Decision-making

Decision-making within the Cobra Collective prioritises the achievement of consensus. Consensual decision-making encourages the participation of all members in formulating decisions, building group cohesion, trust, knowledge and skills. This encourages better communication and relationships both within the group and with participating communities and collaborating organisations.

Occasionally, a consensual decision cannot be reached. In these circumstances, the group must assess how important the decision is, how strongly the members feel about a majority or minority decision being implemented. This may involve non participation in the implementation of a decision by some group members.

The Collective organises itself around an annual general meeting in November of every year, where key strategic and management decisions are made, while more frequent extraordinary meetings are aimed at forwarding and reviewing activities. We inform Collective members at least two weeks in advance of an extraordinary meeting and distribute an agenda one week prior to the meeting.

Work with us

If you or your organisation are planning to approach us for a potential collaboration in a project, here is some guidance on how we operate:

  • Plan in advance: The processes that we apply for proposal development are highly participatory and therefore require in general at least one month of preparation.
  • Community support: Any proposal involving communities needs to involve their input and consent prior to submission.
  • Financial arrangements: We involve local organisations and staff in all our proposals and projects. Specifically, we aim to dedicate at least 50% of funds to partners in host countries.

Join the Collective

We are a group of individuals who work together to forward COBRA’s vision, mission and goals without relying on internal hierarchies. All skills and knowledge relevant to forwarding the COBRA’s vision, mission and goals are equally shared. No single individual is essential for the functioning of the collective, and every individual has the capacity to implement any activity. Duties and tasks are rotated amongst the collective’s members, so everyone has the opportunity to practice specific skills and develop their knowledge.

Membership is voluntary. Aspiring members will undertake a period of apprenticeship in order to learn the basic skill sets and knowledge to effectively implement tasks. Only once satisfactory levels have been achieved will the aspiring members be listed as official members of the collective.

The size of the collective will be limited by the need for full participation by every member. During meetings, for example, every voice should be heard. We therefore aim to have a maximum number of 30 members over the long-term. However, specific time-limited projects, involving community participation and partnerships with other organisations, may mean that the collective temporarily grows beyond 30 individuals.

During the collective’s activities, all members will share the same basic facilities, food and transportation modes.