Annex 2 FORSATY other results.docx

Annex 2 Other results and outcomes

This section presents inputs, outputs, outcomes and changes that are not covered under the Significant Changes section.

Sub-Purpose 1 Youth are full-fledged citizens in their neighborhoods and cities Outcome 1.2 Youth are engaged in their social and political environment This outcome was sub-contracted to Search for Common Ground as part of the Youth Councils approach. The Search-Morocco final report is annexed to this report.

Sub-Outcome 1.2.1 Marginalized youth develop a positive sense of belonging to their neighborhood and their city Creation of Youth Leader Councils (YLCs) Twenty-five young leaders in each city were recruited to establish the YLCs as a mechanism to bring the concerns of marginalized youth to the local communes and foster a spirit of collaboration regarding youth concerns within the north community. The recruitment process considered young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25. Selection criteria included basic leadership and social entrepreneurship skills, willingness to learn, and interest in volunteerism and local governance, among other key factors. In total, Search received 896 applications, highlighting the great appeal that the project has on youth (301 women and 595 men) from different academic backgrounds.

By late 2016 and the beginning of the current phase, members of the Tangier and Tetouan YLCs had suspended their membership due to study commitments or relocations to other cities in Morocco. Search-Morocco proceeded with recruiting several new members. A public call for candidates was published in local organizations, social media, and posters in the targeted neighborhoods.

In FY2017 Search-Morocco started the process of partner identification in Fnideq in order to establish a YLC. Search-Morocco staff met numerous civil society activists in Fnideq as well as different associations that are active in the field of youth engagement. Project activities in M'diq-Fnideq area were delayed several times due to the slow pace of the collaboration with local authorities. The latter requested to be included in the selection of the partner CSO organization.

Search Morocco recruited young leaders in deprived urban areas of Al Hoceima to re-establish a Youth Leadership Council in the city. Young leaders bringing the concerns of marginalized youth to the local communes and equipping the YLC and the Commune with the skills to identify common interests helped foster a spirit of collaboration and the development of win-win solutions to youth concerns. The recruitment process considered young men and women between the age of 18 and 25. The activities in Al Hoceima have been also delayed due to the slow pace of the coordination process with local authorities. Search-Morocco started the implementation phase as soon as the partner organization was approved by the local authorities.

In order to sustain the YLC beyond the project FORSATY, the members decided to create their own organization under the name of the Youth Leadership Council of Tangier, with the same goals of the current version of the YLC. The process started in 2017 and the youth succeeded in getting their final deposit receipt (in annex) in April 2018 (for more details check QR3, 2017). The Council aims at building the capacities of youth in the field of community engagement, soft skills, local governance and taking part in the decision-making processes.

Capacity building of YLC members Team-building workshops took place for the members of each Youth Council. The workshops informed youth about some of the city’s underserved neighborhoods.

The training program for Tangier and Tetouan YLCs included:

· Training on Social Entrepreneurship

· Training on Civic Journalism and Common Ground Training Sessions

· Capacity-building: Training of Trainers methods

· Participatory workshop: “Youth between Civic and Political Participation”

· Mind management and thinking skills

· Workshop on Non-Violent Communication

· Workshop on survey techniques

· Workshop on the best practices of integrating youth in local governance Participatory workshop on the challenges facing youth in civic participation and how to counter them

· Training on Conflict Resolution

· Countering violent extremism

· Communal management and management of local affairs

The YLC-Tangier held a workshop in FY2018 on Alternative Dispute Resolution for the benefit of the new members of the YLC using peer-to-peer education. The workshop was facilitated by old members of the YLC-Tangier in order to transfer the knowledge and skills acquired during the first phase of the project to the new members.

Two members of the YLCs were selected by Search-Morocco-Morocco, the Hedayah Center, and the US Department of States to participate in a four-day Training of Trainers led by Albany Associates on “Using Social Media and Innovation to Counter Violent Extremism.”

In FY2018 Search-Morocco organized a seven-day leadership training camp on participatory democracy and youth-led research for 25 YLC members from Tangier and Tetouan.

Training for the M’diq-Fnideq YLCs included:

· Gender Approach, which brought together 22 YLC members

· Non-adversarial advocacy

· Social entrepreneurship

Search-Morocco trained 14 selected members (with 9 young men and 5 young women attending) from the 100 members of YLCs in Tangier, Tetouan, M’diq-Fnideq Prefecture, and Al Hoceima based on their overall performance, commitment, and leadership skills, to become trainers in mediation and civic engagement

Principal meetings of YLCs Over the course of the project, Search-Morocco organized two national conferences gathered the YLCs of Tangier, Tetouan, Al Hoceima, M’diq - Fnideq as well as representatives from other YLCs established by the organization in different parts of Morocco.

