LNCT’s steering committee held its inaugural meeting this February with representation from the Nigeria and Georgia country teams, as well as from Gavi, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, and UNICEF. The launch of the steering committee marks an important moment in the evolution of the network and will ensure that LNCT remains guided by member country priorities and partner technical expertise. The steering committee endorsed LNCT’s new membership policy, which allows a broader set of countries to access LNCT resources and allows LNCT to draw on those countries’ experiences. LNCT members can access the full meeting minutes, which outline discussion items, decision points, and action items by reading below or downloading the PDF.
LNCT Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
02/12/2019
Call participants: Irine Javakhadze, Ganiyu Salau, Logan Brenzel, Santiago Cornejo, Joanna Wisniewska, Ulla Griffiths, Tom O’Connell, Grace Chee, Christina Shaw, Leah Ewald, Leah List
Action Items:
- LNCT Network Coordinator to organize a second Steering Committee (SC) meeting in 6-8 weeks’ time to discuss the Networkwide meeting in Indonesia
- LNCT Steering Committee members to review LNCT work plans and summaries of country priorities in order to provide suggestions for 2020 activities during the next Steering Committee meeting
Decision Points:
- Irine Javakhadze, SC representative from Georgia, will serve as the first LNCT Steering Committee Chairperson
- The LNCT Steering Committee will meet twice more in the next 6 months: once virtually before the network-wide meeting and once in-person during the network-wide meeting
- The LNCT Steering Committee will revisit the question about how frequently to meet thereafter
- LNCT will add another membership type—affiliated membership—for countries identified through Gavi that may benefit from LNCT resources (including access to the website), but that will not receive language support
Discussion Points:
Steering Committee Roles and Responsibilities:
- The Steering Committee is an important step toward country ownership of LNCT and in ensuring it is a network for countries, by countries
- The Steering Committee will provide strategic direction and a vision for LNCT and will have a role in prioritizing network activities, spreading network knowledge, and ensuring the network is aware of other work on transition related initiatives to prevent duplication
- Steering Committee members will represent their organization or region and should solicit inputs from other parts of their organization or network members in other countries. The Network Coordinator will support these efforts through sending surveys, setting up meetings, etc. as requested
- The Network Coordinator will not make strategic decisions themselves on Steering Committee related matters, rather they will support the committee through facilitating calls, preparing relevant materials and circulating notes
Steering Committee Operations & Membership:
- It may be good to have country representatives from Francophone, Lusophone, and Russophone countries on the Steering Committee as they may be better able to represent that set of countries
- It would be useful for current SC country representatives to give a presentation on the Steering Committee at the network-wide meeting to encourage more country representatives. The LNCT Network Coordinator would support preparation of such a presentation
- Sponsored countries will be funded by the network. Ambassador LNCT countries are formerly Gavi countries whereas Affiliated members are those that have never been involved with Gavi
- While new membership and unaffiliated membership is important, it is vital LNCT concentrate on stimulating engagement with full members
- LNCT will need to focus on building and using its website and/or other technological opportunities for knowledge sharing
LNCT Workplan & Activities:
- LNCT’s primary purpose is to provide a platform for countries to exchange experiences, challenges and successes and to share knowledge captured from that process
- Implementation happens outside of network activities. LNCT may bring consultants, partners, or other external experts to facilitate and deepen knowledge exchange as needed
- LNCT will need to update partners on network activities (e.g. UNICEF and WHO on vaccine hesitancy as they are also working in this area). Further discussions on how best to keep partners updated to ensure the network is in alignment will be needed