RINGO Open House: Introducing the INGO Board Action Pod

RINGO is con­ven­ing a new INGO Board Action Pod to sup­port INGO Board mem­bers who are com­mit­ted to shift­ing pow­er and prac­tice, and to reimag­in­ing ways of work­ing with­in glob­al civ­il soci­ety.

To launch this new ini­tia­tive, we held two Open House ses­sions on 27th Sep­tem­ber 2023 (10:00 and 15:00 GMT). We invit­ed our com­mu­ni­ty to learn how RINGO will sup­port Board mem­bers through a cre­ative and inter­ac­tive process to move from ideas to action, both indi­vid­u­al­ly in their own organ­i­sa­tions and col­lec­tive­ly where we need to shift bar­ri­ers at the sys­temic lev­el.

Over the past two years, RINGO engaged in a com­pre­hen­sive explo­ration of the chal­lenges fac­ing INGOs, seek­ing solu­tions and address­ing root caus­es. We devel­oped eight pro­to­types with the poten­tial to trans­form the sec­tor. One key dis­cov­ery has been the influ­en­tial role of INGO boards in shap­ing organ­i­sa­tion­al oper­a­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly in their rela­tion­ships with local and nation­al part­ners. How­ev­er, we also found that con­ver­sa­tions on trans­for­ma­tion and reform­ing pol­i­cy and prac­tices most often hap­pen at senior man­age­ment lev­el: INGO Boards are often over­looked in dis­cus­sions around sys­tems change. As a response, our ‘INGO Board Action Pod’ serves to share our learn­ings at a gov­er­nance lev­el. We will offer facil­i­ta­tion, sup­port and peer engage­ment for Board mem­bers, and encour­age the imple­men­ta­tion of inno­v­a­tive approach­es to over­come exist­ing bar­ri­ers to shift­ing pow­er.

The INGO Board Action Pod will explore the fol­low­ing key areas:

• Address­ing sys­temic inequal­i­ties
• Bal­anc­ing INGO impact and local empow­er­ment
• Shap­ing strat­e­gy par­tic­i­pa­tion
• Redefin­ing glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty 

As a col­lec­tive, we will inter­ro­gate issues around race, pow­er, decoloni­sa­tion and local­i­sa­tion. We will explore the impacts of the chang­ing fund­ing space, with more going direct­ly to local CSOs and/or the pri­vate sec­tor, and the poten­tial need to adapt your busi­ness mod­els and income gen­er­a­tion. We will dis­cuss the chang­ing role and pur­pose of the INGO, look­ing at more open and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry ways of work­ing and ques­tion­ing your oper­a­tional deliv­ery mod­els. Duty of care to staff and part­ners is high on the agen­da for most INGOs, and we will look at how this needs to go beyond safe­guard­ing. We will also con­sid­er lead­er­ship, the issue of staff turnover and ques­tions around recruit­ment prac­tices. This list is not exhaus­tive, and we will wel­come your sug­ges­tions to help shape the agen­da around the chal­lenges that are press­ing for you.

The inten­tion of the INGO Board Action Pod is three-pronged:

• TO CONNECT: this is a space for live­ly con­ver­sa­tions with oth­er Board mem­bers. You will get to cross pol­li­nate and learn from each oth­er, and share best prac­tices.
• TO CULTIVATE: you will be intro­duced to new frame­works, new tools and new case stud­ies, have access to experts and also some coach­ing.
• TO CONTRIBUTE: this is a space of co-cre­ation and own­er­ship, where you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op new tools and new knowl­edge in order to influ­ence the sys­tem.

In the first phase of the INGO Board Action Pod, we will host onboard­ing calls in Octo­ber, fol­lowed by an Incep­tion meet­ing in Novem­ber. We will then host two fur­ther ses­sions in Feb­ru­ary and April 2024. We are design­ing 1.5 – 2 hour work­shops which will be high­ly par­tic­i­pa­to­ry and engag­ing – be pre­pared to get out of your com­fort zone!

If you are an INGO Board mem­ber and would like to par­tic­i­pate in the INGO Board Action Pod, or if you would like more infor­ma­tion to take to your Board, please get in touch: info@ringoproject.org