Countdown to Kampala AGM 2016

Preparations for the 2016 INDEPTH Annual General Meeting are in final stages, and Centre Leaders have continued to confirm attendance.  The important annual event will take place at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, Uganda, from 16-18 November 2016.

The programme starts on 14 November with the meeting of the INDEPTH SAC that will receive and discuss a report from the Executive Director on research activities of the Network. This will include the Secretariat’s assessment of Strategic/Working/Interest Groups and Projects. The SAC will also review, edit and discuss of the proposed new Strategic Plan 2017-2021 before it is presented to the Board/Centre Leaders.

The Board of Trustees will meet the following day, to prepare for the AGM and will, among other things, review and finalise the Executive Director’s State of the Network Address and make final input to the new Strategic Plan.

The Board will also receive and provisionally approve activity report 2016, unaudited financial report 2016 and receive and approve work plan for 2017 and the 2017 budget.

The Annual General Meeting of INDEPTH will start on 16 November 2016. After the welcoming protocol and Board Chair’s opening speech, the three HDSSs in Uganda will make a 30-min combined presentation followed by the State of the Network Address from the INDEPTH Executive Director.

A representative of an audit firm KPMG will then brief the meeting on the 2015 Audit, after which the Centre Leaders will review and adopt the AGM programme for the three days.

The meeting will then approve the minutes of AGM 2015 held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; discuss matters arising from the minutes of AGM 2015 and receive and approve the Executive Director’s report on behalf of the Board for the year ended 31 December 2015. They will then receive and approve the audited accounts of the financial year ended 31 December 2015.

Other issues to be discussed on the first day of the AGM include update on the 2017 INDEPTH Scientific Conference (ISC 2017) and CHESS and its implementation. The day will end with a social evening for all participants.

One of the highlights of this year’s AGM is adoption of the INDEPTH Strategic Plan 2017-2021. On the second day of the AGM, the Executive Director will present the proposed Strategic Plan, explaining the process that was put in place.

This will be followed by a session on sustainability issues. This comes on the background that some HDSS sites have recently suspended operations while others are reducing the frequency of their update rounds. This session will therefore discuss approaches to reducing HDSS centre and INDEPTH operational costs in order to ensure sustainability of both the Network and its member centres.

There will also be a session on future opportunities where Nick Watts from University College London; Lucia D’Ambruoso from University of Aberdeen and Ernst Hafen from ETH Zürich will make presentations. This session will be followed by data issues and presentations from some centre leaders.

Friday 18 November has been set aside for a visit to field sites (Iganga/Mayuge, Kyamulibwa and Rakai).