One goal one plan by Plan Nederland

Our Strategy to 2015

One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty

20th May 2011

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty Foreword Over the past twelve months all parts of Plan have been engaged in a comprehensive review of the organisation‟s strategy. The result – “One Goal, One Plan: Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty” sets the direction for Plan International with one goal to 2015, and specific commitments and objectives which we will need to meet to deliver that goal.

Child Poverty “Children living in poverty are deprived of nutrition, water and sanitation facilities, access to basic health-care services, shelter, education, participation and protection, … leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, to reach their full potential and to participate as full members of society” UN General Assembly, 2007

There is widespread recognition across Plan that fulfilling our ambition to have a much greater impact on the global level of child poverty is a very tough challenge. The increasingly uncertain nature of our world – driven by both natural and human forces – means the hard won gains poor children and communities make over decades can be lost in the blink of history‟s eye. But the scale of our challenge should not be allowed to overwhelm us. Plan has a distinguished record of success in fighting child poverty at community level over seventy five years. We are adaptable and resilient, taking heart from the spirit of the girls and boys we work with in difficult and dangerous countries. We have shown we can embrace the new without betraying the past. In the last decade, we have adopted a child rights philosophy and found a way of turning this philosophy into practical development practice. We have begun to work effectively in disasters and humanitarian relief – a new area for Plan. We have diversified our sources of income, with a major growth in institutional grants, whilst retaining the solid loyalty of over a million individual supporters who sponsor a child. All these developments are major achievements in a period when many INGOs funded from income raised in the developed world have had to curtail their ambitions in the worst economic down turn since the 1930s. Many staff from Plan have engaged in developing this strategy, as have the International Board and the Members‟ Assembly. All have given their time and thoughts generously and deserve our collective thanks. What has emerged is that whilst our strategy needs to be programme-led to respond to children‟s priorities, we must attract a greater level of resources to deliver it. The strategy also recognises the fact that partnerships and alliances – with governments, civil society organisations and other INGOs at local, national, regional and international level – will be critical to success. Above all, this strategy is moulded by a shared philosophy and a One Plan ambition – that through improved cross-organisational collaboration, we will demonstrate greater, measurable, positive impact on child poverty.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty And that we will attract the passionate support of more individuals and organisations, and at a deeper level than ever, to assist us in our cause. Since its founding in the Spanish Civil War, Plan‟s ambitions have always been exciting and motivational. This revised strategy is designed to stretch and invigorate us – a plan for One Plan in all its parts – which all staff, volunteers, supporters, partners and funders can rally behind. Now – and over the next four years – we need your commitment to make sure we meet the goal we have set ourselves. Working together, with renewed energy and focus, we will keep the commitments we have made here to millions of poor children and their communities, who have a right to no less.

Paul Arlman, Chair, Plan International Board

Nigel Chapman CEO, Plan International May 2011

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty Contents Executive summary

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Context for change

One Goal

One Plan

Targets

Implementation priorities

Next steps and future proofing

INTRODUCTION

1.1.

Strategy process

1.2.

Scope

1.3.

Context for change

1.3.1.

The external environment

1.3.2.

The changing role of INGOs

1.3.3.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

ONE GOAL, FOUR COMMITMENTS

2.1.

Our identity

2.1.1.

CCCD remains the right approach

2.1.2.

Linking interventions to impact

2.2.

Programme Commitment – maximising reach and impact

2.3.

Four broad objectives – Relevance, Quality, Scale and Influence

2.3.1.

Reach through relevance – our deeper emphasis on excluded or marginalised children (broad objective) 24

2.3.2.

Planning and carrying out quality programmes (broad objective)

2.3.3.

Scaling up our programmes and learning (broad objective)

2.3.4.

Extending our influence to increase our reach and impact (broad objective) 30

2.3.5.

Implementation priority: Building a Leadership position on education and protection 32

ONE PLAN

3.1.

Resource Commitment – Increasing our Resources

3.1.1.

Increasing and widening the scope of individual giving (broad objective) 35

3.1.2.

Building a strong grants pipeline (broad objective) 20th May 2011

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 3.1.3.

Target where we invest for growth (broad objective)

3.2.

Organisation Commitment – A united and effective Organisation

3.2.1.

Affirming a consistent identity (broad objective)

3.2.2.

Aligning our operating model (structure and capacities) (broad objective) 40

3.2.3.

Ensuring we are a high performance organisation (broad objective)

3.2.4.

Assuring consistency (broad objective)

3.3.

Collaboration Commitment – Improved Collaboration

3.3.1.

Forming effective partnerships and alliances (broad objective)

3.3.2.

Engagement and co-operation (broad objective)

MONITORING AND MEASURING SUCCESS

4.1.

Measuring achievement towards our Goal and commitments

4.1.1.

Sponsorship-funded programmes

4.1.2.

Thematic strategies

4.1.3.

Global campaigns

4.1.4.

Resources

4.2.

Monitoring the implementation of the strategy

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

5.1.

Approach

5.1.1.

Leadership and governance of implementation process

5.1.2.

Engagement

5.1.3.

Managing our risks

5.2.

Key activities

5.3.

Future strategy

5.4.

Structure, decision-making and governance issues

5.4.1.

Effective decision-making and internal accountability within One Plan

5.4.2.

Local legitimacy in the management of Plan programmes

5.4.3.

Top level governance issues

GLOSSARY

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty

Executive summary This strategy sets the direction for Plan over the next four years, to the start of our financial year FY16 (July 1st 2015). The document begins by setting out the context for change. It includes both a scan of the external environment and an analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the light what we discovered in this scan. It then introduces our overarching goal of achieving a stepchange1 in Plan’s impact on child poverty. This goal is supported by four commitments relating to programme, resources (including income), organisational effectiveness, and collaboration. To carry out these commitments successfully, we have developed a strategic framework of 13 broad objectives which we must show significant progress towards meeting as the years unfold to 2015. Sections follow on how we will measure success, and on our implementation and investment priorities.

Context for change In drawing up this strategy, we have taken into account both the changing external environment where it relates to INGOs, and our own strengths and weaknesses. From this analysis, a number of opportunities and threats emerge. In relation to the external environment we particularly recognise:  

The potential impacts of resource constraints, civil unrest, growing urbanisation and other demographic changes, and advances in technology on our goal of reducing child poverty; The changing role of international development organisations such as Plan, in the context of uneven progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and the emerging Aid Effectiveness agenda, which influences donor, government and civil society priorities and expectations.

We also recognise: 

The strength and breadth of our programme experience and expertise, of our Child Centred Community Development (CCCD) approach and of our global reach, as well as the value of child sponsorship which allows us to commit to long-term relationships at a local level;

Step change is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as “(In business or politics) a significant change in policy or attitude, especially one that results in an improvement or increase” 1

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty  



The need to undertake a review of the structures, accountabilities, systems and the capacities needed in order to move to more diverse income streams, particularly for country offices; Our main opportunities arise from our ability to address emerging and more prominent development needs; in particular the rights of excluded or marginalised children; and enabling all parts of Plan to be successful and to work together as “One Plan”; Our threats come from potential complacency about the speed of change in the external world. We have reputational risks in relation to public perceptions around the benefits of sponsorship at the level of the child, with significant potential to impact on our income stream from individuals. We also risk becoming less relevant from a development perspective unless we engage and collaborate more effectively.

One Goal This strategy sets a single strategic Goal. It is supported by four commitments and a framework of broad objectives that will enable us to deliver this Goal as “One Plan”: One Goal

Achieving a step-change in Plan’s impact on child poverty

The achievement of this Goal is supported by four commitments Four Commitments Programme

We will maximise our reach and impact on children‟s lives, particularly those from excluded or marginalised groups.

This is our prime commitment and is supported by three enabling commitments:

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Resources

We will increase our resources to enable us to maximise reach and impact on children‟s lives.

Organisation

We will align our operations to our common programme-led Goal as a united and effective organisation.

Collaboration

We will achieve greater impact on child poverty through improved collaboration with others.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty One Plan In order for Plan to deliver these commitments, we have created a strategic framework of 13 broad objectives, which underpin each of the four commitments and which will enable us to deliver them. Strategic framework The framework sets out broad objectives (in bold) for: Programme:

An objective which increases the Relevance of our programming in terms of its reach and the priority groups we work with: the strategy sets an emphasis on addressing excluded or marginalised groups both within our communities (deepening our footprint) as well as in communities we currently do not reach (extending our footprint). Quality and Scale objectives ensure that everything we do is good practice, rights-based programming (applying Child Centred Community Development), maximising our impact on child poverty. An Influence objective recognises that most long term impact comes from others (duty bearers and local civil society organisations) taking on responsibilities or through social attitudinal changes. Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s influence, including powers of advocacy, supports this.

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Resources:

Ensuring our Individual giving (including child sponsorship) and Grants funding income streams are growing to support our programme-led goal. There is also an objective to better target our Investment for growth (in particular investing in new fundraising countries and FCNOs).

Organisation:

Objectives for improving our external Identity (especially in relation to our brand) , our Operating model, our Performance and Consistency focus the whole of Plan on maximising its collective strength â&#x20AC;&#x201C; working and thinking as One Plan.

