About This Event
“A board that has never been evaluated has never been tested.”
A board effectiveness programme built around a live boardroom audit. Participants evaluate their own board against governance benchmarks, examine how sponsor and member interests collide in real decisions, and rebuild the committee structures, board papers and succession plans that determine board quality.
What You'll Explore
A completed board evaluation scored against governance benchmarks
An ethics and conflicts audit for your board, with findings ranked
Redrafted committee terms of reference and board paper standards
A trustee succession and induction plan
A twelve-month board improvement plan, defended before an expert panel
Who Should Attend
Open to all qualifying staff, particularly: Board Chairs, Audit and Risk Committee members, Independent Trustees, Scheme Secretaries.
Why This Course Matters
Board Performance, Measured
Run a structured board evaluation with metrics rather than impressions, and turn the findings into a development plan the chair can act on at the next meeting. Boards that score themselves find the same weaknesses their supervisor would have found.
Conflicts Handled Openly
Work through sponsor and member conflicts as they arise in contribution holidays, surplus decisions and investment mandates, and document the process properly. A conflict that was managed and minuted is a governance strength; the same conflict unrecorded is a finding.
Succession Without Disruption
Build a trustee pipeline, induction plan and committee structure so a departure does not cost the board its institutional memory. Succession is cheap to plan and expensive to improvise, particularly when the chair is the one leaving.
Programme
Day 1 am
Board mandate, committee structure and information flow
You will map what your board actually decides against what its papers tell it, then redesign committee terms of reference, delegation and reporting so decisions reach the board with the right information attached.
Day 1 pm
Board evaluation, performance metrics and ethics audit
You will run a full board self-evaluation and ethics audit, scoring the board against governance benchmarks on composition, competence, challenge and decision quality, and rank the findings that matter most.
Day 2 am
Sponsor versus member conflicts of interest
You will work through contribution holidays, surplus use and related-party mandates, learning how to register, manage and minute a conflict so the decision stands up when a member or a supervisor questions it later.
Day 2 pm
Succession, dynamics and the board improvement plan
You will examine how dominance, deference and weak chairing distort decisions, build a trustee succession and induction plan, then present your twelve-month board improvement plan to an expert panel.
Standards & Faculty Benchmark
RBA, URBRA & SSRA governance rules
Supervisory expectations on trustee competence, board composition and scheme oversight across East Africa.
IOPS supervisory principles
Principles for risk-based supervision, including governance standards and trustee suitability.
OECD & ISSA governance guidelines
Core principles and social security administration guidelines on board effectiveness and accountability.
Supervisors increasingly ask boards to show evidence of evaluation rather than assurances of good practice.
Is This Right for You?
- ☑You chair a board or a board committee
- ☑Your board has never been formally evaluated
- ☑Sponsor and member interests collide on your agenda
Good to Know
The workshop uses your own board papers and minutes where you are able to share them, with anonymised material provided otherwise.
The Bottom Line
Leave with your board's weaknesses on paper, ranked, and a plan the chair can put to the next meeting.
Recommended For
Open to all qualifying staff, particularly: Board Chairs, Audit and Risk Committee members, Independent Trustees, Scheme Secretaries.