I am developing and monitoring an OD programme

Projects relating to the organisational development of NSs should be treated like any other quality project. As MEAL and NSD work in tandem, the tools developed by the FRC and the movement will be updated on the NSD page and the "quality project management” website in a complementary manner.

Especially in cases where projects are entirely led by the HNS, it is entirely possible to offer FRC tools to the HNS, but also to use the HNS's own project design and management tools.

1. Preliminary considerations

Prior to any OD project development, certain elements are suggested. Note that the first three elements below would already be in place if dialogue with the HNS is at an advanced stage and the NSD FRC support plan with the NS has already been formalised (see section I want to develop and orgnaisational development programme with the HNS):

• Have an explicit request for support from the HNS to the FRC,

• Ensure that the request for support comes from the relevant technical department as well as from the NS leadership. An OD project, which is necessarily part of a transformational process within the NS, cannot be limited to technical implementation and cannot be carried out without the support and genuine commitment of the HNS governance.

• Ensure that this project is in line with the priority activities identified in an organisational development plan, if one exists.

• Ensure that the support provided by the FRC is in line with its expertise and, where relevant, complements the actions of other partners.

Ensure a clear understanding of what this support will entail in terms of change. To this end, an information session on the steps to be taken involving the NS at the technical level and the leadership of the HNS is recommended.

2. Diagnostic

The issue of diagnosis has been covered extensively in the steps leading up to this section. Here are a few additional points:

The NSD department recommends conducting an on site scoping mission in advance in order to understand the HNS's ecosystem (operating methods, internal and hierarchical dynamics) and adapt the project accordingly. An in-person approach is highly preferable in order to grasp the working environment, which a remote exploratory mission would not be able to perceive.

The needs analysis can be facilitated in several ways:

• Existence of OCAC and BOCA assessments or a thematic assessment if relevant (recent and covering the topic in question). For more information, please check out the section “I acknowledge the existing capacity assessments of National Societies”.

• In the absence of pre-existing assessments, tools have been developed by the NSD department:

  • A grid for analysing the NS as a whole (currently under construction)

  • A grid for rapid assessment of the needs of the branches

3. Programming/Planning

In order to facilitate the process of writing an NSD project, the FRC Concept Note template has been created with comments to facilitate the writing of NSD projects. A catalogue of indicators is currently being developed with the MEAL department.

You can also consult the following documents for inspiration, in addition to the map of NSD projects led by the FRC on the website:

• In the case of a project proposal focused on disaster response, a note (French only) has been developed by the three technical departments (DM, Health, NSD). This includes a logical framework for your inspiration with a focus area 1 entitled: “Strengthening the organisational and operational capacities of HNSs for preparedness”, which will give you typical results and activities. Although focused on Africa, many activities may be relevant to other contexts.

NSD model project sheets on OD have been produced on the issues of strengthening HR management, a volunteer management system, PSEA, and income-generating activities (CFA, Guest House (for trainees) and Health and Social training institutes).

4. Implementing and monitoring

In an NSD project where the FRC provides both financial and technical support, it is crucial to pay particular attention to defining the respective roles and responsibilities of the FRC and the partner. It is necessary to ensure mutual understanding of the respective divisions of labour at the technical and leadership levels. This must be reflected in the specific project agreement (SPA).

For project monitoring, the OSO tool can be adapted to an NSD project. An NSD programme OSO for monitoring all FRC NSD programming at the NS level is available here (in French only - to be translated in English).

5. Closure and assessment

The impact of such projects must be analysed at the level of the NS as a whole and in terms of their contribution to the NSD objectives, i.e. their impact on the development of the NS. To this end, indicators exist at the movement level as well as networks of external impact indicators:

• Movement/FRC: The French Red Cross does not yet have indicators to evaluate our organisational development projects at this stage, but this is currently being developed. The FRC indicator catalogue contains some IFRC Indicators that can be consulted here.

• For information, the Network for Empowered Aid Response (NEAR) has developed a localisation performance framework for donors, United Nations agencies and NGOs to evaluate their locally-managed actions. It should be noted that this framework must be adapted to the ICRC Movement and concerns localisation as a whole rather than OD specifically.

Link to the framework and link to the explanation of how to use this framework: here

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