and timely decisions to ensure the healthy functioning of the Secretariat, including its relocation." The Board was mandated as well to "work with the Secretariat to advance this process with all deliberate speed" and to "keep membership informed of key decisions." In light of this resolution, the Secretariat started producing information deemed necessary for this process. The Secretariat completed research on the economic benefits of moving the Secretariat location to a country in the Global South. The economic advantage of moving the office and the potential for increasing the working capacity of the Network had originally been identified as powerful reasons for relocating the office, and thus the research on the economic advantage of the relocation was a critical element to move forward in the process. The results of the research demonstrate that moving the location to the Global South could result in a reduction of operational expenses of about 31% to 62% of current operating costs, depending on the selected city. As a consequence, the research shows that, if funding is maintained at the same level, relocation opens a real possibility of increasing the working capacity of ESCR-Net. ESCR-Net Board and Secretariat are evaluating these findings and holding the necessary conversations to define next steps.
ESCR-Net Members: Update Your Web Profile!
ESCR-Net is currently asking all members to visit your Member Web Profile and let us know if you have new contact information, new projects, or new photos or logos you would like to post on your page. If so, please email them to Liz Ligon at info@escr-net.org
View ESCR-Net Member Web Profiles here.
We also ask you to highlight that you are a member of ESCR-Net by including the ESCR-Net logo on your organizational website. If you did not receive the recent communication with the .jpg file of the ESCR-Net logo attached, please contact Liz Ligon at info@escr-net.org.