WANTED
:
NGO LEADERS who are passionate about their work
and enjoy sharing experience and learning
WELCOME
TO THE ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT LEARNING PROGRAMME
(ODLP)
BACKGROUND
Two
years ago, a survey, exploring some of the developmental
issues facing local NGOs within Nampula province
was conducted. The survey also engaged with the
international NGOs operating in the province.
What was found was that:
·
Any intervention to support the transformation
and strengthening of local NGOs should be holistic
rather than piecemeal training to develop specific
skills;
· Local NGOs would benefit from a longer
term process of capacity development (for individuals
within the organisations as well as for the organisation
as a whole);
· Such a (learning) process should be supported
(in between actual learning sessions) by mentors,
who would accompany each participating organisation
in their (ongoing) processes of development;
· Developing the capacity of identified
mentors to provide relevant and appropriate support
to local NGOs should form part of the overall
strategic intervention;
· Relationships between local NGOs, international
NGOs and donor organisations are a critical element
in the strengthening of civil society at a local
level: these relationships need to be explored
with a view to ensuring that they are ultimately
working towards the same ends.
OUR
APPROACH
The
facilitators' many years of experience in the
field - together with the insights gathered in
the survey - have shaped the design of this learning
programme. Rather than offer skills training in
financial management, board management, project
management, etc, it aims to address the underlying
realities which affect the capacity of organisations
to engage meaningfully in fulfilling their vision
and mission.
The
ODLP is not a training programme. Rather it facilitates
a learning process that deepens leaders' understanding
of values, practice, organisational coherence
and functioning. It is an ongoing dialogue among
leaders to advance their learning to lead more
effective and vibrant organisations: it is a learning
programme that creates the conditions for individual
and organisational learning. The programme provides
a process for self-understanding, reflection and
strengthening of capacity for both types of NGOs
- local and international NGOs. Leaders from different
NGOs come together to learn about themselves and
to learn from one another. In this way, they are
exposed to the realities experienced by other
leaders and organisations in a way that also deepens
a greater understanding of their own realities.
The
ODLP lifts reflection and insight about the practice
through the development work that participants
are actually doing on the ground. Thus the real
activities - successes, challenges and dilemmas
- become the material from which participants
learn. At the same time, the ODLP also brings
relevant input in order to give participants new
ways of understanding and processing their experiences.
The programme is designed to offer a number of
learning modalities carefully chosen by a well-known
group of organisational facilitators. In this
way, the programme is highly responsive to context
and individual leader's realities, approaches
and needs. It is dependent on participating leaders'
drive to learn based on their own experiences
within their organisation. It deepens from the
inside out, instead of imposing externally decided
tools for managing organisations better.
It
provides a framework for leaders to learn how
organisations function. It provides a methodology
to learn how to keep on learning through continuing
reflection. It focuses on the development of understanding
with respect to self, organisation, practice and
context; the development of a relevant approach
and methodology based on this understanding; and
the deepening of the skills demanded by this approach
and understanding. It strives for organisational
coherence, rather than promoting fragmented skills
which participants are expected to 'acquire'.
ODLP
AIMS
Overall
the ODLP has two aims. One is to contribute toward
the emergence of a new cadre of local NGO leaders
that are empowered to develop vibrant and effective
civil society organisations. The second is to
identify a group of international NGOs that are
keen to collaborate and to support this development
through their funding practices. Once these two
aims are achieved, local and international NGOs
will be in a stronger position to address contextual
issues so that a coherent development of civil
society is more likely to unfold in northern Mozambique.
DESCRIPTION
OF THE THREE PROGRAMMES
The
ODLP is comprised of three interweaving learning
programmes.
1.
The Local NGO Programme
This programme comprises seven workshops spread
over 2½ years with approximately a four-month
space between workshops, during which time participants
have practical assignments to complete within
their own organisations. Participants also write,
read and keep a reflective journal during the
programme. Each workshop is on average seven days
long, thus meaning that there are a total of 49
days in workshops. Three of the workshops are
residential and four are non-residential.
The
programme offers a generic learning and leadership
programme that provides support for local NGO
leaders to understand the nature of their own
organisations within the development context in
which they work. It provides a base where local
NGOs can build a new, more assertive and confident
practice through a deepened understanding of their
own organisation's identity, role and culture.
Leaders also learn about the phases of development
organisations experience and the differing needs
that are required during the different phases.
They learn to harness the real but invisible energies
and forces that make organisations effective.
