Victorian Closing the Gap Partnership Forum
Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria
Who funded the project
Karabena Consulting was engaged by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Victoria to support the establishment of the Victorian Closing the Gap (CTG) Partnership Forum. The CTG agenda contains key responsibilities, accountabilities, and commitments to close the gap for current and future generations of Aboriginal Victorians for the next 10 years.
Karabena was appointed in February 2022 to administer the nomination and election of the community members to sit on the Victorian Closing the Gap Partnership Forum.
In August 2022, Karabena was engaged to facilitate the inaugural meeting of the elected community representatives to consider information provided by the Departmental Secretariat and government representatives, and how the community representatives will facilitate self-determination.
This was followed by the establishment of an intermediary Advisory Group to negotiate a 2-day meeting of the CTG Partnership Forum community representatives, a body now called ‘Ngaweeyan Maar-oo (The Voice of/for the People)’. A 2-day workshop was held in September 2022 which led to the establishment of the Ngaweeyan Maar-oo Secretariat and sector work plans.
Karabena provided a detailed report to Ngaweeyan Maar-oo that provides a tranche of actions as determined by the representative body to operationalise a ‘collective decision-making model’ which considers the development of cultural protocols that privilege Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s ways of knowing, being and doing.
Summary
The 2020 National Agreement contains 19 national socio-economic targets across areas that have an impact on life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The aim of this project was to lead the development of the CTG Partnership Forum community representatives’ position on how self-determination will be embedded in the implementation of the CTG targets and to determine the best foundation for this work to occur.
Project Aims
Karabena Consulting utilised the following methodologies:
A facilitated co-design workshop: where all community representatives contributed their knowledge, skills, and expertise to strengthen the outcomes for the ACCOs according to the CTG Partnership Forum terms of reference.
An independent election process: where representatives were elected by their ACCO sector peers to sit on the CTG Partnership Forum.
A strength-based approach to collectively determine the CTG Partnership Forum Community Members Secretariat functions, actions, and self-determining strategies so that members can fulfil their roles and responsibilities.
Methodologies
The key outputs for this project were:
A series of reports that reflect the outcomes of the independent election of key individuals from the ACCOs.
A detailed policy report that provides a tranche of actions as determined by Ngaweeyan Maar-oo to operationalise a ‘collective decision-making model’ which considers the development of cultural protocols that privilege Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s ways of knowing, being and doing.
Project Outputs
The key outcomes for this project were:
A community driven nomination and election process to determine community representatives on the CTG Partnership Forum.
The establishment of the community representative body, Ngaweeyan Maar-oo, which sits within the wider CTG Partnership Forum, but has its own agenda, activities and secretariat.
The development of sector-specific workplans.
Project Outcomes
An announcement by the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet of the establishment of the CTG Partnership Forum.
Public response
#Self Determination #partnerships #commissioning #frameworks #data sovereignty #relationships #collaboration #leadership #resources #decisionmaking