In FY2016 Search-Morocco-Morocco organized a national conference gathered the YLCs of Tangier and Tetouan as well as representatives from other Search-Morocco Youth Councils established by the organization in different parts of Morocco.

In FY2019 Search-Morocco organized a national conference gathered the YLCs of Tangier, Tetouan, Al Hoceima, M’diq - Fnideq as well as representatives from other YLCs established by the organization in different parts of Morocco.

Search-Morocco facilitated several sessions aiming at creating the action plan as a first step towards the process of establishing a National Network coalition of YLCs in Morocco. Participants worked together to develop an action plan concerning the development of this entity and how it is going to be supporting the local YLCs.

Social Media In FY2015 the Youth Leaders Councils of Tangier and Tétouan published their Facebook page to disseminate information on their activities and raise awareness among youth of issues regarding local governance. The page got more than 2000 “views” in the first two days after its launch and 1050 “likes” in its first week. (For reference, visit the pate at: fb.com/cjltanger).

Since their launch, the Facebook pages were viewed 138,000 times, seven times the activity target of 20,000. Moreover, Twitter accounts and YouTube channels were established by each YLC, as planned.

YLC Public Events and media productions/interventions In order to create and amplify youth-to-youth and youth-to-local official relations, each YLC designed an action plan outlining a strategic plan to design a community engagement platform on key local issues. Both Youth Councils’ action plans focused on organizing public talk shows and held respective meetings to choose the different topics and ideas to be discussed and divide organization tasks.

Events

· How university students can utilize public petitions as their constitutional right to advocate for certain issues to the Commune, rather than using adversarial approaches.

· Accessibility of young people with disabilities in Tangier.

· Creating a Space for Debate and Exchange: The Book Lovers Event

· Creating a Real Space for Debate and Exchange: Roundtable “The Crisis of Reading among Youth in Tangier: Causes and Possible Solutions”

· Open discussion with Moroccan writer Fatima Zahrae Rghioui

· “YLC-Tangier in Green for the Environment” event to raise environmental awareness.

· Workshop: Universality and Inalienability of Human Rights and Their Indivisibility | October 20th, 2017 |

· Harassment: Its Reasons and Impact on the Individual and Society

· The Role of Various Stakeholders in Preventing Violent Extremism

· The Developmental Role of Youth at the Prefecture Level: Improving Infrastructure as a Model

· Social Entrepreneurship as a Method to Solve the Issue of Unemployment at the Prefecture Level

· The Youth of Tamouda: Between their Dream of Immigration and their Developmental Reality

· Tools to promote the political participation of youth: facts and challenges

· E-commerce: is it an alternative to unemployment or just an illusion?

· The unemployment of young graduates: between a weak educational system and a lack of soft skills

· The question of citizenship: is it a right or a duty?

· Tetouan youth and local governance: what is their relationship?

· Tetouan youth: between the ghost of drug addiction and the difficulty of integration

· The reality of the environment in Tetouan and expected solutions

· The role of art in countering violent extremism in Tetouan

· Harassment: Its Reasons and Impact on the Individual and Society

· The Role of Various Stakeholders in Preventing Violent Extremism

· The Developmental Role of Youth at the Prefecture Level: Improving Infrastructure as a Model

· Social Entrepreneurship as a Method to Solve the Issue of Unemployment at the Prefecture Level

· The Youth of Tamouda: Between their Dream of Emigration and their Developmental Reality

Media

· The members of the YLC in Tétouan produced a promotional video for the upcoming elections. The video is part of a national campaign led by the Ministry of Interior to encourage people to register for the next elections either online or through the registration offices.

· The field coordinators and the Youth Leaders Council of Tangier and Tétouan participated in a radio program called “Good Morning Tangier” to speak about the roundtables

· On April 24, the members of the YLC of Tétouan and Tangier were invited to participate in a radio program called 'Regional Issues' streamed on Tangier’s regional radio.

· Two members of the council were guests on the radio program “Mojtamaana” on the regional radio station, Cap-Radio.

· Participation in a Minbar Chababe Radio Program

· Search-Morocco and the YLC of Tetouan participated in the radio show “Here is Tangier” on the national Radio Tangier station

Participations YLC members participated in the following events:

· Participation in MEDCOP Climate the “Voice of the Mediterranean Youth” & the “Civil Society March for Climate Change”

· Participation of the YLC in the International Book Salon

· Gallery organized by the National Council of Human Rights at the International Book Salon in Casablanca.

· YLC members participated in numerous meetings and workshops that discussed the universality and inalienability of Human Rights and their indivisibility, as well as the principle of equality and non-discrimination.

· The YLC-Tangier participated in a day-long seminar organized by the Tangier City Council entitled “Towards Better Support for Civil Society in Tangier.”

