SNVNIGER 

 CONNECTING PEOPLE'S CAPACITIES
Organisation Néerlandaise de Développement

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Our strategy  

In June 2007 SNV managers - among others Board of Directors, Regional Directors and Country Directors - gathered in The Netherlands and decided on the SNV 2007-2015 Strategy.

This Strategy sets out SNV's course of action for the coming years. It outlines a corporate vision of our role and place in reducing poverty and improving governance. It focuses on who we are, what we do, how we relate to others, and how we will go about developing our relations and way of working.

The following core elements of the 2007-2015 Strategy are:

  • We orient our activities on impact in two areas, basic services (BASE) and income, production & employment (PIE), and focus on specific targets within these in the context of national development priorities.

  • We engage strongly with local capacity builders, as they are essential to the sustainability of poverty reduction efforts and thus to our success.

  • We keep advisory services as the core, but as these are insufficient to help achieve impact on their own, we complement these with additional 'delivery channels'.

  • We see 'governance for empowerment' as a concept and body of expertise that is critical across all our work.

  • We see clients as part of broader actor constellations and help strengthen micro-macro linkages in order to accelerate impact on poverty and governance.

  • We will substantially diversify partnerships and resources to leverage our expertise for increased impact.

  • We sharpen our drive for quality in staff, work processes and result measurement.

Our core business: capacity development

Our core business is capacity development to support local actors to strengthen their performance in realising poverty reduction and good governance. In addition we have the ambition to systematically strengthen the in-country ability for capacity development for impact. For that we will engage much more strongly with local capacity builders.

SNV defines capacity as the power of a human system (be it an individual, organisation, network of actors or a sector) to perform, sustain itself and self-renew in the face of real-life challenges and ambitions. It is about empowerment AND impacts. They go together.

More than ever before we emphasise that our ambition to help enhance the performance of local actors aims to contribute to impact: tangible poverty reduction and governance results. We have the confidence to make that explicit and place our capacity development efforts within wider development ambitions: in specific basic services sectors or value chains in the country concerned. We fully realise that impact is achieved by our clients and partners and not by us.

We focus on capacity development of and with meso-level actors and processes as they are uniquely positioned to help achieve impact and improve governance. Our support has 4 essential characteristics. It is informed by a strategic understanding of the sector or theme concerned and is both demand-driven and impact-oriented. Secondly we combine thematic and change expertise. Thirdly, we usually support change processes over longer periods in a variety of forms responding to the needs and progress of the client or client grouping. And finally, in doing so we help to link actors and 'levels' (micro-meso-macro) around an issue and help strengthen the wider 'actor constellation'.

Our capacity development services usually combine several of the following components: a) diagnosis, b) organisational development, c) network and partnership development, and d) institutional development. For a specific sector or theme, this general approach is translated in specific products or services and packages of methodologies that we offer to our clients. Products and services combine SNVs general approach to capacity development with specific thematic or sectoral knowledge. SNV Corporate will set overall frameworks relating to SNV practice and capacity development approach, including broad categories of capacity development services. Within that, products and services are to be shaped, defined and tailor-made to specific regional and country dynamics.

Impact orientation and strategic focus

Two overall Impact Areas

In embracing specific country level poverty reduction and governance priorities, SNV has chosen to place all its work in two broad impact areas:

  • Access to basic services (BASE)

  • Income, production and employment (PIE)

The two priority areas provide us focus for selecting specific national impact targets to contribute to. Thus: SNV helps to strengthen BASE and to increase PIE.

The two impact areas cover enormous terrain; so much so that further delineation and focus is needed in order to guarantee a minimum level and critical mass of SNV expertise. In this we are guided by a firm belief that it is only through high quality and focused efforts that SNV can make a difference to the lives of many poor people.

Therefore in positioning ourselves in a country or region, we make two interrelated choices:

  • a) Specific positioning choices for basic services sectors and for value chains, in which we want to make a significant contribution to change, and

  • b) Specific impact and governance targets (within national strategies and agendas) to which we want to contribute.

We seek to align our country programs with national development strategies. Although far from perfect, in most countries such strategies start to form an improved framework for the focusing of development efforts and increasing synergies by and between national government, local stakeholders as well as donor agencies.

Focus within Access Basic Services and within Production Income and Employment

In relation to the impact area 'Access to Basic Services' SNV has chosen four, MDG-related, sectors:

  • Education,

  • Water & Sanitation,

  • Health,

  • Renewable Energy

It is within these four basic services sectors that countries and regions will make more specific positioning choices to focus their work and relate to national (MDG-based) targets.

In the impact area 'Income, Employment and Production' no sector choices will be made at corporate level. Countries and regions develop a focus on specific competitive value chains for selected commodities, products and services that have development impact potential in their context. A balance will need to be found here between the overly broad ('agriculture') and the unduly narrow ('honey').

