Organization for Research and Skills Training for Women

Strategic Plan for (2020, 2021, 2022)

PREFACE

A Strategic Plan is one of the important management tools as it provides a road map for how to achieve an organization‘s objective. It is a mechanism that helps management optimizes the resource allocation to different sectors and tasks. It helps focus organizational resources in the same direction as to achieve the overall objective. Strategic plan spells out the destination of the organization over a specific period of time, and define how the organization well get there. It defines the objectives to be achieved with the available resources over a specific period of time.

Organization for Research and Skills Training for Women (ORSTW)developed its current strategy in 2014. The plan has enabled ORSTW to develop and work towards its objectives in line with its vision and mission statements, thereby laying the foundation for this strategic plan. ORSTW has largely achieved its objective set out in the previous six years plan and has thereby learned many new lessons.

Recent changes in Afghanistan’s socio-political environment provide civil society organizations (CSOs)awiderangeofopportunitiesfororganizationalgrowth,buthasalsointroducedanumber of challenges previously not faced by CSOs. Societal changes and more educated youth open up for increased attention to the needs of and larger involvement of women and girls in emergency and development projects, an opportunity ORSTW is well placed to capitalizeon.

This plan has been developed following a detail review of several of the strategies adopted by Government of Afghanistan and donor agencies. Among the important documents reviewed for the development of this plan, are the ANPDF, NPPA, SDG, SFDRR, WHS, and ANDS etc. The study of these documents helped the management in identifying the potentials existing in the current environment and expected changes in the foreseeable future. These policies and frameworks reflect the government and donor expectations from CSOs, and their role in meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Therefore, ORSTW management feel it necessary to review and revise the current plan in order to seizetheavailableopportunitiesandmanagethechallenges efficientlythatORSTWmayfaceinthe near future. It will have a twofold effect for ORSTW. Primarily, ORSTW will be able to pursue its objectives in the long and short run and secondly, communities in need of the humanitarian services that ORSTW can provide will have better chances to benefit from the objectives set out in the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals.

This plan has been developed with the valuable efforts of the ORSTW’s management, Directors, Board of Trustees (BOT) and staff. In order to make it effective for the organization, BOT/BoD willreviewtheplanonanannualbasis,willidentifyanydeviationfromtheplan,willidentifythe reason for this and suggest corrective measure, which may include a partial revision of this plan. ORSTW’s management shall reflect the progress in the achievements of strategic objectives in the annual report of theorganization.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Developingthisstrategicplanwasachallengingprocessthatconsumedpreciousandvaluabletime of the entire ORSTW team. It was their combined effort and support that allowed the development of such an essential document, which from now on will guide ORSTW’s management and staff at all levels to achieve our agreedobjectives.

Itisnecessarytothankthefollowingpeoplefortheircontinuouscontributiontothepreparationof this strategicplan:

Name:	Designation:
Eng. Wahidullah Zahid	Consultant
Fazalwahid Safi	Founder &General Director
Nadia Masoomi	Gender Officer
Bahadur Khamosh	Program Officer
Sayed Agha Khalid	Technical Advisor

Table of Contents

ACRONYMS 5

Introduction (Organization Background) 6

Methodology 6

Vision 7

Mission 7

Values 7

CURRENT APPROACH……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..........8

Context ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8

Working Environment ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

Resources……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

Stakeholders………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

STRENGTH AND OPPORTUNITIES……………………………………………………………………………………………………………...9

Internal favourable………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….10

External opportunities ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11

THREATS AND WEAKNESSES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12

STRATEGIC PLAN…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14

Strategic Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………14

ACRONYMS

ACBAR Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief ADAP Afghanistan Disability ActionPlan

ANCB Afghan NGO's CoordinationBureau

ANPDF Afghan National Peace DevelopmentFramework ANDS Afghan National DevelopmentStrategies

CEN Civil Society Empowerment Network CSO Civil SocietyOrganization

CBSG Community Based Stabilization Grant DRR Disaster RiskReduction

EiE Education in Emergency

EU EuropeanCommission

GRTV Gorbat Radio &TV

HBC Home BasedClasses

ICT Information, Communication, Technology IDP Internally DisplacedPerson

IED Improvised ExplosiveDevices

INGO International Non-GovernmentalOrganization MC ManagementCommittee

M&E Monitoring andEvaluation

MISFA Microfinance Investment Support Facility forAfghanistan NGO Non-GovernmentalOrganization