Local Democracy Assessments Search-Morocco organized three teams of 25 YLC members to conduct a local democracy assessment (LDA) in Tangier, Tetouan, and Al Hoceima. Search Morocco built the capacity of the YLCs to implement this framework through a training module on youth-led research, which included research methodologies, data collection, and data analysis. Data analysis sessions included training in specific software, and youth were also trained on report-writing skills. Following the targeted capacity building, the YLCs in the three selected cities conducted a local democracy assessment using their new skills.

The assessment teams began with a literature review and developed data collection tools to support the process. Furthermore, youth in the three cities were able to gather data from 1,565 stakeholders (665 women and 900 men). As a result of these efforts, the teams produced three reports outlining the findings of the assessments and each provided a series of recommendations for strengthening local governance in their cities. In Tangier, youth produced 18 recommendations. Central to this is their demand that political parties build the capacities of the community members in general, and coach young people and integrate them into political life.

Moreover, they recommended that the state improves electoral regulations and electoral programs for political parties to ensure the representation for all segments of society, their demands, needs, and aspirations. In addition, local authorities should take appropriate measures to expand youth participation in political life and help them to be actively engaged in local governance. Another recommendation was to build the capacities of civic society organizations, especially in participatory democracy and strengthening the role of advisory committees. Finally, they recommended empowering youth and encouraging them to be civically engaged.

In Al Hoceima, the youth produced seven recommendations. They were asking the political parties in the region to reconsider the way electoral programs are drafted and adopt youth proposals that directly reflect their demands and concerns, including integrating youth proposals into party platforms. In addition, they proposed adopting new ways of communicating with citizens and participating in the electoral programs before they are finalized. Moreover, they recommended that the majority party managing the Communal Council should engage in dialogue with and better involve the opposition in the management of local affairs. The Communal Council, they suggested, should adopt a participatory approach for budget preparation, as a large proportion of young people are neither aware of this process nor the opportunity to participate in this key civic function. Furthermore, the Communal Council should adopt new methods of disseminating information, as a large proportion of citizens currently find it difficult to access information.

In Tetouan, YLC participants were able to co-organize a national conference on the phenomena of drug use and civil society’s response; the event was organized in partnership with local CSOs and the Minister Delegate to the Head of Government for Relations with the Parliament and Civil Society and Spokesman of the Government.

In Tetouan, youth produced eight recommendations. A few examples are summarized here. They invited the Commune to follow up with and redouble its efforts to communicate with the community and increase their outreach to marginalized neighborhoods and socially marginalized groups, especially young people. This should include greater dissemination of the communal action plan, especially among the university students and marginalized neighborhoods. In addition, they recommended supporting the capacities of participatory democracy mechanisms in terms of both modes of operation and means, as well as, integrating youth issues into the Commune’s action plan in a cross-cutting manner.

Sub-Outcome 1.2.2 Youth leaders take initiatives within the neighborhood Small projects Search-Morocco organized a local competition between the members of the YLC of Tangier and Tetouan to multiply impacts among marginalized youth, inspiring them to take their own local initiatives as well as bringing their concerns directly to the YLCs and local communes.

Ten mini-projects competed for Search-Morocco funds. Each of the ten groups of YLCs of Tetouan and Tangier was required to develop a mini project that would be presented in the national conference so that Search-Morocco-M, along with its partners, would be able to choose and fund only one of them for each YLC.

Search-Morocco-Morocco awarded a small grant to the winning team of the mini project competition organized during a national conference inFY2016 in Tangier. Their project “I Am Also Human” was selected. It aimed at integrating into society people suffering from drug addictions who are from marginalized neighborhoods of Tetouan through numerous activities, including capacity building workshops, media campaigns, orientation sessions, and advocacy initiatives at the local level.

In M’diq-Fnideq the winning mini-project was titled “We Start: Engaging Youth in Local Development and Local Governance” and aimed at developing the social capacities of 21 youth from the M'diq-Fnideq Prefecture and empowering local youth in the mechanisms of participatory democracy at the local level through training sessions and workshops on the CGA, alternative methods of conflict resolution, advocacy, participatory democracy, and social interaction capabilities. The mini project was not implemented due to administrative complications with the local authorities and the constraint of time.

Other initiatives As part of the extra-curricular activities implemented by the YLC of Tetouan with the support of Search-Morocco-Morocco, the YLC members decided to assess the situation of neighborhood libraries in Tetouan and how they can be improved in terms of their function, structure, and activities.

Blood Donation Activity YLC members, accompanied by some young volunteers, organized a voluntary visit to blood donation center as a response to a national call that alerted to a huge shortfall of blood reserves. The YLC sought to mobilize several young people in order to encourage a sense of social responsibility, develop the spirit of giving and cooperation, and promote humanitarian action in extending a helping hand to needy patients and hospitals that need blood.

