Membership

Commission on the Advancement of Women Annual Breakfast

Peace, Human Security and Gender Equality: Moving the International Security Agenda Forward
Since adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on “women, peace, and security” in 2000, UN agencies, governments and NGOs alike have begun to take steps to incorporate this mandate into their work. This session will encompass women’s visions of peace and security and critical gender issues in conflict prevention and mitigation and in peace building. In the tradition of the CAW breakfasts, participants will have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue on ways their own organizations and InterAction can respond to these issues. Invited speakers include: Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Least Developed Nations and former UN Security Council President and a representative from the Mano River Women’s Peace Network ( MARWOPNET) in West Africa which won the UN Human Rights Prize 2003.

Humanitarian Policy and Practice Committee (HPPC) Meeting
Semi-annual InterAction Humanitarian Policy and Practice Committee Business Meeting (For HPPC Members Only)

Workshops

Making Protection A Priority
This session will focus on efforts by practitioners and agencies to build protection into humanitarian assistance programs. The workshop will feature a panel discussion on how organizations and donors view protection activities and steps that can be taken to move beyond policy and guidelines to integrating protection into all aspects of assistance to refugees and displaced persons.

Responding to the Challenge of Evaluating Our Work: How Can We Measure Our Success?
Development stakeholders—governments, donors, NGOs and civil society organizations-- are increasingly turning their attention to the monitoring and evaluation of the programs they design, manage, and fund as they try to respond to the questions “What works in foreign assistance?” and “How can success be measured?” This session will bring together leading experts and peers who will share emerging philosophies and approaches in evaluation.

Institutionalizing Diversity: The Power of Leadership
During the session ‘Championing Diversity: A CEO Imperative’ at the 2003 CEO Retreat, InterAction member CEOs began exploring the role they must take to ensure that diversity is a priority within their organizations. Following up on this discussion, CEOs will utilize a Diversity CEO Self-Assessment for identifying their roles in supporting and institutionalizing diversity within their organizations. Results of the confidential self-assessment will be debriefed and reviewed, and implications for developing successful diversity initiatives addressed. This session is for InterAction member CEOs only.

Workshops

NGO Accountability: Staying Ahead of the Curve
We live in an age where the government, private sector and NGOs are experiencing growing demands for increased accountability, transparency and results. Members of the InterAction NGO community have continued to emphasize their commitment to being more effective in program and practice and to improving professional abilities. This workshop will identify strategies to meet both these external demands and internal objectives. NGO leaders, respected experts and constructive critics will explore current and emerging practices in information gathering, documentation and reporting designed to move the sector effectively and efficiently toward the shared goal of greater transparency, accountability and relevance.

Humanitarian Space and NGO Security
Many in the humanitarian community have expressed concern about shrinking humanitarian space and escalating violence against NGOs. Against this backdrop, this session will explore the interplay between varying NGO positions on the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, the impacts of the US-led War on Terror, and how NGOs are coping with increased threats against their security.

Trade and Development: The Linkages and the Limits
With free trade agreements under negotiation in every corner of the globe, it is appropriate for the development community to ask whether trade lives up to its potential as an engine of sustainable development. Expert commentators will offer point-counterpoint on the topic.

Monitoring and Evaluation Professionals Business Group

Workshops

Tending the Helpers' Fire: Mitigating Trauma and Stress in International Staff and Volunteers

Oops, Where did Those 500 Million Go? Development Effectiveness and Disabilities--The Inextricable Links
With over 500 million people with disabilities around the world, 80 percent of them living in the global south, we must take proactive measures to bring them in to the development process or risk not meeting our program goals. The facts speak for themselves:

• One out of six people living on less than a dollar a day have a disability.
• 2% of children with disabilities in the global south go to school.
• 55% of women in the global south are literate compared to only 1% of disabled women. Come discuss the link between people with disabilities and sustainable development and learn from the experiences of InterAction member agencies: their practical strategies in creating programs inclusive of people with disabilities and how this focus enhances their overall effectiveness on the ground.

Workshops

A Rights-Based Approach: Expanding the Practice of Development through a Human Rights Lens
Increasingly organizations including the UN, many bi-lateral donors, and a multitude of international NGOs are turning to human rights as an evolution in development programming. This session will examine the challenges and opportunities presented by using a rights-based approach in development practice, as well as the role of international NGOs and other external actors.

Awakening the Silent Majority: Strategies for Mobilizing New Constituencies
Whether they identify themselves as specialists in communication, advocacy, public outreach, or development education, professionals are facing new challenges at a time when more people are talking about international issues than ever before but often with limited information. In this age of internet and mass media, it should be easier than ever to get messages about development out to new and targeted audiences. But which messages and to what audiences? Our panelists will draw on recent studies and experiences that indicate opportunities to foster long-term commitment to development issues among diverse audiences. This workshop will bring together experts from different sectors to explore the various tools used to engage new groups and energize supporters.

Operating Telecommunications Systems in an Age of Uncertainty: Lessons from Bam
Not only is the role of nongovernmental organizations changing in today’s environment, but the technologies we use in our relief and development efforts are changing, as well. Join the InterAction Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Initiative as we present stories from the earthquake in Bam, Iran from the perspectives of users, emergency telecommunications specialists, and members focusing on ICTs for development. How did the use of telecommunications systems affect efforts in Bam following the earthquake? How can we improve on those systems for future emergencies? How can those tools be used as the situation transitions from relief to development?

Workshops

The Role of Civil Society in Peace-building and Conflict Mitigation
With ongoing international conflicts and a growing number of intrastate conflicts emerging, both development and relief workers face many challenges in their efforts to design integrated and sustainable programming in conflict settings. This session will explore emerging relationships on conflict programming between NGOs and donors, good practices based on field experience, and international initiatives around the role of civil society in conflict prevention.

Knowing When We’ve Got it Right: Understanding Development Effectiveness
What is effective development assistance and how do humanitarian assistance and development organizations know when they have actually achieved it? This session is designed to examine the meaning of “effective development,” with a panel of experts who will each share their definitions of development effectiveness. Panelists will present the rationale for the elements they believe must be included in the community’s conceptualization of effective assistance and as a basis for the way the international development community approaches its mission.

Adventures With The Media
What do you do when a producer from FOX’s ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ calls and says he wants your CEO on his show in two hours to debate Newt Gingrich on the effectiveness of overseas humanitarian programs? How do you get the tools and experience you need to prepare your CEO for FOX or any other encounter with the media? You start by attending the media/message training seminar at InterAction’s annual Forum with Carol Ann Kell, veteran television correspondent and media consultant for more than a decade.