2. The NDA mission

• Development funding,
• Capacity building
• Research and policy development, and
• Dialogue

2. The NDA strategic intent

• To uphold and respect the primacy of the individual, the group and society in their quest to seek decent living standards.
• To work in partnership with others for the common good.
• To be honest, trustworthy, open and accountable for our actions and the resources entrusted with us by the Government and other partners.
• To be dependable, flexible and responsive to our contractual and non-contractual stakeholders.
• To intervene with skill, diligence and dedication in the pursuit of meeting the needs of our partners

5. NDA distinctive capabilities and their characteristics.

1. Workflow systems

The NDA will use the latest technologies and systems that are aimed at maximizing its development impact.

2. Integration of research, dialogue and funding

The NDA is a unique institution that works across sectors and specialty areas as legislated by the NDA Act.

3. Independence

The NDA is a unique institution that is sponsored by government yet independent of government. It is not a department of government.

4. Government and civil society initiated

The NDA was founded as a joint initiative of civil society and government and is governed on that basis.

5. International donor and intergovernmental partners

6. NDA goals to address its mission and vision

The NDA aims to:

1. Provide financial support to programs and projects that will contribute directly to the enhancement of the asset-base of the poor.
2. Build the leadership, technical expertise and management capabilities of civil society organizations that help to eradicate poverty.
3. Build relationships and income streams with significant donors that work to eradicate poverty and its causes.
4. Establish a broad and reliable database of civil society organizations and poverty eradication institutions and organizations for the purposes of developing partnerships and sharing them with the state and other stakeholders.
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.
6. Promote dialogue between government, Intergovernmental organizations and government departments at all levels to influence policy change and development action.
7. Vigorously conduct impact assessments on program activities of the NDA.

1. Identify poverty pockets.
2. Identify projects that address major causes of poverty.
3. Support access to adequate safety nets to manage crisis.
4. Fund programs and projects that enhance the asset base of the poor.
5. Facilitate networks and partnership of poverty eradication initiatives and organizations.
6. Monitor and evaluate programs.

1. Identify civil society organizations that work with the poor.
2. Identify the leadership and training needs of civil society organizations that work with the poor.
3. Identify relevant training programs and service providers that can meet the training need of civil society organizations.
4. Establish relationships between civil society organizations and service providers.
5. Fund training programs that meet the training needs of the poor.
6. Monitor and evaluate programs.

3. Goal 3: Build relationships and income streams with significant

1. Identity strategic donor partners working in poverty eradication to increase the pool of funds in this regard.
2. Identify interest areas of donor partners.
3. Establish target levels for funding poverty partnerships.
4. Develop joint initiatives for funding support
5. Enter agreements with civil society organization and donor partners.
6. Monitor and evaluate partnerships.

3. Goal 4: Establish a broad and reliable database of civil society

1. Identify a broad range of civil society organizations working with the poor.
2. Design an appropriate interactive database of civil society organizations.
3. Collate data on civil society.
4. Disseminate database to key stakeholders.
5. Monitor and evaluate the usefulness of the database.

1. Review poverty policy initiatives.
2. Identify strategic policies for discussion and debate.
3. Engage beneficiaries in processes of community planning and participatory policy initiatives.
4. Set up conferences, seminars and workshops on poverty policy.
5. Document policy initiatives and discussion forums
6. Disseminate policy initiatives
7. Promote dialogue

1. Identify strategic issues for dialogue.
2. Conduct dialogue with strategic stakeholders at all levels.
3. Review and monitor dialogue issues
4. Publish issues for dialogue
5. Conduct national and international conferences on poverty eradication strategies.

1. Design impact modalities
2. Determine impact benchmarks
3. Conduct impact assessments
4. Share impact results.
5. Document and share best practices

1. Financial imperatives

• The NDA will grow and diversify its funding base to include the management of a variety of funds to contribute towards the eradication of poverty.
• The NDA will seek to improve communication with potential donors to mobilize funding for poverty eradication.
• The NDA will promote partnerships with business institutions to mobilize their funding muscle for ongoing and sustainable fund development.

• The NDA will review and improve its business systems to improve response times by instituting the best yet affordable technologies.
• The NDA will prioritise and integrate its research, policy, dialogue capacity building and grant making focus areas.
• The NDA has reviewed its structure to enable it to respond to its focus areas of work.
• The NDA will focus its strategies on developing private and public partnerships in development interventions.
• The NDA will improve its assessment systems and accountability processes to strengthen and increase its support base.
• The NDA will build a database and document best practice case studies for sharing with its contractual and non-contractual stakeholders.
• The NDA will develop capabilities for scenario building.
• The NDA will target programs with impact and high profile by doing the things that are small enough to be manageable but big enough to be significant.
• The NDA will improve and institute robust monitoring and evaluation systems
• The NDA will improve its website and make it to be live and interactive.

4. Customer orientation

• The NDA will establish a robust and comprehensive communications strategy to keep stakeholders informed and supportive.
• The NDA will improve information exchange and the help line.
• The NDA will increase joint planning initiatives with its stakeholders.
• The NDA will improve response and feed back time to project requests.

4. Innovation and learning

• The NDA will identify staff training needs and fast track staff development through local and international short term and long-term development education training and exposure programs.
• The NDA will give incentives for innovation and responsible risk taking to its staff.
• The NDA will promote institutional and partner capacity through relevant and appropriate exchange programs.

1. The legacy of apartheid that has left a pervasive level of poverty inequality and underdevelopment especially in rural areas and among blacks and black females in particular.
2. The constitutional imperative for freedom from poverty.
3. The five pillars of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) that shaped the foundation of the government’s anti-poverty and inequality programme, namely; macro-economic stability; meeting basic needs, providing social safety nets; human resource development; and Job creation.
4. The effective implementation of the macro-economic policy that has facilitated macro-economic stability and balance.
5. The regional Integration and development agenda as determined by initiatives and structures like the New Partnership on Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African Union (AU), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the like.
6. The understanding that strategic partnerships and integrated planning are critical success factors in enhancing the impact and coverage of development initiatives. Development is not an event but a process. It cannot be attained by the interventions of a single entity or initiative.
7. The perspective that poverty is more than the lack of income.
8. The need to adopt a balanced approach in development interventions that take into account the twin relationship of the disadvantaged people in the rural to urban migration patterns of population movements.
9. The need to recognize education as a site of struggle in development as it increases people‘s options and choices in achieving their full potential.
10. The recognition that civil society is characterized by a plethora of organs; formations and structures that spread a continuum from simple to complex and the need for the NDA to build relationships with a number of these organizations across all levels. In this context, the NDA should be to the organs of civil society what NEDLAC is to business, labour and Government.
11. The fact that the NDA, as a public entity that is the delivery arm of government, occupies a particular niche in the development sector in the country.
12. The need for the NDA to clearly define for itself the costs and return on investment for dealing with poverty.

The NDA is geared at playing the following national and provincial roles:

1. Fund mobilisation

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.

2. Grant making

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.

3. Research

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.

4. Policy development

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

5. Dialogue

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.

6. Capacity building

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.

7. Impact assessment

2. Grant making

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.

3. Research

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.

 

4. Policy development

Core competencies for policy development include advocacy skills, policy analysis, writing, research, negotiations, communications, documentation, community organizing, development policy and studies knowledge and skills.

5. Dialogue

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.

• The definition and reflection of the core functions of the NDA.
• Cost efficiency.
• A provincial presence and spread into areas that are most needy especially rural areas.
• Effective management and staff development and support.
• A limited hierarchy and span of control to facilitate quick decision- making and response to partner and recipient needs.
• A project management approach.