Red Solutions Hub
Buscar

Framing the right questions

Por naomi.akamatsu… ,

Purpose & Strategic Importance

To make good strategic choices, National Society leaders need to ask good — and often difficult — questions. 

These questions help the organisation look critically at itself, identify where it must change, and prepare for the future. Sometimes this is uncomfortable. It may mean recognising gaps in humanitarian response, or confronting deep-rooted internal challenges. But if these issues are not addressed, the strategic planning process will not succeed.

Core Concepts & Definitions

  • Difficult strategic questions: Questions that challenge assumptions, surface gaps or tensions, and require honest reflection to inform meaningful strategic change.

Activities & Decisions

  • Areas where difficult questions are needed
    • Mandate and adherence to the Fundamental Principles
    • Humanitarian positioning and geographical coverage
    • National Society identity and image
    • Governance and management structures, and overall internal coherence
    • Management and administrative capacities
    • Partnerships and key relationships
    • Financial sustainability
    • Effectiveness of services and overall humanitarian performance
    • Inclusion and diversity within the National Society

It is recommended to develop a list of 5–10 key questions at the outset of the process. This list should be signed off by the Governing Board, to ensure legitimacy and ownership.

In some cases, data collection around sensitive themes may be led by a Governing Board member rather than by the coordination team.

Links with Related Capabilities

  • Link to identity: Bringing the Fundamental Principles explicitly into these discussions reinforces the National Society’s identity and underlines its unique status compared to other humanitarian actors.

See also: "Using data wisely" and "Assessing organisational capacity"

No Personas enabling resources available.

No Gobernanza enabling resources available.

No Datos enabling resources available.

Submitted on

Analyzing the sustainability of NS activities and capacities

This tool is designed to provide a framework through which a National Society can analyse the sustainability of its current activities and capacities. The goal is to increase understanding of the balance within a National Society between capacities which are long term in nature, and those which are based on short term funding (whether from partner national societies, foreign or domestic governments, or other funding agencies). This may raise questions for the National Society as to how it develops its own sustainable capacities through the strategic planning cycle, in particular if certain activities and capacities are felt to be too important to the National Society to be dependent on short-term funding. It may for example also highlight relationship management for capacity building as a key component of a strategic plan.  

 

 The tool is  applicable to the domestic work of all National Societies, as well as to the international work of those National Societies working internationally.  

 

The tool is relevant to the strategic planning process for two reasons: 

It is essential that strategic planning is based on an accurate assessment of the organisation’s current capacity as a baseline for defining how this should change through the period of the strategic plan. 

The tool prompts discussion of how time-limited funding can be used strategically to build long-term National Society capacity. 

Resource Link
C3_T03_Analyzing the sustainability of NS activities and capacities
image
C3_T03_Analyzing the sustainability of NS activities and capacities
Submitted on

Challenging questions for NS leadership

This tool is a series of questions for National Society leaders at all levels.​

​

The purpose is to promote reflection on major strategic issues that National Societies typically face. Veryoften, these issues will include ‘root causes’ of day to day operational issues. ​

​

Not all questions will be relevant to all National Societies and should be adapted and / or extended toindividual contexts.​

​

Questions might be used in board sessions or other focus group discussions, or in gathering inputs fromindividual leaders.​

Resource Link
C1_T07_Challenging questions for NS leadership
image
C1_T07_Challenging questions for NS leadership

No Instalaciones y Equipos enabling resources available.

No Guidance enabling resources available.

Join the Community of Practice

You need to be logged in to access community conversations.
Please log in o register to join the discussion and connect with other members.