Recommendations on the Civil Society Observer Roles and Responsibilities
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Based on our consultations with civil society members and the Advisory Committee, RESOLVE offers the following recommendations on observer roles and responsibilities:

Alternates

In addition to the four civil society observers per committee, RESOLVE recommends that there be one alternate for each committee, to ensure that four observers are present at all meetings. Alternates should receive all the information that is provided to observers and should be included on all correspondence and conference calls to enable them to substitute as needed. We suggest that alternates serve for one year and that they may re-apply for the observer seats in the following year’s selection process.

Length of Terms/Term Limits

RESOLVE recommends that observers serve for two-year terms. The terms should be staggered, so that only half the seats turn over at one time. Therefore, half of the observers selected through this initial self-selection process will serve only one year and the other half will serve two years (to be determined at random). Observers should be limited to serving one term only.

Responsibilities of Observers

Civil society stakeholders have identified some important responsibilities for observers, including the following:

• Preparing for meetings and gathering input from members of their organization/network/community on the issues that will be raised at the meetings
• Taking into account the concerns of the larger civil society community (and not only their own organization/network/community)
• Sharing information from the meetings and lessons learned on the process with the larger civil society community

For a full copy of RESOLVE’s final report or to offer any comments on these recommendations, please contact Dana Goodson at dgoodson@resolv.org.