Awate 2020: Project Survey

Introducing Awate 2020 Project
Project end date: June 10, 2015

Dear all,

As you all know, awate.com is in its fifteenth year of uninterrupted service in the struggle for the betterment of Eritrea. Over the years, we have accumulated experience, goodwill, and morale equity. At this juncture of our history, we are determined to steer our operations to a new direction, and towards what we envision awate.com would be in the year 2020. In the meantime, we will continue playing our important and constructive role in the democratization process of Eritrea.

The idea of institutionalizing our entity and expanding to other areas of service has always stayed alive. Alas, due to lack of resources, including funds and manpower, our ideas remained a dream, a plan on paper that never crossed to the area of implementation.

It is very clear to us that many people endorse our activities and positions, while some do not agree with what we do, and still others are totally opposed to our activities and the positions that we take. Over the years we have been listening to diverse ideas and suggestions in a casual manner. But now, as we plan to start implementing our plans that were delayed for so many years, and embark on a new phase of expansion, we believe it is very essential that we solicit your input and listen to suggestions from individuals with diverse views.

We have listed 30 prominent people, some are experts in such projects, and others are people we trust will have a significant contribution to the success of Awate 2020. You have been identified as one of such people whose feedback we value, and thus we welcome the opportunity to hear from you. We will let you know about future developments and activities as we intend to make this note public to solicit feedback from a wider audience. Until then, we kindly ask you to send us your feedback on the form attached below–feel free to add separate pages if you so wish.

Our plans include the following:

1. Establishing an institution under the goal: Awate 2020.
   2. The institutionalized Awate 2020 will be structured to include the following four units: a) think-tank, b) research and consultancy, c) media, and d) publishing.
   3. The structure will have a board of trustees/board of directors.
   4. Operations will be formally incorporated and will publish annual reports and disclosure of audited financial statements.

We plan to achieve the above objectives by June 2015.

As a first step, we have enlisted the pro bono assistance of a management consultant to conduct an independent and comprehensive review of our current position, to enable us to develop a clear work plan for the vision that will take us to the year 2020 in terms of Structure, Operations, Fiscal Capacity, Succession, and Governance.

This review is being supplemented by a self-assessment review to inform the strategic vision development plan and process that would ensure that awate2020 is well-positioned to build on the mission inherited from awate.com, (“Inform, Inspire, Embolden, and Reconcile”) to remain committed to effecting meaningful change in our region and contribute towards sustaining it beyond the fall of the dictatorship in Eritrea.

We are in the process of hold several teleconferences, meetings, and e-mail communication with different people to further develop our plans. So far, we have received feedback from a few solicited people and are compiling it.

Today we are soliciting your time to answer questions contained in the survey that you can access through the following:

LINK: AWATE 2020: “PROJECT SURVEY”

Thank you
For Awate 2020 Project