GRACARO has recently organized a capacity building program aimed at empowering civil society organizations and common initiative groups for impact. The event took place at the North West Regional Assembly hall, up station, Bamenda, on Wednesday 17th April 2024 with over 140 participants.
The program, which was designed to equip these organizations with tools needed in their organizations, GRACARO is taking a bold step forward in advancing the capabilities of these organizations. GRACARO’s initiative was to equip participants with the essential tools, strategies, and insights needed to thrive in today’s humanitarian landscape. The workshop, led by the CEO of GRACARO, Rev Chiabi Martin and his staff, offers an impactful learning experience that combines theoretical frameworks with practical application.
During the workshop, participants explored a wide range of topics such as, setting organizations on the rails of growth and sustainability, communication; A tool for Civil Society Organization (CSO) sustainability, principles of organizational leadership, CSOs liability to pay taxes, understanding the project cycle and the project tree as well as the impact these organizations create in the community. It was an interactive workshop as the participants were given room to ask questions where they did not understand and their worries were addressed.
On the basis of setting organizations on the rails of growth and sustainability, the CEO of Lukmef, Mr Tanyi Christian throwed light on crafting a vision, mission, objectives, strategic plans and action plans that are relevant to local, national, and global development agendas. He cautioned the participants to know how their organizations are branded. If for example, an individual has an organization working on human rights, the question he urges them to ask themselves is what the ideal situation would be if the human right is worked out. A vision should be crafted based on the mandate. It should not target your organization but the problem your organization is out to solve. The mandate is what you do as an organization. He furthers by saying that, a mission is to start a journey. In setting the mission, you need to set steps and each step is an objective. Any member or staff coming into your organization must believe in your vision, mission, and objectives, else they would bring you down. In running an organization, you need a strategic plan, which is developed to last for a minimum of five years. Then, an action plan is derived which sets out what you want to achieve for the year. Indicators must be included which comprises how many people you want to reach and in what number.
To be able to implement all what Mr Christian proposed, he advices that communication is necessary for the successful running of an organization. The workshop provided participants with practical strategies to foster open and transparent communication channels, resulting in improved collaboration, streamlined processes, and stronger relationships with stakeholders. Dr Manzie Vincent, a lecturer in the department of communication and development studies in the University of Bamenda, trains the participants on using communication as a tool for Civil Society Organization (CSO) sustainability. Every organization needs funding and for the funding to reach them, they need to apply which means they need to communicate. Communication is the problem and it is only communication that can solve the problem especially in an organization as he remarks.
He educated participants on the nature of communication; verbal which is in the power of your speech, non-verbal which entails body language, tone, silence as he reiterates that, it is not in every meeting that participants must dispute or prove a point, written communication which has to do with how you phrase a language. He also spoke about communication flow in organizations, quoting the top down which has to do with control and protection of hierarchy whereby everything is centered around the CEO, upward communication which comes from the grassroots. He says a good organization should have a blend of both top-down and upward communication.
Sustaining an organization does not only have to be about the external public. Internal public also matters as he notes. Horizontal/lateral communication which involves people of the same rank within the organization discussing how a task would be completed is also an important form of communication. It is the duty of the organization to determine which of the combinations best fits the organization.
Participants were also advised during the seminar that, organizations working with child protection should get themselves registered on the child protection cluster. This is just an example because it applies to other domains as well. If they do so, it would bring more visibility.
Regarding taxes, CSOs are tax payers before they can start benefitting from any exemption. Taxes which the burden falls on the organization could include business license, public income tax, and purchase tax to name these.
One of the workshop’s key takeaways is the importance of effective leadership. Dr Nkwenti Daniel begins by drawing inspiration from Joshua 1:8 where the bible urges us all to meditate on the scriptures because it is in this matter that we can be prosperous and have good success. Based on his teachings, he says a leader must have a heart of love. You should not think of what to get from people, but what to give them to improve their lives. A good leader is disciplined. You have to endure and persevere. A good leader doesn’t give up and is resourceful. He gives 5Ps to improve as a leader; portion where he says to get better after a seminar, we need to be united and explore division of labor because the team cannot be successful by one man and there as well has to be humility. He also talked on permanence where he urges them to bring the word of God into their organizations to see a change because only the word of God changes people. Process, purpose and promise are also important as he explained. He concludes by saying that, we cannot lead in a vacuum because we represent people and needs in the community.
The CEO of Lukmef, Mr Tanyi Christian furthers by coaching the participants on understanding the project cycle. He begins by saying that, projects come from problems and as such, the project cycle starts with problem identification where you either live the problem, witness it, told about it or you heard. You start by asking questions like what could be done.
He urges participants that, wherever they are going, be it a journey or a walk, they should always arrive their destination with a new idea. The next stage as he pointed out is the problem analysis where you identify what the problem is, why it is there, who is affected, how many persons have been affected, has anybody attempted a solution, and what you can do to make a change. The next step is the concept note which is a summarized document of about one to two pages about the problem and what you intend to do , then there is the master project which has all the components of the project, tailoring which is extracting from your main project and putting the material in a template that suits the donors because they have their own template, contractualization which is the recommendation phase by your funders if they approved your project, implementation planning which is where you start developing the job description in the proposal because they might ask for reports as soon as possible, there is also monitoring, evaluation and reporting, then end of project, final report and audits.
You cannot close the project without auditing. Two things are expected which are replication and scaling up. With replication, you cannot close the project without auditing. You do what you had formerly done in other areas. With scaling up, you can extend to four places if for example you formerly did in two places. From replications, you are carrying lessons learnt to the next domain. Within the project, you use it as a stepping stone to engage. Executing your project well is a marketing tool for you. There must be an output, outcome and an impact. If there is no change, there is no impact. The impact you create in the community is what funders look out for.
A participant attending the workshop expresses how she feels after the seminar as she reveals. Madam Teneng Conscience, the CEO of Graduates and Schools Alliance (GASA) is happy to have been able to achieve her objectives which was to know how to be able to grow her organization sustainably. With the knowledge gained, I have been able to know that sustainability is not only in terms of money but also in terms of networking. The workshop has pushed me to be able to come out with a strategic plan for my organization. This would help me derive an action plan that would shape the activities to be derived in the strategic plan.
To the organizer of the workshop, Rev Chiabi Martin, he reveals that his purpose of organizing the workshop comes as a result of what he has gone through. Anytime I see young organizations, I start imagining that they are certainly going through what I went through. When I interviewed them, I discovered truly that they are going through a lot of challenges. One of the ways in which I could help them is to build their capacity. That is the main reason why the workshop was organized.
As more organizations adopt the strategies and insights gained from the workshop, the effect of this innovative training program promises to create a positive and lasting impact on numerous industries. With GRACARO leading the charge, the future of organizational growth and success looks brighter than ever before.
