Applications are invited from 27th September to 1st November 2022
ECOLISE is looking for an external expert/consultant on a temporary basis (5-6 months) in Governance Transformation, with a minimum 5 years of experience working with NGOs or networks in this area, to advise on and support the current organizational transformation process that it is undergoing.
ECOLISE is the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. As of 2022, it has 46 member organizations, registered as legal entities in 17 different EU member states, plus Albania, Serbia, the UK, and Switzerland. Its core work revolves currently around the Communities for Future action program.
CONTEXT
In 2020 ECOLISE began an organizational review process as a response to tensions that had been mounting for some time in a number of areas, including issues around internal communication, proposal forming, decision-making processes, and governance, as well as the inclusion of diversity and minorities. Since then, using Sociocracy 3.0, ECOLISE kickstarted a collaborative inquiry process to identify, understand and agree on the need and drivers for transformation and later on set up a ‘Governance transformation’ working group composed of team and Council members. This working group has begun the transformation process by drafting a roadmap, a new governance structure and -map, a decision-making chart, and starting with governance experiments such as the use of decision making by consent and advice processes, and changing the Executive Director role into a shared CoDirector role.
As described in the “ECOLISE Transforming 2021: Caterpillar to Butterfly” – report, ECOLISE has struggled with a paradigmatic tension between being A) a reliable partner and relevant voice in mainstream contexts, which requires a level of conventionalised professionnalisation, increased levels of financial needs and dependency on restricted project grants, while B) serving and representing cutting edge social movements that attempt to be as radical and holistic as possible. This has provoked a so far unresolved tension, as ECOLISE has failed to successfully serve as a bridge between these paradigms and to create governance structures, policies and working practices that reflect its own stated purpose and values, and those of its network.
Due to the identified need to have dedicated methodical and visionary expertise to support ECOLISE in becoming a greater version of itself, ECOLISE is now looking for an external consultant to support an inspiring and successful journey of transformation.