(A newsletter published by Going International

The leaders of an international organization must believe in the importance of the internationalism of the organization and work to translate this belief into their everyday actions and decisions. Current global structures encourage nationalism, not internationalism. Cultural, ethnic, religious and increasingly regional groupings also have played a role in the way that individuals define their identity, therefore influencing their decision-making. Thus, leaders need to believe in the benefits internationalism brings, to be visionary and motivational, and to lead sometimes skeptical constituencies.

Each member of an international Board also needs to think globally. Each Board member (as in a single-nation organization) will bring his or her own experiences to the table, which lends an important diversity to the discussions. However, in an international organization it is especially important for each Board member to base his decisions on the welfare of the entire organization, not just the needs of his own national constituency.

 In this issue several of the articles focus on the unique role that multinationalism plays within the Board of Directors of an NGO.

Thank you to all of you who commented on the first issue of International Trends. Your continued comments, and suggestions for future articles, are appreciated.

CIVICUS is an international alliance dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. In 1991, a group of civil society leaders surveyed the need for bringing together citizen organizations on a worldwide basis. When the survey results validated such a need, a global organizing committee, with members from 19 countries, enlisted founding members and proposed an organizational framework. In May 1993, in Barcelona, Spain, the alliance was formally launched at the first meeting of the founding Board of Directors, with members from 20 countries and six continents. CIVICUS held its first World Assembly in Mexico City in January 1995 which was attended by more than 400 participants from 56 countries. Since its founding, CIVICUS has grown to include over 250 members from around the world, ranging from individual members to large regional groups, representing over 60 countries. CIVICUS has also developed a strong reputation within the civil society community around the world.

The success of CIVICUS in its short history can be attributed to a number of factors including: 1) The timing of its creation which coincided with a significant movement of nonprofit organizations into the international arena, 2) Board members with their own individual networks and contacts which could be channeled into support for CIVICUS, and 3) A broadly defined civil society concept which led to a unique combination of nonprofit organizations, philanthropic organizations, trade unions, academia, and arts and cultural groups as members.

A particular strength of CIVICUS has been its Board of Directors. As noted above, from the very beginning CIVICUS has made a commitment to maintaining a strong cultural and geographic balance to its decision-making. As the founding CIVICUS Board members start rotating off the Board, and their successors are elected by the membership, the nominating committee's mandate is to ensure balance among regions, genders, backgrounds and expertise.

In addition to its diverse Board, CIVICUS has also experimented with the concept of "regional conveners" to maintain its commitment to representing local citizen groups and initiatives, wherever they may be. Regional conveners have been responsible for organizing networking opportunities in their region of the world as well as providing a liaison role between local groups and the international organization. The use of regional conveners has also allowed CIVICUS to keep its secretariat small.

As CIVICUS approaches its 2nd Annual World Assembly in Budapest, Hungary in September 1997, and its fifth anniversary in May 1998, the organization is taking time to analyze its organizational structure. The CIVICUS leadership has reviewed the models of other international organizations to aid in designing a structure that will allow it to maintain the strengths of its early days, while maturing as an organization.

(CIVICUS can be contacted at 919 18th Street, N.W., 3rd Floor, Washington, D.C. 20006 USA, Tel: + 1 202-331-8518; Fax +1 202-331-8774; e-mail:info@civicus.org)

"CULTURAL CHALLENGES OF THE

MULTINATIONAL BOARD"

By Bonnie Koenig, Going International and Eliana Vera, Director of International Programs, (U.S.) National Center for Nonprofit Boards

NGO Boards comprised of members from different nationalities are a source of special strength in dealing with the increasingly global environment in which many NGOs now operate, and yet they also pose some special challenges. Today's organizations are affected by a range of different external factors, often that cross traditional national boundaries, and the effective Board has the capabilities to analyze these from a multicutltural perspective.

