The 6th Leaders’ Quadrennial Roundtable was held in Kuala Lumpur

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The Asia & Pacific Alliance of YMCAs (APAY) recently held its 6th Leaders’ Quadrennial Roundtable (LQR) at the YMCA Kuala Lumpur from December 8-12, 2023. The roundtable was attended by around 52 members including the APAY board members and staff from various YMCAs of the APAY, representing 15 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. The participants comprised of national general secretaries, presidents, board members, and senior staff members.

The Leaders' Quadrennial Roundtable (LQR) is a gathering that takes place every four years after the General Assembly (GA). The roundtable aims to work together on the mandates set by the General Assembly. The LQR brings together diverse constituencies of the APAY to participate in a collective and participatory process of deliberations on the mandates and resolutions delivered by the General Assembly.

The board of APAY met in Chennai immediately after the 21st GA and decided to hold the 6th LQR in Malaysia.

The objectives of the 6th LQR were:

  • To participate together in discussing the mandate and outcome of the 21st General Assembly of the APAY.
  • To develop the vision and goals for the Quadrennial Program Plan (QPP) from 2024 to 2027.
  • To identify the programmatic area and develop tools, strategies, and concrete action plans to achieve the goals of the QPP 2024-2027.

The four-day roundtable was designed to achieve the objectives through various activities and processes facilitated by all the participants, the board members, and APAY staff.

These included welcome and introductions; an overview of LQR and expectations; analysis of the QPP 2020-2023; challenges and relevance of the YMCA Mission, briefings on Challenge 21 and Vision 2030; working groups and plenaries to develop the QPP 2024-2027; and synthesis of the plenaries at the end of the roundtable. Days began with meaningful devotion based on specific themes related to Vision 2030 pillars. Evening fellowship dinners were also planned.

The 6th LQR resulted in the proposal of 5 priority areas, including the four pillars of Vision 2030, as part of QPP 2024-2027.

  • Movement Strengthening
  • Meaningful Work
  • Sustainable Planet
  • Just World
  • Community Wellbeing

ii. During the working group meeting, each priority area was thoroughly discussed and its specific objectives, strategies, action/outcomes, and indicators were developed to implement at regional, national, and local levels.

iii. The proposed QPP for 2024-2027 will be shared with national movements for feedback before approval at the upcoming executive committee meeting.

iv. The participants of the 6th LQR received a round of feedback.

After the round table, the newly elected and the ex-officio board members, along with the Task Group on HK office matters, discussed issues related to having multiple APAY regional offices that had been decided by the ECM earlier.

Asia Pacific YMCA is very much thankful to all those who participated in the 6th LQR for their invaluable contributions in developing the QPP 2024-2027. APAY would also like to extend heartfelt appreciation to the Kuala Lumpur YMCA for their hospitality in hosting the event.