The General Assembly of the Start Network Hub in the Democratic Republic of the Congo took place from 09 to 12 November 2021 and was attended by 40 delegates from the provincial governments of North and South Kivu, the central government, international, national and local NGOs, research institutions and universities, as well as members of Start Network’s team.
Overall, the General Assembly aimed to legally constitute the DRC Hub and also to put in place its governance structure and its means of operation. The passage towards the achievement of these objectives was punctuated by several presentations on various themes by the provisional Leadership of the DRC Hub and experts from the Start Network team.
Additional discussions included the programmes in progress, the technical support of the London teams, the model of governance structures at the global level and its alignment with the model of the DRC Hub, the management tools of the latter as well as the communication strategies at the global and national levels.
The DRC Hub General Assembly was a good learning opportunity for participants, most of whom were pleased to have a better understanding and grasp of Start Network’s approach, objectives and vision for a new era of humanitarian action.
The event demonstrated a clear desire to provide the DRC Hub with a solid foundation. For example, rather than adopting the governance documents and management tools, the participants were divided into four technical groups in order to deepen the content of each document, to integrate amendments and to better take ownership of the future of the DRC Hub.
These groups were tasked with finalising respectively the statutes, the internal regulations, the procedures manual and the Strategic Plan of the DRC Hub. A plenary meeting to adopt the work of all the groups was scheduled for 9 December 2021. This plenary will lead the Hub towards its legal recognition.
Considering the complexity of the humanitarian context in the country, the participants also agreed that the DRC Hub will invest more in anticipation than in response to crises. To this end, the Hub has identified three strategic avenues, namely advocacy, capacity development and coordination.
Finally, and in view of the long road ahead, the participants reiterated their confidence in the members of the provisional leadership and gave them their discharge until the final bodies are put in place.