Are you curious about what is happening in the LINC networks in 2019? Please read on to learn about the network activities that are taking place in Asia, Africa and Latin-America.
LINC-Asia
LINC-Asia had its face-to-face meeting in January in Indonesia, hosted by NLR Indonesia. During the face-to-face meeting, the LINC-Asia members worked on the development of a strategic plan for the coming 5 years. Through this development, also reflection on the functioning of the network happened. One of the concrete outcomes is that LINC-Asia will be attending the CBID conference in Mongolia (July 2019) and host a post-event to the congress. Since the members are gathering in for this event, they take the opportunity to hold another face-to-face meeting at the same time.
The strategic plan of LINC-Asia can be found on the Connect platform. Also, other documents and videos from LINC-Asia members, for example on Down Syndrome, can be found on the Connect platform (see the document page of LINC-Asia).
LINC-Africa
In April 2019, 18 member organisations of LINC-Africa gathered in Accra, Ghana for the annual face-to-face meeting, hosted by SWEB. For this meeting there was a full, but interesting agenda: Via thematic groups, several presentations were given, a 1-day training on fundraising was held and the action plan and budget for the coming year has been discussed. On the last day of the gathering, LINC-Africa organised an exhibition where all members could present who they are and what they are doing. Even the Minister of Gender, Child & Social Protection and the Dutch ambassador in Ghana showed interest in the exhibition and signed the manifesto ‘All children are welcome to school, including children with a disability’!
Dutch ambassador Ron Strikker and honarable Freda Prempeh, Minister of Gender, Child & Social Protection
LINC-Latin America
Daniel Castrillon and Mary Zuñiga
The members of Latin-America held their last meeting in December 2018 in Cali, Colombia, hosted by A-Kasa. During the meeting the annual work plan was positively evaluated and a new work plan for 2019 was developed. Daniel Castrillon from A-Kasa got elected as new chair, while the members thanked Mary Zuñiga from Fundades for her work as previous chair. In the Latin-American regional network, the members are currently working on their “Knowledge for Influencing” project. This project is about the systematization of good practices on inclusive education in Latin-America and to present these on a web platform. The knowledge provided will then be used as a base for L&A campaigns on Inclusive Education in the participating countries. Aside of this project, the LINC-Latin America members continue to learn from one another via an e-learning course organized by one its members, and via regular online exchange.
Evaluation
Since 2019 is the last year of the 3-year pilot of setting up the regional LINC networks, an evaluation will take place in the period of July -September to determine how to continue with the LINC networks and if the Liliane Foundation should continue investing in the networks. Therefore both (1) the process of the setup of LINC from initiation up to now, as well as (2) the achieved results will be considered during the evaluation.
The results of the evaluation will be discussed with the Steering Committee during their annual gathering in the week of 23-27 September. Based on the results and the recommendations discussed during the steering committee meeting, the Liliane Foundation will reflect in October about its role and investment in LINC.
We hope that all of you provide your honest input and ideas during the evaluation of LINC, because this will be very valuable for the future of LINC!