Why we work on Organisational Development
In an increasingly volatile and polarised world, organisations dedicated to social cohesion and resolving conflict are more relevant than ever. Yet, both globally and in many local contexts, support for democratic values, the rule of law, and solidarity is weakening. This shift is making the work of civil society more challenging and, in many cases, more dangerous. More than 60 countries have introduced restrictive legislation, and funding for conflict prevention has sharply declined as governments divert resources toward militarised security.
Our organisational development (OD) support is for organisations with peacebuilding at the core of their mandate. Our goal is to help them strengthen their impact, adapt to changing realities and build long-term sustainability. In today’s context, peacebuilders urgently need OD support to respond to new threats, shift priorities, and forge new partnerships to make progress towards their mission.
Our approach to Organisational Development partnerships
- We accompany the process to jointly agree on objectives, responding to organisational challenges and priorities.
- Our support is grounded in the specific political, social, and cultural contexts in which our partners operate.
- The support follows an agreed roadmap for achieving objectives of organisational change, but we remain adaptive and follow the pace of our partners.
- Our process is participatory, transformative, and driven by the organisation’s own priorities.
- When external expertise is needed, we help our partners recruit the most appropriate expertise to meet their needs.
- We accompany our partners throughout the process, offering feedback, advice, and encouragement as they experience the inevitable ups and downs of organisational change.
We help partners to:
- Analyse and adapt to the contexts they work in
- Clarify their own role, positioning and strategic priorities
- Strengthen their governance and accountability processes
- Identify strategic priorities and translate these into programmes, action plans or advocacy approaches
- Adapt their internal processes and/or organisational model in line with organisational values and context changes
- Embed monitoring and learning into organisational practice
- Build the capacities of staff to lead and implement the change process
Our approach to collective initiatives
We create spaces for change champions to reflect on their role and lessons learned and receive support from peers leading similar change processes. For example, we support peer-learning spaces for:
- Funders working on organisational development and peacebuilding
- Consultants working on organisational development and peacebuilding in some of our regions
- Practitioners working on governance and peacebuilding
- Practitioners working on gender and peacebuilding
- Funders and practitioners working on locally-led peacebuilding