Planning, Planning, Planning
on A Zambian Experience (Zambia), 02/Feb/2011 10:32, 34 days ago
It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I really don’t know where the time is going.At the moment I’m developing CDNG’s strategic plan for the next 5 years, which will help me to put together a fundraising strategy to present to potential donors. One of the things that I’ve learnt over the last year though, is that it’s very difficult to do any planning in Africa!!Tomorrow’s plan’s could be jeopardized by a sudden illness, a sudden funeral, or even the arrival of relatives all demanding food and a place to stay, which means that many plans just go out of the window in an attempt to concentrate on the immediate challenges and opportunities that emerge. So when I sat down to the task of starting the process of organisational strategic planning I had to call on the help of Rosie, a friend of mine in Chipata who is an expert on Strategic planning and a fellow VSO.On Saturday we held a workshop at the office and invited all the key members of the organisation, including the front line workers who care and support the chronically ill. We felt it was important to really involve people at grassroots level, so that they could take ownership of the direction of the organisation. Here’s a photo of Rosie and Rachel Manda, a Home-Base Carer and Member of the Board.I was really surprised as the day actually started on time! (This is a slight issue for me, as the last time we held a meeting at the office, I turned up to find that that the only colleague present at the meeting was the Programme Manager, who was still wearing his pyjamas! (He lives at the centre and had just woken up to do his laundry).‘Sarah you are the first one!’, he said (as if I should’ve known). I then patiently waited for an hour until the first arrival who had traveled 2 hours from the village. I then sat there thinking that it’s always the people who live furthest away who are always the ones who arrive the earliest!Anyway, at the planning workshop, we did lots of group exercises which involved getting people to work out what CDNG means to them and their community members. We covered sensitive issues such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the organisation and we came up with a new vision and mission of the organisation by lunch time! I was really pleased with the contribution of my colleagues as many of them had given up their free time to volunteer and support the direction of the organisation. I really hope that the good momentum continues.