Governance
International Board of Trustees
In 2008, WECF changed to a new governance model in which the former Board of the Foundation - with only Dutch members - was converted into an International Board of Trustees. This BoT has 5 to 7 members and bears the final responsibility for the strategic and financial management of the Foundation WECF. It has given a larger mandate to the Directors. It assesses the results of the management by the Executive Director who, in close cooperation with the Directors of the German and French offices and a management team, is responsible for the financial and organisation management and work executed by the three offices of WECF.
Members of the Board of Trustees are appointed
on the basis of their experience and expertise and execute their
function on a voluntary basis. They are appointed for a period of four
years and can be re-elected once. Next to their controlling tasks they
advise the Executive Director, can perform representative functions for
WECF and, as far as time allows, keep in touch with the work and
members of WECF through visits to projects of WECF members or
participation in workshops with members.
The members of the new International Board of Trustees are:
- Christine von Weizsäcker, president
- Marjon Reiziger, vice–president
- Bert Kuiter, treasurer
- Grietje Zeeman, member
- Marianne Nugteren, member
Founder of WECF Marie Kranendonk has handed over the function of president and Willy Douma the function of secretary of the Board, after many years in which they helped to build WECF into the network organisation it is at the moment: with 100 member organisations in 40 countries in the European region, the Caucasus and Central Asia, with many projects in those regions and substantial advocacy and awareness raising activities from local to international level.
A
formal farewell event took place at the end the 15th anniversary of WECF
which was celebrated with a conference in June 2009. Marie Kranendonk
was appointed as Honorary President of WECF during that occasion.
Profiles of the members
- The new president of WECF, Christine von Weizsäcker,
is a biologist, researcher and activist. She has been working on
technology assessment for civil society since the mid-seventies and
participated in the negotiations of the Convention on Biodiversity
(CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety since 1994. Her many
publications have contributed to scientific and public debate.
Amongst the organisations she was serving are the following: Ecoropa
(European Network of Networkers on Environement, Democracy and
North-South Justice), president; Diverse Women for Diversity,
co-founder; CBD-Alliance (international alliance of NGOs attending the
negotiations of the UN-Convention on Biological Diversity and its
Cartagena Protocol), board; Advisory Committee on Sustainable
Development of the Protestant Churches in Germany, member; Advisory
Committee of the Federation of German Scientists, member, also member
of its Working Group on Agriculture and Biodiversity. She has
contributed to the work of the German Consumer Testing Group for 20
years in different functions promoting the inclusion of environmental
criteria; and was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on
Consumer and Food Policy of the German Ministry for Food, Agriculture
and Consumer Protection co-authoring its Guidelines for Sustainable
Consumption. Read the interview with her on her work and drives.
Vice-president Marjon Reiziger has broad international experience in both European and developing countries, working in the fields of human resource management and project management, fundraising, training and communication for companies and non–profit organisations and also served on thee board of Both Ends, an international environment and development NGO. She had special assignments to promote diversity and gender approach in human resource management.
Bert Kuiter, treasurer, has extended experience in finance and control, working as Corporate Treasurer of the DHV Group, a Consulting and Engineering company in Amersfoort. He held several functions in Finance and Control, working as business group controller involved in international financed projects in developing countries especially in Asia and Africa. WECF asked him in 2003 to join the board as treasurer. He agreed because he appreciates the way WECF is executing projects.
Grietje Zeeman is Assistant Professor in the field of anaerobic treatment and reuse, focussing for the last 10 years on source separation based sanitation at the Wageningen University sub-department Environmental Technology, in the Netherlands. She also works as senior advisor at LeAF (Lettinga Associates Foundation). She has become well known for developing and promoting innovative, source separation based sanitation concepts. She has been very supportive in the further development of new sanitation concepts and technologies used by WECF and its partners in the local projects.
Marianne Nugteren is an expert in gender and development with a longstanding professional career as a gender consultant in various countries in Africa, South East Asia and Eastern Europe. The assignments included policy and programme evaluations, institutional gender analysis, organisational strengthening and other forms of support to government and non-government organisations, international NGOs and women’s organisations. These organisations work in various domains: violence against women, sexual and reproductive health and rights, health, water and sanitation, as well as biodiversity and sustainable development.
The
Board of Trustees maintains close connections with the International
Advisory Board by mutual representation at each-other's meetings.
International Advisory Board
The International Advisory Board represents the member
organisations of WECF, and works in an advisory capacity on strategic
issues affecting the member organisations and regions. It also approves
the admission of new member organisations and the use of membership
contributions by the member organisations.
The voting procedure for the current IAB members has taken place before the International Advisory Board meeting, which took place in Tatarbanury, Odessa region on September 16 and 17, 2010. Ten new members were chosen by the network members of WECF. Before the meeting 28 candidates had been proposed by WECF members, coming from different regions and with diverse backgrounds. WECF members elected the following 10 persons to the IAB:
• Elena Manvelyan (AWHHE, Armenia)
• Mihaela Vasilescu (Medium et Sanitas, Romania)
• Rostom Gamisonia (RCDA, Georgia)
• Diana Iskreva (Earth Forever, Bulgaria)
• Svitlana Slesarenok (Black Sea Women Club, Ukraine)
• Helen Lynn (H&E Consultant, UK)
• Nadeshda Kutepova (Planet of Hopes, Russia)
• Kaisha Atakhanova (Eco Center, Kazakhstan)
• Therese van Gijn (Zij-Aktief, The Netherlands)
The International Advisory Board advises the organisation on the main directions of its work, the thematic areas and regional issues, and approves member applications.It represents the member organisations of WECF, and works in an advisory capacity on strategic issues affecting the member organisations and regions. It also approves the admission of new member organisations and the use of membership contributions by the member organisations. The former IAB Members were elected in October 2007 during a two day network meeting in Belgrade, in which 100 network members participated.
The IAB also mandates a representative to take part in the meetings of the International Board of Trustees and the WECF Project Selection Committee. The IAB meets once or twice a year. The IAB counts a minimum of 7 members and a maximum of 11 members, and 2 co-chairs (east-west).
"We improve the direct living conditions of some hundred thousand people. Through our advocacy work we reach out to millions".
