Governance
International Board of Trustees
In 2008, WECF changed to a new governance model in which the former Board of the Foundation - with only Dutch members - was converted into an International Board of Trustees. This BoT has 3 to 7 members and bears the final responsibility for the strategic and financial management of the Foundation WECF. It has given a larger mandate to the Directors. It assesses the results of the management by the Executive Director who, in close cooperation with the Directors of the German and French offices and a management team, is responsible for the financial and organisation management and work executed by the three offices of WECF.
Members of the Board of Trustees are appointed on the basis of their experience and expertise and execute their function on a voluntary basis. They are appointed for a period of four years and can be re-elected once. Next to their controlling tasks they advise the Executive Director, can perform representative functions for WECF and, as far as time allows, keep in touch with the work and members of WECF through visits to projects of WECF members or participation in workshops with members.
For the period 2015 onwards, the members of the BOT are:
Corinne Lepage was nominated President of WECF's Board of Trustees in June 2015. Mrs Lepage is a famous french ecologist politician and a renowned environmental lawyer. She founded one of the first law firm specialized in environmental protection at the time of the Amoco Cadiz trauma, and has since then fought some of the biggest environmental cases in Europe. She was the French minister of environment between 1995 and 1997, putting in place the first national sustainable development strategy. She was elected in 2008 in the European Parliament and lead the ENVI Comittee. She is also a true feminist requesting equal representation of women in politics. She is convinced that the future essential innovations and transitions will come from women.
Mrs Lepage shares many of WECF's fights for gender equalitiy, a healthier environment as well as ecological transition. She has been supporting WECF as and Advisor to the Board since 2012, and intervened in many of our events. She sent a video on the exposure of children to hormone disrupting chemicals (within our project ChildProtect). She was also one of the speakers at a WECF conference on hazardous chemicals in toys. Additionally, she assisted WECF in launching the campaign With Women. In February 2015, Corinne Lepage expressed her concerns with genetically modified crops, in a Dutch television programme called Zembla.
Irene Dankelman, member
Irene Dankelman is director of IRDANA advice on gender and sustainable development, and lecturer at the University of Nijmegen (Netherlands). During her 35 years professional life, she has worked for, a.o. UNIFEM (presently: UN Women) and Oxfam-Novib, and she was actively involved in international, regional and national organizations, including WECF, WEDO (Women’s Environment and Development Organisation) and Both ENDs (Environment and Development Servies for NGOs). She advices the United Nations, government agencies and non-governmental organizations on gender and environment issues and has lectured and written extensively on the issue, including the book ‘Gender and Climate Change: an introduction’(Earthscan, 2010).
Hannah Birkenkötter, member
Maria Buitenkamp, member
Other members are in discussion.
From 2010 to 2015, the members of the BOT were:
- Christine von Weizsäcker, president
- Erma Uytewaal, member
- Bert Kuiter, treasurer
- Grietje Zeeman, member
- Teresa Fogelberg, member
Founder of WECF Marie Kranendonk and Willy Douma handed over the functions of President and secretary of the Board in 2009, after many years in which they helped to build WECF into the network organisation it is at the moment: with 150 member organisations in over 40 countries in the European region, the Caucasus and Central Asia, with many projects in those regions and substantial advocacy and awareness raising activities from local to international level.
A formal farewell event took place at the end the 15th anniversary of WECF which was celebrated with a conference in June 2009. Marie Kranendonk was appointed as Honorary President of WECF during that occasion.
The Board of Trustees maintains close connections with the International Advisory Board by mutual representation at each other's meetings.
International Advisory Board
The International Advisory Board represents the member organisations of WECF, and its advice on strategic issues affecting the member organisations and regions is leading for the Board of Directors. It also approves the admission of new member organisations and the use of membership contributions by the member organisations.
The International Advisory Board advises the organisation on the main directions of its work, the thematic areas and regional issues, and approves member applications. It represents the member organisations of WECF, and works in an advisory capacity on strategic issues affecting the member organisations and regions. It also approves the admission of new member organisations and the use of membership contributions by the member organisations.
The following IAB members were elected in 2010 at the members meeting in Tatabunary, Ukraine, and their term renewed for another 3 years in 2013 at the members meeting in Istanbul, Turkey:
• Anna Tsvietkova (Mama-86, Ukraine)
• Elena Manvelyan (AWHHE, Armenia)
• Mihaela Vasilescu (Medium et Sanitas, Romania)
• Rostom Gamisonia (RCDA, Georgia)
• Diana Iskreva (Earth Forever, Bulgaria)
• Svitlana Slesarenok (Black Sea Women Club, Ukraine)
• Helen Lynn (H&E Consultant, UK)
• Nadeshda Kutepova (Planet of Hopes, Russia)
• Kaisha Atakhanova (Eco Center, Kazakhstan)
The IAB also mandates a representative to take part in the meetings of the International Board of Trustees and the WECF Project Selection Committee. The IAB meets once or twice a year, either in person or by video-conference. The IAB counts a minimum of 7 members and a maximum of 11 members, and 2 co-chairs (east-west).
Code of Conduct
An important document for both IAB and BoT is the WECF Code of Conduct. You can find a download of the document here