Collaboration:

Objectives for Partnerships (and alliances) and Engagement (and co-operation) signal a recognition that both our impact and our organisational effectiveness will only be maximised as we learn to be more effective in working with others.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty Targets This document also discusses our current thinking on key performance indicators (KPIs) and revenue targets. Programme Impact INGOs struggle to identify meaningful impact targets for programme interventions at a global level. Plan measures activity, outcomes and impact at Programme Unit (district) and Country levels. Work is in progress to identify ways in which data can be aggregated at a global level around 2-3 key indicators. This will assist Plan as a whole to demonstrate our impacts at child, and wider society levels. Programme targets have been developed for our three global campaigns (Universal Birth Registration, Learn Without Fear and Because I am a Girl) indicating our ambitions in relation to the scale of these campaigns. Targets will also be developed for each of our eight programme thematic areas. Revenue Growth In the course of this review, we have explored the validity of setting a global income target of €1 billion annually and the feasibility of reaching it by FY16. However, our analysis indicates that whilst we can grow substantially year on year globally, we cannot be confident that such a large increase of approx €400M in four years is attainable at the same time as addressing significant organisational challenges. There are a number of serious obstacles and risks, which we would need to overcome to reach a €1billion target, including a considerable scaling up of field capacity. There is also concern that such a one dimensional target drives behaviour which is at odds with a strategy where growth needs to be programme led. It would therefore not be prudent to set an annual global target at this stage. A more sensible proposal would be to aim for our two prime income streams (individual giving and institutional grants) each achieving consistent double digit growth (in line with recent trends) and that by FY16, our annual growth and cost ratios are at least in line with that of our peers.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty Implementation priorities An initial â&#x20AC;&#x153;route mapâ&#x20AC;? for the implementation of this strategy has been prepared. In some cases, this will require investment; in other cases it requires a refocusing of current resourcing. The following eleven projects are identified as the top priorities: 1. Review the business operating model: This will include consideration of organisational roles, accountabilities and capacities (particularly addressing country office grants capacity), to ensure they are aligned with our One Plan ambition; 2. Review the financial operating model: This will include consideration of the cost structures, cost attribution and reporting including proper tracking of donor funds and effective allocation of overhead to enable more effective management and cost recovery; 3. Strengthen our identity through a global brand strategy: Affirm a strengthened, consistent global identity that reflects our Vision and aspirations, through roll out of a global brand strategy; 4. Initial focus on girls as an excluded group: Roll out the gender equality policy and programme strategy, supported by a global launch of Because I Am a Girl; 5. Create a Plan academy (for continuous learning): This centre of excellence will provide global training, initially focussed on CCCD and key areas of policy; 6. Determine (global and regional) priorities for scaling up: Within education, protection and gender equality, identify and agree the interventions which can be taken to scale most effectively; 7. Strengthen our global advocacy and knowledge management capacity: Make central investment in global thought leadership and advocacy, particularly in education and protection, as well as strengthening our environmental knowledge capacity; 8. Strengthen global leadership for our individual giving and grants: Create effective global business development leadership capacity for individual giving and grants, and a growth investment strategy (including priorities for new NOs and FCNO conversion); 9. Re-engineer the child sponsorship concept: Ensure the right balance between promise to the donor, value to the child and development impact; 10. Enhance global partnership capacity: Create a team to enable and systematically pursue partnerships and collaboration, including funding the successor of the current Corporate Partnership Engagement Unit (CPEU).

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty 11. Review structure, decision-making and governance: Working with the IB and MA, we will ensure Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s structure and governance is aligned to the delivery of our Vision and programme-led Goal.

Next steps and future proofing The document concludes by noting a number of issues related to the strategy that must be tracked and understood in more depth. Consideration of these should be aligned to a more regular strategy review process, ensuring our approach evolves and embraces changing development priorities, particularly as governments and the global community firm up plans for a new set of goals for the period post-2015.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty

INTRODUCTION This paper presents our Strategy and Goals to 2015. The paper is structured through five sections: Section 1 Introduction. This section outlines the strategy process over the past twelve months, its scope and a summary of our main external drivers of change. It includes a high-level analysis of our current strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats we face as a major INGO. Section 2 One Goal – Our programme-led strategy is an overview of our programme commitment and objectives, set in the context of our ambition to achieve a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty. Section 3 One Plan – Making our programme-led strategy happen. This section covers the three commitments we are making in resources, organisation and collaboration, which will enable us to deliver our programme commitment. Section 4 Monitoring and Measuring Success looks at how we will measure the success of this strategy to 2015. Section 5 Strategy Implementation outlines the initiatives and investments we will make to deliver this strategy. It also highlights some future strategic challenges which will need to be considered in the next four years as global development priorities are revised.

1.1.

Strategy process The process of revising our current 2009-2013 strategy started midway through 2010, in response to concerns that it did not address fundamental organisational and external challenges. In November 2010, the Members‟ Assembly (MA) reviewed a draft set of Commitments and Goals to 2015. Observations and insights from this session were used to inform the subsequent process, resulting in the strategy presented here. A diverse team from across Plan has contributed to the development of this strategy. This team has been supported with critical challenge from

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty external expertise2. The strategy has been tested, refined and re-tested through extensive engagement with the highest levels within Plan‟s leadership and governance community. The strategy presented here is a collaborative effort, reflecting the priorities and feedback of our leadership community, our International Board and our MA. As a result of this extensive process, and the emerging consensus, it is expected that all parts of Plan can play their full part in its implementation and use it as a framework for the development of their own individual strategies and priorities.

1.2.

Scope This strategy is for Plan International and it is intended to guide all strategy development for the legal entities under Plan International Inc. and Plan International Ltd. It is also expected to influence the approach and strategy of all affiliated organisations (NOs and FCNOs) significantly, where their activity impacts or supports the work of Plan International.

1.3.

Context for change This strategy has been developed in the context of a rapidly changing and challenging external environment. These changes centre around:  

Changes in the external environment; The changing role of INGOs.

We have also conducted an analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in the light of the changes and challenges identified as a result of this external scan.

1.3.1.

The external environment We need to take into account the significant external influences that are changing the environment in which we work. The strategy process identified a significant number of global trends and influences. The following list is not exhaustive, but rather a summary of those seen as key to inform the decisions made in this strategy.

Including Burkhard Gnarig, former CEO of the Save the Children Alliance and founder of the Berlin Civil Society Centre, Ina Wietheger from Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, who was heavily involved in the two „Berger studies‟, James Crowley, consultant from Accenture Development Partnerships who led the strategic review for 2009-2013, and INTRAC, who have studied how the recent mid-term review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is affecting the thinking of the major donors, and its implications on Plan‟s short to mid-term funding strategy. 2

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty External influence

Relevance to Plan

Millennium Development Goals – The 2000 – 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) significantly influence development and aid priorities. These were reviewed in 2010 and the “post-2015 MDG” agenda is being reviewed in 2013.

Aid Effectiveness – Donors, INGOs, governments and local civil society organisations are collaborating to understand how to direct aid most effectively to deliver sustainable poverty reduction. There is increased emphasis on INGOs to deliver demonstrable impact in measurable ways, to be transparent and accountable – and also supporting international efforts for aid to be increasingly pooled. Collaboration and impact – With the aid effectiveness agenda challenging all parties to demonstrate impact, there is a growing consensus that the most complex development challenges will require more effective collaboration. This comes at a time when the corporate sector is also moving away from simple cash contributions to INGOs to looking for more active engagement as a partner for development.

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 The 2010 mid-term review concluded that “excluded groups” are being left behind and that some MDGs would not be met unless these groups were targeted more effectively.  The international development community is starting to identify priorities for a set of global goals post-2015. This will challenge our understanding of where poverty exists and how international development funding is targeted. This is likely to lead to a reassessment of where we have our geographical footprint and place our programme priorities post-2015.  The aid effectiveness agenda supports the move to a participatory, rights based approach (like CCCD). It confirms that we need to make sure our CCCD approach is properly embedded.  This trend challenges Plan‟s current model because donors are encouraged to target their spending through local civil society organisations with “local” legitimacy, rather than on INGOs.  This same process is increasing the drive for the development community to demonstrate more harmonisation and a collaborative approach to tackling the complex causes of poverty.  Organisations that learn to work effectively in collaboration will be able to demonstrate greater impact and thus more effective use of development aid.  Plan already “collaborates” quite extensively, though most of this is at local levels. We need to learn to recognise the value of investing in collaboration at a global and regional level – be it formal partnerships or where we invest in sector effectiveness.  We also need to learn to recognise the nonfinancial value generated through partnering with others including the corporate sector.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty Resource constrained world – This reality challenges any development model that uses economic growth alone as the route to ending poverty: population growth; food, fuel and water insecurity; the scale of the impacts of disasters; and climate change all challenge the long term sustainability of any work with children and communities in poverty.

Demographic changes – A number of significant demographic changes are affecting how Plan needs to operate: Aging populations in some parts of the world (predominantly developed economies) affects fundraising; whilst a youth bulge in others affect development priorities. Increasing urbanisation (particularly in the fastest developing economies), greater inequality within populations, rising youth unemployment, and increasing levels of social unrest are also changing understanding of where most poverty exists. Technology changes – Most notably the increased use of mobile devices, the internet and social networking – are changing the way major social change happens, as well as the way citizens expect to engage with organisations (like Plan).

