Peacebuilding updates, events, conferences, and trainings

• South Africa: drop in infections and death rate. Folks are wondering why a third wave never came, particularly given the slow roll-out of vaccines.
• Walters organized an advocacy workshop on the plight of anglophone IDP in Cameroun
• Chad: Idris Deby Itno died in battle on April 20th, 2021. 
• Kenu re-opened the national office and helped with vaccinations amidst a surge of covid cases testing the strength of India's health care system.
• Cynthia is seeing some movement, through a possible dangerous speech training, with the organization of a dialogue between gun rights and gun violence prevention advocates after it was postponed by Covid.

Offers and needs market:

• Resources move from where they are to where they are needed, based on willingness and capacity within purpose.

Officers update

Officers held 3 meetings since they were elected and will be meeting every third Thursday of the month (meetings are open to anyone who wants to attend). During the first meeting, officers set CIT' goals

• Rebuild CIT' finances in CAR and at HQ
• Have a program in a second country

During the 2nd meeting, officers re-affirmed their commitment to finding funding sources that are aligned with CIT’s values and oriented their search towards finding funding that supports frontline workers in a sustainable way and is regenerative by nature. During the 3rd meeting, officers identified potential funding sources

• Grants: USG grants and foundations (Ford Foundation)
• Services: classes, consultancies
• Sales: peace products (mediation app, brooches, KAICIID alumni meeting)

Next, officers want to develop a comprehensive funding strategy and are looking for an analytical tool.

Other updates:

• IDS/TigerSwan (TS): tense meeting with IDS that resulted in an agreement (see incident report). IDS omitted CIT from TO3 and apologized. No mitigation plan offered by IDS.
• KAICIID IRD CAR: CIT requested greater diversity in their project team (8 men). Proposal signature pending.

Value-based financing

Following a presentation on lessons learned from past funding experiences, the Board discussed the following:

Q: What does it mean to align our resources generation with our values?

CIT values: CIT seeks to operationalize the principles it uses to facilitate and design dialogues (1) internally, in the way we organize ourselves as an institution; and (2) externally, in our partnerships. Our values are  centered around care for each other. CIT members invite diversity; nurture relationships; seek the consent of those impacted; and maintain a balance between people, planet and profit in their actions.

Exchange and gift-economy paradigms: resources are not just financial, they also include knowledge, spiritual connections, goods, and materials amongst other things. Mixed resource flow models (gift and exchange) can be used to sustain a project. Pure gift-based economies are rare because often those that are able to give are those with one foot in the market economy. There is value in exchange-based systems even without the use of money (ex. exchange of services, goods…). Creates more opportunity for connections. Positive externalities provide opportunities for generosity and when we see negative externalities arise, we stop the exchange to repair the problem. Q: Has CIT inventoried its resources?

CIT equity charter: we should define ourselves from the outset: "This is what we are about" so people entering into a relationship with us have informed consent. Explain how our values show up in our work. It will help get seen and recognized by others. As we transition to a value-based financing system, we have to get better at communicating our expectations. 

Vetting: CIT has to conduct deeper research into potential partners and do its due diligence (ex. look at their website, talk to other partners and beneficiaries). Find aligned donors and reach out. Q: What are CIT’s decision-making criteria for selecting donors? Q: What is the role of donors? What would their values be? Donors may not have the same values as us. Q: What degree of alignment do we want? Partners may have complementary values which doe not compromise our values. Redline when organizations exhibit contradictory values to ours.

Train/coach partners: systemic inequalities are insidious and surface in a myriad of micro-aggressions embedded in networks of rules people follow. These can be addressed and repaired with effort.  Q: Are organizations willing to receive support to bridge equity gaps? CIT could help expand donors’ worldview by indigenize education: people on the ground educate donors.

Resource generation ideas: 

• Go-fund me page, social media
• Find organizations that do good (ex. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet)
• Offering ourselves: bring value to what someone else is doing
• Church-model: local donations reinvested into the community
• Expand the Board's offers and needs participant circle
• Revenue generating project: build a school in PK5, CAR and charge some a tuition
• Dialogues paid for by those who may not participate but benefit from the success of the dialogues. Q: Who on the outside gains from the dialogue?

Interpretation feedback

• Very poor connection
• Increase the interaction and participation of the Bria team during the meeting

Next Board meeting July 2021