In the book Managing Towards Self-Reliance: Effectiveness of Organisations in Africa, authors Andre Zaaiman and Piet Human provide a window on some of the issues they feel an effective organizational leader must recognize: "It is the task of the strategist to understand the casual linkages between events, even if they appear to be remote. Think about the way in which a small decision at the UN can affect your own organisation, how the fall of stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange can lead to a shrinkage in the trust fund of your donors, how a devaluation of your currency affects you, or how the development of a new technology (such as electronic mail) or a war in the Middle East can change the way in which your organisation operates."

Each Board member's cultural perspective pooled together in the Board environment can create a multinational prism on the world. This broad-based prism can then allow the Board to better analyze the multiple connections and consequences for its operations in an increasingly global world. To benefit from this multinational prism, however, the Board that is just beginning to incorporate representatives from diverse cultures, or has expanded its geographical representation, must be open to these new perspectives. A peer to peer respect is crucial, and when a colleague's verbal presentations or decision-making process appear bewildering or counterproductive to another, the organization may be best served if other Board members do not prejudge this colleague without first striving to understand more about their cultural background.

At an International Governance Day sponsored by the U.S.-based National Center for Nonprofit Boards in November of 1996, several NGO leaders commented on the skills needed by Board members, from their own national perspective. Aurora Tolentino of Philippine Business for Social Progress, commented on the issue of access to potential funding sources and how it may be viewed from her national perspective "...to be successful, NGOs must maximize board members' potential. In the Philippines, the growing scarcity of international donors funds has prompted many boards to look to government resources for support. A skilled board of directors can help reach high-level government officials, international donor organizations and other stakeholders."

It is important to take into account the variance in perspectives Board members of different nationalities may bring to their Board experience. Some examples to consider include:

1) In a country with an emerging democratic system, persons may not have had as much practical experience in the consensus approach used in some Board meetings.

2) The culture in some countries may make it far more acceptable and even desirable to award contracts or other business opportunities to close relatives or acquaintances, something that would be considered a conflict of interest elsewhere.

3) Participation in fundraising in any form may be so out of place for Board members in some countries that it should not be taken for granted that a new Board member will be comfortable in that role.

While this article only introduces some of the many considerations of a multinational Board, some others you may want to explore further include the following benefits and challenges. In addition to the important benefit of creating a broad-based prism for viewing the world which is discussed above, other benefits include: the important message having a multinational Board sends about an organization working internationally, both within the international community and to the community it is working to serve; the access to decision-makers in other countries; and the learning opportunity multinational representation presents to all members of the Board. Additional practical challenges include: considering language differences; the cost of bringing together a group from several (or many) different geographical regions; where Board meetings should be held; developing adequate communication channels; and trying to ensure that all members are treated equally no matter what their geographic distance may be from the organization's headquarters.

In short, the benefits to a truly multinational Board are great, and may indeed be a "competitive advantage" to the nonprofit organization that is thinking and planning for its future in strategic ways. As with all benefits worth having, however, they do not come easily but require education and vigilance on the part of all of the organization's stakeholders.

The (U.S.) National Center for Nonprofit Boards can be reached by e-mail at <ncnb@ncnb.org>, by fax at +1 202-452-6299 or at website <http://www.ncnb.org>.

Global Alliance News, newsletter of the Center for Global Alliance of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia, published four times a year. Contact: PRIA, Centre for Global Alliance, 42, Tughlakabad, Institutional Area, New Delhi-110 062.

Fax: + 91 11 698 0183.

e-mail:< pria@sdalt.ernet.in>

Annual subscription U.S. $16.00

Human, Piet and Zaaiman, Andre, 1995. Managing Towards Self-Reliance: Effectiveness of Organisations in Africa, South Africa, Phoenix Publishing in association with The Goree Institute, Senegal.

http://www.un.org

(Includes catalogue of all UN publications)

Chronicle of Philanthropy, 1255 Twenty-Third Street, N.W. Wash.D.C. 20037, USA http://philanthropy.com

Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium,

c/o The Asia Foundation, P.O. Box 7072, Domestic Airport P.O. Lock Box, Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines, Fax: + 632-833-9628

The International Foundation Directory, 1996. Europa Publications Lmtd, 18 Bedford Square, WC1BJN London