In the lead up to the Governing Council meeting, IPPF’s donors sent a letter to IPPF’s Director-General and President urging IPPF to stay on track in implementing the governance reforms agreed in New Delhi. While recognizing the unprecedented circumstances and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their continued support of IPPF’s mission, the donors emphasized that fulfilling the reform agenda according to the swift timeline for implementation agreed in New Delhi were critical.
Read the letter from the donors, and the response from the Director-General and President in which they reaffirm a commitment to approving the recommendations of the Transition Committee during the Governing Council’s virtual meeting, taking place on May 15-16.
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Dr Bermejo and Ms Abu Ghazaleh,
We write to express our continued support for IPPF’s work to move forward with the commitments made at the General Assembly (GA) meeting in New Delhi in December 2019.
Global conditions have changed significantly in the short period of time since the GA. The COVID-19 pandemic poses a range of unique challenges for all of us. However, we consider it is important for the Federation, its staff and members worldwide, that the governance reforms stay on track as agreed in New Delhi.
We recognise that there are a range of critical steps to give full effect to the reform agenda. In particular, we recall that the next Governing Council meeting, scheduled for 15-17 May, is a key event.
In New Delhi, it was agreed that the May GC meeting would take the necessary steps to formally dissolve the GC body and approve regulations and policies that would enable the Board of Trustees (BOT) arrangement to commence. It is important that this process moves ahead as agreed, to maintain confidence in the reform agenda and the organisation more broadly. We expect that there are appropriate technologies and approaches that IPPF could utilise to ensure the GC process is possible under current conditions. Many of our respective global partners are continuing business in this way.
For donors, the GC process and transition to the BOT is important to our due diligence assessments which underpin our ability to continue core and non-core funding. It is also clearly important to our consideration of funding for the reform process specifically.
We wish to express our thanks and appreciation to all GC members who have provided strong support for the organisation over the years, and for its new direction. All involved in the process are to be commended. We particularly appreciate the strength shown in making the decision to transition to a new arrangement and hope that the GC members will find new ways in which to continue support for IPPF in the future. This will not necessarily be an easy step, but it is an essential one.
We appreciate your follow up on this matter and look forward to continuing our collaboration with IPPF over 2020.
Sincerely
Cecilia Scharp
Assistant Director General
Department for International Organisations and Policy Support Sida
Alexander Schulze
Head – Division Global Programme Health Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Ms. Satu Santala
Director General
Department for Development Policy Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Dr. Annette van Edig
Head of Division Health, population policy, social protection
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
Peter Shackleton
Unit Manager – Multilateral; Pacific and Development Group New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Joris Jurriëns,
Head health and aids division
Ministry of Foreign Affairs the Netherlands
SUMI Manabu
Director, Global Health Policy Division Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan
Kate Wallace
Assistant Secretary Global Health Policy Branch
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia
Trine Rask Thygesen
State Secretary for Development Policy
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
Wenche Fone
Director Department for Civil Society and the Private Sector
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
Dana Hovig
Director, Global Development and Population
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Joshua Tabah
Director General
Health and Nutrition
Global Affairs Canada
Read the full text of the response from the Director General and the President below or download the PDF at https://ippfischanging.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Letter-to-Donors-from-President-and-DG_-final.pdf.
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for your letter from the 22nd of April. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to all our donors for their on-going support to our Federation, especially during this unprecedented crisis posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to the issues you have outlined in your letter, we would firstly like to confirm that the final Governing Council meeting will still take place in 15-16 May via a virtual format. We recognize that convening a virtual meeting does come with its challenges in particular due to different languages and time zones. We do however acknowledge these are exceptional times and we are making every effort possible to ensure we have the adequate technical support in place to convene the meeting as originally planned.
We would also like to inform you that the Governing Council is following through on all of the outcomes from last year’s momentous General Assembly in Delhi and we are moving ahead on schedule with all the management and governance reforms despite the exceptional circumstances we find ourselves in. Most importantly, during the May meeting, the Governing Council will be reviewing and approving the Transition Committee’s recommendations for the Board of Trustees positions and will also be discussing and approving amendments to the revised regulations, byelaws and policies.
Governance policies and responsibilities of the Federation state that “IPPF fully recognizes its obligation to be programmatically and financially accountable to all its donors, while protecting the Federation’s autonomy”. We would like to reassure that the Federation’s Trustees will be ensuring we fulfil these obligations and that we live up to the commitments we made in Delhi for our Federation.
We would like to sincerely thank you for your continued support and encouragement throughout IPPF’s reform journey as we bring it to the finish line for a brand new IPPF.
Warm Regards,
Alvaro Bermejo, Director-General, IPPF
Rana Abu Ghazaleh, President, IPPF