1.2.3 Youth councils maintain a dialogue with the authorities Meeting and participatory workshop with local officials in Tangier and Tetouan This participatory workshop was organized in FY2017 in order to facilitate collaboration between elected officials and members of the Council. The main goal of the workshop was to give participants some practical steps on how youth can resolve conflicts with elected officials as well as how youth can be involved in local governance and the development of political parties’ programs.

Open discussion on “Civic Participation and Participatory Democracy” The young leaders attended an evening discussion about civic participation and participatory democracy. First, a lecture session took place with the aim to highlight the major role civic participation plays in communities as a censor for the management of social and political affairs.

Citizens Café In FY2017 the Tetouan YLC, in partnership with Les Citoyens, organized the Citizens Café-Tetouan at the Socio-Cultural Center. The event brought together around thirty participants for a two-hour discussion and debate on the topic of “The Influx of Summer Visitors to the City of Tetouan: Its Effects and How to Deal with Them.” The final part of the discussion focused on concrete measures that should be taken by the local authorities and citizens to address the noted issues.

Recommendations were shared with Les Citoyens to be included in their national level advocacy plans. One of the most important takeaways was the creation of a collaborative and inclusive space where youth were able to constructively engage in a discussion on public issues.

A new youth institution On Thursday, June 30, the YLC of Tétouan invited other YLCs to participate in a workshop on a new youth institution that would be created in the Tangier, Tétouan, Al Hoceima Region. The event was organized in the Commune Hall and facilitated by the head of the Communal Civil Society Department. Participants included representatives of the three YLCs of Tétouan, Tangier, and Assilah. This workshop aimed specifically to develop strong ties between the YLCs in the region. It also aimed to explain the legal framework of a future regional youth institution that was recently introduced in the region’s new legislation in addition to formulating proposals that could be integrated in the advocacy plan of the future regional council. At the end of the workshop participants agreed to select a representation from each YLC to attend a meeting with the head of the Civil Society Department in order to draft an advocacy memorandum. They also decided to hold another workshop in Assilah to continue the work initiated during this first workshop.

These activities contributed to giving a sense of belonging to the youth and establishing dialogue between youth and local government. This will be strengthened as each YLC invests itself in advocacy initiatives and dialogue on issues.

Outcome 1.3 Power holders are responsive to youth needs and proposals This outcome was sub-contracted to Search for Common Ground as part of the Youth Councils approach.

1.3.1 Power holders communicate and consult youth

1.3.2 Power holders are committed to youth integration

Local Officials Capacity Building In FY2015 Search-Morocco trained local officials of Tangier in alternative methods of conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation. Thirteen local elected officials including three women, representing four political parties in Tangier (Justice and Development Party, Authenticity and Modernity Party, Istiqlal Party, and The National Union of Independents) attended the two-day training. The main objective of the training was to equip participants with effective tools to solve disputes constructively and to sharpen their skills in this field alternative conflict resolution.

In FY2016 The YLC of Tetouan received a letter from the president of the commune of Tetouan inviting its members to take part in the Communal Youth Council (CYC), which was re-established to encourage civic engagement and youth engagement in local governance. The interest of the commune of Tetouan in including the YLC as a strategic partner in the re-establishment of the CYC is a strong indicator of the success of the FORSATY project in building deep trust between local officials and youth in Tetouan.

The Commune of Tetouan re-established the Youth Communal Council (YCC) by adopting the same approach used by Search-Morocco in the establishment of the YLCs, i.e. through the recruitment of young leaders based on solid criteria, open applications, and interviews. The process of establishing the YCC, in which the YLC of Tetouan was actively included (see previous quarterly report for details), consisted in the creation of a board composed of seven members. The YCC is now presided by Mr. Yassine Karkich, who is an active member of the YLC of Tetouan.

Finalizing partnership with the Commune of Tetouan The YLC of Tetouan and the Commune signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate cooperation between the Commune of Tetouan and the YLC in the organization of various activities. Within this framework, the Commune is committed to:

· Provide the necessary facilities to achieve common objectives;

· Provide logistical support for the organization of the agreed activities;

· Inform the Youth Leadership Council of the Commune’s activities;

· Members of the Council benefit from the trainings provided by the Commune

Social activities conducted by the YLCs will take place within the framework of the following Commune programs of action:

· Creating clubs to combat addiction in educational institutions, which is referred to by 5-5, the fifth project in the fifth strategic axis, on the valuation of human capital, sub-axis: education and the fight against school drop outs;

· The project of involvement in the integrated program "Tolerance," contained in the program of work under the symbol 5-26, within the projects of the fifth strategic axis, on the valuation of human capital, in the sub-axis: childhood, youth and sports;

· Encouraging participation in garbage management, recycling, and circular economy projects, as indicated in No. 3.22, as part of the Commune’s third strategic pillar projects on ensuring the sustainability of natural resources and supporting health prevention, in the sub-axis: solid garbage management;

· Organizing awareness-raising activities, outreach days, and workshops in public squares and providing advisory services to public institutions on a regular basis to achieve the established objectives;

· Promoting youth entrepreneurship and encouraging them to make positive changes, promote a culture of tolerance and co-existence, and renounce violence in all its forms.

