Development of the new Strategic Plan (2023 – 2025)
The new Strategic Plan (2023 – 2025) was finalised, adopted by the Board, and launched during the NANGO 60th National AGM. Since its formation, NANGO has evolved in view to adapt to changes in the operating environment. Despite shifts in the operating environment, the coordination role of NANGO has become even more relevant and continues to guide the organisation’s evolutionary and value proposition path. The new Strategic Plan (2023 – 2025) is largely hinged on the rich history and foundations of NANGO as the umbrella body of NGOs operating in Zimbabwe. This strategy encapsulates our commitment to deliver concrete results that ensure inclusiveness, proactiveness, and shared values amongst NGOs in Zimbabwe. This strategy, with full membership ownership throughout the process, is a result of extensive consultations involving a wide range of stakeholders whose input contributed to the definition of key priorities and the associated Key Results Areas (KRAs). It lays out ambitious aspirations to reset the NANGO brand hence the theme, “Building An Association That Is Fit For Purpose”. The process of developing this strategy took into cognisance the fluidity of the operating environment thus it provides scope for flexibility and responsiveness to issues emerging in the operating environment.
We are at a time where we are rebooting, resetting, and repositioning ourselves to regain our position and legitimacy as the convener, coordinator, and umbrella association of NGOs in Zimbabwe. There are many expectations from our members and stakeholders that we are determined to go all the way to fulfil. This is an ambitious three-year strategic plan with five strategic focus areas that we believe respond to the current operating environment in which we find ourselves.
Strategic Priority 1: Institutional strengthening for a higher-performing NANGO. We believe the stronger NANGO is as an institution the more effective it will be in coordination and servicing of the NGO sector in Zimbabwe. This, for us, entails strengthening our governance framework, updating our policies and procedures to suit the current context, being true to our values and being guided by them in every aspect, optimising the working environment within the organisation, continually innovating to become a better fit for the future, improving accountability and communication with our stakeholders and raising sufficient resources to support our work.
Strategic Priority 2: Improving NANGO’s value proposition to its membership as a convener and coordinating organisation as well as making the NANGO brand more attractive to Zimbabwean CSOs. NANGO cannot exist without its membership. We seek to fully service our members through convening, coordinating, and building collaborative networks among members. The organisation will ensure that it effectively plays these roles to remain relevant and attract new members. Under the new strategy, we intend to revisit our value proposition to members, listen more to them, and be more responsive to their needs and expectations of us as an umbrella body.
Strategic Priority 3: Pivoting NANGO as the hub of choice for CSO capacitation, training, mentorship, knowledge curation, and operational support. We are at a time when there is a greater scrutiny on NGOs in terms of operational efficacy, sustainability, and Value For Money (VFM), the imperative need for institutionalised capacity development, training, and mentorship of these organisations has never been more pressing. As an umbrella body, we intend to leverage our alumni, networks, as well as our wide access to expertise and training resources within our networks to consolidate and package various kinds of training programmes aimed at improving the way NGOs are led and operate in Zimbabwe.
Strategic Priority 4: Strengthening NANGO to become a solid platform for advocacy, lobbying, and policy influencing in matters related to the CSO operating environment as well as national development issues. For CSOs to operate effectively and achieve the desired impact in Zimbabwe, there should be an enabling operating environment in which laws, policies, practices, and institutions regulating the CSO space achieve the desired oversight function while not causing undue bureaucracy, burdensome overreach and constraining to the work of the developmental organizations. We believe that the regulatory function should not choke operational efficiencies and that accountability should be mutual and not burdensome. Given current developments in the CSO regulatory arena, with an anticipated tightening of the operating environment throughout this strategic period, we commit ourselves to continue engaging and defending the CSO operating environment to enable ease of doing work among our members. Under the same token, we will also play our part to ensure that we protect our member organisations from abuse and mismanagement, which present the risk of regulatory overreach as a consequence.
Strategic Priority 5: Promoting effective action on the SDGs. As NANGO together with our members, we are already playing a critical role in advancing the implementation and achievement of the SDGs through local-level programmes, complementing government developmental programmes, and through national engagements. We are convinced, therefore, that deepening CSO participation in the SDGs processes, including convening the organisation and coordinating actions aimed at building strategic collaborations with the government and private sector as well as keeping mutual accountability will be an important contribution by NANGO and its members in advancing the SDGs in the country.
