Strengthening Leading Mozambican Organizations and Networks II Program

Agency for International Development (USAID). The program aims to strengthen the organizational capacity of Mozambican organizations and networks. The program utilizes a participatory organizational assessment process (PAOP) to enable organizations to evaluate their own performance management, develop a concrete plan to address organizational needs, assess institutional growth, and identify ways to implement their plan. The PAOP is the first step to help organizations focus on their management practices to improve services and make the organization institutionally, programmatically, and financially sustainable. The PAOP promotes self-assessment and has several unique characteristics that benefit organizations in the following ways: it allows for the verification of organizational health and prediction of long-term success or failure, enables the organization to make comparisons, and facilitates the identification of areas for improvement. The PAOP also serves as a benchmark to measure progress in improving organizational health. The PAOP process is structured into two phases. Phase I focuses on preparation, understanding the process, facilitating the organizational assessment, prioritizing organizational and technical needs, and requesting technical assistance. Phase II involves the use of tools to collect data, including SER (Statuto, Valores, Visão, Missão, Liderança, Governação, Transparência e prestação de contas, Gestão), FAZER (Execução de Programas e Projectos), and RELACIONAR (Relações Externas, Redes, Organizações de cobertura). The SER tool assesses an organization's statute, values, vision, mission, leadership, governance, transparency and accountability, management, and human resources. The FAZER tool evaluates an organization's ability to execute programs and projects, including competence, analysis, planning and project design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. The RELACIONAR tool examines an organization's external relationships, including partnerships with government and civil society, beneficiaries, public relations, and networks. The PAOP process also includes a model for prioritization, which enables organizations to identify and prioritize their needs and develop a plan to address them. Additionally, the PAOP process allows organizations to request technical assistance to support their capacity-building efforts. Overall, the PAOP process is a structured and participatory approach to organizational assessment and capacity building, which enables Mozambican organizations and networks to improve their performance management, develop a concrete plan to address organizational needs, and assess institutional growth.