Since the discussion was underway about the possible relocation of ARENA from Hong Kong to elsewhere in Asia which I was told began already some ten or more years ago; different feasibility studies were done by Consultants to examine the option. Some of these were on the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea and Sri Lanka; as the possible new locations for the Secretariat.
One can refer to past Board Meeting Minutes and resolutions, as well as Secretariat correspondences upon request, for the details on these discussions. These were followed by an Evaluation commissioned by one ARENA’s core funders; carried out by Clarence Dias and Gigi Francisco nearly 2 years ago. Clarence has very kindly written a summary article on the finding in this Communique too. Consequently, an EGM was held with ARENA’s Council of Fellows, in which many pertinent issues were thrashed out. Out of these developments, South Korea turns out to be the most promising alternative to Hong Kong, where ARENA as a regional body may consider relocating itself to.
Subsequently, a fact-finding mission comprising of Board Members such as, Johan Saravanamuttu, our Chairperson as well as Ohashi Masaaki, had visited South Korea and held comprehensive talks with ARENA’s Korean Fellows there. They have also met with the SungKongHoe University to explore the possibility of closer cooperation. The report of this fact-finding mission is also available upon request. The outcome of the mission was very positive; leaning towards the relocation of ARENA to Seoul.
However, ARENA still needed to be convinced on several important aspects of such a move. Hence, by the time the new Executive Director, Agnes Khoo fully took over office in August of 2005, she was instructed by the Board to carry out a more ‘on-the ground’ Feasibility Report, that could look into the finer details of such a proposed move and the more practical implications for ARENA, both in the short-term and long-term. A Korean Liaison Officer was thus hired as a Consultant to conduct this study in three months from July – October 2005. The report is available upon request too. A summarised version is also published in this issue of the Communiqué.
Based on this report and the ensuing discussions among the Executive Board members in its previous meeting held in Seoul from 26th – 31st October 2005, the decision was unanimously taken to give Korea a try. The Editorial written by our Chairperson for this issue of the Communiqué, Johan Saravanamuttu has explained in his own words, the rationale of the decision. The relevant portions of the October Board meeting minutes can also be made available upon request.
Henceforth, all these events started the ball rolling with regards to the relocation of ARENA from Hong Kong, where it had based itself for the last 25 years; to a completely new destination, in a time that cannot be more appropriate than in 2006, when ARENA celebrates its Silver Jubilee Year!
This consequently also spelt many changes and uncertainties for the Staff working in the Hong Kong Secretariat, particularly for the Executive Director, who is now entrusted by the Board to see the relocation through. She is currently assisted by a small Secretariat in Hong Kong that will be gradually scaled down over the next three months from January to March 2006, as well as one Korean Liaison Officer currently based in the SungKongHoe (Anglican) University, where the new ARENA office will be founded. ARENA will continue to maintain its registration as a charitable and non-profit organization in Hong Kong and setting up its new Korean office only as a branch office to that. The Korean office shall also bear a different name, to be known as the ARENA Centre in Seoul (hereafter named as ACIS).
The University has generously offered ARENA a rent-free office space that is equivalent to the current size of the Hong Kong office and has even donated a number of their second-hand PCs for the ACIS to begin with. In order to cut costs; ARENA in Hong Kong has also begun to share out current office espace with another regional NGO in Hong Kong, the Asian Migrant Centre. Therefore by 15th January, we would have achieved in terms of actual physical space; the scaling down of the Hong Kong operation. Only three staff will be retained in Hong Kong and they are namely, our part-time Administrator, part-time Finance Officer, as well as a Full-time Documentalist cum Programme Assistant.
On the other hand, by 15th January 2006, the Executive Director as well as the Financial Controller cum Internal Audit shall concentrate fully on setting up the ACIS office, with the assistance of the Korean Liaison up to 31st March 2005. From then on, a full-time Office Manager cum Accountant based in Seoul would be hired to oversee the smooth day-today operation of ACIS .
