Brev till ICM Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) Underlag till styrelsemöte 1-2 juni 2007

Till: Styrelsen
Från: Christine Pamp
Datum: 4 juni 2007


Brev från nordiska ICM-delegater till ICM Preparatory Committee

Häckeberga, Sweden 2007-06-04

Dear Claus and members of PrepCom!

The Nordic Sections would like to express our appreciation of the PrepCom initiatives to make changes in the format of the ICM. We fully appreciate the difficulties in proposing changes of such an important meeting with such deeply rooted traditions and with a long history without much development in terms of working methods. We consider it a brave effort by PrepCom to make proposals with the aim of making the ICM discussions and decisions easier accessible and more inclusive to create a common understanding and commitment for implementation. For many years now we have been concerned about the ICM being quite dominated by the views and voices of stronger sections, mainly from the global North.

Changing the format of the ICM also poses a challenge which could have far-reaching consequences. If the result does not attain the proposed aims, we see an important risk that the next ICM will prompt PrepCom to go back to our traditional working methods. While wanting to express our strong support, with this background we also would like to point out a few things that PrepCom may want to pay extra attention to.

World Cafés are a widely used and appreciated working method. As a conversational process, the World Café is an innovative methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. These
conversations link and build on each other as people move between groups, cross-pollinate ideas, and discover new insights into the questions or issues on the tables. As a process, the World Café can
evoke and make visible the collective intelligence of any group. It is therefore generally considered to be a very vital, inclusive and, as such, democratic form for discussions. However simple in design,
the metholody of a World Café is built on quite important design principles that need to be considered fully. Therefore it takes quite some experience from the organizers to fully assimilate the advantages that a well prepared World Café can offer. We would like to encourage PrepCom to involve some of the real experts in organizing our first World Café.

When looking for good examples of other NGOs or IGOs using the method of a Chairs Statement in their meetings, it has been clear to us that such a working method has to be handled carefully. In some other organisations the Chairs Statement is a very important document, and as such, a target for quite some lobbying. We believe it is important that this must not be the case at the ICM, since that would again favour strong sections at the expense of the valuable voices from our colleagues in smaller sections and structures. We identify a clear challenge for PrepCom, and the Chair of the ICM, while still keeping the Chairs Statement and important document of the ICM, to make sure that its content is a shared vision from the ICM as a whole, and not influenced by strong individual sections.

On that note we would also urge you to discuss with the IEC how the different outcomes of the ICM 2007 will be implemented. As a movement, we are accustomed to expect that only formal ICM decisions will be implemented, and it may be difficult off hand to accept or understand that a Chairs Statement or other common agreements/understandings could have the same or even greater impact on the future direction of our work. It should be clear which decisions are taken in which format and how these will be implemented. So that there is a common perception, when we all leave the ICM, that the procedure has been transparent and the end results clear to all.

Again, we wish to express our strong support for the initiatives taken by PrepCom and we look forward to an ICM more accessible, creative, exciting and inclusive then ever before.

Best

Christine Pamp
on behalf of the Nordic Meeting in Häckeberga in May 2007

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Svar från Claus Høxbro, PrepCom

Dear Christine

Thank you, for your constructive input to the ICM process. It is a challenge to change habits - and why change it if it aint broken! But some think it is broken, we only dare to make severe changes at
an ICM where we are evaluating the implementation of the ISP, but not deciding on a new one, and more important, how do we make an ICM strategic at the end of a ISP cycle?
And at the same time we are trying to live up to the Dakar decision and the decided statute: the ICM has only to deal with strategy, evaluation and election (and at the same time act as the highest body
of the movement).
As for the format, in the name of diversity, there are many participants that do not participate in the discussions, this might be a selected attitude or it has to do with the format of the meeting. I am not trying to create a platform for lobbying the chair or an increased power to the chair. The ICM is the meeting of the membership, and I will do what I can to keep it that way. We will discuss the mail from the Nordic meeting at our PrepCom meeting the 16-17 June.

Thanks again

Claus Høxbro