Minutes & presentations
Click here for all documents of the 2023 General Assembly (scroll down to “General Assembly 2023”)
A draft of the minutes of the General Assembly last September, including a summary and the recordings and presentations on the Pandemic Treaty are now available. Please send any comments, corrections or additions to Magalie. The minutes will be approved by the next GA in 2024.
During this year’s GA a new set of internal regulations has been approved. We highlight for you some important changes.
Ethical Commission (EC) and Be-cause health Ombudsperson
The EC is formed within the SC (Steering Committee) consisting of at least three members, and is chaired by the Be-cause health Ombudsperson. The current Ombudsperson and EC members were chosen from the SC.
Félix Vanderstricht of ULB-Coopération, an SC member since 2021 will be the Ombudsperson.
Together with Valérie Van Belle (Mutualités Chrétiennes) and an SC substitute member since 2023, and Amandine Oleffe (ESP-ULB) & SC member since 2022, he will form the EC.
The EC is in charge of the ethical screening of (candidate) member organisations and the follow up on complaints about ethical misconduct of Be-cause health and/or its members. Such complaints can at any time be filed with the Ombudsperson.
Procedure for Be-cause health membership
Membership of our platform is open to both organisations and individuals. Every four years members are asked to renew their membership.
Conditions for membership
- endorse the vision and mission of Be-cause health and the principles of the Health(care) for All declaration;
- be active in and/or have an interest in cooperation with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and in combating global poverty and inequality;
- show an interest in what is happening in Belgium in the field of global health; and
- be actively engaged within at least one of the thematic or ad hoc Be-cause health working groups.
Renewal membership for individual members
A form will be sent out before the end of 2023 to our active member database. Members are asked to renew their membership by the end of January 2024. If you are not a member yet, however want to become one, please follow the guidelines here.
New procedure for applications member organisations
Candidate members are asked to conduct an ethical self-screening. The EC evaluates the potential member by reviewing the ethical self-screening and by starting a dialogue when appropriate. If the SC accepts the application, it refers the candidacy to the GA which endorses or declines the membership of the candidate organisation.
A selected category of organisations (including their foundations, trust organisations, etc.) are de facto excluded and will never become member of the platform, however they can be invited to participate in the Be-cause health working groups or activities. For an overview, see the internal regulations.
Renewal membership for member organisations
The EC assesses if there have been incidents during the last four years of membership and/or if the organisation has made any relevant changes with an impact on the eligibility of the membership. If so, the commission reviews the ethical screening following the same screening procedure as for membership approval.
Suspension or exclusion of a member organisation
In case there is a complaint about ethical misconduct of a member, the EC assesses if that complaint is justified. If justified, the EC conducts an ethical screening to assess if the membership is still eligible. If not, the SC can decide to suspend the member until the decision on an exclusion of the member is taken or not by the GA.
New procedures for partnerships, funding, advocacy and policy advise
New procedures on how to engage with other organisations/networks, how to attract funding and how to organise advocacy and policy advice are now in place.