NFI Non-FoodItem

NPPA National Priority Program Afghanistan NCA Norwegian ChurchAid

PESTAL Political, Social, Economic, Technological, Environmental and Legal analysis SDG Sustainable DevelopmentGoal

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities andThreats SFDRR Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction TLC Temporary LearningClasses

UNHCR United Nation High Commissioner forRefugees

UN-OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of HumanitarianAffairs UNICEF United Nations International Children's EmergencyFund

WASH Water, Sanitation andHygiene WB WorldBank

WFP World FoodProgramme

WHS World HumanitarianSummit

Introduction(Organization Background)

Organization for Research and Skills Training for Women (ORSTW) is a non-for-profit, non-political and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) established on 21/11/2012 as a women rights organization by a group of educated Afghan women. ORSTW is registered with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Economy and working for the welfare and empowerment of Afghan women in Afghanistan.

ORSTW started its functioning in Afghanistan on 21/11/2011 and currently working in Kabul, Kunar, Nooristan, Laghman, Nangarhar and Khost provinces conducting social research, peace building and providing Skills trainings and practices, livelihood opportunities through business development skills trainings and micro-credit provision, educational activities, preventive health education, professional/management, capacity building programs, advocating and lobbying for and/or on behalf of the Afghan women and sensitizing the masses towards admitting and accepting the role and contribution of their female counterparts.

METHODOLOGY

We used goal based planning model for the development of this strategic plan.

EstablishGoal Reviewstrategy Implementation Performance

Monitoring

And control

We mainly focused on the major opportunities and challenges faced by ORSTW in the implementation of its projects and achieving of its objectives.

The plan is based on the detailed review of the organizational policies, donor recommendations, and current situation prevailing in country, current areas of specialty of ORSTW, community expectation and government policies.

Management committee (MC) members were consulted for their insight of the organization. A detaildiscussionwasheldwiththeMCmembersinordertoprovideanopportunitytothemembers to express their views regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and the opportunities available and threats the organization is currentlyfacing.

This plan will reflect how ORSTW foresee developments over the coming years revisit vision, mission, and mandate and core values and will priorities some activities over other for the achievements of the organizational goals and for the sustainability of the organization.

2. Vision

A society free of discrimination, violence and corruption where every inhabitant lives a promoted and peaceful life.

3. Mission

To find out the social problems through a wide variety of researches, address the solutions, and eliminate all kinds of violence and discrimination to pave the way for a healthy society, and peaceful life and to improve the products, and vocational skills of the people.

4. Values

The following principles are valuable, trustworthy, and applicable to the organization, in addition, the organization suggest others to apply them:

· Respect to human dignity

· Honesty

· Faithfulness

· Hatred to all kinds of discrimination

· Enthusiasm to peaceful life

· Professionalism

· Respect to organized laws and policies and Afghanistan

· Transparency and accountability

· Priority to youths and women

· Assigning right people for duties coordination

CURRENT APPROACH

Currently ORSTW is mainly involved in providing services in the field of Capacity Building, Advocacy, skills trainings, women empowerment, education and fighting against corruption.

For the implementation of its projects, ORSTW has been financially and technically supported by different donor organizations and UN Agencies.

CONTEXT

The complex Afghan context is a bitter reality. It poses multiple challenges for CSOs working hard to implement projects for the deprived people throughout Afghanistan. The working context has worsened dramatically over the last few years. There are three factors that are particularly important:theworkingEnvironment,availableResourcesandtheintendedStakeholders.Studying and evaluating the context assisted the organization in performing the necessary analysis. The analysisrequiredfordevelopingastrategicplanareEnvironmentalScanning,SWOTandPESTEL analysis. Through the environmental scanning, internal and external, internal and external favorable and unfavorable factors be identified. Environmental scanning covers all factors included in SWOT and PESTELanalysis.

Working environment

Afghanistan is a hard place to live and work in. NGOs face several types of challenges while implementingprojectactivitiesthathavetobefactoredintodecision-makingprocesses.Ontheone hand are the rugged terrain, mountainous area and deserts, and harsh weather conditions that affect the life of the population and the work of the humanitarian workers. For example, absence of secureroadsandtransportopportunitieslimitschildrenlivinginremoteareasaccesstoeducation. On the other hand, the government and the CSOs are at times unable to reach to remote areas due toarangeofoften-unpredictablesecurityrisk,askidnapping,militarycombatoperationsandlocal armed rivalry, landmines and improvised explosive devices (IED). But cities are also vulnerable, attacks may target government officials, mosques, commercial entities, NGO offices, restaurants, hotels, airports, and educational centers and NGO staff might become victims of more random attacks.