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 These issues challenge where we work, how we target our programming and how much we invest for inevitable changes in global and local priorities.  We already have programming to address some of these challenges in the communities we work, including disaster risk reduction, which helps communities to prepare for the increased threat of natural disasters.  With increasing social tensions caused by this complex set of issues, we should build appropriate responses into our CSP and CCCD development process as well as developing new programmes and collaborations.  These issues challenge where we work and how we target our programming and investment.  Much of our current programming is not aimed at urban areas, as traditional child sponsorship programmes are more difficult to maintain here.  We have also tended to focus our programming on “children”, whereas the youth employment agenda threatens the economic and social stability of the societies in which we work.  With the majority of poor people now in middleincome countries, we must refresh our view of how we invest for growth; both of our income and our footprint of where we focus our programmes. This will help prioritise new NO and FCNO development.  This challenges our linear development model as changes in technology and local society‟s response to social media can be unpredictable.  Technology changes offer opportunities in fundraising, advocacy, development education and programming, with access to and opportunities to interact with new audiences.  It also increases the importance of having global approaches, consistency and minimum standards for brand communication and social media, where audiences are no longer geographically constrained.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 1.3.2.

The changing role of INGOs While CCCD is closely aligned with many of the priorities of the Aid Effectiveness agenda there are elements of aid effectiveness that will challenge our approach and change the way the international community focuses development aid3, particularly the move to strengthen local and “national” civil society organisations rather than INGOs. To ensure we not only respond to external pressures to change, but also set our own path to be a relevant INGO for years to come, it is important that we recognise where INGOs are seen to add most value:       

Where their impartial and non-partisan voice is effective in challenging accepted norms, acting as a “critical friend” to duty bearers, or protesting about or advocating on rights based issues; Through their role to safeguard adherence to international human rights (in our case, child rights) standards; Where they actively transfer knowledge and best practice interventions through their own networks; Through bringing global economies of scale, where this improves efficiency and therefore aid effectiveness; Linking isolated civil society organisations to magnify their roles and relationships within global networks; Through tackling cross-border, regional and global change agendas that are beyond the scope of nationally-focussed organisations; Where they play their part in strengthening civil society.

Key lessons for Plan and this strategy are that we need to:  

1.3.3.

have an effective voice for change on local, regional and global stages; invest further in policy development to ensure a credible contribution, as a leading INGO and visible participant in the development of post-MDG and aid effectiveness priorities.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats The strategy process identified a significant number of strengths and weaknesses. The following list is not exhaustive, but rather a summary of those seen as key to inform the decisions made in this strategy.

We also need to take into account the influence of China and other BRIC countries, who are having an increasing impact on development, but who work more directly through capital investment rather than poverty reduction. 3

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty Strengths

Weaknesses

CCCD – Our rights-based, participatory approach meets the expectations of and empowers children, families and their communities. It also meets the expectations of major donors.

Business operating model – Our operating model and the resulting structure, accountabilities, capacity and systems are still largely based on a sponsorship model which causes inefficiencies and competing priorities.

Child sponsorship – Allows us to commit to long-term local relationships, building trust and enabling effective civil society strengthening. Our long-term grassroots relationships with communities and local governments are powerful. We also have many loyal sponsors. Global footprint – Working directly with 38,000 communities covering a total population of 63 million people in 48 developing countries – Plan has reach. Diversified income streams – We have diversified our income: institutional grant funding, corporate partnerships, disaster appeals, and contributions in kind all help us to broaden our reach and impact. Programme experience – In 2010 alone Plan‟s 8,000 people implemented 240 programmes and over 7,300 projects. Our 75-year history multiplies our programme experience. Global campaigns – We are a global organisation with distinctive global campaigns which have gained good sector reputation. Single presence in each country – Having a single management team in each country we work in enables focus and effective engagement at local and national levels.

Country Office (CO) Capacity - Capacity to support a diverse product mix is limited in many programme countries, restricting ability to bid for grants and manage grantsfunded programmes. Child sponsorship model – Has been changed in part to reflect a more rights-based approach, but it could be more engaging, a more effective development tool, and it is not appropriate for addressing excluded or marginalised groups. Difficulties in reporting our impact - We struggle to report our impact because of limitations of existing tools, reporting metrics and systems – at a time of increasing scrutiny of INGO impact and effectiveness. Global brand - Our global identity and voice lack consistency and strength, which limits our effectiveness. Knowledge transfer across income streams – Lack of sharing of lessons learnt on business development means successes are not scaled up as effectively as they could be. Our cost base and cost ratios – The costs of our income generation, in particular recruiting and retaining sponsors, impacts our development effectiveness and may become a global reputational risk.

Our opportunities and threats are derived by combining our Version 2.0

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty understanding of the external environment with our internal strengths and weaknesses. The core lessons used to develop this strategy are: Opportunities

Threats

Reaching excluded groups – Addressing excluded groups in this final phase of the MDGs is an opportunity. We will need to combine our programme experience, our global footprint and our ability to diversify our income.

Aid effectiveness increasingly scrutinised - If we do not respond proactively to this agenda we risk becoming less relevant from an institutional donor perspective or at local levels.

Global focus – Maximising the benefit of our single CO structure and common CCCD approach, and ensuring the global organisation is aligned, will give us the opportunity to achieve economies of scale and global impact. Global influence – Our vast programme experience will be the basis for significant improvement in global influence in areas where we contribute to sector knowledge with thought leadership. We also have the opportunity to make use of our one million+ sponsors as voices for global change for achieving child rights. New audiences – Many of the trends observed above reveal opportunities for Plan to engage with new audiences – growing middle classes especially in middle income countries, youth bulges in many developing countries and changing ways of using technology including social media.

MDG and post MDG development agendas – Similarly, if we are not seen to address changing global development priorities we risk becoming less relevant from an institutional donor perspective. Growth for the sake of income – It is important that any growth is programmeled; based on a clear analysis of the needs expressed by communities and retaining the perspective on the promotion of rights for children and communities in poverty. If we become over-focussed on income growth or we fulfil donor agendas without this we risk losing credibility and focus. Reputation – 75% of income is based on individuals and thus from public perception of our reputation. Any public perceptionrelated reputational risks have a significant potential to impact on our work.

Collaboration – Significant mutual benefit could be achieved through more effective collaboration with local and global peers. Formal partnerships and strategic alliances could also broaden our reach, impact and capability.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty

ONE GOAL, FOUR COMMITMENTS One Goal:

Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty The achievement of this Goal is supported by four Commitments.

Four Commitments: Programme

Plan’s Vision A world in which all children realise their full potential, in societies that respect people‟s rights and dignity

We will maximise our reach and impact on children‟s lives, particularly those from excluded or marginalised groups.

(This is our prime commitment and is supported by three enabling commitments.)

Resources

We will increase our resources to enable us to maximise reach and impact on children‟s lives.

Organisation

We will align our operations to our common programme-led Goal as a united and effective organisation.

Collaboration We will achieve greater impact on child poverty through improved collaboration with others. In creating this strategy, a team from across Plan spent time ensuring we recognise the link between achieving our programme commitment and programme objectives, and the enabling commitments and objectives that would support them. The creation of a single programme focused Goal supported by four commitments aims to enable us to align more effectively behind a programme-led approach. (An approach based on a clear understanding of the local development contexts, the needs expressed by communities, and the local promotion of rights). This section of the strategy document explains the programme objectives and the rationale that underpins our programme commitment, including:     Version 2.0

Our identity – how our work is led by our Vision; The reasons for focusing on maximising our reach and impact; Our programme objective to ensure more Relevance – why a deeper emphasis on excluded or marginalised groups and the reasons for focusing first on gender equality; Our programme objectives to improve our Quality, Scale and 20th May 2011

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty Influence – and a focus on Education and Protection as areas for global leadership.

2.1.

Our identity With almost 75 years‟ experience working with children in poverty, and their families and communities, Plan is one of the world‟s most respected and trusted grassroots, child rights based organisations. We play an important role in mobilising children, communities and civil society organisations to claim the rights of children and achieve agreed local development priorities. Our disaster risk management profile is strengthening, with our enhanced capacity to respond to emergencies and reduce the risk of disasters in vulnerable communities. Child sponsorship gives us significant reach into communities where girls and boys live in poverty. It enables us to commit to long-term relationships and to engage in collaborative and participatory programming to achieve our Vision.

2.1.1.

CCCD remains the right approach Our decades of experience have taught us that programming with and for children and youth through CCCD is an effective way of achieving our Vision for lasting change:  

Our participatory, evidenced based approach (working with children and their immediate duty bearers4) is a highly effective method of ensuring children directly realise their full potential; Children and youth are also powerful change agents – educated children and youth, who understand their rights and have been involved in developing solutions, not only become active and responsible duty bearers later in life, they also facilitate attitudinal changes that enable societies that respect rights and dignities.

CCCD takes the main ambitions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and translates these into the key principles and practice which shape all Plan‟s programmes. It takes a theoretical rights based approach (which is formally adhered to by our programme countries) and turns it into an effective set of development tools used wherever Plan works. Our CCCD approach, combined with a longer term commitment, can also support children and communities to prepare for and rebuild their lives after disasters.

Immediate duty bearers include parents, families, community and local authorities.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty Plan’s programme guide explains CCCD5:

The principles CCCD:      

Children at the centre Guided by human rights principles and standards Responsibility and accountability Inclusion and nondiscrimination Gender equality Participation

Zuurmond, I. (ed.) (2010). Promoting child rights to end child poverty. Woking: Plan. P.19

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 2.1.2.

