ANNUAL REPORT 2012 - WBFN

Members AbroadThe Members Abroad Team aims to enhance WBFN’s outreach to members moving toor living at WBG Country or Field Offices around the world and to create stable andefficient ways to communicate with them wherever they are. The Team provides informationto spouses and partners about other WBG families in Country Offices, shares contactinformation, and offers advice on how they can form their own communities once incountry,among other things.Continuing last year’s good workIn winter 2011 the Members Abroad Team, headed by Karin Metz, made an extraordinary effortto finalize and widely distribute a document to help WBFN members posted at CountryOffices establish their own WBFN chapters, which had been worked on in FY11. The finaldocument, entitled “Ideas for Welcoming Newcomers and Forming a Spouse/Partner Groupat your Country Office”, was publicized through Mosaic and uploaded to the website for allmembers to access in November 2011, and proved to be inspirational.Also a continuation from FY11, the Members Abroad Team began FY12 by working on thedevelopment of a platform to help WBFN members at all Country Offices to communicatewith each other electronically. Through the work also taking place on revamping the WBFNwebsite as a whole, an appropriate platform—Drupal—was discovered, which will allow forthe international interactivity desired by the Members Abroad Team.Forming a new teamBefore leaving the Team, Karin identified an enthusiastic and capable volunteer to take onthe role, as well as some new team members to support her. At the beginning of 2012, AishaKashif and the new Team hit the ground running by making their presence felt at OverseasAssignment Briefings, Welcoming Coffees, etc. and putting together an outline of their workand goals for the rest of the year.Connecting with Regional Mobility AssistantsIn January 2012, the IFC invited the Regional Mobility Assistants (RMAs) from variousCountry Offices to Washington, DC. WBFN met with the RMAs and presented the scopeof its work and the Members Abroad Team shared information about how it reaches out tomembers at Country Offices, which was positively received. As a follow up to this event aformal letter was sent to the RMAs, reiterating the Members Abroad Team’s interest in forgingand maintaining a productive partnership. In order to keep our partners informed aboutWBFN activities, PDF versions of the Mosaic newsletter are now emailed to the RMAs andto the World Bank Relocation Focal Points each month. The Members Abroad Team hasalso held video conferences with RMAs, Global Staff Mobility, and spouses in Country Offices—namelyBuenos Aires and Accra—which have proved to be very useful. The Team looksforward to further connecting with RMAs and maintaining fruitful working partnershipswith them.Establishing WBFN chapters overseasIn the past few years, many members have spearheaded small groups in Country Offices thatget together at informal gatherings, where all or most of the attendees are WBG spouses andpartners. WBFN has been supportive of their interests and endeavor of providing informaladvice and information to relocating families. This year, two of these groups formally decidedto come under the WBFN umbrella. The Members Abroad Team provided the in-countryspouses with support and guidance in the form of ideas, some information on rules, andtheir own @wbfn.org email addresses. Thus, WBFN Kenya and WBFN Argentina were established.In a short amount of time, these two groups proved to be outstanding in theirachievements by conducting meetings, collecting information about newcomers, and makingtheir presence felt within the community by reaching out to Country Office managementand others. Since its formation in early 2012, WBFN Kenya has welcomed 55 members, andcontinues to experiment with online forums, outings and coffee mornings.WBFN Argentina’s main aim is to actively advocate to make it easier for spouses and partnersto find work, given certain difficulties in applying for work in the country. One spouse hasalso formed a United Nations Local Expatriate Association (UNLESA) in Buenos Aires andis looking into creative ways to partner with UN spouses and partners as well.Meetings, video conferences and phone calls have also taken place with members who haveexpressed an interest in forming WBFN chapters in Accra, Ghana, and Istanbul, Turkey. Asalways, the Members Abroad Team has strived to provide them with all necessary informationand encouragement, and our Global Staff Mobility partners have also been engaged inthe process.42 43