Webinar highlights how FIDIC’s MAs make a real difference for their members

24 Jun 2025

news image

The work and impact of FIDIC’s global member associations was highlighted this week at the latest event in FIDIC’s annual series of webinars. A Showcasing FIDIC member associations webinar on Tuesday 24 June 2025, organised by FIDIC’s Directors and Secretaries Advisory Council, highlighted some of the successful initiatives being undertaken by FIDIC’s national member associations which are making a positive difference to their member firms around the world.

The webinar was chaired by ACE New Zealand CEO and chair of the FIDIC Directors and Secretaries Advisory Council Helen Davidson. Speakers included Liv Kari Hansteen, CEO of the Norwegian Association of Consulting Engineers (RIF), Martine Proulx, vice president of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC) Canada and Rajiv Maini, director of the Consulting Engineers Association of India (CEAI).

Opening the event, Helen Davidson said that FIDIC member association members member firms were literally engineering the world around them and those member associations were providing a crucial role in supporting those engineering and consultancy firms in the work that they do. The event highlighted effective advocacy using a number of initiatives that have been employed by three member associations to help enhance their lobbying and representational activities.

Liv Kari Hansteen, CEO of the Norwegian Association of Consulting Engineers (RIF), talked about her association’s key dialogues with ministers, parliament, clients and other key stakeholders which enabled RIF to influence national policy in Norway. In framing RIF’s lobbying activities, Hansteen said that it was important to “highlight the consequences for society of failing infrastructure and a lack of investment”. In this way, she said, the industry was able to demonstrate clearly the importance of decent, well-funded and sustainable infrastructure.

Hansteen also spoke about the importance of building relationships and trust with key stakeholders and how RIF has used key publications like its State of the Nation report to help position the consulting engineering sector as a forward-looking industry, not just a traditional one.

Martine Proulx, vice president of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies (ACEC) Canada, reflected on the recent ‘snap’ Canadian federal elections and give examples of what ACEC did to intervene during the election campaign. She highlighted Invest in Growth, a high-impact digital campaign by ACEC-Canada that elevated infrastructure as a national priority during Canada’s election. The goals of the campaign were to showcase engineering as central to Canada’s future prosperity and resilience, to elevate infrastructure as a top federal election issue, to influence national policy through non-partisan advocacy and empower ACEC members and the public to engage with political candidates.

Proulx highlighted some of the successes of the Invest in Growth campaign which online had seen its microsite garner 2.2 million page impressions, 10,000+ site visits and 7,555 user actions. Policy influence was achieved with ACEC’s demands reflected in Canada’s political party platforms which offered more visibility for the sector with consulting engineers seen as public leaders. The campaign has also provided some real long-term value for ACEC with many of the campaign tools being repurposed for the organisation’s ongoing advocacy efforts.

Rajiv Maini, director of the Consulting Engineers Association of India (CEAI), spoke about the CEAI Compendium which was produced to mark the anniversary of India’s independence as a nation. The initiative, which won a FIDIC MA Excellence Award for Showcasing Value in 2024, included a campaign that showcased the spectacular engineering accomplishments made in India since it gained its independence nearly eight decades ago.

Maini highlighted the objectives of the CEAI Compendium which were to showcase the achievements and contributions of consulting engineers, to take pride as a consulting engineer and to highlight India’s global standing in consulting engineering. The initiative was a success resulting in boosted morale and better bonding amongst CEAI members and staff and the CEAI Compendium was shared with policy makers, institutions, MDBs and members. It was widely accepted as a key narrative of India’s engineering capacity building and also highlighted a roadmap for the consultancy of the future, demonstrating not only the progress made over previous years but also engendering a sense of pride to encourage the sector to achieve even higher levels of excellence.

Summing up the webinar, Helen Davidson said that FIDIC’s Directors and Secretaries Advisory Council (DNSAC) was keen to build help the capacity and capability of FIDIC members and to that end was currently preparing a toolkit of guidance and resources to uplift the capability of all FIDIC’s member associations. The toolkit will help countries that don’t have a member association to effectively establish one and will support established member associations to grow enduring resilience and sustainability.

FIDIC MAs would be consulted soon on the content of the toolkit, she said, which would include modules on effective advocacy, leveraging and managing volunteers, developing an effective sponsorship programme, setting your association’s objectives and purpose, setting your member value proposition and establishing your member association governance framework.

Related news

CEO's Update - Issue 41: Nov 2023

07-Nov-2023

Contracts expert Vincent Leloup receives prestigious Prangey Award

13-Sep-2024

CICA and FIDIC host international webinar on use of the FIDIC Green Book 2021

14-May-2025

FIDIC CEO elected as Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering

22-Sep-2021