Sixty participants came from Asia, Pacific Islands, Europe, Africa and South America belonging to 43 National Chapters attended a 5 day “Global ALAC Workshop: Raising the Bar”, was held in Berlin between 23rd to 27th November 2009. Pakistan was represented by Nargis A. Mirza, ALAC Project Coordinator.
1st Day. Ben Elers, ALAC Senior Program Manager of Transparency International Secretariat and Mr. Martin Farrell, Consultant for this workshop, welcomed the participants and gave an introduction and overview of the program. Groups were formed and each group was given a specific topic to discuss. These topics were assisting victims to resolve cases, education and awareness and promoting systemic changes. After discussing amongst themselves the views were presented to all.
In the evening Dinner was served at an Italian Restaurant cum Bar by TI-S.
On the 2nd Day discussions were made on Empowering Victims of Corruption and the scope of services to clients. “How far can we go”, “Legal advice” and Legal representation” and Risks and Benefits of different approaches”. First discussion took place on whether TI-S needs to change its clauses which prohibits going to court on behalf or with the complainant. Everyone had a different opinion, some were for and some were against it. Four groups were formed, two against and two for the motion. Then four judges from these groups were selected. One of the judges chosen was the representative from Pakistan. After hearing from all the participants the judges panel came with the verdict that TI-S should allow the National Chapters to decide on their own what would work for them.
One of the arguments for “Against” was that TI would be held accountable if a case went against their complainant and “For” was that unless the complainant was helped to the end the trust for TI was being lost.
The 3rd Day was on “Advocacy”. The wide definition of advocacy was discussed. Advocacy is a process and not an end goal by itself. Goal is to formalize advocacy planning, not to be bureaucratic but include the full team, i.e. the National Chapters and the Board. Some of the points made were on:-
- Targeting Key Decision MakersWorking with othersOrganized ProcessChanges in Behavior and Attitudes
- Work on behalf of marginalized/victims
In the evening a Tour of Berlin was laid out by TI-S Berlin, which was greatly appreciated by all the participants. At night TI-S gave a dinner party and everyone enjoyed themselves a lot.
On the 4th Day Johanna Polvi, Program Manager TI-S, described the impact created by stories of complaints faced by various National Chapters. Various National Chapters presented their cases and how they had solved them. It provided information of how some ALACs worked. The European ALACs are some of the oldest and their experiences were shared by them. We also learnt what position Transparency International and ALAC stood in their countries and what the government and the population thought about them. The most important question put to them was how they were coping with the pressure put on them by the government.
On the 5th Day Ben Elers discussed “Programmatic Sustainability” – Outreach and partnerships, exploring the links. The second topic discussed was on “Financial Sustainability” given by Conrad Zellman, ALAC Senior Program Coordinator. Fund raising, the key rules of fundraising, what donors love of ALACs, practicing skills: how to convince donors to support ALACs, what achievement are being targeted.
Financial and Audit functions were discussed. Also the new data package was discussed which is ORACLE based and work on it is going on. If any field was required then suggestions were sought.
The quarterly and yearly reports were discussed and what further details needed to be added to them.
The workshop provided a forum for all the ALAC National Chapters to gather in one place and to interact with each other. A lot of learning took place by trading experiences and cases that were being handled. It also provided all the National Chapters a means for future interaction and to seek information from those who had already gained experience thus providing a fast answer to what they are seeking.
All the participants left with a view that it was a valuable session and they had greatly benefited by it.