Linking interventions to impact In high-level terms, we recognise a flow6 from the inputs or enablers that are necessary for us to operate, through the programme interventions that we plan and undertake (for and with children) using these inputs, to our intended reach and impact on child poverty.

We will discuss the enablers (inputs) in Section 3 of this document below. Focussing first on the programme interventions; Plan, working in collaboration with children, communities, duty bearers, civil society organisations and others, maximises reach and positive impact when we follow a clear, evidenced-based process. This can be simplified into four components that collectively facilitate change:    

Pilot programmes (testing interventions that contribute to positive change in local communities); Learn (from our experiences: successes and failures); Transfer learning (inside and outside Plan); Taking best practice to scale (internally, through collaboration, through advocacy and through emulation by others).

This assumes a liner flow for development. It is clear that civil society is increasingly facing shocks that challenge this assumption. Development is increasingly being thwarted or accelerated through civil disturbance and natural disasters. The development community (including Plan) needs to learn to use these shocks more effectively as positive change opportunities. INGOs such as Plan can work to create conditions that are conducive to positive change (even if we cannot create or control change in these situations). 6

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 2.2.

Programme Commitment – maximising reach and impact We will maximise our reach and impact on children‟s lives, particularly those from excluded or marginalised groups. The ultimate ambition for Plan is to make a real and sustainable difference to the lives of girls and boys living in poverty. The complexity of the challenge of achieving lasting impact, combined with the fact that no organisation “delivers” it alone means that Plan, along with the rest of the sector, has struggled to demonstrate the overall impact of our programming. Nonetheless, supporters want to see measurable results, even if the cause and effect are not precisely linked. Learning to communicate more effectively where we work and who we influence (our reach) as well as the degree to which the quality of children‟s lives have improved (the level of impact) will help us demonstrate our effectiveness and secure further support for our work. This commitment supports our Goal to have “achieve a step change in our impact on child poverty” through:

2.3.



Reach



Impact

Extending Plan‟s development influence to benefit more children living in poverty, including more girls and boys from excluded or marginalised groups, and to influence more people with our development education and advocacy; Positively changing the ways girls and boys can exercise their rights – brought about by duty bearers (families, communities and governments), the children themselves, and assisted by Plan‟s interventions.

Four broad objectives – Relevance, Quality, Scale and Influence This strategy makes a clear choice to position Plan‟s relevance as an INGO by placing a clear emphasis on working with and for children from excluded or marginalised groups. We are also making choices to invest in programme quality, taking programmes and learning to scale and increasing impact through more effective influence. As part of this approach we will make a deliberate investment in thought leadership, taking a global leadership position on issues relating to education and protection, whilst integrating a gender perspective across

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty these issues. The following diagram shows the four broad programme objectives: Relevance, Quality, Scale and Influence. We will invest in each of these to achieve a step change in Reach and Impact.

2.3.1.

Reach through relevance – our deeper emphasis on excluded or marginalised children (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? We need to ensure that Plan remains relevant through addressing the emerging and most prominent development needs that cause and maintain child poverty. Our „relevance‟ is shaped predominantly by the geographic spread of our programming (the communities we choose to work with) and scope of the programming we engage in (the issues we address and the inclusiveness of our approach). As such, our choice to emphasise working with excluded or marginalised children will directly impact our reach: where we work and with whom (footprint). The primary reasons for making this choice to place emphasis on working with and for excluded or marginalised children are: 

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty

Research UNICEF

from

UNICEF has demonstrated cases where programming based on exclusion is not just the right thing to do from the perspective of a rights-based approach, but is also the most economically effective return on development investment.



girls, disabled children, orphans, or minority populations are excluded from realising their rights (health care, participation, education, jobs, etc). We already have some relevant experience in programming with these groups (see Plan Egypt‟s case study below) and recently we have invested significantly in particular in our capacity to promote gender equality7. There is clear external rationale for this choice – There is increasing global attention on the issue of excluded or marginalised groups that the international community needs to reach to achieve the MDGs. In line with that agenda, UNICEF has also recently adopted an organisational emphasis on the equity agenda, focused on the hardest to reach and poorest girls and boys.8 It is attractive to some institutional donors and individual supporters9 – The biggest challenge we are likely to face with this emphasis is how we decide to address groups that are hard to reach with traditional child sponsorship10 and cannot be included in our current geographical footprint. It will require us to learn how to raise funds differently and form new collaborations. We know that: o The donor community is now interested in tackling excluded groups11; o We have relevant experience in developing new income streams targeted on tackling exclusion12; o For those areas in which we do not have deep experience, we know there are others with complementary skill sets, access to their own funding arrangements, or with the motivation to tackle the hardest development challenges.

What will we do to address this objective? We will focus our drive for relevance on ensuring we address: 

Those children in the communities we work in that are currently excluded or marginalised through better mainstreaming of

We have a new Gender Equality Policy, a global gender equality capacity building programme (roll-out in FY12), regional gender specialist advisors, and a global campaign specifically targeting gender equality – BIAAG. 8 Opening statement: Anthony Lake PFC/Advocacy report press conference 7 September 2010 http://www.unicef.org/media/media_52301.html 9 To reach more marginalised populations will in some instances require a shift in geographic presence. Inevitably this will require additional or different income or partnerships, and targeted investment in attracting new audiences. 10 Remote communities are expensive to reach and impractical to run traditional sponsor communications; orphans, street children and any group in a highly urbanised environment are difficult to maintain contact with. 11 See MDG section of Introduction. 12 For instance, BIAAG raises funding for gender equality programming, and both Canada and Sweden have trialled “community” sponsorship concepts for remote communities in Vietnam. 7

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 

Plan’s Gender Equality Policy Plan‟s Gender Equality Policy articulates our commitment to the promotion of social inclusion: “Plan will implement longterm strategies of social change to address the causes of genderbased exclusion and discrimination.”

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inclusion (deepening our current footprint); Those communities (and groups) in the countries we work in whose rights are least served by national duty bearers (extending our footprint).

This choice does not mean that we are abandoning our approach to child sponsorship, nor does it change the expectation that we will be working with all children in any community. Plan recognises that gender discrimination compounds social marginalisation. Among children with disabilities, refugee children, children of the very poor or the socially excluded, girls are generally more likely than boys to experience discrimination, violence, exploitation or neglect. Our first global focus will be on addressing girls as an excluded group. We will use our Because I am a Girl global campaign to support the investment needed to scale up our gender equality programming. Plan‟s efforts to overcome social exclusion will address gender injustice as a specific area as well as in the context of all other underlying causes of marginalisation. Why Girls? Plan recognises that discrimination against girls and women is one of the main underlying causes of child poverty. Girls and boys have the same entitlements to human rights, but they face different challenges in accessing them. Girls are less likely to be enrolled in school, have less access to medical care, and are more likely to be deprived of food. They experience more violence and sexual harassment and are expected to work hard on domestic chores limiting their ability to develop their intellectual potential. This lack of care is unfair and unjust. Yet we know that investing in girls and young women has a disproportionately beneficial effect on alleviating poverty; not only for the girls themselves but for their families, their communities and their country. Everyone benefits, including boys and men. Social justice, equality of opportunity and development impact are three reasons why Plan has invested in its “Because I am a Girl” campaign and why Gender Equality is one of the early implementation priorities of this strategy.

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Case study - Plan Egypt: Children with Disabilities In Egypt only 5% of people with disabilities have access to any support service, most of which are institutional, expensive and based in urban settings. Children with disabilities often remain invisible, face neglect and abuse, and have their developmental and social needs neglected. To address this, Plan Egypt embarked on a Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programme which has positively affected 3,000 children (according to a 2008 evaluation). An important component of the CBR approach is community empowerment by creating well-trained volunteers, including people with disabilities and their families. Parents are key because they are the most important vehicle for changing attitudes and increasing inclusion for disabled children. To increase the scale and impact of this programme, Plan Egypt signed a co-operation agreement with the Ministry of Family and Population in 2009 to include a national training programme, the piloting of community disability action plans, and background work for a disability law.

2.3.2.

Planning and carrying out quality programmes (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? In creating CCCD, it was recognised that there are certain characteristics of any intervention that contribute to positive, sustainable impact on communities, and ultimately on children‟s lives. In adopting a broad objective for Quality in this strategy, we recognise that we must continually strive for more consistent quality application of CCCD in all our programming (funded through sponsorship and through other income). Through investment in programme quality, we expect to see demonstrable increases in:    

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 

Individual programmes being closed down (where there is no learning, or where programmes are ineffective) or taken to scale (where there is evidence of impact).

What will we do to address this objective? In order to achieve this we will establish a CCCD academy – a „centre of excellence‟ for Plan staff to learn about and reflect on CCCD and share experiences and learning. – It will review the CCCD policies, guidelines and assessment tool to ensure they are aligned and are consistent with the aims of this strategy. Our programme policy development will be led globally to ensure effectiveness and coherence in our policies. We will have common standards for programming, from whatever funding stream. We will also invest in capacity for monitoring and evaluation, particularly (though not solely) in our country offices. Also, we will introduce research and knowledge management capacity to enhance our evidence based programming, and our ability to communicate our programme impact effectively.

2.3.3.

