From: Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] Fairness and Equity in IPC10 Selection from Three Bids
Date: Thu, 27 May 2010 22:27:33 -0700
hi everyone
to answer Scott's question about the selection process and Cuba at
IPC9 Malawi, this report was posted on the IPC9 blog during the
conference later on the IPC9 listserves, and again posted to the IPC9
listserve this week
hope this helps explain the process which took over 3 meetings
wes
.The Report below was prepared by Rosemary Morrow from the
International Permaculture Support committee meetings at the IPC9 in
Malawi, this was the process developed at IPC8 in Brasil for
selecting the host of the next IPC
wes
Fairness and Equity in IPC10 Selection from Three Bids
Dear Permaculturists:
As we permaculturists try to be as accountable and transparent as
possible, this seemed a good occasion to report on the process of
selection of the next site for IPC10. I have tried to record it as
faithfully as I can and if there are errors and omissions then they
are all mine.
At Brazil for the IPC8, basic criteria for selection had been
developed to ensure IPCs can be held successfully. At IPC9 this
year in Malawi they were refined. At IPC8 a vote was taken by all
attendees and resulted in 82 to 14 in favour of Sub-saharan Africa
and here Cuba generously supported the vote and said they could get
behind Africa.
The IPC10 selection process took several meetings over the week of IPC9.
First Meeting to look at and consider the bids for IPC10
This was an open attendance meeting at which:
*the application from Cuba was read out by Julio from Brazil and
heard appreciatively. Then Maria from USA spoke very strongly in
support. At this first meeting there was only this one serious bid
although Jordan had expressed interest. The Jordan delegates
arrived late due to plane delays.
*No Cubans were at IPC9 and the organisers explained how hard they
had tried to get Cuban representation. They had expected to be funded
by the South Africans but that funding did not appear. When the
Support Group learned of this, offered to quickly raise funds, but
the Cubans said it was too late at this point to arrange travel.
After this first meeting, clarification points on some of the
criteria which required an answer. The Support Group sent three
emails before the Convergence with a list of questions that would
help clarify issues and answer the criteria below for making a bid
for IPC10. No response was received. (If you would like a copy of
this document ask the Santa Barbara Network cc'd on this email.)
Between first and second meetings two more bids were received.
Second Meeting to Select IPC10 site:
By the second/third meeting there were three bids on the table Nepal,
Jordan and Cuba. Past convenors were there as part of the present
IPC9 support group, for their wisdom and continuity of knowledge of
the history of the selection process.
Below are the criteria used in the selection process:
1. Potential technological restrictions- and this is key because live
interactive broadcast facility as a livestream TV channel is now
possible. It was to be a big feature of IPC9 but turned out too
difficult because of the upload speed in Malawi. This would allow
any person anywhere in the world with web access to participate in
IPCs and also achieve maximum global coverage.
2. Travel challenges for attendees - difficulties around visas, ease
of access, safety of country and site.
3. Reducing the total expenses of attending IPCs, which can siphon
funds from scholarships as it did this time, and effort will be made
to avoid it next time
4. Having a lead organising group already established and ready to
start almost immediately after the last IPC finishes is critical.
5. Ease of payment - this was very difficult in Malawi and - so this
drains organiser upfront funds for deposits on venues etc.
6. Likely stability of the political climate - in two year's time.
7. Time of year - eg. Africans planned their timing to avoid the malaria
season
8. Time line - able to do the IPC in two years - Africans found two
years rather difficult.
9. Preparedness at the time of the bid
10. History of region catchment - can it draw in the whole region? -
eg. Middle East has had many many PDCs and in Malawi there were many
workshops and involvement of other countries and government.
The final deciding factor was that someone from the country must be
there to make the bid. This is the number one priority because
without it there is no way to get questions answered.
Before the final vote the Nepali contingent put forward a strong bid
for IPC10 to the whole table. In the general question-and-answer
period the Nepali delegation after being reminded that Nepal had
already had an IPC, and when someone lightly said "fair share",
Govinda and Umesh immediately and beautifully graciously rescinded
their bid and transferred their support to Jordan. Everyone
honoured them.
This process took considerable time to review, query, clarify,
understand each applicant's strengths and weaknesses.
Then occurred the voting process -
Support ocmmittee reviews all bids and makes a preliminary vote.
Twenty three people attended this meeting, 19 people voted for
Jordan while four supported Cuba. However when consulted again, the
four people for Cuba were able to say that they could work with the
group decision. Maria still had reservations.
The International Suport Group then arrived at a recommendation and
took it to the full IPC convergence Assembly where comments were
invited from anyone who wished to speak. Maria spoke again in
favour of Cuba but the IPC9 participants while speaking of concern
for Cuba's disappointment supported the Jordon decision. The
Assembly in the end approved Jordan representing the Middle East to
host IPC10. (delegates from Yemen, Syria, and Jordan came to present
the bid, and an attendee from Israel supported the bid). The theme
for IPC10 will be Water, which is critical and at an emergency status
currently in Jordan, and represents the future for many other regions
of the world.
I do hope this process is as clear and as fair as was possible to
make and that you will all get behind it and support many people to
attend especially those from India, and SE Asia where there was no
representation.
I will be in Ethiopia with extremely limited electricity, water and
uncertain web access for the next month and so I would appreciate
your directing your queries to the Santa Barbara network, or wait for
a month until I can answer them.
In love and peace to all of you working to heal and restore our Earth.
Rosemary Morrow
[permaculture] Fairness and Equity in IPC10 Selection from Three Bids,
Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, 05/28/2010