Celebrating Three Years of Membership and 10 New Members
The new year is a time of fresh starts and renewed optimism. For the CALP Network, it’s also a time of reflection, as January marks the anniversary of the date that we officially became a membership organisation. This year, not only do we celebrate three years since we opened up our membership, but we do so with the addition of 10 new members who joined us at the end of 2018.
Oxfam, Save the Children UK, Norwegian Refugee Council, Action Against Hunger, and the British Red Cross are the “founding five” members of the CALP Network. Following a review of the CALP Network in 2014, it was recommended that we expand our membership to be more representative and have greater collective influence. The CALP Network received applications from prospective new members in 2015, and welcomed over 40 new members in January 2016. Since then, we’ve opened our doors to new members eight more times, bringing on board an additional 40 members in the process.
Over this time, we have drawn upon the unique strengths of our individual members, and worked collaboratively to advance issues to improve cash and voucher assistance. Some highlights of the past three years of membership have included our launch event in Washington DC in April 2016, and our learning and member event in Dakar in December of the same year. Shortly after, used our collective influence to publish a joint member response to a Daily Mail article in January 2017, and came together in Geneva for our first Global Cash Forum in June. Last year, we published our flagship State of the World’s Cash report, the result of a huge collective effort from our members; advanced the debate around gender and cash; and met in London in October for Cash Week 2018.
Now, our membership has grown to more than 80, and encompasses international and national NGOs, UN agencies, donors, private sector companies, independent consultants and others – a true testament to the sector-wide commitment to improving the use of cash and voucher assistance for people affected by crises. We were delighted to welcome 10 new members to the community following our latest application round in Autumn 2018: 100 weeks; ADESA; Caritas Switzerland; Humanity and Inclusion; Karkara; Key Aid Consulting; Philanthropy Serbia; Trocaire; and independent members Paula Gil Baizan and Joanna Macrae.
As we look towards the new year ahead, we are excited to draw upon the energy of our growing network, and learn from the perspectives our new members will bring. We will do this through established fora such as our Board, Technical Advisory Group, Global Cash Policy Network, Research Advisory Group and Working Group meetings, and through members-only and public events – like we did with Cash Week. We are looking forward to sharing with you soon a full list of opportunities for membership engagement throughout the year.