· Cooperation and coordination with the Communal Youth and Children's Councils, the Equality, Equity, and Gender Approach Commission and other bodies of common interest to achieve sustainable objectives;

· To prepare a comprehensive overview of the general program of activities and submit it to the Tetouan Commune;

Partnership between the Tangier YLC and the Commune In FY2017, as part of the mini-project “Neighborhood Have Their Youth”, winner of the YLC national competition of mini-project proposals, Search-Morocco facilitated several meetings between the district of M’ghougha in Tangier and the YLC of Tangier in order to build a partnership and collaborate in the implementation of the mini-project activities and explore how the YLC can act as a consultant and mediator between city youth and the district decision-makers. The project aims to strengthen youth capacities in civic engagement and enable them to actively contribute to the decision-making process.

In August the partners held a ceremony to launch the initiative. The initiative will establish a digital platform for communication and interaction with local officials through the development of an online application called MANARA (which means “lighthouse” or “what we see” in Arabic). Additionally, the YLC will create a virtual space within the application for young people to debate and exchange with local decision-makers, therefore facilitating youth’s direct participation in local governance.

Partnership with the Regional Commission of Human Rights | February 23 Members of Tangier and Tetouan YLCs met the Regional committee on human rights (CRDH) in Tangier. This meeting, which convened the president of the CRDH and her staff from one side and the young leaders and Search-Morocco-M field coordinators from the other side, discussed several points regarding CRDH projects and programs, as well as the work of the YLCs of Tetouan and Tangier. It was agreed to nominate a committee from both YLCs to continue the process of defining future collaboration with the commission.

Sub-Purpose 2 CSOs are stronger, more efficient, improve methods, measure, communicate, develop partnerships and increasingly mobilize local resources

Outcome 2.1 CSOs improve their organizational and technical capacities

FORSATY Capacity building Model FORSATY’s local development interventions are constructed around an initial statement that strong local CSOs are the best change agents for Moroccan society. FORSATY developed a two-lane approach with heavy investment on technical capacity building for program activities implementation, and organizational support actions for stronger organizations.

FORSATY’s Organizational Development program helps local implementing partners achieve better technical performance while strengthening Managerial and Governance capacities. The program suggested a unique representation of CSOs five core competencies: (1) Services, (2) Monitoring & Evaluation, (3) Communication, (4) Admin & Finance and (5) Governance.

The first strategic interest of the organization is to provide satisfactory services for its beneficiaries, it will develop technical approaches for a more effective delivery of the services.

The main M&E role is to monitor and assess the effectiveness of the services, and to provide reliable data and analysis for the decision-making process.

Institutional Communication will use, refine and exhibit the produced data and analysis to advocate around the organization goals. Advocacy, alongside with success stories, is the best fundraising strategy for a high impact local organization.

While Administrative and Financial activities are often seen as purely executive, they must monitor the efficiency of the organization and provide a planning for all required resources.

The Governing bodies of the organization will ensure strategic orientation for the services development, use M&E data and analysis for decision making, base their advocacy efforts on communication support material and closely monitor available and needed resources.

FORSATY’s Organizational Development activities are promoting a healthy work environment for the organization where the five core competencies can coexist, interact, collaborate, and grow. This is done by implementing a continuous circular process of assessment, planning and execution:

FORSATY is promoting the Organizational Capacity Assessment OCA tool for the Assessment phase. During this exercise, partner implementers have the opportunity of assessing their own capabilities against a standard model. The tool is precise enough to give a reliable score for the organization if properly performed. OCA is also an opportunity, as many board and staff members described, for understanding the pillars of organizational performance and to self-evaluate against a unified frame of reference.

During the Planning phase, Board and Staff members suggest appropriate measures to be implemented in order to improve a certain organizational field. As the Assessment phase often reveals plenty of improvement areas, the organization need to prioritize the most important actions with the higher expected results of stability and enhancement.

FORSATY supports its partner CSOs implement the planned measures through workshops, individual coaching sessions and follow-up meetings. The Execution phase begins with small improvements on day-to-day tasks, then reorganizing/structuring the tasks into methods and organizational roles. Once the changes are well assimilated by the recipients, they are registered in rules and procedures and shared with relevant collaborators.

The program intervenes gradually by building partners capacities in stackable layers, starting with core financial functions in FORSATY project and team coordination, spreading to other organization functions and frames:

The two first layers are program mandatory capacities. The participatory Organizational Development planned process as described above begins one to two years after the initial collaboration agreement, when the program obtains access to layer 3 and 4.