Our intention is to ensure that the transition from the Hong Kong Office to ACIS will be gradual and that it will entail as little disruption as possible, to the day-to-day operation of the Secretariat, as well as the on-going programmes. So far, this has been working out quite well and as expected. Owing to the fact that ARENA has long begun to diversify and ‘regionalise’ most of its programme operation out of Hong Kong and into the different localities, where the respective Programme Convenors are based; the current transitory changes within the Secretariat does not affect the progress and plans of the on-going Programmes; such as the Activist Memoir Project (Gender Programme) based in India, the Local Governance/Regional School programme based in Lingnan University in Hong Kong and so on.
Even though we are aware that there are still many challenges ahead of us, we are committed to see the relocation through for the coming 3 – 6 months. This shall be accomplished in time; albeit with a lot of sacrifices from the staff team both in Hong Kong and Korea, goodwill from our funders and supporters, cooperation and understanding all round from our Executive Board, Council of Fellows and our networks, as well as partners in the Asian region and beyond. Given our shrinking resources; particularly since both ARENA’s long-term core funders; ICCO in the Netherlands and EED in Germany; have categorically told ARENA that they will no longer support its core fund already way back in 2003; the ARENA in 2006 would have to source for new and alternative funding, as well as more project-based funding from now on.
This undoubtedly is putting a great deal of stress and strain on the fledging and new staff team, whose members have all joined ARENA after August 2005, even though a few old staff who resigned had actually returned to help. Consequently, we need to revise the Budget that was planned back in 2003 for this current Three-Year-Plan (TYP) and realistically cut down on programmes, which we would not be able to carry out. This is the most responsible way of dealing with the volatile but dynamic situation ARENA finds itself today. Hopefully, with a great deal of dexterity, dedication, careful planning and budgeting, not to mention better and more active fund-raising; we hope that ACIS; will be able to help see ARENA through to its new phase of development and growth from 2006 onwards.
The Relocation is operationalised, concretised and will be realised in the FOUR phases as elaborated below:
Phase 1: Exploration, Decision-Making, Feasibility Studies, Fact-Finding Mission, Networking with the SKHU, Board Endorsement, Hire of a Korean Staff based in the SKHU, setting up of a Working Group within the SKHU to coordinate operations and processes with ARENA in Hong Kong, Setting up of the Relocation Task Force and the Envisioning Task Force from among the Executive Board, Meeting of the Relocation Task Force to finalize the MOU with SKHU
This phase is now completed as at 31st December 2005.
Phase 2: 1st January – 31st March 2006
A. MOUS
This phase is marked by the presentation of ARENA’s proposal of the MOU to the SKHU authorities and also informing the Council of Fellows through our internal communication tool; the Communiqué, of the impending move. We have also published the MOU as suggested by the ARENA Relocation Task Force and approved by the Executive Board in this issue of Communiqué for the benefit of the Council of Fellows.
The SKHU will be given an opportunity to review and revise the MOU according to their realities, expectations and needs. Their suggestions would be discussed among the ARENA Board and an agreement shall be reached within the month of January. However, the official signing of the MOU will only take place in March or even April 2006, so as to give room for proper preparation for this historical event.
Alongwith this MOU; a separate MOU concerning the depositing of the ARENA archives with the SKHU is also on the way to be signed; so that ARENA’s historical materials, documentation, publications and our accumulated knowledge will not be lost through the transition but is ensured of a place, safe and secure for their preservation and even for their greater use. The SKHU has promised to create ways and means of making these precious documents available to a larger audience through their library and archival facilities and expert cooperation.
B. PUBLICATIONS
1. Asian Exchange March and September 2006
In order to ensure that ARENA carries on with its minimum Programme activities and fulfil its prior agreement with various donors of these programmes; such activities will continue amidst the transition including the Local Governance/Regional School Programme; the Activist Memoir (Gender Programme) Project, the War, Peace and Militarism Project and the Asia-Europe Dialogue Project etc., to our best of abilities.
