Message from the SC Chair Ms. Hap Navy

Dear SUMERNET Members,

Welcome to our newsletter. It is nice to be in touch again and update you about the activities in our network.

We are in the process of revising our governance structure and recruiting new SUMERNET Steering Committee (SSC) members as part of our collective efforts to enhance regional ownership of SUMERNET.  Through these efforts, we intend to empower our members to fully participate in, and contribute to, strategic decisions of SUMERNET.

We have recruited six new members of the SSC in 2019 and aim to recruit a few more. We are also seeking your feedback on the new governance structure of our network about which the Secretariat has communicated to you all last week. We strongly encourage you as network members to provide your inputs on the governance structure through this online form: https://forms.gle/ZGmRPCK9ZFy8pQ6t8.

As some of the SSC members end their term in June 2020, we had to bid farewell to Dr. Chu Thai Hoanh (Vietnam), Dr. Kanokwan Manorom (Thailand) and Dr. Hu Tao (China) who have contributed their time, expertise and insights to develop our network. Although they are no longer serving as your representatives at the SSC, they assured us that they will continue their commitment to support SUMERNET as network members and partners. Please join me, with the rest of the SSC to confer our highest appreciation to their contributions to our network.

Consequently, in time for this change within SSC, I was elected to be the new Chair of the SSC and with the help of Dr. Louis Lebel, as co-chair, we hope to continue the good work of the previous Chair, Dr. Hoanh to develop this regional network to be an influential research network in the Mekong to achieve our vision “Reducing water insecurities for all, in particular, the poor, marginalized and socially vulnerable groups of women and men in the Mekong Region”.

Through this newsletter, I would like to ask all of you for your continuing support, as network members, to achieve enhanced ownership of the network. As Chair of the SSC, I would also like to invite any suggestions or feedback to the SSC and Secretariat on how to better serve you, facilitating collaboration and partnerships within our network.

Yours sincerely,

Hap Navy

Chair, SUMERNET Steering Committee

Deputy Director, Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI), Cambodia