Strengthening Civil Society Organizations

The Institute of Rural Management (IRM) had announced an open call for Civil Society Organizations/NGOs from all over Pakistan for receiving Statement of Interest (SOI) to take part of its one year Capacity building project “Strengthening Civil Society Organizations” in December, 2018. Human Health Welfare and Research Association submitted SOI with required all documents and has successfully qualified among 300 CSOs for the Strengthening Civil Society Organizations Project funded by U.S. Department of State, Islamabad Embassy, implemented by University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute with the help and expertise of  local implementing partner, The Institute of Rural Management (IRM), Islamabad, Pakistan.

The main objective of the program was to improve the capacity of local civil society organizations, to harness their potential through training sessions and study tour in U.S, which will help in improving their capacity to perform efficiently and to grow, helping their respective outreach community. This is the matter of great honor and pleasure that H-WRAP team member Mr. Sultan Mehmood Malik (Manager Programs) participated in Civic Initiative training course from June 16th to July 13th 2019 at United States. During this 28 days visit UMass team (Becky Howland, Mike Hannahan, Ken LeBlond, Lonce Bailey, Ruth-Ann Rasbold, Joe Verla, Dana Henry, Arbab Kasi, Sonia Bouvier, Chris Johnson, Hassan Mustafa, Michel, Ben Rosenfield, Allie Leveillee, Luca LaRaja, and Charlie Ryan) organized /conducted academic aspects learning sessions on Grant writing, Blogging, and Leadership, Running effective meetings, Monitoring & Evaluation, Project Management, Social Enterprise Management and Culture & Development and study tours in Boston, New York and Washington DC were also organized. 

It was wonderful time from beginning to end in United States, CSOs strengthening project’s Goals were 1) Building organization Capacity 2) Build relationship between U.S. and Pakistan”. And UMass team has three expectations from the participants that they will 1) Gain Skills 2) Networking and 3) Building new ideas.

Key Learning around the expectations,

• Gain Skills: In academic aspects, I gain skills around Grant writing, Blogging, and Leadership, Running effective meetings, Monitoring & Evaluation, Project Management, Social Enterprise Management and Culture & Development.
• Networking: It was a good opportunity that we build networking and coordination among the CSOs working in U.S., Labor Union in U.S. , UMASS Donahue Institute, UN departments and South Central Asia Desk.

Building new Ideas: I must acknowledged that during this study and exposure tour, many new ideas gained for the strengthening of my organization such as A) Governing system of the organization should be inclusive and organization should have at least 40 % of women in their senior leadership positions. B) For the sustainability aspects, organization should not dependent only on donors funding, we should focus on local philanthropists and corporate sector also. C) Need to build close coordination with Government departments for the effective implementation of community development projects. D) Leadership situation can be improved through lead by example. E) For running effective meeting, structured conversations at all levels are important. F) Culture and collective behavior are two most important forces driving social change. G)  Services delivery activities to some extant are more beneficial as compared to Advocacy