Following a review of the governance structures underpinning IEMA’s policy and practice activities, the Board has accepted a range of proposals for strengthening this area of the Institute’s work.

The Governance Review, which was overseen by a member-led steering group, was initiated in January and following engagement with the wider membership made a number of recommendations.

These included the need to establish a Policy and Practice Committee to provide strategic oversight of IEMA’s policy and practice activities, plus other recommendations geared at standardising the way in which member groups deliver these.

The final report can be found here and the full list of recommendations are below.

Work to begin embedding the findings will begin soon with an expression of interest exercise to be launched for those members who would like to be considered for the Policy and Practice Committee shortly.

Policy and practice Governance Review recommendations:

Policy and Practice Committee

  • A Policy and Practice Committee should be established to act as a conduit between the IEMA Board and member steering groups engaged in policy and practice activities.
  • The Policy and Practice Committee should provide strategic and joined-up oversight for all relevant activities and periodically report on progress to the IEMA Board.
  • Membership of the Committee should be diverse and it is recommended that the IEMA Board undertakes analysis to establish what this would mean in practice.

Member steering groups engaged in policy and practice activity

  • Member steering groups engaged in policy and practice activities should have standardised terms of reference documents that commit them to producing an annual programme of activity.
  • While member steering groups will each have a different thematic focus, they should share a common purpose of ‘transforming the world to sustainability’.
  • The membership of these groups should be diverse and it is recommended that the IEMA Board undertakes analysis to establish what this would mean in practice.

Policy and practice content development

  • All policy and practice content delivery must follow a standardised process flow for initiation and sign-off.
  • IEMA should produce a roughly even balance of policy and practice content.
Photo of Ben goodwin
Ben Goodwin

Director of Policy and Public Affairs, IEMA, IEMA

Ben is Director of Policy and Public Affairs at IEMA. In this capacity he looks after the delivery of IEMAs core policy, practice and public affairs activities across a range of environmental and sustainability issues. Prior to joining the organisation Ben worked in several similar policy roles at organisations including the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Renewable Energy Association.

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