Convening Manual Structure

The Manual is structured in sections that cover the full convening cycle from its idea inceptions all the way to the final evaluation, report and financial reconciliation. In this first iteration the sections on Programme and Schedule, Communication Strategy and MEL are just introduced and limited to the operations aspects.

The Manual is part of APC’s Policies Systems and Procedures (PS&P) framework and is meant to provide a step by step guide to any team responsible for the realisation of convenings with clear and easy references of to all relevant policies and the detailed explanation and representation of workflow and procedures.

The Manual is structured in three larger chapters: Introduction - Convening Cycle - Relevant Policies.

Introduction is meant to explain the purpose as well as the structure of the manual. Relevant policies section provides a direct access to all APC policies that are mentioned and referenced throughout the Manual and constitutes the institutional administrative, financial and operational foundation for all APC staff. Convening Cycle represents the body of the Manual that explains and guides the complex actions the convening team needs to take to in the given time.

Planning together introduces APC Convening guiding principle, approach, consolidated practices and embedded care elements weaved throughout the cycle that will organically give life to the convening experience of all the actors involved 

Roles involved in convening cycle - Defines and explains all the different roles involved during the convening cycle, their responsibility and interdependence to create clarity and straighten accountability.

Convening Timeline - Addresses the impact on the overall planning timeline depending on features such as types of convening: hybrid, online and in-person or any variable around participants such as number of participants, profile of participants or ways of identifying and selecting participants: open call, nomination, pre-registration, pre-defined participants.

Budget and Finance - Clarifies assumptions, decisions, costs and financial resources necessary for a convening to happen and explain the tools and instruments the convening team has at its disposal to collaborate and organise information in an effective, transparent, safe, agreed and structured way.

Location and venue selection - Describes the process to identify and decide about location where hybrid and in-persons convening will happen, provide examples and indication of the timeline; clarify the roles each of the convening team member have in the finalisation of the decisions and the criteria and their relevance for the decision to be taken.

Convening Risk Assessment - Provides guidelines for the identification and description of a contextualised risk assessment of both external and internal risks and possible responses measures, explains the decision making process including how to collect inputs and how to share and communicate the result to the larger group of participants 

Participants Information and Communication - Focuses on the way information is collected and shared with participants, channels and ways of communication from one-on-one to collective, who is responsible for what time of communication and way of internal coordination among the members of the convening team

Visa - explains APC’s approach to visa for convening led or co-led by APC as well as for convening organised by other entities such as Government, International Organisations or International bodies. It addresses financial resources necessary to ensure visa support, explains existing types of visas and APC processes to identify the best one. Describes both the process and the actual procedures of preparing visa supporting documentation and provides templates. Describe the various roles and staff involved in the process.

International and local travel - Explains all the elements related to international and local travel, procurement procedures that define flights bookings. Addresses all administrative procedures, templates, roles and coordination necessary to provide support and assistance to all participants.

Safety, Well-Being and Care - Explains how APC embeds Safety, Well-being and Care as a foundational element of the convening cycle. Provides references and how-tos for Policies on Harassment and APC’s Principles of Participation. Provides Logistics Advisory standards and explains how to prepare one, includes and curates the dissemination of the safety and security measures that come out of the Risk Assessment process.

Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) - Describes APC processes, procedures and roles for MEL within the Convening Cycle, addresses organically the programmatic and operations’s learning creating a baseline and a closing evaluation moment. Shares tools and templates that effectively support the inclusion of MEL within the Convening Cycle.

In this very first edition of the Manual, not all sections will be addressed or curated in depth since they ask for a longer process of distillation. OPS Core team has focused its efforts to consolidate existing workflows, procedures and templates and prioritise the need of certainty providing a unique source and an easy consultation space outside of share2 to best support convening coordination teams.

The Manual has yearly iteration planned to ensure its relevance and consistency with APC policies and practices; OPS Core team plans to address less developed sections in the next cycle based on a wider consultation with other teams.