The Organizational Development executed actions are usually related to the main organization functions, such as Finance, Administration, HRM, Strategic Management etc. These actions will discreetly help the organization provide better services by improving consistency and documentations. Some examples of OD indirect support to technical services are described in Best OD achievements section.

This entire process is promoting “small wins” and step by step improvements. In some cases, the OCA approach was insufficient to start a real change at an institutional level (see OD Threshold and ceiling section) and develop a culture of organizational excellence. That is why FORSATY introduced a second assessment tool, the Organizational Performance Index OPI. This tool is more oriented towards long-term organizational goals that can support sustainability and enhanced performance. This tool, still at an experimentation level, proved to be a good addition to the OD process given it ability to explain some chronicle organizational deficiencies.

Sub-Outcome 2.1.1 CSOs improve their organizational capacities

The first organizational development initiatives with partner associations started in early 2014 with an adaptation of Management Systems International’s (MSI) Institutional Development Framework (IDF). This process was a perfect introduction of the functioning of an Organizational Development process as the tool was easy to understand for beginners and used simple interpretations for the scores.

In October and November 2014, FORSATY conducted its first OCA exercises with partner OSS ASSADAKA, CHIFAE, ATIL and AL AMAL. During the following year, three new CSOs joined the program, namely Hay Benkirane, UNFM JM and Aides et Secours while ATIL left as OSS. The three of new organizations conducted OCA exercise during FY2016. In FY2017, the older three remaining OSS: ASSADAKA, CHIFAE and AL AMAL conducted their second OCA exercise. During FY2018, only UNFM JM reconducted OCA as the other two new partner CSOs (Hay Benkirane and Aide et Secours) have already left the program. Other partner CSOs joined the program in the same year but their OCA was postponed. In FY2018, OPI was first performed with AL AMAL, UNFM JM and CHIFAE. The following table demonstrate the scores received during the different assessments and their evolution:

Table 1: FORSATY OSS OCA scores

FY18

AL AMAL is the leading organization. With a highly committed board members, and a competent staff, the organization scored 3.51/4 on their first OCA. Since then, AL AMAL never stopped learning and is the most dedicated partner association to its organizational development. AL AMAL scored 3.63 on their second OCA during FY17. That is an overall 90% achievement of what the organization aspire to. AL AMAL’s OPI score was not deceiving with a 3.5/4.

CHIFAE is slowly progressing. At its first OCA, the organization scored 2.52/4. Two years later, they improved the score by 20% reaching 3.04/4. CHIFAE’s board members and top managers are aware of their deficiencies. They openly discussed it during OPI and agreed on a score of 2/4 only. Since then, CHIFAE is trying to strengthen its capabilities but it still suffers an unhealthy organizational culture.

ASSADAKA is facing, since the first OCA on FY15, the same organizational issues. The association is performing very well on project execution but never committed to organizational development. The 2.96 score on FY15 and the 2.42 score on FY17 are not representative of the organization’s real capabilities rather than personal interpretations and aspirations of the board members. The program couldn’t hold an OPI exercise with the association as it went through some difficulties with its board. Since then, the organization elected a new board with a very committed president.

At the opposite of all existing partners, UNFM JM joined the program with no significative partnership experience and with a very young and unexperienced staff. Nevertheless, the organization worked hard to achieve a better standing. Its first OCA on FY16 yielded a score of 2.25, but in two years, the association progressed by 35% to achieve a score of 3.08/4. With UNFM JM, the lack of experience was quickly undertaken by a high commitment of the president and her staff.

Aides et Secours and ATIL were strong associations, but they did not share the same interests and goals as FORSATY. Hay Benkirane was a promising small association with wise president and treasurer, but after a shift in power distribution among the board members, the association lost the common interest once shared with the program.

With FORSATY’s support, some partner associations achieved remarkable results in short periods of time.

The emergence of qualified CSO managers During the FORSATY program, OD activities helped building CSO’s staff members in Coordination, Evidence Based Management, decision making, long term planning, research and evaluation methods etc.

In the first years of the program, partner CSOs often recruited from the immediate people surrounding the organization: Volunteers, ex-board members, friends and families. The procedure was more social than professional, with no ToRs nor formal selection process.

Slowly but steadily, with the high demand on qualified personnel, partner CSOs began using more professional tools for recruiting, including publishing ToRs locally and online, formalizing the selection process and even including external stakeholders in interviews (ANAPEC, Education ministry delegation…).

This evolution in recruitment processes challenged the existing structures and coordination mechanisms. The majority of newly recruited staff is expecting a professional environment, with fixed work hours and clear responsibilities, our partners however had a management model based on associative spirit, collaboration, volunteerism and collegiality of decision making, resulting in conflicts and in some cases legal issues between the associations and some staff members.