Anyorganizationneedtobeevaluatedarangeoffactorsinfluencingontheirworkingenvironment in order to develop a responsive and practical plan. An environmental scanning, as mentioned above,isausefultoolfortheORSTWstrategyprocess,andtheresultsarepresentedinthefollowing paragraph.

Resources

Resourcesfornon-profitorganizationscantakeonseveralforms.Themainfinancialresourcesfor anNGOarethegrantsfromdonoragenciesandfromtheAfghangovernment.Althoughfunds fromthedonorsaregraduallydecreasing,however,somedonorsstillprovideconsiderableamount for different humanitarian and development purposes. Other valuable resources are the efforts of community volunteers coordinated with NGO activities, and different forms of community contribution.ThiscanbeintheformoffreelaborsandlandforWASHprojects,roomstobeused asclassroomsforeducationprojects,securitymeasuresfortheNGOworkers,freeplaceforstorage of project materialetc.

Stakeholders

A stakeholder in an organization is a member of the "groups without whose support the organizationwouldceasetoexist".Astakeholdercanaffectorbeaffectedbytheorganization.An organization can have more or less stakeholders depends on the nature of activities, size of the organization, regulation of the country, and geographical dispersion of the population of the country.

ORSTW’s current stakeholders includes employees at the head and at the field offices, members of boards,beneficiariesoftheprojects(localcommunities),relevantgovernmentdepartments,donor agencies, UN agencies suppliers and services providers and civil society organizations working with ORSTW. ORSTW is committed to strengthen its relations with all of the stakeholders for betterment of the organization in the longrun.

STRENGTH AND OPPORTUNITIES

Internal and external opportunities are the favorable factors identified in the internal and external environment of any organization. Organizations that are able to monitor and analyze their environment can more easily seize on available opportunities. Internal favorable factors are regarded as strengths of the organization while external favorable factors are the opportunity for the organization. These factors need to be identified and utilized to the best possible extent.

However, opportunities available to an organization can turn into threats if competitors aim to capitalize on the same. Therefore, the time factor is important and should be considered when formulating and executing a strategy.

Everyorganizationhassomestrength,whicharebeneficialfactorsfortheorganizationandneed to be identified and utilized. ORSTW has several strengths, which provide a competitive advantage in comparison with similarorganizations.

Internal favourable factors

(strengths) includes but not

limited to the following. Emp

loyed Afghan Nationals

ORSTWemployqualifiedAfghannationalsforthemainandfieldoffices.Thebenefitsofemploying, local people are their awareness of the local customs and environment, which makes them a good fitforworkwiththelocalcommunity.Theymight,however,alsobepartoflocalconflicts,which the organization need to be aware off. In addition, employing local people reducesorganizational personnel and travelcost.

Qualified and Committed Personnel

ORSTW has employed qualified people with relevant experience for the key positions they are assigned to. It is of great importance for ORSTW to retain these qualified and experienced persons for the stable running and development of the organization. Persons working in key positions, somenowforover8years,arecommittedbytheORSTWplatformtoworkforandservedeprived communities and vulnerable individuals. Skilled and committed personnel are the most important strength ofORSTW.

Documented Procedure

Tocarryouttheday-to-dayworkoftheorganization,ORSTWmanagementhasdevisedpoliciesand procedure manuals that is made available to all staff. These documented policies and procedures guide employees’ actions in performing their duties. Therefore, a change of employees does not disrupt the organizational routines.

pecialized Department

ORSTW has an organizational structure with separate departments for Program, Finance, Human Resources, Admin and procurement. The functional structure offers a number of advantages, of which one is specialization. A challenge for the management is to ensure the best possible flow and coordination of tasks between departments. Each of them has a clear hierarchy and every employee has a clear understanding of it, and how to move up within the department and hence the organization. When employees gain knowledge and expertise, it does benefit the department and ORSTW.

These factors listed above require constant attention from the ORSTW Management and Board, as to develop and adapt to the challenges posed by the external working environment.

External opportunities include but are not limited to the following:Beneficiaries and donor satisfaction

The projects ORSTW decide to implement must be responsive to and meet the needs of the target

Communities. The implied objective of any project should be the satisfaction of the target communities. If that is met, the community will provide support for project mobilization and implementation, and welcome the organization for other project as well.