Scaling up our programmes and learning (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? The concept of scaling up is fundamental to Plan‟s programme approach13. Scaling up involves reflecting on our work and the work of others, regardless of the size of the project, and thinking through how the project might be emulated, applied, or developed in different contexts. This leads ideally to successful interventions being replicated and mainstreamed into institutions serving children and their families; and encouraging duty bearers and local civil society organisations to take on responsibility, rather than building dependency on Plan. Scaling up can be seen from an “in country” as well as a global perspective. In country, scaling up is a local (in PU and in country) process of mapping the duty bearers and institutions that would improve lives for children if they adopted the initiative. Regionally and globally, scaling up is where Plan invests in collaborations, advocacy, and transfers best practice. In emergency contexts we also take interventions to scale, often

In the Board paper „Child Centred Community Development in Plan‟, 2003, “Plan acts as a catalyst for positive change and transformation by understanding the constraints and opportunities at the community level. While the symptoms of poverty are local, the causes are often national and global and individuals, families and communities should not be considered separate from larger society.” 13

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty without the time to gradually learn from a pilot development programme. Through this we will maximise the number of children and communities positively impacted as a result of our programme experience.

What will we do to address this objective? Staff capacity and capability is a key consideration for ensuring we consistently learn and transfer learning. To ensure that interventions are effectively and consistently scaled up requires an investment in systems and processes. Implementation and training for this objective will also be owned by the Plan academy. Our three global campaigns already have strategies and scale targets. Country Strategic Plans will identify scale targets and priority interventions that will be taken to scale. Strategies for each of our eight thematic areas will also identify priority interventions that should be taken to scale regionally and globally, where necessary with investment proposals to ensure we have leadership and technical capacities to support our scaling up plans and strategies. Case study â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Plan Bolivia- Operational research and evidence based programming for achieving greater scale Building on many years of maternal and child health programming, Plan Bolivia started to implement the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness strategy in December 2005, in order to promote child health and nutrition, prevent the most common illnesses causing childhood mortality and ensure adequate care and attention for children when ill. At that time, the emphasis within the Ministry Of Health was on the provision of formal child health services. Plan needed to demonstrate that working with families and communities to ensure that they provide the care and attention needed for the healthy growth of children is also of vital importance. To this end, Plan undertook operational research comparing two programmes: Area 1: Plan worked with the Ministry of Health to train health workers and health authorities to implement the clinical IMCI strategy in health centres. Area 2: Plan trained health worker staff and authorities in both the clinical IMCI strategy and in the household/community IMCI strategy. These same staff then trained community health volunteers and community health committees to work directly with families and community groups (including through home visits, growth promotion sessions, community information sessions). Culturally relevant training materials were developed for use with families; volunteers were provided with support supervision and were linked to the local health services. Two years later Plan compared the results in terms of child mortality, child Version 2.0

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty morbidity and adoption by the families of key practices for child health and nutrition. The results were significantly better in Area 2. This evidence was used successfully by Plan to advocate with the Ministry of Health to adopt community IMCI (in addition to clinical IMCI) as a national strategy within their maternal and child health programme. It was also used at the local level to ensure the uptake of the strategy within local health services and to garner the support of community leaders and their involvement in health planning at the local level. Since then Plan Bolivia has been the lead NGO supporting the Ministry of Health to develop materials, training and Monitoring & Evaluation systems, strengthen the nutrition component of the community IMCI strategy as well as to include a component for the promotion and assessment of children‟s integral development.

2.3.4.

Extending our influence to increase our reach and impact (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? We influence others throughout the world in order to achieve changes in policy and practice, to encourage duty bearers to take ownership, to promote action and motivate attitudinal change, and also to mobilising support and attract income. Influencing and motivating others can reach far greater numbers of people and often have greater impact than direct community based programme interventions. The hardest challenge when targeting a step change in reach and sustainable impact on child poverty is how to facilitate the process where communities, duty bearers and civil society organisations (at local and national levels) take ownership for embedding proven interventions. True scaling up (to reach as many children as possible) requires letting go of innovations through a deliberate plan that is designed to influence others to take ownership of them. This requires effective communication as well as respect for and from the target audience. Plan can offer “authenticity”: we have local presence worldwide, working together with local people in challenging contexts and basing our work on children‟s participation. We need to communicate our programmes through relevant and effective storytelling, engaging new and existing audiences, and need to let our supporters be our ambassadors.

What will we do to address this objective? Achieving greater influence requires investment in:

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty   

Advocacy, development education and communications capacity; Maximising the use of new and traditional media; Engagement, collaborative working and ensuring local legitimacy.

We will raise the standard of our existing communications capacity and use of new media at all levels. To maximise our credibility, local legitimacy and the potential impact of our local advocacy, we will also ensure that all Country Offices introduce appropriate local advisory Boards. This case study from Plan Vietnam draws together a number of themes, demonstrating relevance, quality, scale and influence: Case study - Plan Vietnam: Relevance, Quality, Scale and Influence In FY08 Plan Vietnam underwent a midterm review of its Country Strategic Plan. The review highlighted that Plan Vietnam‟s programme was spread across a wide number of pilot initiatives of questionable quality and scale. While efforts were underway to reach more marginalised groups, the bulk of Plan‟s programming was in fairly easy to reach areas that were convenient for Plan‟s child sponsorship work, financial transactions and staffing. Recognizing that Vietnam‟s economic growth would soon make Plan irrelevant in many of the PUs, the country management team decided to aggressively reposition Plan Vietnam in remote, mountainous areas of the country which are home to over 50 ethnic minority groups who were increasingly being marginalised from Vietnam’s development. These areas were also where the majority of the poor lived. This move necessitated shifting 50 percent of its 40,000 caseload, phasing out a number of long standing lowland communities and projects, and developing incentives for staff to be based in hardship areas. Facing increased cost of operations due to the remote locations, Plan Vietnam also developed School and Community based sponsorship products with JNO and CNO in an effort to reduce the high transaction costs of child sponsorship in sparsely populated areas. While the shift to remote ethnic minority areas continues, the move has also facilitated Plan Vietnam‟s acquisition of grant income. Just as importantly, it has inspired Plan Vietnam‟s organisational culture and has rejuvenated Plan‟s image as a child rights organisation working in some of the most hard to reach areas of the country.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 2.3.5.

Implementation priority: Building a Leadership position on education and protection Although country, regional and national offices will be expected to develop their own approaches to maximising our influence, we also need to take a „One Plan‟ view on how and where we invest in global campaigns, global expertise and global leadership positions. Our Programme Guide articulates our eight thematic imapct areas. It is impractical to expect to invest in all areas equally in programme or academic terms. Leadership in education and protection Education and protection is where we have:   

The greatest amount of existing thought leadership material; The deepest experience and evidence base in programming; The belief that these represent the key accelerators for change for children from excluded or marginalised groups.

We have strong experience and expertise in these areas, and Plan‟s global campaigns already focus and identify these areas as drivers for change:    

Central to the Universal Birth Registration campaign is protection for children; Learn without Fear combines the area of education and protection to make significant impact for children; The Because I am a Girl campaign has education and protection at the heart of its ambitions; Also, our work in Disaster Risk Management has been focused in the areas of education and protection.

This focus on education and protection will therefore be building on our current successes, not starting afresh. The aim of this investment would be to enable Plan globally to have a more influential voice – a leadership position – on those areas we can contribute most to the development debate. Taking this global approach in education and protection will enable us to:    Version 2.0

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     

external partners, highlighting good practices and accessing expertise; Research and document the evidence of our programme experiences and publishing our findings to contribute to external academic thinking and good practices; Demonstrate excellence in programming and policy; Demonstrate excellence, in programming and policy, on the intersection of gender equality across these areas; Inform global advocacy campaigns; Raise Plan‟s profile; Gain donor attention and funding.

Other areas of specific leadership Plan will continue to work in all eight thematic areas as outlined in the Programme Guide, and we are committed to delivering comprehensive policies and guidelines in each of them to ensure programme quality. In each of these there will also be specific areas where we can demonstrate real practice leadership. We will identify these in the thematic strategies and agree regional or global approaches as the basis for strengthening our leadership credentials. Participation as citizens Although “participation as citizens” is not defined as one of the areas where Plan is aspiring to become a “thought leader”, child participation is a core element of CCCD and therefore a crucial part of how we work in all programme areas. Plan‟s rights-based approach to development and disaster risk reduction proposes a shift from children as passive victims to children as agents of change for their own well-being and the development of their communities. Child and youth participation is a key contributor to success in education and protection. As Plan becomes a recognised leader in these fields, we will also draw attention to how child participation contributes to children‟s rights to education and to child protection. Environment and climate change Environmental issues including climate change are important considerations for many of the communities we work with. At present we do not have a specific reference for environmental sustainability as a core principle of CCCD. Our recent investment in Disaster Risk Management has given us the means to ensure our programme planning takes account of the adverse impacts of environmental and climate change at their most extreme. Version 2.0

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty Analyses of the natural environment and disaster risk help render our work environmentally sustainable and contribute to reducing disaster risk and adapting to climate change. We recognise that environmental issues can fundamentally impact on a communityâ&#x20AC;&#x;s development priorities and we need to formally recognise this in our CCCD approach, to consolidate the gains from our recent strengthening of disaster risk management. As part of this strategy, we will invest in development of our competence to future proof our programming in relation to the impacts of environmental issues on community sustainability, and the relation between that and our CCCD approach. The investment will need to be at regional and local level.

