05/08/2016

Governance and policies

Our governance structure

The work of CiFAR is governed by a Global Board. This board comprises of the following members:

    • Laila Martin Garcia (Chair)
    • Pedro Gomez Pereira
    • Vaclav Prusa
    • Dr. Bridget Onochie

The purpose of the CiFAR Board is to set the strategic direction of the association and to provide oversight of its activities. Specifically, it:

  • Approves the annual budget and accounts
  • Reports on the work of the organisation
  • Approvees the annual report and financial statements
  • Represents the association publicly
  • Appoints and removes the Director(s)

CiFAR is registered in two legal jurisdictions with differing requirements. We however operate functionally as one organisation under the CiFAR Board.

Germany
CiFAR e.V. is established since 2016 as a non-profit, politically non-partisan, charitable association in Germany. Our governance structure is made up of two bodies:

  • The General Assembly that meets at least once per year and more frequently when convened by the Board. The General Assembly is made up of ordinary members and honorary members and has the responsibility to:
    • Question and ask for clarifications from the  Board
    • Elect a new board once every three years
    • Review and vote on changes to the Constitution
  • The Board has the responsibility to conduct the business of the association and to represent it under our constitution. The current constitutional board is:
    • Laila Martin Garcia (Chair)
    • Martina Della Valle
    • Marie Terracol

Kenya

CiFAR is registered since 2023 as a company limited by guarantee (not-for-profit-company) in Kenya under the name Civil Forum Africa Foundation Ltd. The directors responsible for Civil Forum Africa Foundation Ltd are:

  • Laila Martin
  • Jackson Oldfield
  • Samuel Kimeu

Anti-corruption and misconduct

CiFAR does not accept corruption or professional misconduct in any form and strongly supports whistleblowing and witnesses to come forward. We do not dismiss or in any way professionally harm persons from within CiFAR who come forward to report a case or suspected case of corruption or professional misconduct.

If you suspect or have knowledge of corruption, professional misconduct or anything else which raises concern, please get in touch with our member responsible for accountability, Marie Terracol: accountability(at)cifar.eu

Access to information

Access to information is a core principle of CiFAR – something that we demand of those in power and something that we demand of ourselves. We aim to actively publish all relevant information in a timely and straightforward manner through this website.

Should you feel information is missing or have a more detailed request for information, you can get in touch with us at info(at)cifar.eu. We will respond to all access to information requests within 15 working days. While we will endeavour to respond favourably to all requests speedily, should information take more time to gather, we may inform you within the first 15 days of a 15-day extension, with the reasons for this.

Should we feel that the information should not be provided due to a conflict with the human rights of others, due to a lack of competence, or due to the request being an abuse of the right of access to information, we will inform you of a rejection of your request within 15 days.

Conflict of interest

CiFAR takes conflict of interest seriously. The chair of the board is required to submit an annual declaration of interests and staff, board members, advisory board members, volunteers and consultants are required to declare any interest they have in a decision, before the decision is made and may be excluded from the decision making process.

  • Our conflict of interest policy can be found here.
  • Our chair’s declaration of interest can be found here.

Should you know of or suspect that an interest has affected a decision made by CiFAR.  Please contact our member for our member responsible for accountability, Marie Terracol: accountability(at)cifar.eu

Financial accountability

CiFAR endeavours to be financially accountable for all donations and funds provided to us. We do not accept donations or funding with conditions involved that would affect our mandate or would prevent the executive board and general assembly from having full control over the direction of the association. Every donation about €500 is included with the name of the donor in our full, published budget unless the donor requests anonymity.  If CiFAR feels that anonymity would compromise our work, we will refuse the donation.

Our full budget with income and expenditure is published annually on this website, along with a narrative report on activities. In addition, the previous and following years’ budgets are presented, discussed and approved at the annual membership meeting.

Our full annual narrative and financial report are published yearly here.

CiFAR bank with GLS bank, a German ethical bank, which reinvests its profits in social and environmental causes.

Gift policy

Any gift of a value above €50, or gifts from any person of a value of above €50 in any one year period, to a member of staff or the board in the course of their duties must be declared to the board within 10 days of receipt. Any gift above a value of €100 or gifts of a value of more than €100 in any one year period cannot be accepted. Gifts include physical items, money or equivalent and intangible items, such as meals, hospitality and travel expenses.

Procurement

CiFAR aims to ensure that all procurement is carried out in an honest, fair and transparent manner and provides best value for money. To that end we have a number of policies and processes that explain how we carry out our procurement.

  • Read our general procurement policy here
  • Read our policy on the hiring of consultants here

Trainings and mentoring: anti-harassment and anti-discrimination

CiFAR’s anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policy and procedure is designed to ensure that participants, trainers and staff members feel and are safe and secure at all CiFAR training and capacity building events. Our policy outlines the standards we expect all persons at our events to comply with, and our procedure outlines the steps we will take should any harassment or discrimination be reported or witnessed. The policy and procedure apply to all in-person events and in-person or online communication between participants, trainers and staff members during the project lifecycle.

  • Read the policy here
  • Read the procedure here