Families Living Apart

inclusion: Accommodating spouses/partners :
Families living apart

Tips and Tools

Domestic Partner Agreements

IITA Community Resources
Center

IRRI Family Services Center

G&D initiatives to support
CGIAR spouses/partners

Direct appointments

Consultancies

Fellowships

Appointment to advertized vacancies

Couple appointments

A guide for spouses/partners: what to ask

1 Despite concerted efforts by Centers to accommodate spouses/partners, there will be circumstances where it simply is not feasible for families to live together at the staff member’s duty station. Typically this is because of the spouse/partner’s career commitments, inability to find appropriate employment in the host country and/or caring responsibilities for family members.

2 This seems to be a growing challenge for Centers – determining how to accommodate these situations. A Center’s capacity to find suitable solutions is critical not only to retaining existing staff members who face this situation as their lives evolve, but also to recruiting new staff.

One possible solution: “family travel credit”
3 Centers generally have specific employment conditions for some staff members that include providing home leave, travel costs, etc., for the staff member and her/his spouse/partner and authorized dependents. These conditions provide the basis for a “cost neutral” solution that:

ultimately costs the employing Center no more than the cost of a staff member’s existing entitlements, but
provides far more flexibility for a staff member living apart from her/his family.

4 The solution involves creating or extending employment conditions incorporating the following principles:
(a) if a staff member has entitlements to personal home leave travel, spouse home leave travel or dependents’ home leave travel; then

(b) these entitlements can be converted to a nominal cash value and held as a “family travel credit”; and

5 Consequently the family travel credit can be used, for example:

to enable the staff member to make more than one annual “home leave”* trip;
to enable the staff member’s spouse/partner to make more than one annual “home leave”* trip; and/or
if the family is living apart, to enable the staff member’s spouse/partner or dependents to undertake trips to the staff member’s duty station.

Note: the trips identified by * above need not be to the staff member’s home base or duty station; they can be to some other location.

Operating principles
6 The family travel credit cannot be converted to cash and must be used by the end of the staff member’s appointment. If her/his appointment is renewed/extended, the deadline for using the family travel credit is extended similarly.

7 When the cost of travel for any trip/s exceeds the family travel credit, the staff member shall pay the amount in excess of the family travel credit.

8 If the staff member wishes to make more than one “home leave” (or “family reunion”) trip in a year, this shall be taken within the normal time provision for home/holiday leave (e.g. x weeks per year), or as agreed with Center management (e.g. by seeking leave without pay).

9 The family travel credit typically accrues on a yearly basis. Each year’s total credit must be used within 18 months of the accrual date.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
10 The family travel credit option currently is the only solution known to G&D that can readily be applied within the CGIAR. Consequently we will be monitoring future developments within and outside the CGIAR, and welcome suggestions for other options.