ONE PLAN We will enable the whole of Plan to become a more united and effective organisation through the use of this common strategic framework of broad objectives, aligned to our programme-led Goal. This approach allows individual parts of the Plan community to support the global strategy whilst developing locally relevant ways of delivering it. Any part of Plan that aligns itself to this framework of strategic objectives in its local strategy will be aligning itself to a One Plan ambition. The Programme commitment and its four supporting objectives have been introduced in the previous section. We now move to the three enabling commitments:

Resources

We will increase our resources to enable us to maximise reach and impact on childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x;s lives.

Organisation

We will align ourselves to our common programme-led Goal as a united and effective organisation.

Collaboration We will achieve greater impact on child poverty through improved collaboration with others.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 3.1.

Resource Commitment – Increasing our Resources We will increase our resources to enable us to maximise reach and impact on children‟s lives. This strategy recognises that there are two forms of income that we collectively need to focus on in order to maximise the impact of our programme-led approach: Individual giving – including sponsorship – is the primary funding source for our core reach, or footprint. It is flexible, long term, and enables us and the communities we work with to make all the choices on how to spend the funds; Grants are funds that require a defined scope of work and detailed compliance back to the donor for use of funds within a specific timeframe. Income from corporate partners can fall within both these categories. Some corporate relationships give unrestricted funds and have few specific requirements for how the income is to be spent, mirroring individual giving; other corporate partners demand a high degree of direction and accountability, mirroring the behaviour of some institutional donors. This strategy also recognises that Plan needs to take a more professional approach to investing for growth, identifying new NOs and FCNOs as our competitors have done in recent years. To summarise, the three broad Objectives under this Resource commitment are:   

3.1.1.

Increasing and widening the scope of Individual giving; Building a strong Grants pipeline; Investing for growth.

Increasing and widening the scope of individual giving (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? Child Sponsorship remains the largest and most important income stream for Plan. Although there have been significant gains in other income streams (including grants, corporate funding, disaster appeals, and contributions in kind), we recognise the importance of retaining a strong base of committed supporters. We continue to be enthusiastic about sponsorship and its positive role. As we have moved from a “needs based” to a “rights based” organisation

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty we have modified our sponsorship operations to target change for the whole community, not just the sponsored child. However, we still have some tensions between the promise of child sponsorship to the sponsor, the value to the child “ambassador” and its community, the cost of maintaining the link between the two, and the resulting development value of running sponsorship. We need to resolve these tensions with a fundamental review and “re-engineering” of the end-to-end process. We will also accelerate the development of other regular giving based concepts. These include community or “themed” giving, which offers the same development value but appeals to different donor audiences and would allow us to extend our reach into more excluded or marginalised groups.

What will we do to address this objective? The re-engineering exercise will be based on a full review of our financial model, to get a clearer picture of the process and associated costs. Our re-engineering of child sponsorship will also include:    

Analysing peer organisations' sponsorship products and programming; Evaluating the ways that we communicate sponsorship to identify and share best practices; Developing and testing options before rolling-out the reengineered concept across all audiences; Continuing our current and planned investments in developing sponsorship communications systems.

Creating new subscription-based individual giving concepts will involve analysis of potential markets and products and tests pilots; in particular exploring options to address programming for excluded or marginalised children.

3.1.2.

Building a strong grants pipeline (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? In recent years we have successfully diversified our income mix, in particular attracting significant grant funding. Where these donors‟ ambitions and priorities align with our programme aims, the funds generated enable us to expand our reach, including among excluded or marginalised groups who are difficult to reach through child sponsorship alone, and take programmes to scale.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty We recognise two main organisational challenges to ensuring we maximise the potential from grant funding. The first of these is that our business processes and financial model are still fundamentally based on a sponsorship model. Our systems, accountabilities, processes and capacity do not reflect a complex mix of funding opportunities and the need to work more effectively as crossorganisational teams. This means that we often do not have full capacities needed for grants bidding and management in programme countries. In addition, we are not recovering the full cost of managing grants, or the inherent cost of their programmes. In some cases the result is that our sponsorship funds are being diverted to cross-subsidise the work funded by major institutional donors in an unsustainable way. The second challenge is how to enable more effective targeting and management of large donors (especially institutions like The Global Fund, foundations funded by individual philanthropy and multi-national corporate partnerships). We need to resolve how we account manage (or assign lead office responsibility) to global accounts, where there is more than one Plan operation interested in working with that external body. In addressing both of these challenges we will expect to get more visibility our projected (grants) income pipeline, enabling more effective business and resource planning. Finally, we must resolve the issue of “shared credit” which arises when more than one NO or CO bid to an individual donor. Working as internal consortiums will become more prevalent as donors look to spread their reach, and work through fewer operating agreements with multiple parts of Plan. Case study - EU Office: Global account management Plan received its first grant from the European Commission (EC) in 1995. Since then, the amount of EC funding awarded to the organization has steadily increased, almost doubling from 2007 and 2010, reaching €25.5M in 2010. In 2007, Plan was 9th in the ranking of INGOs in terms of volume of EC grants received; in 2009, Plan was 3rd in the same ranking. These results highlight the recognition of Plan‟s expertise but also points out the efficiency of a coordinated approach supported by the Plan EU Office and the creation of an EC Grants Strategy, drastically contributed to improve coordination between NOs and with COs and ROs. As a result, grants acquisition process is now more transparent and efforts are made to ensure that all NOs get a fair and equal access to EC funding.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 3.1.3.

Target where we invest for growth (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? If we are to maximise our potential to impact we also need to target more effectively where we invest for income growth: in new territories to attract new supporters; in attracting new supporters in existing territories; in building programme country fundraising capacity; or in alliances and mergers with organisations that build our income generating capacity. Recently Plan has taken a case-by-case approach to assessing where to focus investment for growth. This strategy proposes a holistic approach to targeting investment, addressing both where we can achieve the best return on our investment as well as where resources developed are most clearly aligned to our programming ambition. Initial research into our peer organisations and into our own experience investing central funds in growth shows:   

Much of the growth of our largest peer INGOs has come from extending their fundraising base. For the 7 NOs established between 1995 and 2001 there was an almost direct correlation between the investment made and the magnitude of ROI. Projected rates for India and Colombia suggest much higher potential ROI and lower need for investment funds than even the most successful NOs.

What will we do to address this objective? We will establish a central team to lead and co-ordinate business development across Plan. We will also create an investment strategy, taking into account the programme growth ambitions and capability of the organisation and the comparative return on investment achievable through developing new NOs, conversion of COs to FCNO and opportunities to invest further in existing NOs. This will also need to reflect on where and how we want to change our footprint and position ourselves for post MDG development priorities.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 3.2.

Organisation Commitment – A united and effective Organisation We will align our operations to our common programme-led Goal as a united and effective organisation. This Organisation commitment looks internally at how we collectively support our programme, resource and collaboration objectives. It focuses on four organisational objectives that enable all parts of the organisation to work together more effectively and unite under a “One Plan” philosophy – identifying with, behaving as and motivated to be a single high performing team. The four broad organisational objectives address our:    

3.2.1.

Identity – ensuring a consistent look, feel and voice in the way Plan projects itself both externally to the world and internally to itself Operating model – ensuring our systems and processes are aligned and resourced to support more effective programming; Performance management – ensuring stronger crossorganisational, team and individual accountabilities that are aligned to our One Plan ambition; Consistency – maximising effectiveness and minimising global risk through adopting common or aligned processes and standards.

Affirming a consistent identity (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? Our programme-led strategy stresses the importance of increasing our influence to support change. Our ability to influence on a global scale is enhanced or limited by our capability to engage audiences with a consistent, confident voice, supported by evidence of impact at community or country level. We need to reach out to our audiences, to create dialogues with them and let them interact in our campaigns. This objective sets the expectation that Plan will commit to a consistent identity with a coherent look, feel and voice across all organisational entities and in all geographic contexts. How we portray ourselves both externally and internally can be an important enabler in achieving the goal and commitments made in this strategy. The key priority will be to

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty develop our brand, identity and messaging to reflect our ambitions.

What will we do to address this objective? We need to understand and to communicate Plan‟s „compelling story‟ – our ambition and experiences. For this we need clarity of our corporate identity and voice, as well as the organisational capacity for effective programme-led communications and marketing. While we accept that there needs to be some local flexibility, we must develop a clear Plan brand that can be embraced and projected consistently by all parts of the organisation. Global standards and guidelines will be supported with training across the organisation to ensure our identity is engaging and inspiring for staff, communities, donors, duty bearers, and partner organisations.

3.2.2.

Aligning our operating model (structure and capacities) (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? This broad objective recognises the need for a review of our business operating model to ensure we have the necessary aligned and efficient, capacities, systems and processes across the whole of our organisation. We need to ensure our organisation is best set up to achieve our Vision and Goal, that we have the right people in the right places, and that our systems and processes help us to work efficiently. Roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of the different parts of the organisation will need to be clarified, as well as co-ordinating mechanisms and decision making forums.

What will we do to address this objective? To achieve this objective we need to have a clear view of the business model we wish to operate. With this understanding we will:    

3.2.3.

Review Plan‟s financial model Review organisational accountabilities; Align capacity and workforce plans to develop the skilled teams required to work in our diversely funded business model; Align systems and processes to support the business model.

Ensuring we are a high performance organisation (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective?

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty In order to move towards being an organisation that thinks and acts in the collective interest, (as One Plan), it is important that our personal accountabilities, reporting, performance management and reward systems support and promote this. Our One Goal will have implications for the way we work. We will need to ensure that accountabilities are clear, that our staff have the requisite competencies and behaviours, and that our working culture is conducive to high performance. We also need to ensure we are attracting and retaining the right talent and developing people‟s careers as an “employer of choice” Organisationally, in particular we need to address issues such as those related to cost recovery and to “shared credit”, which impact on our ability and motivation to work collaboratively.

