Business Fights Poverty - Blog Action Day

I have recently joined an interested social networking site called Business Fights Poverty, which as they say themselves is "the free-to-join, fast-growing, international network for professionals passionate about fighting world poverty through good business"




Blog Action Day is today, 15 October 2008 - and is an annual non-profit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Its aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year the focus is on poverty.

To learn more about how you can become involved try this link or visit the main site at: www.businessfightspoverty.ning.com

Fund-raising & Resource generation strategies for NGOs

I have recently been working with a number of NGOs and Not-for-profit organisations in the area of fund-raising and broader, resource generation activities. During these projects I was able to successfuly use more traditional marketing tools to help identify firstly "what is the product that these organisation offer the Irish market place (i.e. what is the value to the Irish customer/ supporter/donor)?"


Once we were able to define this "product" it was possible to use more traditional business and marketing tools - such as identifying the USP [Unique selling point]; Market segmentation (identifing target markets and potential niches); preparing both a product-based marketing mix (Product; Price; Place; Promotion) and a service based mix (marketing mix plus People; Process; Physical Evidence and Packaging).

This is a great example of using proven business technique for the benefit of non-traditional businesses (i.e. Irish NGOs) and helps these organisations to try and make best use (i.e. best return) for the limited financial resources.

What is Knowledge Management?

"I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know." [Donald Rumsfeld; Former US Secretary of Defence]

Knowledge is the inherent wisdom that people have, coupled with the facts that people can gather from the internal and external environment.

• facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education;
• the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject;
• what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information;
• awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.

The common thread through all of these definitions is that knowledge is gained through the capture, understanding and interpretation of facts, as gathered and assessed through human intervention.

John Poindexter explained the role of Knowledge Management in his presentation to the International Risk Assessment & Horizon Scanning (IRAHS Symposium, Singapore) in March 2007. “Sense-making & path-finding” outlines the Poindexter model :

So the primary source of knowledge (interpretation of facts) is people. And is often the case, particularly in services, the knowledge on how to deliver these services resides within people.
Knowledge management looks to harness this “people knowledge” so that it can be accessed and shared across the organisation

And to paraphrase Donald once again “…because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

Principles of Performance Management and Personal Development in an organisation

I recently completed a review of a performance management and development system within a public sector body. As part of the project I undertook a review of the relevant literature and was able to identify a set of core principles that under pin performance and personal/team development within a public services organisation.


These principles are equally as applicable to any not-for-profit organisation as they are based on aligning performance to the service that is being provided to the customer/ beneficiary.

UN Certificates

I was a member of the response team during Hurricance Mitch in Honduras and ever since I have been eager to maintain my skills in the are of Emergent Response. Having completed a number of training courses on the themes of emergency and security - situations, awareness, preparedness, response, logistics, etc. I was delighted to be selected for the Irish Aid Rapid Response Corp

(http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/Rapid_Response_Initiative.asp) .

As part of this I completed further advanced training in the United Nations Training School Ireland (UNTSI) based in the miltary camp, Currach Co. Kildare. Following on from this I completed the UN c ertificates in Security Awareness.

(http://www.military.ie/army/org/dftc/milcol/index.htm#untsi) .

Information & Communications Technology (ICT) as an Intervention Strategy for Sustainable Development Projects

I recently completed a piece of research on the role of ICT in development projects/interventions. The purpose of this research exercise is to understand the current thinking in development circles of the role and potential of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in development and to identify areas of opportunity that an Irish-based NGO working in International Development can learn from and leverage in order to:

• Identify key actions/opportunities to improve the sustainability of ICT-focused development interventions
• Develop a programmatic approach to allow/ensure Camara delivers ongoing development rather than one-off interventions
• Add value to ICT-based development programmes & projects

The tangible output is a series of questions or propositions that a Development Organisation (an NGO working in the ICT area or using ICT as part of its development intervention) should answer in its identification of needs; design of development intervention strategies; management of development projects & programmes and/or in the monitoring and evaluation of those programmes & projects. As such, this research exercise is a practical knowledge management exercise.

The research technique adopted is based on a literature review of existing research, building upon the experience gained by peers and policy-makers in the development sector.

• International Policy: Research commissioned by International and multilateral organisations – such as the UN and World Bank.

• National Policy: Reviews and assessments of development policies that draw upon or focus on ICTs.

• Donor Experience: Donor research leveraging their own experience or requirements in supporting ICT projects.

• NGO Experience: Strategies; Projects and Research undertaken by NGOs drawing upon their practical experience from projects and partners.

• Beneficiary/ Partner Experience: Direct experience from project participants, including partner organisation, recipients of ICT supports and personnel involved in delivering the projects

I based on the findinsg on the Development Value Chain that I have developed (http://entanddev.blogspot.com/2007/10/development-value-chain.html) in relation to the roles (i.e. questions to be answered) of the Donor, iNGO & Local partners and beneficiary

Ministerial Mentoring Mission

I have been travelling around the country recently having been asked to prepare and facilitate a ministerial delegation who have been learning about the "Celtic Tiger".

The following is an overview of the agenda that I organised/facilitated during the delegates visit to Ireland:

• Irish Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation (including political and civil service responsibilities; multilateral & bilateral relationships; civil society support; etc.)
• Irish Civil & Public Service career management (recruitment; recognition; performance management; resource management; etc.)
• The National Development Plan and the role of procurement and public/private partnerships.
• Irish domestic enterprise and export development
• Irish Foreign Direct Investment strategies
• Irish University sectors role expanding the development & aid agenda both in Ireland and internationally
• Consultancy & training organisations directly involved in Irelands efforts in International Cooperation.
  

I must thank the various participants from the Irish Civil & Public Services, Universities and Business Services organisations who participated in this - meeting with the delegates, giving insightful presentations and answering the various questions that arose.