April 1st is the start of IACD’s work programme and financial year. As you know we are celebrating the association’s 65th anniversary. And in 2019, we shall be celebrating 21 years since we transferred our headquarters to Scotland. This is quite an achievement and I wish to extend our thanks to all of those who created IACD and the many who enabled it to continue and grow as the global voice for community development.
The World Community Development Conference 2018 in Ireland is our highlight 2018 birthday event. Coming together as a community of community developers is not only an opportunity for networking and the sharing of critical information and resources in the field, but is also an act of solidarity that reinforces our work in communities and our commitment and responsibility to each other to make the fruits of our labour all the more impactful.
Chaired by Vice President and European Board member Anastasia Crickley we have been working respectively with Community Work Ireland and Maynooth University to plan the World Community Development Conference. As always, we shall ensure that every opportunity is made for members and others to share their work and to engage in debates about policy and practice at a time of great tension and challenge across the world.
Over the next twelve months, I want to encourage all IACD members to engage with your Regional Representative regarding your work and ideas on how to build our association and indeed our field. Each elected IACD Board member has a global regional responsibility and you can find out who your Regional Director is on the website www.iacdglobal. org/regions/
We are always looking to form constructive partnerships with new organizations and IACD’s Practice Exchange programme presents opportunities to engage in positive cross-cultural learning and networking. Work also continues with the development of the Global Community Development Exchange (GCDEX) that is a member-only opportunity to share and download valuable information, teaching and learning materials about community development practice and research. This project, in part funded by the Scottish Government, is being led by New Zealand members.
Our most important policy initiative has been the work we have been doing over eighteen months creating shared international standards for community development practice. These standards present the key themes and areas common to community development practice wherever that practice might take place across the world. It identifies the purpose of professional community development practice, the values that should underpin practice and the key methods used by the practitioner. I strongly commend this important publication to you all, building as it does upon the Association’s new definition of community development adopted in 2016. We produced these international standards together with the Community Learning and Development Council in Scotland, following a four-month member consultation. We received responses to the consultation from members in China, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Portugal, USA, New Zealand, UK, Kenya and beyond. This was a truly global effort and we are hugely grateful to Colin Ross from the Standards Council, Board member lead Anna Clarke and Past President Charlie McConnell, who chaired the IACD Training and Professional Development Committee International Standards Task Group.
This past twelve months, we published one general issue and two geographic issues of our magazine Practice Insights. The first focussed upon East Asia published towards the end of 2017 edited by East Asian Board member Kwok Kin Fung. The second upon the Americas was edited by North American Board member Greg Wise. In September we shall be publishing a Special Africa issue and later an issue based upon papers presented in Ireland at the WCDC.
I’m delighted with the feedback from members about the new website, which continues to be a popular resource for members as well as our Facebook. 20,000 visitors looked at our website in its first twelve months. We appreciate all of the input and sharing that has taken place on our website and our Facebook News (A big thank you here to Board members Dee Brooks and Connie Loden). Since 2017, we have been increasing the number of daily news items on community and international development on the official IACD Facebook site www.facebook.com/ IACDglobal/ and we currently we have around 4000 followers.
As I reflect back on the past year and our activities, I am reminded of the impressive dedication and continual support of our Board and members. We had a great year of activities and events in 2017. We held a very successful conference last year in Auckland, New Zealand in partnership with the Aotearoa Community Development Association (ACDA). There we hosted delegates from Oceania and around the world and engaged in thoughtful sessions and field-based activities. We are grateful to IACD Oceania Board member and conference chair, John Stansfield and the ACDA for this opportunity and partnership and we appreciate their inclusive approach and central role in conference planning.
Our African Board member Muhammad Bello Shitu organised a well-attended conference for IACD members in Nigeria. And South East Asia Board member, Wowee Dollente was involved in organising a regional conference in the Philippines And special thanks to our Middle East Board member Maryam Ahmadian for her tireless work in raising the profile of community development in Iran and on building bridges between the USA and Iran.
Our 2017 Practice Exchange in Chile provided an exciting opportunity for our members to engage in this field-based experience focusing on agriculture, water and sustainable development. Huge thanks to South America Board member Ursula Harman for her time and effort with organizing this event and to Anita Paul, South Asia Board member for setting up the partnership with Redar Perú and Condesan.
We are excited about what lies ahead and will be sharing this with members at the June 2018 AGM in Ireland. We look to you, our members, to provide us with input and guidance on our strategy for the future. All of our activities are organized by IACD members and none could have been realized had we not received subscription income from you to allow us to do this work along with the valued support from the Scottish Government. Your membership subscription to IACD is not expensive, but is invaluable, in that it allows us to fund our administration and development activities.
And I hope you’ll agree that it is huge value for money – helping us to help you to be part of the only global network of community developers. I want to express particular appreciation here to Rob Gregory, Treasurer for the past three years who retired from the Board at the end of 2017 and to Clare McGillivray, who has taken over that role. Rob played the central role in devising the association’s current business strategy. And thanks also to Board member, Colette McGarva who leads on all HR issues and supervises our Administrator Colette McClure at our Scottish Head Office. This year we established for the first time an IACD U.N. Youth Representative programme, welcoming Alyssa Faulkner and Mike McTernan under the supervision of Board member, Tony Kimbowa, who works at the UN.
As President, I plan to maintain my strategy to allow and encourage our Board and members to participate fully in any and all activities that we are engaged in. Inclusion, diversity and transparency continue to be the cornerstone of my management strategy as IACD President. People, Participation, Power and Progress are the overlapping themes of WCDC 2018 and 2019 and my hope is that we all continue to provide for and practice these hallmark attributes of community development.
Paul Lachapelle President of IACD
Paul.lachapelle@montana.edu