What will we do to address this objective? This broad objective recognises three performance drivers:

3.2.4.



Organisational and team performance – ensuring all parts of Plan are motivated to work together, that barriers to internal collaboration are removed, and that organisational and leadership accountabilities clearly reflect a One Plan mindset;



Individual performance management – motivating a high performance culture and the importance of alignment with a single set of purposes;



Learning and knowledge sharing culture – a key enabler of our high performing teams will be the extent to which we invest in identifying and sharing best practice, as well as both recognise and celebrate team achievement.

Assuring consistency (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? Consistency is important for two main reasons:  

There are major global risks we face as an organisation that are best mitigated though taking a consistent approach (e.g. child protection); Common and aligned processes and systems enable greater efficiency and effectiveness.

What will we do to address this objective? This objective sets an expectation that we will identify where core policies Version 2.0

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty and practices should be adopted from a risk mitigation or organisational efficiency perspective. A process will be put in place to develop and adopt common standards and a process of compliance monitoring.

3.3.

Collaboration Commitment – Improved Collaboration We will achieve greater impact on child poverty through improved collaboration with others.

Plan works collaboration

In 2010 Plan had over 31,000 collaborations, which included:  3,400 collaborations with national and local government institutions,  1,750 collaborations with international and national level NGOs;  2,250 collaborations with local NGOs and  23,500 collaborations with local community based organisations.

The scale of our Vision can only be achieved through collective effort and collaboration from all sectors of society (civil, formal, informal, governmental, corporate and not for profit). Our decision to place an emphasis on children from excluded or marginalised groups makes the need to collaborate more central and critical to success. Plan sees civil society as a crucial mechanism through which people can channel their engagement as well as their initiatives on development and change. Plan is committed to co-operate and collaborate with civil society organisations as well as other parts of society who share our Vision to improve impact on children‟s lives. Plan already works in collaboration with a range of organisations for a number of purposes, including to:   

In particular we need to learn how to value - and communicate the value of - collaborative working, and to develop better competencies and capacity in partnership development. We also need to invest our own resources more directly in sector efficiency efforts, recognising the value of this investment both in achieving our Vision and in the increased influence this gives us. Although there are many forms of collaboration, this strategy focuses on two broad objective areas: 

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Create and share knowledge to develop common approaches to delivering community based programme interventions; Influence opinion formers and duty bearers at national and global levels; Improve organisational effectiveness..

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 

3.3.1.

Engagement and collaboration – playing a visible role in informal sector forums focused on knowledge, collaboration and effectiveness.

Forming effective partnerships and alliances (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? At all stages of our operation, from engaging donor audiences, through running an effective organisation, to influencing governments and delivering programmes, the impact of our investment is often affected by our skill in working with others. Plan already engages in a number of formal partnerships with civil society organisations and others. However, the majority of our partnering is in commissioning others to deliver interventions on our behalf. True collaboration, for impact and programme implementation, requires an investment of resources, time and trust to create a partnership of equals.

What will we do to address this objective? We will learn from internal and external best practice. We will also invest in developing our understanding of how to form more effective partnerships. We will invest in a central team to support global strategies for partnerships and alliances. Part of this team‟s remit will be to retain and build on the increasing number of partnerships with global corporates facilitated by the Corporate Partnerships Engagement Unit over the past three years.

3.3.2.

Engagement and co-operation (broad objective) Why are we setting this objective? There are a significant number of forums set up to facilitate more effective collaboration for development impact. These share knowledge, agree common standards and common approaches, or debate emerging development challenges and the appropriate responses the sector could take. As a significant player with global reach and valuable understanding, Plan recognises that engagement in these forums has significant potential to support the achievement of our Vision.

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MONITORING AND MEASURING SUCCESS This strategy recognises the importance of measuring and monitoring success in:  

4.1.

Measuring achievement towards our Goal and the commitments we are making; and Monitoring the implementation of our strategy.

Measuring achievement towards our Goal and commitments This strategy sets a single programme-led Goal: achieving a step-change in Plan’s impact on child poverty. We have not chosen to set a single global “impact” target, as the complexity of the poverty challenge and vast scope of our activity make one global scale number practically meaningless. Instead we are setting the expectation of creating a set of KPIs aligned to where we are planning changes based on this strategy, which together will indicate where we are increasing our reach and impact:   

Reach within sponsorship-funded Programme Units (PUs); Reach and impact from thematic strategies; Reach and impact from global campaigns.

We will take a baseline measurement of these KPIs, and will set targets as well as establishing the structure for regular KPI reporting.

4.1.1.

Sponsorship-funded programmes The main KPIs for sponsorship-funded programmes14 will identify the number of girls and boys directly impacted by our sponsorship-funded programmes, and the extent to which we use sponsorship-funded programmes to address excluded or marginalised communities: # Girls and boys directly impacted by Plan‟s sponsorship-funded programming. x% “most excluded” girls and boys reached through sponsorshipfunded programmes.

Please note that we do not anticipate establishing similar KPIs for grant- or other-funded programmes, as there could be a risk of us „double counting‟. 14

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 4.1.2.

Thematic strategies For each of our eight thematic programming areas we will identify the monitoring and evaluation tools to track their reach and impact as they are taken to scale. The thematic strategies will therefore be able to set global impact targets.

4.1.3.

Global campaigns The three global campaigns already have strategies with appropriate reach and impact related targets. The existing targets are shown in the case study below.

4.1.4.

Resources In the course of this review, we have explored the validity of setting a global income target of €1 billion annually and the feasibility of reaching it by FY16. Part of the purpose of such a target would be to further energise our fundraising teams and their partners at country level with a specific income goal. However, our analysis, which is at a relatively early stage, indicates that whilst we can grow substantially year on year globally, we cannot be confident that such a large increase of approx €400M in four years is attainable without significant organisational risk. With sponsorship income being broadly flat, much of the early growth to achieve a stretch target would have to come from other sources. The NO community is projecting a 28% increase in FY11 to FY12 income from non-sponsorship revenue, which, if extrapolated, could lead to a €1 billion goal. This assumes sufficient capacity to absorb such a rapid growth rate. This, together with the potential to divert attention from other organisational priorities, represent a major risk which questions the sense of setting such a bold financial target at this time. It would therefore not be prudent to set an annual global target at this stage. A more sensible proposal would be to aim for our two prime income streams (individual giving and institutional grants) each achieving consistent double digit growth ( in line with recent trends) and that by FY16, our annual growth and cost ratios are at least in line with that of our peers.

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Global campaigns’ targets Universal Birth Registration By 2015 Plan will have:      

Helped register a further 30 million children, including 3 million under 5; Helped to register 3 million refugee or internally displaced children (a recognised excluded group); Ensured every sponsored child has a birth certificate/ legal identity; Helped 10 countries to reach 80% national registration; Helped 5 countries to improve law/ policy/ practice to make registration attainable; Managed a global coalition to highlight the importance of birth registration and to mobilise resources.

Learn Without Fear By 2015 violence in schools will have decreased globally as a result of:    

New anti-violence legislation protecting over 500 million children; Reaching 200 million people with campaign messaging to increase understanding; Training over 50,000 teachers in peaceful teaching methods; Over 1 million children actively communicating the campaign messages to their peers.

Because I am a Girl Over the duration of the campaign, BIAAG will aim to achieve the following impacts: 

 

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4m girls directly: o Direct improvement in 4m girls‟ lives - access to school, skills, livelihood and protection; o Improved family and community support and access to services for girls; 40m girls and boys through gender-sensitive Plan programming; o Plan programmes in 49 countries reflect good gender equality practice; 400m girls through policy change; o Quantifiable improvement in policy makers‟, service providers‟ and governments‟ support for gender equality and girls rights; o Their lives will be improved by the benefits arising from living in communities that protect, respect and fulfil their rights and enhance their opportunity and choice.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 4.2.

Monitoring the implementation of the strategy In the past, delivery of strategic commitments has proved very challenging for Plan. Transparency in reporting on the implementation of the strategy will be important; both to ensure all parts of Plan engage with this strategy and also to make sure that issues are identified and resolved early. The main transparency systems anticipated are:   

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Alignment of all relevant performance reporting to the strategy framework; A full implementation plan with the “portfolio of projects” will be maintained and tracked by the Implementation Project Office; A global “dashboard” of process indicators will be created and monitored by the Implementation Project Office.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION This section outlines the specific initiatives and investments needed to ensure we deliver this strategy:   



5.1.

The approach – how we will ensure we invest in implementation; The key activities – that underpin achieving the change this strategy represents; Future proofing – outlining some of the challenges and broader sector issues identified through the process that will be taken forward in a “continuous review” process, to ensure the strategy remains current; A formal review of our overall structure and governance.

Approach This strategy is proposing a significant amount of change that will not happen unless we invest in:  

5.1.1.

Leadership (and project governance) of the implementation process; Engaging our key stakeholders as the main agents of change.