In order to guarantee critical mass of expertise, quality, outreach, external profile and a meaningful contribution to impact, the positioning choices will be guided by considerations of regional coherence. Countries and regions will have (limited) room for innovation outside the vested basic services sector and value chain choices, but will keep within SNVs overall impact areas and governance logic for all their work.

Why these impact areas, basic services sectors and value chains?

Education is the foundation for progressiveness in any country. 89% of the women in Mali over 15 years of age are illiterate. Quality education will equip people with knowledge and skills needed to improve their lifestyle, to enhance their job opportunities, to protect themselves from diseases and to take an active role in social, economic and political decision-making. The broadly acknowledged importance of education for poverty reduction and sustainable development, the possibilities to align with international development (like MDGs) and human rights agendas and the priorities of the Dutch Embassies and its linkages with health, income and employment, make it a priority for SNV.

Water and sanitation is central to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, as clean water and hygienic sanitation are vital for health, education, economic activity, food production and gender equality. 78 % of the Ethiopian people do not have access to an improved source of water. The crucial importance of water and sanitation for poverty reduction makes it a priority for national and international development agendas, MDGs, international partners and Dutch Embassies. This enables SNV to align its practice with the external world.

Health as a sector comprises the right to access the highest attainable standard of health care quality services for poor people, including the specific needs of minority groups and women. One out of every 100 women die in Rwanda whilst giving birth (versus 7 for every 100.000 in the Netherlands). A major reason for SNV to adopt health as one of its sectors is its positive influence on education, employment and income and therefore its impact on poverty alleviation.

Renewable Energy (non-conventional energy) is defined as energy derived from resources that are regenerative or for all practical purposes can not be depleted. Mankind's traditional uses of bio fuels, wind, water, and solar power are widespread in developed and developing countries; but the mass production of electricity using renewable energy sources has become more commonplace only recently, reflecting the major threat of climate change. Renewable energy has a strong impact on poverty reduction because it enhances rural livelihoods by offering a clean alternative energy source and economic benefits to users. Renewable production of energy can be used to improve living conditions and stimulate socio-economic activities.

Income, Employment and Production (PIE)

A deliberate choice is made for the triplet production, employment and income. 90% of Tanzanians, 80% of the Nicaraguans, 74% of the people from Lao PD and 90% of the Malians live from less than 2$ a day.

  • Income

  • Production

  • Employment

Income: SNV is interested in contributing to more income. More income increases people's freedom to choose the life they want to live. For SNV increased income is the basis for sustained development. Without it all efforts to promote development will remain to have the character of charity and emergency aid.

Production: SNV is equally interested in contributing to increased production. More production forms the basis of more income and food sovereignty and equally increases people's freedom to choose the life they want to live. Increased production does however not always lead to more income as a lot of production is either consumed directly by its producers or bartered for other products.

Employment: SNV is as a matter of course also interested contributing to increased employment. Being employed means by definition earning an income. Creating or securing employment can prevent rural - urban migration and contributes to the maintenance and development of vulnerable communities or livelihoods.

The improved inclusion of small scale producers and entrepreneurs in value chains is a strategy to increase production, income and employment opportunities for the poor. However, pro-poor development is not an automatic outcome of such inclusion, which may also leave local producers less empowered as they are subject to much larger forces beyond their control. Value chains and pro-poor development therefore is an important subject for further exploration and research. Specific points of attention are the governance dimensions of value chains, including: dependency risks, bargaining power, nature of regulation and control, pro-poor policy environment and market linkages as element of broader livelihood strategies.

In 2009, based upon lessons learnt and experiences acquired, SNV will assess whether or not to continue operations within the basic services sector and value chain focuses developed in 2007.

Result-orientation as an organisational culture

At any moment in time, an SNV advisor must be able to explain how what we do with a specific client is supposed to (indirectly) contribute to poverty impact and governance results related to the two impact areas and in the specific basic services sectors and value chains chosen within these.

We want to prove and improve our contribution to impact. Result measurement is just an instrument. Result-orientation is an organisational culture and individual attitude. The basis for getting results is to have a 'results-oriented' way of planning and working.

It requires an essential shift in logic as compared to the previous years. We do not start from demand and see what kinds of impact we may relate to that, as in the past. But rather we now have certain strategic choices on poverty impact and governance in mind and see to what kinds of capacity development demand we may respond to help pursue that impact best.

Of course new demand may also lead to new forms of impact that we may wish to contribute to, but essentially the impact focus is there right from the start. This also means that we are much more strategic in selecting with whom we work and what services or activities we do. The basic questions always are: Is this an effective choice for contributing to poverty impact and improved governance? And are there other options in which the same effort would lead to more impact and governance?

Full text of the 'Strategy Paper 2007-2015: Local Imppact - Global Presence'
 

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