 |
|||||
|
Xth International Conference on HIV/AIDS and STDs in Africa The Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders on HIV/AIDS in Africa Annex 10 Notes
on the Statutes of the HIV/AIDS Alliance of Mayors and Municipal Leaders
in Africa
Introduction During the Xth ICASA Conference, African Municipal Leaders adopted a declaration expressing their firm intention to become more involved in the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, and created the HIV/AIDS Alliance to this end. The purpose of this note is to present an explanation of the statutes of the Alliance and their rationale. I. The guiding principles of the Alliance The guiding principles of the Alliance are found in the simplicity of its form and operating procedures. The Alliance is conceived as an informal group, similar in form to a network or coalition. It has no legal status and is motivated primarily by the solidarity and the level of involvement of its members. The lack of legal status can be explained by the fact that recognition of a legal structure, in addition to being extremely time-consuming, is subject to laws that vary from country to country. The legal system in Anglophone countries, for example, differs from that found in Francophone countries. If the Alliance had legal status in one country, it would be difficult to apply the fundamental principle of a secretariat that rotates from country to country every two years. The statutes would have to be modified with each change in order to respect the legal norms of the new host country. Such a situation would present more problems than advantages. Furthermore, a legal status for the Alliance is not at all essential since its role is mainly to encourage an expanded response to the epidemic at local levels. Any funds that will serve to finance the operations of the Alliance will either be administered by the financial partners of the Alliance or by the Mayor’s office in the host country. Even more important, the scope and the urgency of the HIV situation in Africa requires the creation of a flexible organisation with a capacity to respond rapidly rather than a structure that is hamstrung by legal procedures. It is, therefore, important to see the Alliance as the manifestation of the political will of its members and to provide it with simple, non-bureaucratic structures that can facilitate the design and coordination of municipal strategies in response to HIV/AIDS.
II. Goals and structures of the Alliance A. The Objectives of the Alliance The Alliance has both general and specific objectives. The general objective is the implementation of the Abidjan Declaration adopted during the symposium on HIV, Development and the Role of Local Government in December 1997. The specific objectives of the Alliance are:
B. Membership in the Alliance In general, any African city or municipality is eligible for membership in the Alliance. The HIV/AIDS situation in Africa justifies the absence of strict or unnecessary admission requirements to this type of Alliance. The statutes, therefore, do not require the approval of a request for membership by a special majority of members. For the same reasons, the exclusion or resignation of a member is not mentioned. Except in cases of violation of basic ethical principles, joining and leaving the Alliance depends essentially on the wishes of each city or municipality. The strength of the Alliance must continue to lie in the willingness and determination of its members to work together to find appropriate responses to HIV and development. For similar reasons, the statutes include a provision that allows the inclusion of associate members from municipalities or cities outside of the African continent that are linked with African municipalities that are members of the Alliance.
III. Organisation and Operating Procedures The Alliance is composed of three bodies:
A. The General Assembly The General Assembly is composed of all the members of the Alliance: mayors, municipal leaders, city officials or their associations. This Assembly is the deliberating body of the Alliance and has three major responsibilities:
B. The Coordinator and his/her Deputies The role of the Coordinator is to present an action plan for the Alliance for adoption by the General Assembly, and to ensure the implementation of the plan with assistance from the five members of the Coordinating Committee who serve as his/her relays. The Coordinator also serves as the intermediary with financial partners for the implementation of the Alliance programme. He/She coordinates Alliance activities and ensures the circulation of information. To ensure the continuity of the Alliance, in cases where the Coordinator is not available, the first Deputy Coordinator serves as interim Coordinator of the Alliance. C. The Coordinating Committee To ensure the efficiency of the Alliance, it is important that the Coordinator be supported by a small, tightly-knit team, which explains why the Coordinating Committee is limited to five members. These members are selected from each of the five geographic zones of the continent. The role of the members for the Coordinating Committee is to support the Coordinator by sharing their opinions and advice and by serving as focal points in their respective sub-regions. IV. Resources The resources of the Alliance will consist of member dues that will be managed by the Coordinator to cover the costs of activities such as the publication of the Alliance Newsletter. These funds will be kept in a special account opened by the Coordinator and will be transferred to his/her successor at the appropriate time. In fact, the funds placed at the disposal of the Alliance for the implementation of its action plan will either be managed by the financial partners of the Alliance or directly by those municipalities receiving funds. These procedures will simplify the role of the Alliance in matters of financial management. It is understood that after a two year period during which the current statutes of the Alliance will be applied, they may be subject to modification by the General Assembly.
|
|||||
 |
|||||