Dear friend,

Welcome to the June edition of our Eurodad members’ newsletter, the first one of 2021.

It is hard to believe that we are almost half-way through 2021! Today we are bringing you important developments in the team and in the larger Eurodad family during the past five months.

Like many of you, we at the secretariat are still feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic while preparing for a 'new normal', with 20 per cent of the office staff being able to return to the office from June. As restrictions slowly ease in Belgium, we are able to meet face to face again for outdoor activities, something that has given a huge morale boost to all of our staff members.

However, we are painfully aware that in many countries, especially in the global south, the pandemic still continues unabated. For the majority of the world, including many of our partners and allies, vaccinations will not be available in the foreseeable future, preventing a return to free mobility, including international travel. We have therefore decided to postpone our Eurodad International Conference, due to take place this year, to 2022, when we hope that all of our members, partners and allies are safe and free to attend. As an alternative, we're excited to announce that we will organise a virtual policy event towards the end of the year. In the meantime, the Eurodad General Assembly on 16 June will again be taking place virtually.

We look forward to welcoming two new members and allies to the network at the GA. There will also be an opportunity to have an informal chat with other members of the network and the Secretariat team before the start of official proceedings via Gather Town. Some of you already discovered how much fun Gather Town was over virtual beers with the Secretariat in early May. Click here to see the details and how to join us before the General Assembly. In this newsletter, you will also have the chance to give your views on our Knowledge Management Platform, by filling out a short survey.

Warm Regards,

Jean Saldanha

Eurodad Director

The lack of face to face opportunities for informal exchanges has been an ongoing challenge in the continued pandemic circumstances of 2021. Although there is no real substitute for gathering in person, the first virtual social gathering for Eurodad members and allies, together with staff from the Eurodad secretariat, took place on Wednesday 5th May. There was good attendance from across the network, and attendees appreciated a break from Zoom, instead using the Gather Town application. The next informal Eurodad gathering will take place on the morning of 16th June, directly before the General Assembly.

We would like to invite you to participate in the Eurodad General Assembly 2021. Due to Covid-19 related travel and meeting restrictions, the General Assembly (GA) will again take place virtually on June 16th 2021 from 10.00am-12.00pm (CEST) on Zoom.

Please let us know if you will attend the GA by sending a confirmation by email to: [email protected]. If you can’t attend, you can select a proxy to vote on your behalf (this can be done via simple email confirming that your selected proxy has accepted this nomination.)

Click here to find all the information on the GA, the agenda and how to register.

Océane Blavot - Senior PPP Campaign Outreach Coordinator

Farwa Sial - Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer

Farwa is a political economist and joined Eurodad in January 2021 as Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer - Development Finance. She works on publicly funded development finance, with a focus on development finance flows to the private sector in developing countries and the role of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs). Before joining Eurodad, she worked as an academic lecturer and international development consultant in the UK focusing on political economy issues rooted in heterodox and pluralist economics. She is an honorary research fellow at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester and a steering group member of Diversifying and Decolonising Economics (D-econ). Farwa holds a PhD in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She is based in London and Brussels. You can contact Farwa at [email protected]

Kendrah Jespersen - Senior Project Coordinator Inequalities

Kendrah joined Eurodad in April 2021 as Senior Project Coordinator of the Ending Inequalities project. The project supports Eurodad’s partner organisations in Asia as they fight against economic inequalities, and aims to bring the voices of these front-line campaigners into regional and global fora. Kendrah's previous fifteen years of experience included a variety of project management and M&E roles supporting rights-based development and humanitarian responses in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Kendrah has a master’s in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies. You can contact Kendrah at [email protected]

Hannah Robinson - Communications & Operations Intern

At the extraordinary General Assembly in December last year, two new board members were elected to three-year terms. István Tamás Farkas has worked for Friends of the Earth Hungary for 20 years, including 16 years as Executive Director and more recently as co-president and team leader of the economic justice programme. István is also a board member of CEE Bankwatch Network. Maruša Babnik is Network and Project Officer at Ekvilib Inštitut, Slovenia, which has been a Eurodad member for over a decade. Maruša works on tax justice awareness raising and advocacy, as well as corporate social responsibility and aid effectiveness monitoring and advocacy in Slovenia.

The board also recently said farewell to two of its members. Matti Kohonen has left Christian Aid to join the Financial Transparency Coalition as its new director, and Jürg Staudenmann has left Alliance Sud to join Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The full list of board members can be found here.

Please find here a new Eurodad Member's update on debt justice issues.

The update covers the Spring Meetings and UN High Level Event, the Financing for Development Forum and the Special Drawing Rights allocation. It also includes a summary of the latest country analysis shared on our website and an introduction to Eurodad's new Knowledge Management Platform available for our members. In the document you'll also find a list of resources that many of you have produced in the last few months.

Please find here a new Eurodad Member's update on Development Finance

In this first Members' Update from Eurodad's new expanded Development Finance team, we cover recent policy developments, Eurodad-led activities and movement building initiatives from January-May 2021. You'll also find a list of recent reports and briefings as well as information about past and future events.

Eurodad’s new Knowledge Management Platform (KMP) continues to grow as new content is added each week. Along with reports and briefings from across the network, the KMP features events calendars filtered by topic.

As we continue to develop and improve the platform, we welcome your input on how to best make use of this new tool. Please take a moment to fill in the short survey below to share your thoughts.

Short survey on the KMP - give us your feedback

Jubilee Debt Campaign welcomed Jerome Phelps as Head of Advocacy in February this year.

SLUG - Debt Justice Norway gained a new Director, Maren Hemsett, who replaces Henrik Hvaal, now at Redd Barna - Save the Children Norway.

Policy Assistant - Development Finance

Eurodad is looking for a Policy Assistant to support our development finance team in its cutting-edge policy work and network coordination.

Deadline: 6 June 2021, 23:59 CEST

The Eurodad Secretariat has created an updated organogram to clearly display the roles of its staff and their positions within the organisation. We hope you find it useful.