Strategies for institutional development
Examining the role of intermediary support organisations
From 17-20 August, EASUN organised a workshop in Moshi, Tanzania, to review and document experiences of intermediary NGO service providers involved in capacity building of grassroots community based organisations (CBOs). Sixteen participants from 14 organisations based in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania attended the workshop.
Participating organisations shared their current strategies and examined both their underlying visions and methodologies. In particular, the workshop explored the actual "interventions" which create desired shifts in leadership, effectiveness, or gender relations in grassroots organisations and in the economic and social activities or livelihoods of poor communities. The workshop increased clarity about such issues, towards helping intermediary organisations avoid a self-serving "performance trap", where an organisation can tick off activities on a capacity building menu (training, leadership development, micro-credit, coaching, etcetera) and consider itself to be making a difference.
Relevance and integrity questions
The exploration of "actual interventions" highlighted the challenge of conscious practice in capacity building work, to create specific changes in behaviors of leaders, organising principles, systems, relationships and skills. The workshop process thus enabled participants to unearth important questions that lie beneath the usual, branded activities that normally go a long way to justify the existence of the intermediary organisations themselves, but which do not always mean much in terms of strengthening or transforming institutional capacities. This was characterised as "stuckness", i.e., those things that are done repeatedly without necessarily contributing to any visible changes in the direction of claimed and stated purpose.
Through change management techniques, the workshop helped participating organisations recognise the full scope of capacities and strategies they need in order to increase the relevance, effectiveness and integrity of their capacity building efforts for the institutional development of CBOs. This led the representatives of each participating organisation to plan three things that they would introduce, discuss or change in their strategies for institutional capacity development of their partners.
Future coordinated effort
From 2009, EASUN will make follow-up visits to organisations that attended the workshop, partly to help identify training, coaching or networking support that they may need to further strengthen or transform their strategies in capacity building. This will also launch a coordinating and networking element in EASUN's advocacy for the institutional development of CBOs. Both local and international NGOs that would like to be part of this learning and networking trajectory to re-instate capacity building to the real questions of organisational and institutional capacity are invited to notify EASUN.
Contact: edna.chilimo@easun-tz.org
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Leadership through democratising governance
The key capacity intervention for African institutions today
EASUN's Executive Committee, on behalf of its Board of Trustees, met on 26th September 2008 and pointed to leadership as the essential institutional development challenge in Africa today. Scanning the environment towards EASUN's forthcoming strategy, 2009-2012, the Committee recalled bungled elections and riots in Kenya at the end of 2007, ongoing elections saga in Zimbabwe, high level corruption in Tanzania, and current media suggestions of difficult leadership transitions in Uganda - all of which raise disturbing questions about the sources of motivation for "leadership" in the region today.
To what extent can leaders in the East African region be relied upon to promote important values of equality, democratisation and participatory governance? The modeling of values is a critical quality of leadership that went through the window when self-interests of so-called leaders were at stake. Obviously, all the coaxing and programme activities for good governance are not likely to work if leaders do not have the integrity to respect established systems or the will to facilitate growth of future leadership.
The Committee noted that EASUN's future interventions for leadership development in the region will promote:
- vision and values management, democratisation and participatory governance;
- faithful implementation of established global programmes and targets such as the Millennium Development Goals (currently lagging behind, particularly in Africa);
- commitment to the vision and implementation of regional integration for sustainable development and well being of future generations;
- civil society as a place for modeling leadership practice benchmarks and feeding other institutions such as government parliament and judiciaries with transformational/facilitative leaders;
- process skills to create "green organisations" able to nurture inclusive social environments while strengthening internal performance and outcomes.
A Board's mindset matters
The Committee expressed its commitment to a new mindset for building specific organisational capacities and a structure that will allow EASUN to outsource skills and network as widely as possible. EASUN's core purpose will be re-designed to focus on the leadership challenge without necessarily losing the much acclaimed value that it is already delivering to civil society organisations in the region. Some of the strengths that will support EASUN's essential strategic focus and internal capacities include:
- a top-notch administrative team that values teamwork and deeply understands EASUN's value-base and ways of working;
- a number of Associates currently available for EASUN are well steeped in the OD practice;
- a will to reflect and adopt mentorship to develop appropriate competencies of staff and Board for shared leadership of EASUN into the future;
- capacity building interventions that transform core practices of client's supported;
- popular activities that address leadership (e.g., NGO board training; OD/ID networking meetings, as well as Facilitating Organisation Development and fieldworkers training courses);
- ability to facilitate dialogue and partnerships to influence capacity building practices in the region;
- taking initiatives to build a conscious community of OD and change practitioners in East Africa.
This newsshot is also available at: www.easun-tz.org/enews/newsshot_06october2008.html
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________________________________EASUN Centre for Organisational Learning
P.O. Box 6120 Arusha, Tanzania
Tel: +255-(0)27-2548803
Fax +255-(0)27-2548289
info@easun-tz.org
www.easun-tz.org
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