Capacity Building Strategy for ZAMFAM Project

To achieve this objective, ZAMFAM will strengthen the organizational capacity of district and community organizations to develop strong internal systems, including leadership, governance, human resources, financial management, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation. The organizational capacity assessment (OCA) is a key component of this effort. CRS has reviewed existing OCA tools used by USAID, ECR, and ZOCS and has developed and adapted a tool for use by partner organizations. The adapted tool has been used to conduct assessments of ten CBOs, with 64 CBOs assessed to date. The findings of these assessments have been shared with ECR, and the remainder of the assessments are expected to be completed by the end of quarter 1 of FY17. In addition to the adapted tool, CRS proposes to conduct OCA assessments of ECR and ZOCS to gauge levels of organizational performance and identify areas of weakness. The Holistic Organizational Capacity Assessment Instrument (HOCAI) will be used to assess areas of possible weakness and develop an ongoing capacity building plan for ECR and ZOCS. To ensure consistency of effort and avoid duplication, CRS will collaborate with Zambia Rising to align efforts and support local capacity building. The collaboration will involve working closely with CBOs and FBOs to draw up organizational capacity building plans after the assessments are completed. As of 30th September, CRS met with 38 CBO partners in Chingola, Mufulira, Lufwanyama, and Chirundu to conduct institutional action plans. The capacity building strategy for ZAMFAM involves several key components, including organizational capacity assessment, organizational capacity building, and mentorship and support. The assessments will be conducted at the partners' offices, and the drawing up of organizational capacity building plans will be done through clustering of partners at district level. Organizational capacity building will take place through structured trainings for individual CBOs/FBOs and through combined trainings on common weaknesses. CRS has already provided trainings in governance, finance, project planning, monitoring and evaluation, and has trained a total of 72 CBOs in these areas. To address the areas identified as weaknesses, a separate training will be conducted for the remaining CBOs from Luangwa, Chongwe, and Rufunsa. Mentorship will also be conducted on a one-to-one basis, with ECR finance, M&E, and HR staff weighing in on the assessment gaps and training needs. CRS proposes several capacity strengthening interventions, including technical assistance, capacity building trainings, support supervision and backstopping, and accompaniment. Technical assistance will be provided by both ECR and CRS, with CRS providing onsite technical assistance on a quarterly basis and ECR providing support supervision on a monthly basis. Capacity building trainings will be held for CBOs on the Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces, addressing key weaknesses identified in the OCA assessments. The trainings will be developed in collaboration with ECR and will be user-friendly for the CBOs to assimilate.