![Photo shows a young Palestinian woman picking olives](/sites/default/files/styles/landing_page_medium/public/images/2024-04/Sondos%20picking%20olives.png?h=4de69ae3&itok=l1etGAIv)
Innovation Dialogues
ActionAid´s Innovation Dialogues are a creative way of opening up debate and discussion while learning from leading subject matter experts.
ActionAid has an ambition to generate a wider debate, taking into account perspectives from both inside and outside ActionAid. We seek to nurture political engagement in public spaces and areas that the organisation is currently struggling to occupy. One internal output is expected for GLT and IB consultation during 2024, namely a ¨future perspectives paper that can be discussed at blue sky sessions during leadership meetings such as the Directors´ Forum and Assembly in 2024, or on similar occasions in the lead up to the next strategy development process¨. Throughout the work program, other outputs will be available for internal and/or external dissemination to meet different needs.
These dialogues will examine a number of different themes. For example, one of the dialogues will focus on the theme of Power. Here is an example of what the page on this theme may look like. Similar pages will be created over time for each of the themes.
Here will sit a table that will feature images and short biographies of those involved in the Innovation Dialogues steering group. It will look something like this.
![A portrait of Poonam Muttreja](/sites/default/files/styles/text_with_image_small/public/images/2024-05/Poonam.jpg?itok=8cgfAJbd)
Poonam Muttreja - ActionAid International Board Member
Ms Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India, has for over 40 years been a strong advocate for women’s health, reproductive and sexual rights, and rural livelihoods. She has co-conceived the popular transmedia initiative, Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon - I, A Woman, Can Achieve Anything. Before joining PFI, she served as the India Country Director of the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation for 15 years and has also co-founded and led the Ashoka Foundation, Dastkar, and the Society for Rural, Urban and Tribal Initiative (SRUTI). An alumna of Delhi University and Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, Poonam serves on the governing council of several non-governmental organisations, and is a regular commentator in India and globally for television and the print media.
![A photograph of Marco De Ponte waving to the camera](/sites/default/files/styles/text_with_image_small/public/images/2024-04/Marco%20for%20ID%20draft.png?itok=-de1Ofg2)
Marco de Ponte - Country Director ActionAid Italy
Marco De Ponte begun his engagement with social issues as a school representative in the 1980s and from there on becoming an activist for human rights throughout the 1990s in various roles, primarily within and on behalf of Amnesty International. He was their Italian vice-chair for six years, several times on their International Council and a staff member of the secretariat, campaigning primarily on Eastern Africa. He also wrote on the intersection between human rights and humanitarian law, before moving into humanitarian action as a staff member of an organization called InterSoS.
Following several other short-term assignments in universities and the UN system, he joined what was then called Azione Aiuto in 2001 and was one of the proponents and implementers of the first decade of internationalization within ActionAid, starting as a chair of the then ActionAid Alliance. He has overseen regional coordination in Europe, expansion, and “mergers” in new countries at the same time as he developed the first national program for in a European country.
![A portrait of Gino Govender](/sites/default/files/styles/text_with_image_small/public/images/2024-05/Gino.jpg?itok=QK6aFtHe)
Gino Govender, ActionAid International Board Member
Born into a working-class family in South Africa, his lived experiences in the community and the factories he worked in, shaped his political consciousness, a yearning for freedom and love for civic organising at a young age. Since then, he has been called up to serve the cause of social justice in the political and labour movements from grassroots to global. His service within the labour movement spanning over 25 years enabled him to collaborate with workers and communities in diverse contexts within South Africa, across Africa and around the globe.
As a founding member of Earthrise Trust, for the past 8 years, together with his fellow trustees and the local village leadership built a vision for the Rustlers Valley Farm as a commons with the community at the forefront in driving their vision of a village of the future. He is currently working with the Fight Inequality Alliance to design and establish a global organising school for young activists.
At the 2021 General Assembly he was elected onto the International Board. He brings into ActionAid, International diverse experience in organising, education, management and leadership spanning over four decades. He is deeply committed to the promotion of collective, consensus-building, solutions-oriented, and servant styles of leadership. He is a parent of four adult children and a grandfather of one.
![A portrait of Arthur Larok](/sites/default/files/styles/text_with_image_small/public/images/2024-04/Arthur%20for%20ID%20draft.png?itok=Gg4BlJ-z)
Arthur Larok - Secretary General, ActionAid International
Arthur Larok is the Secretary General of ActionAid International. He was previously Federation Development Director for four years, and Country Director in Uganda for six years. He is a member of Carnegie Endowment’s Civic Research Network. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics and Sociology from Makerere University and a Master’s in Governance from University of Sussex in the UK. He has co-edited a Book on Uganda’s Civil Society and authored several papers, including ‘Uganda’s New Civic Activism: Beyond Egos and Logos’, ‘Modified activism after Ethiopia’s New Dawn’.
Tasneem Essop, climate activist and organiser
Biography and photo will go here. Tasneem´s LinkedIn profile is here.
Andreia Louback, Climate Justice, Environmental Racism, Racial Equity and Communications Brazilian activist
Biography and photo will go here. Andreia´s LinkedIn profile is here.
Ikal Ang’elei, Director of Friends of Lake Turkana; grassroots indigenous rights activist
Biography and photo will be here.
This is just an example of how we may approach these pages. Finalised resources (not those still being developed) will be made available on each theme page as PDF downloads, with details (on the page) to include document title, and the names of contributors.
If we wanted to, we could record a short explainer video for the overall concept of the dialogues, and embed it in this page (via an unlisted YouTube upload). We could do similar videos for each theme. Even something around 30-45 seconds would be plenty long enough to explain key points.
At this stage, this page is not available through search engines, nor is it available through the AAI website navigation. It is deliberately non-indexed and non-linked.