Background:
A national humanitarian organisation operates in an island nation, one of the poorest countries in the world, suffering from political instability, insecurity and regular natural disasters. The organisation had spent considerable time and organisational energy in creating a Five Year Plan to guide and drive its activities and fund raising strategy. A meeting was to be held hosted by a key national partner and attended by representatives from eight of its major donors.
Problem:
Several of the donors had predetermined ideas of priorities for the organisation they would be prepared to fund. A few of them had limitations imposed by their governments on funding for specific activities that involved HIV/AIDS education and non discrimination.
Goal:
Get agreement of all partners on the Five Year Plan and get commitment from donors to support the core programmes and activities identified in the plan as
priorities.
Service:
We met individually with key stakeholders, we got agreement on a programme intended to help the group define the key issues to be addressed and to encourage collaborative decision making. We facilitated the meeting to ensure solution focused process that would result in mutually supported agreements.
Result:
The meeting addressed long existing issues between the partners and the organisation and between the partners themselves. Solutions were found to circumvent political limitations on essential programmes for the country. The Five Year Plan was unanimously endorsed and the donors present committed to specific support for short term and longer term programmes. The success of this meeting influenced the support received in later regional meetings. Although political and natural incidence continues to plague the country, support from the key donors persists.