Organisational Development

Why we work on Organisational Development

In an ever-more fragmented and polarised world, organisations working towards social cohesion and conflict resolution are increasingly relevant. At the same time, the growing expectations of stakeholders and donors, combined with more complex and volatile circumstances, create numerous challenges that can stand in the way of organisational impact.

How we work with Organisational Development

Our Organisational Development service offer has the objective of enabling organisations that have peacebuilding at the core of their mission to become more effective and achieve higher impact, ­­whether they are a multilateral, a governmental ­or a civil society actor. Through our individual organisational strengthening support or our peer-learning initiatives, we support our partners’ commitment to align their organisational practices with the core values of peacebuilding, in particular participation and inclusion,

Through our individual organisational support,
we strengthen our partners’ ability to:

• Analyse the context(s) they work in
• Clarify their own role, positioning and strategic priorities
• Strengthen their governance and build constituencies in their context
• Translate strategic priorities into programmes, action plans or advocacy approaches
• Adapt their internal processes and/or organisational model to achieve more impact
• Develop strategic partnerships and stronger coalitions including at the community level
• Embed monitoring and learning into organisational practice
• Build the capacities of staff accordingly

What makes our Organisational Development support distinct:

• It is designed as a change process, with clear objectives and progress indicators
• It is a participatory process, driven by our partners and informed by their needs
• It enables our partners to draw on external expertise
• We play an accompanying role throughout, providing feedback and support as our partners go through the inevitable ups and downs of organisational change
• Our flexible approach allows our partners to integrate the lessons learned and adapt to new developments
• We help our partners ground their organisational change in the context(s) in which they operate

Through our collective peer-learning initiatives, we create safe spaces for change champions to reflect on their role and lessons learned, and receiving the support of peers leading similar change processes. We also co-convene with like-minded actors peer-learning spaces for donors interested in or already funding organisational development

Results of our Organisational Development support

Over the past decade we have supported more than 30 partners on their organisational development: civil society organisations, international non-governmental organisations, multilateral and regional organisations, governmental institutions and networks.

Our 2022 international programme review showed that all international OD partners had experienced strengthened internal systems and practices and that these changes have directly improved each partner’s ability to support local peacebuilding actors. The review found that collective learning initiatives further reinforced learning and knowledge exchange our OD practices, contributing to this outcome. It also reported that the international networks PN supported all reformed internal processes and as a result, partners were better able to support their members and the local actors they reach. Finally, the review praised PeaceNeuxs’ influencing efforts as having codified a space for powerful systems actors (donors) to come together and promote new ways of thinking around grant-making. It described PeaceNexus as a vocal champion of locally-led, conflict-sensitive peacebuilding, with these efforts creating a multiplier of inputs.