The Community Cohesion in Duhok (CCD) project – funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – works to increase the capacity of local NGOs in order to build social cohesion and restore social trust in Duhok, Iraq.
Through workshops put on by the CCD project, IRD/Blumont was able to assist three local NGOs – Kurdish Social Development (KSD), Parwar Organization for Developing Culture and Education (PODCE) and Duhok Organization for Volunteer Youth (DOVY) – to better serve their communities. After conducting an organizational assessment of the NGOs, IRD/Blumont found the need to enhance and improve each organization’s capacity to increase performance through a series of capacity building training workshops on successful NGO strategies, human resources, project management, finance, media, and community projects.
Through team interviews with each of the participating NGOs after the workshops, IRD/Blumont staff found that the training spurred a number of achievements in a short period of two months.
DOVY staff during one of the workshops.
Each NGO now has a clear mission and vision and feels more unity working towards a common goal. A strategic plan for the next five years was also developed, outlining comprehensive steps to achieve each NGO’s objectives. KSD, DOVY, and PODCE also developed their organizational structure, HR systems, detailed work plans, financial systems, and campaigns for their organization through media or special pages and social networking. The NGOs proved through demonstrating documents that they can design projects serving their community and solve issues based on conflict mapping. Each of the NGOs consists of a group of passionate people aiming to serve their community and provide help to vulnerable people through different projects.
IRD/Blumont was able to develop and enhance their organizational capacity by leveraging this passion within each NGO and turning their staff into professionals in their field. KSD aims to spread tolerance for a more peaceful community through the power of youth, PODCE is focused on cultural and educational development, and DOVY aims to increase the spirit of volunteerism among young people.
KSD’s board members preparing for a presentation
Mr. Abdulkhaliq, Director of PODCE, stated that “Before our participation in the training sessions, we were writing projects but they were not derived on scientific assets. In these trainings, we have learned the scientific origins of writing projects that are scientifically accurate. Also, before this training, we did not have a system for employee files or employment forms, but after this valuable training session we learned how to choose staff for each job. Not to mention, before we had a lack of information about administrative structures of the organizations, but after participating in this training, we learned how to set a strong organizational structure.”
PODCE’s Director preparing a press release with his group
Mr. Ahmad Saadon, President of DOVY, said “Trainings were of high quality, and it was one of our fundamental needs, because it’s totally related to the field of our work. Since we’re a small organization, before these trainings our staff didn’t have enough experience and extensive knowledge about the basics of the work of organizations. But after participating in the trainings we got a lot of experience and knowledge about all the important basics of work. This will lead to a big and noticeable development in the activities and upcoming projects of our organization. Not to forget, it was a profitable opportunity in all aspects for our participation in these courses, because we had the opportunity to learn about other local NGOs and we shared and debated among us about issues that significantly impacted our plans, and the basics of our organization.”
Mr. Ahmed M. Qasim, General Manager of KSD, stated that “We didn’t have a written strategy but now we have one, and we know how to develop it. And now we can say that KSD recieved the keys of self-improvement and organization development by participating in these workshops. The most important point that we have learned is now we know how to evaluate a project and make a successful project. We are really happy and thankful for participating in these workshops, and I am sure that KSD will now work more professionally in our next activities.”
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