InterAction Forum 2010 will feature a variety of informative and challenging workshops. Forum 2010 will bring together over a hundred speakers to feature a range of thought-provoking workshops focused on the most pressing and controversial topics within the international development realm. Information about the specific workshops offered will be displayed here as they are finalized.

See Below for a current list of planned workshop and descriptions.

Please continue to check back for more updates on workshops being scheduled!

Urban Shelter, Reconstruction and Poverty Alleviation in Haiti: Challenges and Opportunities
The premise of this workshop is that underlying the devastation of the earthquake are issues of poverty and a failed (failing) city, the latter making the reconstruction challenges in Port-au-Prince particularly so vexing and daunting. The workshop will focus on the linkages among shelter, reconstruction, livelihoods and enterprise development and the externalities that impede and/or optimize these. The emphasis will be on finding practical solutions that work!

Meeting the Challenge of Multiple Accountabilities
NGOs are accountable to various actors: the public, donors, staff, board, partners and the communities they work with, to list some. Yet remaining equally accountable to all of these actors can be a challenge. In this workshop, participants will hear about and discuss new tools to improve/enhance downward accountability to partners and communities, ways in which donors could ensure NGOs are “upwardly” accountable without compromising their ability to be accountable to others, and the experiences and challenges of both Northern and Southern NGOs in trying to be accountable to their multiple constituencies.

Visualizing NGO Impact: Mapping for Partnerships, Coordination, and Effectiveness
InterAction and member organizations will share their experiences in using a new, dynamic, mapping platform. Members will discuss the long-term benefits of using the pilot mapping platform in their organizations. Learn how your organization can get involved in this pilot initiative.

Different Needs, Equal Opportunities: Integrating Gender into Humanitarian Responses
Panelists will discuss the importance of developing gender-sensitive programming during humanitarian emergencies. Developed in partnership with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, InterAction will also present a new online course which will allow users to learn how to effectively integrate gender equality into humanitarian programs.

The “Whole of Agency” Approach to Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
This workshop will illustrate how protection of beneficiaries from exploitation and abuse requires a “whole of agency” approach. Speakers will include NGO staff working in areas such as human resources, legal, audit, and program management who will describe how their roles within their agencies are integral to the work of protection of beneficiaries. Interactive exercises will showcase InterAction’s recently launched Step-by-Step Guide to assist NGOs in designing and implementing their own SEA policies.

Disaster Risk Reduction in Urban Settings
Showcase the work that our HPPC members are doing in DRR in urban settings, including Port Au Prince, Haiti, so participants will have new ideas to adapt and incorporate in their own programming in urban environments. To make those in the development community more familiar with DRR programming in urban settings at the field level BEFORE disasters occur.

NGO Coordination: Lessons Learned from Haiti and Beyond
This intensive workshop will examine various NGO coordination mechanisms currently in use around the globe, from Haiti to Sudan to Pakistan. The workshop will examine lessons learned from coordination of responses to natural disasters and complex emergencies, and discuss ways to better implement the HPP Members Field Cooperation Protocol.

Images of the South in Northern Publications: Ethical Photography and Related Issues Concerning Representation
Images of the poor or people who are suffering, have been used by media and charities to raise awareness and fundraise for many years. This paper gives a brief historical outline of some of the recent debates and issues concerning the use of images by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United Kingdom (UK) that have been ongoing since the 1950s. The debate about the use/abuse of images and their significance in representation remains pertinent today and this workshop seeks to inform NGOs about recent trends and issues.

Foreign Assistance Reform Update: Prospects and Implications
Come hear the latest developments and expected outcomes of the moving pieces on foreign aid reform, ie: the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), the Presidential Study Directive (PSD), and the rewrite of the Foreign Assistance Act.

Building a Constituency for Sustainable Social Change using Creative Communication Strategies
Given the increasing global attention being paid to the power of communications, marketing and constituency building, this workshop will be of high interest to many InterAction members.
It will help IA member to expand their “outreach” efforts to galvanize a larger constituency for their programs and issues. Highly interactive, this workshop will be both informative (educational) and engaging (entertainment).

Security: Cash Management Policies that Save Lives: “Moving toward a cashless field office”
If organizations can implement technology with the proper cash management policies they may be able to transfer and/or reduce the impact of a serious crime that often leads to loss of life, assets and suspension of programming. By attending this workshop you will learn how eliminate paying national staff in cash; create methods for transferring money to contractors and other services that International banking can provide to protect lives of your field staff. Experts from the international banking community combined with leaders of the international security community will share new methods, new technology, cash management strategies and policies that can save lives.

Capitalizing on Convergence: Prospects for Collaboration Among Development, Environment and Human Rights NGOs
The workshop would examine how the interests and approaches of development NGOs, environmental NGOs and human rights NGOs are converging, given their evolution in response to the increasingly complex contexts in which they work and an increasingly systemic understanding of those contexts. Based on this convergence, panelists will discuss promising models of collaboration (e.g. strategic alliances, issue-based coalitions) among these various types of NGOs, and reflect on lessons learned from these experiences. Finally, the panelists will explore how development, environmental and human rights NGOs can more systematically capitalize on this convergence of interests and approaches in a way that enhances the impact of each set of organizations. The audience will be engaged in this exploration to try to elicit some practical ideas for action.