Vision and planning (Wemos)

Vision and planning as the basis for capacity development

In 2007, Wemos, a lobbying organisation in the field of health and international policy, started analysing its partner organisations. This was the result of a process aimed at improving the quality of capacity building. Mariska Meurs, leader of the Country Advocacy Team: ‘Partners become aware of the fact that they have to prioritise.’

Four years ago things were very different. Mariska Meurs explains: ‘Wemos had only just started developing a vision on capacity building. Before then, policy had been ad hoc. We increasingly started examining what our long-term goals were. We also scrutinised the individual annual and work plans of our partner organisations. They were ramshackle. Moreover, the results achieved were not formulated clearly, which made it impossible to assess whether plans had been achieved or not.’

Strategy

Initially, Wemos organised courses and workshops for its partner organisations, but the results were disappointing. Meurs: ‘We asked ourselves how we could approach capacity building in a more strategic manner. How can partner organisations become more professional? How can they work in a more structured manner? How can they implement adequate staff policies? And how can they be taught to look at long-term objectives?’

Wemos engaged consultancies and international organisations. PSO also played a role. ‘It provided financing and provided criticism on our approach. And we made intensive use of the knowledge and experience in the field of capacity building,’ says Meurs.

Results

The partner organisation analyses give Wemos improved insight into what does or does not work and what the best means of tackling this is. The analyses make the partner organisations more aware of the priorities they have to set for capacity building. ‘Last year, using the new insights, our partner organisations drew up plans for capacity development. Although the plans still do not have the quality we had hoped for, this is a significant first step,’ according to Meurs.

Wemos also analysed itself. Meurs: ‘We critically examined our various roles in our relationships with partner organisations. We realised that we are a financier, cooperation partner and capacity builder all rolled into one. Our conclusion was that we have to prevent those roles getting in each other's way and that the partners are the projects' owners. We anchored new processes in our own organisation. The professionalization translated into improved relations with our partners.’

Medical ethics and staffing

So what are Wemos' core activities? ‘We seek out structural causes and solutions for health problems in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Kenya and Zambia in particular. The organisation supports partner organisations with their health lobbying. The support consists of funding, capacity development, stimulating networks and research,’ explains Meurs.

‘A good example is our medicine project whereby we investigate whether clinical trials are carried out in an ethical manner. This is often not the case. Patients are, for example, not informed about the fact that they are participating in a trial. They do not know they are guinea pigs, they have to pay for their treatment and do not receive the desired aftercare. Wemos itself lobbies the European registration authorities so that these weigh ethical matters when deciding to allow a medicine onto the European market.’

Another of Wemos' spearheads is staffing in healthcare. Meurs: ‘Too little is invested in the quantity and quality of staff. While this is generally what is most lacking. Wemos encourages government bodies to put more development budget into staffing and the capacity to implement a proper staffing policy.’

Development Organisation of the Rural Poor

Back to the results in the field of capacity development. We are proud of our partner organisation Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP) in Bangladesh. Last year, it founded budget clubs with a number of local community organisations which examine the healthcare budgets of local clinics. They also assess whether the people working there should be there according to the budget and whether medicines are present which should be. Data is collected, stored in databases and analysed. This structured approach clearly resulted from systematic thinking and unequivocal goals,’ says Meurs.

One problem Wemos still faces is how to monitor capacity development's progress. Meurs: ‘We primarily want to cooperate and would like to avoid having to police our partners' structures and financial systems to see whether these are in order. This is our challenge for the coming months.’

Read the follow-up story of Wemos: 'Less control, more recommendations'.