Partner's Meet

Partners’ Meet on 24 August 2022

Partner's Meet

Introduction

The Partners’ Meet has long been an annual tradition for Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), presenting it with the opportunity for it to interact, network, collaborate, share highlights and discuss upcoming projects with its partners. The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 forced organisations across the world to adopt virtual meetings. FNF’s 2022  Meet, however, defied all odds, being held offline, demonstrating its commitment to engaging closely with its invaluable partners.

Presentation

The Meet’s objectives were assigned by the Head of FNF Regional Office, who emphasised the importance of discussions with liberal personalities in terms of shared ideas and collaboration on future projects. Apart from discussing FNF South Asia’s ongoing projects, he touched upon two focal points: Pan South-Asian Cooperation and engagement with the South Asian diaspora.

The Senior Program Manager of FNF South Asia summarised the activities that FNF had conducted over the past three years, highlighting five major online projects and two on-ground projects orchestrated by FNF. Garnering acclaim for its organisation, FNF South Asia successfully conducted 37 webinars that reached an audience of more than 60 thousand, receiving more than 900 likes on social media. FNF’s on-ground projects focused largely on migrant workers displaced during the pandemic. One of FNF’s more outstanding achievements was the handloom training project that targeted  forest dwellers and women’s self-help groups.

During the course of the Meet, the Regional Audit Officer declared the internal audit goal for 2022-2023 to be the strengthening of the documentation of partners in South Asia, expounding upon the importance of FNF’s audit training of partners from beyond India.

Market Place presentation

FNF’s partners presented their ongoing and planned projects to fellow participants. Seventeen stalls, one from each participating partner,  were set up to offer different brochures, booklets and reports. Representatives of partners verbally reported their ongoing activities, achievements and challenges. The activity became a very fruitful sharing session and learning platform, allowing partners to entertain comments and evaluation and share best practices with their colleagues.

Thematic group sessions

In  the interactive session following lunch, partners were split into four major thematic groups: Human Rights, Entrepreneurship, Good Governance and Civic Education. Partners were asked to discuss, identify and plan projects that can be executed in cooperation with other partners and to prepare planned activities and budgetary requirements. After more than 30 minutes of discussion, each group of partners presented its joint activities and projects, including budgetary requirements.

Concluding note

After the presentations from partners’ groups, the program concluded on an optimistic note. FNF’s Head of International Department declared the program to have been productive and timely, noting, however, that the implementation of new projects and ideas is subject to political developments, which affects FNF’s activities worldwide. FNF South Asia’s Regional Head committed to making such discussions with partners a regular feature, as the exercise had proven to be immensely beneficial and successful in helping them network.