THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (NDA) REPOSITIONING STRATEGY:ABRIDGED VERSION
1. The NDA vision
The vision of the NDA is,
"To be the premier partner to civil society and government eradicating poverty in South Africa"
"The NDA is a statutory body that strengthens civil society and government in eradicating poverty". It will do this through the provision and facilitation of;
"Supporting government and civil society development action"
4. NDA Values
5. NDA distinctive capabilities and their characteristics.
The NDA will use the latest technologies and systems that are aimed at maximizing its development impact.
The NDA is a unique institution that works across sectors and specialty areas as legislated by the NDA Act.
The NDA is a unique institution that is sponsored by government yet independent of government. It is not a department of government.
The NDA was founded as a joint initiative of civil society and government and is governed on that basis.
The NDA enjoys the support of international donors and partnerships with intergovernmental organizations
The NDA aims to:
7. Activities related to the achievement of goals
7.1 Goal 1: Provide financial support to programs and projects that
will directly contribute to the enhancement of the asset- base of the poor.
Activities:
7. 2 Goal 2: Build the leadership, technical expertise and
management capabilities of civil society organizations that help to eradicate poverty.
Activities:
donors that work to eradicate poverty and its causes.
Activities:
organizations and poverty eradication institutions and organizations for the purposes of developing partnerships and sharing them with the state and other stakeholders.
Activities:
7.5 Goal 5: Document and conduct regular seminars, conferences
and policy forums on poverty eradication to guide policy discussions and policy formulation in Government and civil society partnerships.
Activities:
(h) Monitor and evaluate policy initiatives
7.6 Goal 6: Promote dialogue between government, Intergovernmental organizations and government departments at all levels to influence policy change and development action.
Activities:
7.7 Goal 7: Vigorously conduct impact assessments on program
activities of the NDA.
Activities:
8. NDA critical success factors and internal organizational imperatives
The following imperatives are the key drivers that will lead to the success of the NDA in achieving its mission:
8.2 Internal business processes
9. Key macro and sector trends that inform the NDA strategy
10 The NDA national and provincial roles
The NDA is geared at playing the following national and provincial roles:
The NDA will increase the levels of funding for the alleviation of poverty in civil society by promoting public, private partnerships and strengthening its relationship with international donors, intergovernmental agencies and government departments and treasury. This role will be driven at the national level.
The NDA will provide and monitor strategic grants by engaging in carefully planned and deliberate project identification, formulation, pre-project assessments, decisions and disbursement strategies and operations. Project identification and formulation will occur significantly at the national level whilst pre- project assessments, evaluation and monitoring will occur at the provincial levels.
The NDA will cause to be conducted secondary and primary research and to inform it’s programming as well as to increase best practice experiences to its contractual and non-contractual stakeholders. The documentation and archiving of development knowledge will be a key prerogative of the NDA at the national level. Provinces will support this activity through research sites and implementation.
The NDA will contribute to national policy development and development policy initiatives through sponsoring issue identification, sanctioning, mobilisation, advocacy, negotiation, implementation and monitoring. It will be active in the evaluation of development policy and suggesting alternative policy measures. This role will be championed at national level and supported at provincial levels
The NDA will be active in promoting dialogue at the provincial, national and international levels with key development players through one on one discussions and conferencing, as well as promote CSO and Government development compacts.
The NDA will partner with CSOs and other institutions to enhance the capacity of its grant partners thorough the careful conceptualisation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of its capacity building initiatives. Through innovation and development the NDA will strengthen its delivery capacity. Planning and implementation will occur at both the national and provincial levels.
A key strategic approach of the NDA will be the mainstreaming of impact assessment to measure its impact and that of its program partners. This will help the NDA with the documentation of case studies and lessons for contributing to the theory and development of knowledge in poverty eradication measures. Impact assessment design and funding will be carried out at the national level.
11. The key competency requirements of a restructured NDA in relation to its core functional areas
The NDA will require a variety of skills to effectively implement its strategy and achieve the intended goals.
11.1 Fund mobilization
The competencies that are required in the NDA in this respect are fund raising, proposal writing, negotiation, marketing and communication skills and knowledge areas.
Core competencies that are required in this respect include Project Management, Communications, Organizing, Co-ordination, Report Writing, Basic Financial Management, Community Development, Organizational Development, Process Management, Negotiations and Sector Knowledge and Skills.
The core competencies in this regard are research design, report writing, statistical analysis, sector analysis, data analysis, evaluation, documentation, development research and participatory research techniques and knowledge.
Core competencies for policy development include advocacy skills, policy analysis, writing, research, negotiations, communications, documentation, community organizing, development policy and studies knowledge and skills.
The requirements for this area of focus are conceptualization skills, public speaking, media relations, international relations, political skills, negotiations, marketing, people, conflict management, and information management and public policy management competencies.
11.6 Capacity Building
Training and development, training needs analysis, research, mentoring, coaching, report writing, curriculum design, facilitation, presentation, problem solving and human resources development education skills are significant for this aspect of the NDA’s work.
11.7 Impact assessment
The core skill and knowledge areas that are required by the NDA in this respect are impact assessment, research, evaluation research, project cycle management, statistical analysis, report writing, policy evaluation skills, monitoring evaluation, and Development and Demography studies.
12. The NDA organizational structure
The structure of the NDA is included in the appendices of this summary document and is based on the following organisation design principles:
13. Indicative cost of running the NDA
The indicative cost of operating the NDA both national and provincial levels for a staff of 80 is estimated at R42m for the fixed and recurrent costs. This is based on a budget of total transfers of R257m and the fact that the NDA staff is currently managing active projects and programs in the order of R250m.
14. Position establishment and deployment of staff
The posts established, and how staff are to be deployed is illustrated in the table overleaf.
POST ESTABLISHMENT |
TOTAL |
SPREAD BY DEPARTMENT |
|||||||
POSITIONS |
|
CEO |
EA |
FM |
PRG |
HRC |
PS |
IA |
MCDF |
Chief Executive Officer |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Executive Assistant |
1 |
1 |
|
- |
- |
- |
* |
- |
- |
Directors |
5 |
2 |
- |
1 |
1 |
1 |
- |
-1 |
-1 |
National Program Managers |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Senior Manager: Research |
1 |
|
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Managers |
10 |
3 |
- |
2 |
2 |
3 |
- |
- |
-3 |
Regional Managers |
5 |
- |
- |
- |
5 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Provincial Project Managers |
19 |
- |
- |
- |
19 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Legal Services & Company Sec. Manager |
1 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
IT Specialists |
2 |
- |
- |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Accountants |
2 |
- |
|
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Account clerks |
2 |
- |
- |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Receptionist |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
Office support officer |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
3 |
- |
- |
- |
Travel and Transport officer |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
|
|
National Projects Administrator |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
|
- |
- |
- |
Project administrators |
10 |
- |
- |
- |
10 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Personal Assistants |
11 |
5 |
- |
1 |
4 |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
TOTAL |
79 |
13 |
- |
10 |
46 |
10 |
* |
-1 |
-4 |
KEY
APPENDICES
NDA STRUCTURE AND COST SCHEDULE
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