However, since the KCL Programme has not moved after its Programme Team meeting in September 2003 held in Bangkok, Thailand – this programme will conclude with a publication - in the form of a Double Issue of Asian Exchange, which is due to be published by 31st March 2006. For which there has not been any extra funding and would need to come from ARENA’s core fund, or whatever there is still left of it.
This is also to fulfil ARENA’s commitment to our subscribers (even though small) and readers all over the world since it has not been able to publish the Asian Exchange regularly after 2003.The issues owed by ARENA in 2005 will now be have to be made good to our subscribers in the year 2006. This means that we would need to find a way to publish another DOUBLE ISSUE of Asian Exchange in conjunction with our Silver Jubilee by September 2006 at the latest. Whereas the March Issue shall focus on the Theme of Livelihood and Environment; particularly on the issue of Water, the September issue will be devoted to the question of Human Security in Asia; a most timely and hotly debated topic of our time.
Other plans and activities to be carried out in the coming months are too many to go into greater details here, due to the constraint of space. Hence, it suffices for this purpose, to flash out the following highlights; in order to give our Council of Fellows, friends and networks, funders and supporters a good overview of ARENA/ACIS ‘ future.
Apart from this Communiqué which will be circulating among you by 31st January 2006, we have plans to:
2. Revise ARENA’s Brochure both in English and Korean
3. ARENA’s Media Kit for ACIS and the Public Launch in Seoul that will only be held later in the year
4. To publish ACIS’ Auxiliary Materials
C. To Strengthen and Create ARENA and ACIS WEBSITES:-
D. There is a plan to organize the next ARENA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING from 12th – 15th March 2006, Seoul, Korea. However, due to serious time and budget constraints, a Board teleconference may be held later in the year instead
E. Setting up of ACIS OFFICE and the Legal Registration of ACIS
F. Coordination and transfer of Financial Management and Accounting system from Hong Kong to Korea
G. ACIS Launch later in the year but with a modest ‘Opening Ceremony’ to officiate our presence in SKHU by 31st March 2006
H. Fund-Raising for ARENA and ACIS
PHASE 3: April – June 2006
Hiring of New Staff in ACIS
Archives and Documentation begins from April 2006 and shall carry on for the next 6 years
Easing of ARENA Staff into the SKHU/ACIS structure
ARENA/ACIS Staff begins to cooperate on concrete projects with SKHU
ARENA Fellows hold Exchange Programmes, Seminars and Lectures with SKHU
Fund-raising for the ARENA Congress and the new TYP
PHASE 4: June – September 2006
Joint Project Planning between ACIS and SKHU for the new TYP (June 2006 – June 2009)
Congress of ARENA, Dhaka, Bangladesh
ARENA in Hong Kong prepares to scale down completely, so that our administrative and financial functions in Hong Kong will be taken care of by our currently contracted Company Secretary. This is expected to take place by 31st December 2006
Restructuring of Various Programmes and Programme Staff
Fund-raising for the new TYP (June 2006 – June 2009)
ACIS operating at its optimum level with possibly 5 Full-Time Staff based not just in Seoul but “effectively decentralized/regionalised” into the different localities, in which the future Programmes or Programme Convenors may be based
This is nevertheless only a very preliminary outline that is by no means complete, final or carved in stone. In the spirit of transparency and accountability to the larger ARENA community, I thought I would take this valuable opportunity to share some possible scenarios of our common future. Given that the Board has yet to meet again to finalize our plans for the next 6 months; the above-mentioned plans CAN ONLY BE TAKEN at best; as a very tentative proposal that can at least help map out the concrete steps; staff who are engaged in day-to-day activities might be able to rely upon.
With this, I would like to wish you all the very best for 2006. The ARENA Office was closed from 27th January – 6th February 2006. In case of emergency, pls. kindly contact Agnes Khoo at
. May you all find the New Year ever more fulfilling than the ones which have already passed us by!
Agnes Khoo Executive Director of ARENA/ACIS 6 January 2006
