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.
Sujeeta Mathema - Country Director ActionAid Nepal
Sujeeta has more than 22 years of experience working in the development sector and has rich experience working in the field of human rights, especially on women’s rights. She is now working in the capacity of Executive Director of ActionAid Nepal. Sujeeta’s engagement with Kamaiya movement, women’s rights movement, land rights movement, and Dalit movement have given her solid experiences and encouragement to pursue the idea of how social movements can deliver social justice. She has been involved in many other different networks and alliances such as the Child Network Alliance. She is also a board member of Sishu Baal Bikas Kendra (ECD learning centres).
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.
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’.
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.