AIT President attends the First Wetlands Alliance Programme Strategic Partnership Board Meeting
AIT President Said Irandoust, on 21 March 2007, participated in the first meeting of the Wetlands Alliance Programme (WAP) Strategic Partnership Board Meeting at AIT, which was attended by Professor Sudip Kumar Rakshit, Vice President for Research, Dr. Anders Granlund , Sida Regional Advisor on Environment, Dr. Robert Mather, Programme Director of WWF, Dr. Blake Ratner , Regional Director of Greater Mekong WorldFish Center, Cambodia, Dr. Chatchai Ratanachai, Vice President for Outreach and International Affairs of Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Dr. Hakan Berg, AIT-WAP/AOP Coordinator, Dr. Somsak Boromthanarat, PSU, Mrs. Monowara Hussain, Programme Coordinator, ERCO, Ms. Jhozine Damaso, Research Associate, CORIN and Marites Montalbo, Administrative Officer, WAP/AOP, AIT.
The meeting aimed to develop a dialogue on the WAP initiative and formally establish the WAP Strategic Partnership Board (SPB). It discussed the possibility of holding board meetings once or twice a year to oversee the strategic direction of the WAP collaboration and the possibility of inviting external "advisors" to participate in these Board meetings. The meeting included detailed deliberation on ongoing WAP activities, current management, financial issues including the process for external audit, and the forthcoming visit of a WAP facilitation team from Sweden. The Board was informed of the need for clear governance and decision-making rules. WAP being a partnership of equals, recognizes the need to set up a decision matrix to be followed by WAP partners.