Governance

WIDE+ is a formally-registered, international non-profit association (INGO) fully complying with Belgian law. The network is independent of political or religious affiliation, and we actively welcome and support members from all sections of society who strive for gender and social justice. WIDE+ vision and mission are part of its constitution.

Three core strengths of WIDE+ are its scope, activism and the diversity of its network. WIDE+ has members in many EU states and its membership is diverse: it encompasses women’s rights organizations, development NGOs, national and regional networks of these organizations, as well as gender specialists, women’s rights advocates and activists. Every organization, network and individual contributes to WIDE+ in their own particular way.  .

WIDE+ members work in solidarity with women’s rights organizations in the Global South and other associations in the North, such as grassroots groups or migrant networks. These collaborations feed into our agenda. WIDE+ also manages alliances and strategic partnerships with various other women’s rights coalitions and networks that are working towards global justice.

Key Principles of the WIDE+ Network
WIDE+ aims to balance four key networking principles:

  1. WIDE+ seeks ways of actively involving members and other stakeholders around the globe in its activities, creating a participatory, fluid and open network.
  2. WIDE+ is governed by its members. This collective will is articulated through democratic, decentralized, inclusive and transparent decision making processes in which members have ownership of the network.
  3. WIDE+ is committed to ensuring that our mission and vision guide all the work that we do.
  4. WIDE+ is governed in a way that sustains financial and organizational viability.

Governance

The WIDE+ governance structure allows for all members to be involved through horizontal participatory democracy.

  • General Assembly. Members make up the highest decision making body, the General Assembly, which meets atleast once a year.
  • Caucus. The Caucus is an elected body of around 20 members who set the overall strategic course of the network. This body, that meets mostly via skype and communicates weekly through email, sets and oversees our strategic and programmatic direction.
  • Board. The Board is responsible for the financial and administrative management. There are at least five Board members elected by the General Assembly. The members meet via Zoom every two months and exchange emails in between.

Working Groups
Ad Hoc Working Groups (WG) are mandated to carry forward the work, either implementing specific projects or working around themes. They form the heart of the network which the Caucus coordinates. Members themselves can form a WG and receive a mandate from the Caucus. Activists, experts and non-profit associations that are not (yet) members of WIDE+ can actively participate in a WG, as long as their beliefs do not clash with WIDE+ vision and mission.

WIDE+ regulation and its bodies is laid down in its Statutes with further details of procedures in the internal regulations:

statutes_WIDE+
internal_regulations_WIDE_2020

The photograph  is of members strategising for the WIDE+ Strategic Action Plan, in December 2016, Spain.

 

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