This situation resulted in an increased interest and need of partner CSOs in professional HR management processes. The program supported the re-structuration and the use of adapted coordination, collaboration and accountability mechanisms, for the technical staff, promoted and controlled by the top-management.

Presently, all partner CSOs have stable top-management (Coordinators, board members), employing constant methods and technics in HRM, ensuring that both the program goals and the organizational ones are achievable.

Organization-wide shared methods In several cases, partner CSOs took all the technical/managerial support they received from FORSATY and applied its best practices to other projects/areas of their organizations.

One example is AL AMAL’s structure and coordination mechanisms: the program supported AL AMAL establishing a specific structure, coordination and supervision mechanisms for its FORSATY team. After two years of testing, adapting and tweaking, AL AMAL applied the structure, coordination and supervision principals to the entire organization, and merged FORSATY’s structure with the organization-wide structure.

Another example has been observed in UNFM JM. The association used all financial management support received in FORSATY program in order to modernize its financial management in other smaller projects, including the documentation of beneficiaries’ financial contributions and private sector in-kind and cash grants justification.

At a technical level, CHIFAE decided that all vocational services beneficiaries, supported or not by FORSATY, will receive vocational counseling with FORSATY’s methods. The partner association tries to unify technical processes and stated that: “CHIFAE’s model is FORSATY’s model. We participated in the design, we tested the processes and now we own a model!” Anouar Zemmouri, CHIFAE’s Director, 2019.

Organizational Development as a support for Technical Capacity Building During FY2015, FORSATY initiated a Technical Capacity needs assessment with partner associations AL AMAL, UNFM JM, ASSADAKA, CHIFAE and association Hay Benkirane. The assessment was considered as the foundation of structured technical capacity building activities. Months later, the program defined the difference between structured technical capacity building activities and the support for implementation: Both processes are delivered by the same technical staff, the first one is based on Technical capacity building plans and the second one refers to supporting planned field activities and resolving day-to-day problems.

Both actions formed the debut of a new relationship with partner associations, where concepts and approaches are developed via technical capacity building workshops, and then applied in the field with FORSATY’s support. The field learnings are systematically considered during follow-up workshops in order to tailor the developed approaches.

FORSATY’s technical capacity building process is planned in quarterly calendars shared with all implementing partners and supported by activities reports. FORSATY produced key concepts and processes documents from 2016 to 2018 that later were combined in technical models. In some cases, board members participated in the design and assessment of the models.

The Organizational Development team helped partner associations reinforce and sustain the new developed models with institutional documentation such as internal guides, procedures and board decisions. Most approaches and methods introduced by FORSATY’s technical capacity development became regular controllable technics used every day in the field.

Improved OSSs reliability FORSATY supported all partner OSSs in improving their reliability on four levels:

· In implementation, all OSS developed coordination and supervision mechanisms, promoting the use data driven methods to strengthen and evolve provided services for beneficiaries and lower dropout rates.

· In finance, OSSs are employing financial management control principles in order to lower financial risks and improve efficiency. These principles include separation of powers, Manual of procedures, budgeting, and software financial information systems. All OSS are on a process of external accounts certification by a chartered accountant.

· In coordination, all OSS developed a coordination system, ensuring the representation of all components/departments and delivering essential information to and from decision makers. In some advanced cases, the coordination mechanisms are joining board members and key personnel.

· In institutional relationship, all OSS are aware of the need of documented partnerships. In Education and IP, partner associations are establishing documented partnerships with public and private sector institutions.

The reliability of local partner associations is a key component of their ability to sustain their actions. It will facilitate their ability to forge long-term partnerships, gather and preserve all required resources Organizational Development threshold and ceiling for local partners Organization Development is a process of improving an organization’s performance by improving its core functions’ performance. This simple definition implies that:

1- The organization is consciously willing to improve its performance 2- The organization is structured as Core functions.

Both statements are not common in young CSOs as the organizations rarely have measurable goals and results and the functions are blended, with no easy separation between financial/technical or operational/strategic decisions. In young CSOs, everything is done by everyone all the time, typically.

The first layer for a successful organizational development program is the existence of a minimal organizational structure, and the willingness to improve the organization’s performance.

AL AMAL’s successful OD process is explained essentially by the organization’s willingness and commitment to achieve progressively higher organizational performance. ASSADAKA on the other hand never expressed any interest in improving its performance as an organization. While FORSATY’s performance has improved over the years, the association gained no long-term benefit and is still facing the same issues as in 2014 (lack of financial resources, struggle in coordination/supervision, scattering of partnership efforts).

The program decided to put an end to its partnership with two associations, namely Hay Benkirane and Aide et Secours, for reasons related to the unwillingness of both associations to improve their organizational capabilities. All investments with such associations were lost from a sustainability point of view.