Besides community satisfaction, which constitute the foundation, is donor satisfaction. This will include ORSTW’s ability to meet project and Programme objectives, monitor activities and adjust implementation when required, keep donors updated on progress and provide agreed reports and analysis on time. Different donors will have different requirements for application, follow-up procedures and reporting, which different departments will need knowledge off.

Geographical expansion

The war has affected every province of Afghanistan, but with some variations. Vulnerable people are found in every part of the country. The Government of Afghanistan is unable to provide humanitarian and/or developmental assistance to everyone in need. It is, therefore, required and necessaryforNGOsasORSTWtomeetitsvisionandmissiontocomeforwardandassistthepeople of Afghanistan in periods of hardship. ORSTW is currently providing assistance in eight provinces. ORSTW has the organizational capacity to expend its expertise and activities to other provinces to assist with education, health facilities, and agricultural development and advocacy services. Any such expansion will, however, require a thorough assessment of risks up against ORSTW’s ability to meet identifiedneeds.

Networking with other humanitarian

organization

Networking with other organization working for humanity can bring additional benefits and synergy to ORSTW and enable resource sharing. ORSTW and partner organizations can implement projects in joint venture, solve complex issues, and share knowledge and experience for the common benefits of the communities and partners organization at the same time.

Technical personnel availability

A few years back, technical and professional personnel were not available locally in Afghanistan. Organizations were then obliged to hire expats at high costs to be able to deliver their services. ThishaschangedandqualifiedAfghanpersonnelarenowmoreeasilyavailablelocally,providing NGOswithabettereconomicalsolutionandalloworganizationalresourcestobeutilizedforother beneficialpurposes.

Increased number of needy

communities

Forty years of war has resulted in a high number of people in need of assistance throughout Afghanistan. In addition, recent changes in neighbor countries policies towards Afghanrefugees has limited opportunities for job migration and sharply increased the number of returnees to Afghanistan.Thosereturningarefrequentlyinneedsforshelter,WASH,education,healthservices andjobopportunities.Thenumberofreturneesmightincreaseoverthecomingyears.Themajority of returnees are presently found along the borders with Pakistan and Iran, but many seek to go back to their province and area of origin. Here they are looking for NGOs like ORSTW to provide them relief and developmental services to enable these reintegration. ORSTW has demonstrated the ability, with the cooperation of various donor agencies, to design and implement a number of projects in education, health, agriculture and Civic engagement sectors for the benefit of suchreturnees.

Information, communication and

technology (ICT)

Informationtechnologyischangingrapidlythroughouttheworld.InAfghanistan,newtechnology widely adopted by government departments, businesses, universities and NGOs. The inductionof the new information and communication technology in the organizational processes opens up for rapidprogressinmanyfields.ORSTWcanheretakeadvantageofthenewtechnologiestostrengthen its organizational processes and procedures in the short run and in the long run, weighting costs up against the additionalbenefits.

THREATS AND WEAKNESSES

ORSTW like other CSOs face a number of challenges when following its vision and mission statements and in implementing program activities to achieve its objectives. We can easily place the current challenges in the following two categorizes:

Ø Challenges within theorganization,

Ø Challenges (threats) outside theorganization

Challenges within the organization

Different challenges exist in every organization. These constitute potential organizational weaknessesandmightinfluenceontheefficiencyandeffectivenessoftheorganizationinoneway or the other. The effect of these weaknesses can be reduce to a considerable extent by better planning and utilization of available human and otherresources.

ORSTW’s management has identified the following weaknesses in the organization.

Ø Scarce resources

Ø Lack of well-developed knowledge managementsystem

Ø High turnover rate of fieldstaff

Ø Lack of organization’s ownpremises

Challenges/Threats outside the

organization

External challenges (threats) are unfavorable factors that can harm the organization or its staff in one way or the other. Such factors, outside the direct control of the organization, must therefore be identified and analyzed here. However, the impact of threats can be minimizing to someextent byproperplanninganduseoforganizationalresources,usinginternalstrengthandcapitalizingon theopportunities.

Turnover of project staff

As the organization is mainly dependent on the funds from donors, therefore after the completion of projects ORSTW cannot retain some projects related staff who have good experience in project implementation.