Leadership and governance of implementation process This strategy recommends the following mechanisms to ensure appropriate leadership and oversight of change, and to agree how it will be implemented locally: 



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Accountability for oversight of the implementation of the strategy across Plan is written into the terms of reference of the Global Leadership Team (GLT). This team becomes accountable for monitoring the implementation of the strategy and making adjustments as required; Accountability for ownership of implementation is written into each of the other three leadership teams; the IH Exec, Programme Operations and Leadership Team (POLT) and National Directors‟ Team (NDT). These teams are accountable for implementing the strategy in their areas; An Implementation Project Office is created to track progress on implementation. This function will: o Manage and report on the speed and success of implementation (see above, in the „monitoring the implementation of the strategy‟ section); 20th May 2011

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

5.1.2.

o Monitor project interdependencies and ensure these are exchanged regularly with managers of implementation teams; o Support managers to create their own implementation plans. o Manage the annual strategy review cycle (see below, in the „future strategy‟ section); An Implementation Advisory group is set up to give guidance and feedback to the strategy implementation team, with broad membership from every level of Plan. This team has no formal accountabilities, but will be an important feedback mechanism for the project management office;

Engagement This strategy will only be successfully implemented if all of Plan is motivated to support it. Two critical activities must take place; one looking to engage outwards, to all parts of Plan; the other upwards, to Plan‟s leadership teams, to the International Board and to the MA. A communications plan is being developed to ensure we roll out this strategy – building excitement, awareness, understanding and commitment to it.

5.1.3.

Managing our risks Risk management is a key element of Plan‟s accountability and corporate governance. Our risk management framework consists of a quarterly review and reporting mechanism across all levels of the organisation and results in the top global risks being submitted by management to the Financial Audit Committee of the International Board. Risks relating to the implementation of the strategy will be identified, monitored and managed through this process.

5.2.

Key activities A draft implementation plan has been created to capture the most significant activities anticipated to deliver the broad objectives in this strategy. The following eleven projects are identified as the top priorities, particularly for FY12:

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty 1. Review the business operating model: This will include consideration of organisational roles, accountabilities and capacities (particularly addressing country office grants capacity), to ensure they are aligned with our One Plan ambition; 2. Review the financial operating model: This will include consideration of the cost structures, cost attribution and reporting including proper tracking of donor funds and effective allocation of overhead to enable more effective management and cost recovery; 3. Strengthen our identity through a global brand strategy: Affirm a strengthened, consistent global identity that reflects our Vision and aspirations, through roll out of a global brand strategy; 4. Initial focus on girls as an excluded group: Roll out the gender equality policy and programme strategy, supported by a global launch of Because I Am a Girl; 5. Create a Plan academy (for continuous learning): This centre of excellence will provide global training, initially focussed on CCCD and key areas of policy; 6. Determine (global and regional) priorities for scaling up: Within education, protection and gender equality, identify and agree the interventions which can be taken to scale most effectively; 7. Strengthen our global advocacy and knowledge management capacity: Make central investment in global thought leadership and advocacy, particularly in education and protection, as well as strengthening our environmental knowledge capacity; 8. Strengthen global leadership for our individual giving and grants: Create effective global business development leadership capacity for individual giving and grants, and a growth investment strategy (including priorities for new NOs and FCNO conversion); 9. Re-engineer the child sponsorship concept: Ensure the right balance between promise to the donor, value to the child and development impact; 10. Enhance global partnership capacity: Create a team to enable and systematically pursue partnerships and collaboration, including funding the successor of the current Corporate Partnership Engagement Unit (CPEU). 11. Review structure, decision making and governance: Working with the IB and MA, we will ensure Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s structure and governance is aligned to the delivery of our Vision and programme-led Goal.

5.3.

Future strategy At the time of writing, it is recognised that there are a number of external issues that will impact on our organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x;s effectiveness and priorities over the period of this strategy. These include:

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty 



Post MDGs – The Millennium Development Goals reach full term in 2015, with a major post-MDG summit planned for September 2013. We know that one of the major issues for debate is a focus on “poor people” not “poor countries”. This reflects the fact that two decades ago 93% of poor people lived in low-income countries. Now as much as three quarters of poor people are believed to live in middle-income countries. This will affect aid flows and development priorities. Non-linear development – Our development theory of change is based on a linear understanding of social change (pilot, learn, take to scale). With increasing numbers of environmental and social shocks15, it is becoming apparent that mass social change cannot just be seen from a linear development perspective, which suggests INGOs prepare and plan to see shocks as opportunities to lay foundations for positive social change. Influence of BRIC economies on development – Plan‟s CCCD approach is based on civil society development. This is not something all governments want. China takes a direct capital investment approach, which some governments prefer and which will have a big impact on how aid works. Resource security – Our CCCD approach looks to develop sustainable communities. While we recognise that our disaster risk management capability is a significant enabler of sustainable communities, we do need to learn to support communities more effectively around the wider climate adaptation and mitigation opportunities.

Rather than setting a strategy for five years, expecting a full review in time for a new strategy starting up in July 2015, this strategy sets an expectation that we will conduct an annual strategy “sense check” aligned to the annual budgeting process:   

Reviewing the external environment, and the key external change agendas (in particular the issues identified above); Reviewing progress on implementation; Revising implementation priorities in time for annual budget planning processes.

At the time of writing in 2011 we have had a year with major earthquakes, tsunamis and floods as well as mass civil unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. 15

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty 5.4.

Structure, decision-making and governance issues There are several issues relating to organisational structure and

decision-making that need to be addressed as part of implementing the strategy to 2015. These fall broadly into two categories: effective decision-making and international accountability within One Plan and local legitimacy in the management of Plan programmes. In addition, and related to this, a number of NDs and CDs have highlighted some broader challenges concerning top level governance within Plan, which have relevance throughout the period of the strategy and beyond. These three areas, which are summarised below, raise separate, but related issues: 5.4.1.

Effective decision-making and internal accountability within One Plan The strategy sets the goal (under the Operating model broad objective) that we will ensure our existing organisational structure, our decisionmaking processes and internal accountabilities will enable us to effectively and efficiently deliver on our strategic goals. With the success of our diversification of income streams a number of internal tensions have emerged that expose weaknesses in our decision making capability as well as the mechanisms we have to take decisions in the best interests of the wider organisation. At a time when we are reviewing our business operating model we therefore propose to perform a comprehensive review of these issues, with a view to positioning One Plan as a partner of choice and a highly efficient and effective network organisation.

5.4.2.

Local legitimacy in the management of Plan programmes There is a growing emphasis at international level and within institutional and corporate donors on funding being targeted at local and national civil society organisations. This is expected to intensify through the aid effectiveness agenda and as development funding priorities are reevaluated for the period post 2015 MDGs. Although there are other pressures that need to be taken into account, to ensure we remain relevant, competitive and can engage all key stakeholders, we propose to review how we govern and manage our field programmes through the lens of local legitimacy. The strategy (under the Influence broad objective) refers to one mechanism for securing this, namely, setting â&#x20AC;&#x153;local advisory boards for Country Officesâ&#x20AC;?. This is an important step.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s impact on child poverty But at the other end of the spectrum, the creation of FCNOs continues to be a priority. We propose to review these approaches and develop a holistic strategy towards local legitimacy in the governance and management of field programmes.

5.4.3.

Top level governance issues An aspiration was set in the previous strategy to ensure more representative governance, but this has not been significantly progressed. Specific gaps that have been highlighted by NOs and COs include the need to establish a clear view on how the voices and opinions of children and their communities are effectively represented at the highest levels of Planâ&#x20AC;&#x;s governance structure. Although these issues may be seen as sitting above the strategy, since they are of broader and long term relevance, their resolution is important to the success of Plan. We also consider that they need to be led by the MA itself, with support from the Board and the executive.

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One Goal, One Plan Achieving a step-change in Plan‟s impact on child poverty

GLOSSARY Berger studies

Roland Berger is a strategy consultancy which conducted two studies on Plan International‟s organisational effectiveness in 2008 and 2009.

BIAAG

Because I am a Girl – Plan‟s global campaign promoting gender equality and girls‟ rights.

Broad objectives

The main objectives for the strategy to 2015. Each Commitment in this strategy has broad objectives that are the headlines for management and reporting on implementation of the strategy.

CCCD

Child Centred Community Development. Plan‟s rights-based approach.

Country Office. Each programme country is referred to as a CO.

Commitments

The strategy to 2015 will be implemented through recognising four implementation areas. Each of these has a commitment which will help ensure we focus broad and specific actions on achieving impact on children‟s lives.

CSP

Country Strategic Plan. Every programme country (CO) develops a CSP to guide their work, impact and resource requirements over five-years.

Excluded or marginalised The Programme Guide states that all children hold equal rights, and that excluded or marginalised children “include marginalised girls and boys, children with disabilities, children who are excluded because of ethnic origin or religious belief or children whose families are poor, of low caste, or affected by HIV.”16 FCNO

Field Country National Organisation. Two COs (India and Colombia) have been given fundraising remits under Plan‟s constitution.

The International Board.

International Headquarters.

INGO

International Non-Government Organisation.

KPI

Key Performance Indicator.

Members‟ Assembly.

MDG

Millennium Development Goals.

National Organisation.

Programme Unit.

Regional Office.

Step change

(In business or politics) a significant change in policy or attitude, especially one that results in an improvement or increase.17

Strategic Framework Plan‟s strategic framework consists of One Goal, 4 commitments, and 13 broad objectives.

16 17

Zuurmond, I. (ed.) (2010). Promoting child rights to end child poverty. Woking: Plan. p.23. Oxford Dictionaries http://oxforddictionaries.com

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