2.
The Mentor Programme
In addition to spending a total of 49 workshop
days with the leaders of local NGOs mentioned
above in seven workshops spread over 2½
years, the mentors as a group also spend another
three days per workshop session either immediately
before or after the local NGO session begins or
ends. This means that mentors spend a total of
70 days in workshops. They have practical assignments
to complete between the seven workshop sessions
and they write, read and keep reflective journals
throughout the programme.
The
programme develops a cadre of mentors that accompany
and facilitate local NGOs in their work in the
field. Consequently, in addition to co-learning
with the local NGO leaders in the programme described
above, the mentors also participate with experienced
organisational facilitators in their own learning
programme, custom-designed to strengthen themselves
in understanding donor practice, organisational
diagnosis and intervention, coaching, mentoring,
counselling, supervision and the use and development
of reflective practice to enhance organisational
learning. Mentors are also strengthened in the
art of facilitating individual and group process.
3.
The International NGO Programme
This programme is composed of three workshops
spread over two years. International NGOs meet
separately as a group most of the time, but also
interact with local NGO leaders as a group later
in the programme. Each workshop lasts on average
three days.
This
programme takes as its starting point the vital
need to explore and transform the relationships
between local and international NGOs, and involves
the organisational facilitators working with leaders
of international NGOs as a group to examine in
depth the strategies they have adopted in working
with local NGOs. The programme also probes the
nature of development practice more generally,
based on the practice experienced in northern
Mozambique. The programme prompts international
NGO leaders to interrogate their understanding
of capacity development and to examine their own
organisational constraints which might be beyond
their control, and which impact on the relationships
they forge with local NGOs. It supports international
NGOs to build a collaborative approach to development.
THE
FACILITATORS
A
well known and experienced team of four organisational
facilitators has been assembled to design and
facilitate the ODLP programme.
Allan
Kaplan
Allan created and directed the well-known Community
Development Resource Association (CDRA). This
NGO is based in Cape Town, South Africa and it
has been a leader in providing organisation development
support in the non-profit sector for the last
two decades. During this time, Allan has developed
a reputation as an outstanding Organisation Development
consultant, and has worked primarily in southern
and eastern Africa, but also in South America
and Europe. He has written extensively in the
field of organisational and social transformation,
and has, for many years, been at the cutting edge
of organisation and social development practice.
Sue
Davidoff
Sue is an organisational consultant based in Cape
Town and she has been working in the field of
organisation development in Africa for the past
12 years. She led an NGO called the Teacher In-service
Project (TIP) that provides organisation development
support primarily to those in the education sector
for nine years. She has also worked in the NGO
sector and has authored several books on systems
change, organisational development, leadership
and management within the context of social transformation.
John
Wilson
John is a freelance facilitator and consultant
based in Harare and he has worked nearly 20 years
supporting the growth and development of vibrant
and creative civil society organisations in numerous
ways throughout southern, eastern and western
Africa. He has the experience of establishing
and leading a local NGO in Zimbabwe and then being
the founding Coordinator of the PELUM Association;
a member-driven, regional association comprised
of local NGOs in east and southern Africa interested
to learn and network together in sustainable agriculture.
Joaquim
Oliveira Mucar
Joaquim is a facilitator, consultant and the Executive
Director of Magariro; a highly reputable local
development NGO, based in Chimoio, Manica province,
Mozambique. As a facilitator, Joaquim has an impressive
toolbox of skills that include, the facilitation
of strategic planning processes, participatory
organisational assessments, action-learning and
programme design and management. He works as an
organisation development consultant in Mozambique.
He is one of the facilitators and also the translator
for the entire ODLP programme.
ODLP
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Participants¹
must be
Passionate
about their work
- Enjoy sharing experiences and learning
- Able to communicate well in Portuguese for
the Local NGO programme and English for the
mentor and International NGO programmes
- Actively engaged in a leadership or governing
capacity in local or international NGOs in northern
Mozambique
- Committed to participate actively and to
complete all assignments at EVERY session
- Able to obtain their organisation's support²
and written guarantee that they may attend EVERY
session without fail; and be permitted time
to complete all ODLP assignments and to carry
out practical work within their own organisation.
- Able to arrange their own transport to and
from their place of origin and the workshop
venues in the Nampula City area and to pay all
costs associated with it
- Able to arrange their own accommodation and
to pay all costs associated with it for the
non-residential sessions that are held in the
Nampula City area.
