Supporting Organizational Capacity Development for Enhanced Efficacy & Sustainability

Pact Vietnam’s Approach

Background

Derived from global best practice, Pact’s worldwide mandate & our local experience:

Recognition that technical competency and overall organizational health are inextricable

A development hypothesis that promoting organizational viability& efficacy will lead to more sustainable VNGOs that are better able to manage the national response independent of donor trends / funds

Increasing awareness that health sector VNGOs and CBOs have potential to provide inroads into civil society development in Vietnam writ large

Organizational Capacity Building Strategy

Launched in 2008

Support for Organizational Development

Rapid Response Grantmaking

Provision of High Quality Technical

Expertise

Coordination of Stakeholders

Engaged in the National

Response

Shift to a more systematic

approach to capacity building that recognizes

technical capacity development

cannot be addressed in

isolation from other foundational

organizational capacities

Our Approach

• Coordinated partnership approach (HPI, VSO, Care, SNV / LCDF, etc)

• Assessment-based• Peer- connected• Demand-driven• Customized• Iterative• Look globally, adapt locally

Guiding Principles

Our Approach

Customized & Participatory Capacity Assess-ment

Cross-Partner Trainings to address mutual capacity challenges

Capacity Building Accounts to allow partners greater ownership/ flexibility in

addressing their needs

Task-specific TA & Coaching to training reinforce concepts

Emphasis on promoting Local Capacity Building Providers

Adapts Pact’s Global OD Toolkit to Vietnam

Key Features

Pact’s Globally Recognized Organizational Capacity Assessment Methodology (OCA)

Process overview:

Participatory tool design Guided self-assessment Results debrief & action

planning Drafting of organizational

strengthening plan (OSP) Pact support for

implementation and monitoring of OSP

Re-OCA every 2+ years

Capacity framework (tool) developed by our partners:

1. Strategy & Planning2. Leadership & Management3. Material & Financial

Management4. Organizational Structure &

HR Management5. Professional Skills6. Program Management7. Communications & External

Relations

Cross-Partner Priorities Identified through FY 09 OCA ProcessCapacity Area: Addressed through (intervention):

Human Resource ManagementLinked partners to local training institute; Pact providing corresponding one-on-one TA for specific HR-related project

Fundraising & Resource MobilizationCustomized training to be delivered in partnership with ISS (local provider) and the Resource Alliance UK

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Three trainings planned for FY10; two modules to be delivered to new partners

Project Design & Proposal WritingPact training that builds on LPI training series

* Given the absorptive capacity of organizations and their programmatic obligations, Pact recommends that partners undertake approximately 2 organizational development interventions per year and no more than 3 at a maximum.

How will we know we are succeeding?

• Quarterly monitoring & updating of Organizational Strengthening Plans (OSPs)

• Self-reported change in organizational capacity o through re-OCA & Most Significant Change techniques

• Uptake of best practice capacity building methods by peer organizations & subgrantees

• Learning events with partners to capture successes • Cataloguing of local service provider performance

data

Challenges / Reflections• Retrofitting an existing program• Short grant cycle & programmatic confines• Mandate & risk aversion• Training fatigue• Balancing customization with reach• Training individuals in high turn over environment• Hard to capture what is truly in demand

• Challenge of being both a capacity builder & donor focused on compliance• Potentially supply-driven and lacking cohesion• Understanding the organization’s motivations & incentives to buy in• Relatively resource-rich environment

• Getting beyond those ‘first in line’• Confusing market information regarding service providers• Recruiting qualified capacity builders on staff

Working assumption that building the capacity of CSOs at the organizational level extrapolates to building civil society capacity writ large

The Way Forward• Global Fund

• offers new operational paradigm and the resources to fund it• forging new and stronger partnerships• allows expansion of existing CB activities

• Aligning our resources to match our priorities• Focus on sustainability / partnership with the Resource

Alliance, looking beyond donor grants• Local Capacity Development Initiative (LCDF)• Fellows program for mid-level and talented staff*• Lunch & Learn series*

* Concepts under exploration / development