CartONG was founded in 2006 to support humanitarian organizations in their management of geographical data and to promote the sharing of tools, methodologies and data within the humanitarian and international development sector (find more information on our history in the video produced for our 10th anniversary in 2016). Having undergone many changes since its creation, it appeared necessary at the beginning of 2019 to draft an associative project that would clarify the social contribution of our organization, specify its fields of expertise, and (re)define its values so as to guide its future development.

In keeping with our rather horizontal operating mode and our participatory everyday management structures, the design process of this associative project was naturally open to as many people as possible: board, staff team, members and volunteers. From January to the end of May 2019, staff, members and volunteers participated in its development, under the guidance of our energetic board members. Following the work conducted by 4 working groups built around the themes "Being", "Doing", "Living" and "Becoming", a first version of the associative project was introduced during the "Get-Together" of April 2019. At the end of the weekend, a second more advanced version of the assocative project was sent to all CartONG members by the board, and the final version was validated at the end of May.

This associative project complements CartONG's statutes and affirms the choice of our organization to promote certain key values in the implementation of our projects and in the way our teams work: Human-centric, Professionalism, Agility, Autonomy, Collaboration and Connectedness. It also reaffirms CartONG's function as a support NGO and resource center. Finally, it sets out the clear intention of our association to be "a Non-Governmental Organization whose mission is to put data at the service of humanitarian, international development and social action projects".

As the associative project is by definition a "living" document, CartONG expects to have to modify and/or complete it in the coming years in order to materialize the intentions that have been (re)affirmed, in particular regarding our economic model, our internal governance or our relations with partners. We hope that by reading this document, our partners and those who have recently discovered us will be able to better understand the current positioning of our NGO, and, that it will, why not, foster new collaborations and commitments!

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To discover the different stages of the participatory process implemented by CartONG for the development of its associative project, visit our website.

We also invite all those interested in CartONG's associative project to get involved in the activities of our association. To do so, you can choose to join CartONG as a member, become a volunteer or contact us to discuss the possibility of developing new projects and partnerships. More information here.