A remedy can be to inform partner/network NGOs on their availability and keep rosters of staff for upcoming projects, and prioritize retaining qualified women within the organization.

Lack of organization owned premises

ORSTW lack organization owned office premises due to which ORSTW spend a considerableamount of fund as rent of the premises. The fund used to pay office rent could be used for other reliefand development services. However, in the prevailing security situation can investments in own property constitute a financial risk, ifdamaged.

A possible remedy, at least in the field, is to request communities or the local government to providehousingfortheprojectperiod.InKabulandprovincialcapitalscanco-locationwithother NGOs help reduce costs.

Some other challenges existing outside of the organization can be enumerated as under,

Ø Negative competition among the NGOs (NNGOs&INNGOs)

Ø Politicalinterference

Ø Challenges originating from illiteracy and traditional belief of thesociety,

Ø Challenges created by insecureenvironment

Ø Unstable politicalenvironment

Ø Corruption

Ø Government’s complexregulations

Ø Highinflation

Ø No sustainable financialresources

STRATEGIC PLAN

ORSTW management and staff have high ambitions as to utilize the strength of the organization and overcometheweaknesses,toutilizeavailableopportunitiesandminimizetheimpactofthethreats that can face the organization over the coming three years. ORSTW management is aware of the fact that developing the strategic plan is not just an onerous and one off exercise; rather it is fruitful practice for the organization in the long run and will require revision on periodic basis as the circumstances may change over period oftime.

The plan for the coming three years consists of the following elements.

Strategic Objectives:

Objective 1: The improvement of vocational and technical skills of Women and Men to increase local production for economic growth.

Activity #1: of vocational and technical skills learning:

· Training of 1900 participants in the field of different vocation skills.

Activity#2: Training of 1150 participants in the technical skills including management & administration skills, basic accounting and financial management skills etc..

Outputs:

3050 Youth have been trained for vocational and technical skills and their skills have been improved.

Outcomes:

90% of the trained participants got employed and paved the way for sound, developed, and peaceful society.

Indicators:

1). 20 to 25% financial development has been observed to people life in our selected working area.

2). the youths unemployment has been reduced to 10- 20 percent in our selected working area.

3). in our selected working area, people prefer peaceful life and the violence have been decreased to 8-10 percentage.

Objective 2: To find out financial, Social and human rights problems and carry out advocate efforts to eliminate them.

Activity 1: Economic problems:

10 researches has been done on the economic condition of the people in our selected working area, then, finding the reasons of economic problems, and sharing the reasons with the national and international organizations and advocating about.

Activity 2: Social Problems:

To solve social problems, conducting 12 researches to identify the problems, inform the related organizations about, and continue advocacy about those problems.

Activity 3: human/civil rights issues:

Conduct 10 researches about human/ civil rights and share the result with relevant organizations and do advocacy about it.

Outputs:

Approximately 32 researches were conducted, the results were shared with related organizations, and advocacy was done about it.

Outcomes:

Advocacy was conducted to some possible way, the results were shared with the national and international decision and policy makers, and the results were possibly applied through national programs.

Indicators:

1). the result of Economic researches has improved people’s life financially in the selected working area; their income has increased to 5-8 percentage.

2). the result of social researches has solved 20-30 percent of social issues in the selected working area.

3). as the result of researches on the human and civil rights, the disobedience to human right has been 20 percent decreased

Objective3: To raise the public awareness for peace and security and alteration of people from violence, discrimination and selective behavior.

Activity 1: public awareness about human and civil rights and for lasting peace building:

To raise the awareness of 200,000 people about human and civil rights& peace building through 60 programs in the upcoming three years.

Activity 2: public awareness about peace building and democracy:

To implement 60 public awareness programs by applying modern methods which will coverestimatedone million people.

Activity 3: Awareness related to maintaining peace, eliminating conflicts and violence, discrimination:

It is estimated that 55 programs will be implemented through modern methods which will raise awareness of one million people.

Outputs:

175 public awareness programs have been implemented on various categories and subjects.

Outcomes:

3,200,000 people are being changed thoughtfully and intellectually, become positive thinker toward selective behavior, discrimination, and violence.

Indicators:

1). Violence against women and children has been 20% decreased. The awareness about human and civil laws has been 20% increased.

2). People trust democracy and participation in Elections has been increased to 30 percent.

3). People are aware of peace and their beliefs has changed from violence to a peaceful life. Crimes and conflicts has been 35 percent decreased in our selected working areas.