General Assembly

Aims and Activities

The General Assembly (GA) is the body in charge of reviewing and adopting the orientations and deliverables prepared by the Steering Committee.
In particular, it will:

• Adopt the governance and its terms of reference,
• Adopt the Strategic Agenda,
• Adopt annual work plans and budgets,
• Adopt other strategic orientations,
• Reviews the progress of the initiative and provides overall guidance,
• Accept or exclude members as specified in the Membership section above.

In addition, the GA will have the possibility to make proposals for new initiatives or complementary activities to be taken up and further elaborated by the Steering Committee.
Finally, the GA will be in charge of electing its President and Vice-president.

Composition

The GA is composed of one representative for each member and is chaired by a President and a Vice-president.

Roles of the President and Vice-president of the GA

The President of the GA shall chair meetings of the GA. and may be assisted by the Vice-president, who may stand in for the president if necessary.
The President and Vice-president shall:

• Advise, on behalf of the GA, the SC and Secretariat on how the GA decisions should be implemented in between meetings of the GA;
• Represent the PREZODE initiative in meetings of similar status, in bilateral and multilateral relations;
• Contribute to the prestige and influence of PREZODE in the international arena;
• Facilitate connections to governments, regional and international organizations at the highest levels.

Election

President and Vice-president are elected by members of the GA among the representatives of the signatory countries for a 2-year term. After the end of this term, the Vice-president becomes President and a new Vice-president is elected.
The President and Vice-President of the first GA will be appointed among the first signatory countries. The Secretariat will then organize the election of the President and Vice-President of the next GA within a period of one year.

Meetings

The GA meets at least once a year but may organize extraordinary additional meetings, either in presence or virtually, convened by the Secretariat.
The annual meeting of the GA may be hosted by the country holding the presidency or the vice presidency, or by any country member willing to do so.
Members of the GA may make proposals for agenda and voting items. The GA meeting draft agenda will be circulated in advance, and meeting documentation will be provided afterward by the Secretariat.

Procedure and voting rights

Each member of the GA has one vote.
All decisions shall be made by consensus wherever possible. If consensus cannot be reached, decisions may be reached by simple majority vote, with a quorum of 50% of the members in each of the world regions of the GA. The world regions for the PREZODE initiative are indicated in the “Regional groups” section below.