Team Meeting • 16-20 January 2023 • Loulouti Lodge, Zalou/Yaoundé, Cameroon

The first team meeting since before Covid was held in Cameroon at the end of January. The main objectives were to connect as a team; to develop a common understanding of Well Grounded (WG) strategy; and, of course, to have fun as team too.

A detailed evaluation was carried out at the end of the week and, based on that, we can report that these objectives were certainly achieved, leaving all WG team members with a better sense of being connected and understanding the WG strategy. We also left with a sense that, next to working hard together, we can also have fun – further strengthening the connection between the team members.

The week started with us outlining our expectations and hopes for the meeting.

With the help of Cath Long, one of the founders directors, we were then updated on where WG comes from and how it has developed during its 10+ years of existence. Together, we created a timeline showing successes and challenges over the years, which helped to create a positive feeling about the impact WG has had on civil society in the Congo Basin.

Part of WG’s success has been the creation of a positive organisational culture, both internally and externally, through valuing shared governance, diversity, inclusion, change at the local level, putting our values in practice and creating a safe environment to grow. Specifically, the implementation of shared governance needs to be further developed.

WG is a virtual organizations and supports that by investing in information and communications technology (ICT) with new collaborative tools and training the team in mastering them.  The meeting provided an overview of the different ICT tools currently in use and how we proposed to harmonize, optimise and advance and improve our ICT systems.

The Strategic Plan 2021-2025 was discussed and each team member then indicated the role they had played in implementing the plan in 2022 and together with ideas for 2023. Issues for discussion, some quite challenging, where identified for further discussion, including shared governance and human resources policy implementation.

“Shifting (or transforming) the power” was discussed – a key strategic pillar of the Strategic Plan – with the aim of developing a common understanding of what it means. Partnership, finance models and access to OD and leadership support, were each seen to play an important role. The needs of local CSOs need to be prioritised, perhaps shifting away from priorities set by funding partners.

Discussions were also held around data protection, safeguarding, and communication. What works well and what we need to improve internally and externally to work well together were discussed – including the role of social media, the Well Grounded website, regular annual reports and the use of English, French and local languages.

Well Grounded has four main values (respect, inclusion, sovereignty, adaptation) and we examined how these are incorporated into practice at the individual and organisational levels, as well as with our partners. Sovereignty in particular is important when working with partners, whilst inclusion not only means including different people, but also different perspectives. Adaptation is evident when working with trust and non-judgment.

To be able to monitor and evaluate Well Grounded uses Outcome Mapping. Outcomes are described in terms of what we expect to see (first level, performance at programme level), like to see (second level, governance improvement) and love to see (third level, autonomy of organisations). The Ecofeminist Leadership Development Programme has set up their monitoring and evaluation using this system.