On the other hand, the program is supporting all associations interested in a long-term growth, in building the first layer needed to pursue a successful OD process.

However, FORSATY’s Organizational Development process for local partners is faced with various challenges. The Turn-over rate is considered high in qualified personnel and sometimes in board members and the existing personnel has a high daily workload preventing the organization from working on long-term objectives. The Top-Management is often occupied by activity control and partnership efforts.

Furthermore, a typical annual OD action plan consists of only 4 to 6 months of activities, and it is rarely fully executed. With all these limitations, FORSATY achieved a considerable improvement in local partners’ capabilities, by promoting small wins and building upon sustained achievements.

2.1.3 CSOs better manage information, assess their performance and communicate regularly Strengthening Internal Coordination OSSs FORSATY strengthened the OSSs internal coordination mechanisms throughout the years of implementation to help them overcome coordination issues that emerged during implementation between their services. The work on coordination mechanism were enhanced and updated to reflect the most recent Program updates and needs. The following are the main additions regarding OSSs coordination:

· Support OSS Program Managers/Coordinators understand the importance of coordination and take the lead within their teams to establish clear and coherent systems;

· Support OSS to clarify the coordination routes between the Psychosocial Support service and the other services;

· Support individual OSS services develop and clarify their own coordination mechanisms and relate them to the general coordination mechanism of the association;

· Redefining team structures according to undertaken programmatic expansions;

· Redefining roles and responsibilities of staff members according to their position within the program;

· Revise coordination instruments including meetings, documents, and frequencies;

· Documenting and adopting a comprehensive coordination mechanism.

This work on internal coordination allowed OSSs operate better program activities, minimize conflict and confusion and help each team member understand his/her role and responsibility in the bigger scheme.

FORSATY

During FY2018, FORSATY introduced a new coordination mechanism that redefines relations, roles and communication patterns between the Program and its OSS partners based on FORSATY’s new management structure. The new coordination mechanism focused on centralizing communications between the Program and the OSS at the level of OSSs Program Coordinators to improve clarity and boost accountability. It maintained the monthly meetings between the Program and the OSS as a regular platform to discuss achievement identify gaps and propose solutions. It also confirmed the utilization of the quarterly training calendar to better manage the technical and institutional capacity building process conducted by FORSATY with its old and new partner OSSs. This new coordination mechanism was presented and explained to OSS partners during the FY2018 kick-off meetings held in October.

Strengthening information management mechanisms Monthly M&E meetings FORSATY M&E team worked in close collaboration with program components and partner OSSs to strengthen OSSs information management mechanisms, review indicators and review how information is collected, stored and analyzed. The M&E team updated, whenever needed, the monitoring and documentation tools used by the Program with partner OSSs, to improve performance on capturing progress and gaps. To ensure the quality and the accuracy of program data a monthly meeting has been established with the M&E officers of OSS partners. The meetings are used as a regular platform to discuss challenges and identify best practices among partners around data collection and reporting. The decision of holding these regular meetings came in support to partner associations’ growing activities and their need to master information and use it to accurately complete monthly reporting tools.

In addition to these meetings, the internal review and technical feedback mechanism for monthly qualitative and quantitative reports, introduced in FY2016, helped the M&E team compiles, reviews, comments and rates submitted reports monthly. Feedback is shared internally with the program team and used in monthly meetings with OSS to foster steady improvement of report quality.

OSSs Performance indicators In the FY2017 and FY2018 Program extensions, new activities were added, and existing activities were expanded to serve a larger number of youth and/or to provide enhanced services. To improve the Program’s ability to monitor performance and measure progress, performance indicators were revised for each of the five Program components. This change resulted in an improved, streamlined monthly indicator matrix that helps partner OSSs collect, track, and analyze field data.

This revision of indicators was done following a participatory approach with staff members inside partner OSSs and with the Program staff members. This participatory approach produced ownership over revised indicators and a higher sense of commitment to regularly produce credible data. This tracking tool is of great importance to the Program as it indicates performance against targets and in-service delivery.

Concerning OSSs’ capacity to report on performance indicators, the volume of field activities hampered their capacity to fill-in the indicator matrix each month. Certain delays and anomalies, especially in the case of Chifae, were recorded in the manner of processing collected information in the indicator matrix. Throughout the years, individual capacity building actions were programed with partner OSSs to help them overcome difficulties and produce quality indicator matrixes.

Introduction to FORSATY M&E system FORSATY has established the tradition of holding introductory M&E workshops with its new implementing partners. During these workshops the associations’ staff members were introduced to FORSATY’s M&E system including Program objectives, monitoring tools and requirements, results and indicators, data collection and reporting tools, and the coordination protocol between FORSATY and its partner OSSs. The workshops were followed by one-on-one capacity building actions to assist OSSs staff members use and understand the Program’s M&E pack.

T…