Strategic planning workshop for HRH Coalition

On April 29, May 1, 2011 within the Law and Health Initiative of Open Society Georgia Foundation a workshop for Coalition Human Rights in Healthcare was held.

Workshop was led by experts from Curatio International Consulting – David Sulaberidze and Giorgi Mataradze

Purpose and approach

A purpose of the workshop was to assist HRH Coalition in carrying out strategic planning exercise aiming at development of the well sound strategic plan that would ensure the viability and success of the Coalition.

The manual included: provision of key definitions and technical requirements (for mission, vision, values and principles); and provision of key questions and possible answers to foster strategic thinking on Coalition members’ side.

Consultants’ role in strategic Planning process was laid in two dimensions:

• As “a pair of hands,” providing general guidance, drafting documents, precluding participants from “reinventing the wheel”, etc.
• In the “collaborative” role, the Consultants worked as a partner with Coalition members, contributing process knowledge but leaving the rest to the workshop participants; providing guidance on the planning process and facilitating the workshop, but clearly leaving the content debate to the Coalition members.

The 1st part/day of the workshop was dedicated to presentation and discussion of expected results of workshop, “ground rules” and task sharing among the workshop participants. Most importantly, the workshop participants defined planning parameters, namely:

• Discussion on Coalition’s foundation history (where it came from and how it arrived where it is today) and its current profile; so that all participants start building the plan on the same foundation.
• Consultants briefly presented a summary of Coalition capacity building needs assessment findings, conclusions and recommendations for discussion.

As part of the environmental assessment participants discussed opportunities and threats – the external trends that influence the Coalition performance, and make a significant and positive difference to the lives of the proposed beneficiaries. The problem analysis, including: the stakeholder analysis (who the stakeholders are, be they partners, beneficiaries, donors), Coalition’s distinctive competency and competitive advantage, identification of the critical issues.

Coalition members formulated and agreed upon the common vision and mission of the organization. The role of consultants was quite moderate and confined to the provision of key definitions and technical requirements (for mission, vision, values, and principles), provision of key questions and possible answers to structure thinking on Coalition’s side and facilitation of consultative process

The workshop covered major issues and points related to the HRH Coalition strategy development.

Participants of the workshop:

Name                               Organization                                         Position