Organisation development continues to be a pressing need in the civil society sector. In some respects, it could be described as the most pressing need of all, because unless organisations are strong, and able to demonstrate their internal strengths to external stakeholders, they will not be able to attract the resources they need to do their work and remain sustainable. There is a growing trend, due to many different causes, of reduced funding available for civil society in Cambodia. This and the increasing donor demands for demonstrable results continue to be significant pressures to which organisations must be able to respond.
The ability to demonstrate results is a very significant aspect of internal strength, and this is still something with which many organisations struggle. In the previous strategic plan organisation development and managing for results were presented as separate themes in the programme framework. This time they have been merged in order to reflect that VBNK’s work with the Outcomes and Impact Orientation (OIO) model needs to be fully integrated into multiple aspects of how an organisation functions and presents its work to others. This component of our organisation development work is of continuing importance for many partners, because they are not yet able to respond fully to their donors’ focus on reporting based at a higher level than activities and output as results. Understanding results needs to be addressed at all levels in the organisation, from the leadership who need to secure support from and report to external stakeholders, to the development workers engaging with target groups on a daily basis. All need to be able to assess how various inputs and their activities are contributing to positive change, or if not make adjustments that will.
Another feature of organisation development that VBNK has started to work on in recent years is to support partners to develop and implement resource mobilisation strategies. This is increasingly seen as something that organisations need, and our work in this area has proved beneficial to the partners we have supported in this way. It is our intention to develop this area of expertise further so that we can offer it as a component of the packages marketed to donors and their partners. A linked issue is theory of change (TOC) development. Increasingly donors want to see proposals that not only include a logical framework but also a TOC. We will explore ways to out in place the expertise for facilitation of TOC to be added to the list of services that we are able to offer.
In the period of this strategic plan VBNK intends to continue organisation development work primarily with civil society organisations. The expectation is that this will most usually be under contract to donor organisations that want to see their implementing partners better able to meet all the demands being made of them. But there may also be occasions when an organisation contracts VBNK directly to provide this support. If relevant, VBNK would also consider requests to accompany central and local government agencies, international organisations and private sector entities if their work was contributing to the country’s social development.