|
|
- The NKS has shifted its role from a project owner to a project supporter. The local organisations has to be responsible for the project.
- Ensure that the mission, vision and strategy of the supporting organisation are compatible with the local organisation and project. An advance organisational assessment is essential to this end.
- What is the track record of the local organisation in sports and community development? Is the local organisation the right choice for implementing the sports development project?
- Ensure that the most important local stakeholders entrust local ownership to the project owner.
- In 'Suriname sport!' the local partner's concerned staff members lacked an appropriate educational background. Accordingly, the programme participants were soon more skilled than the staff members at the partner organisation. At meetings the person in charge of the project would constantly be drowned out or ignored and not taken seriously.
- Investments in developing the surroundings of the partner organisation were made only as requested by this partner organisation. The partner organisation was insufficiently receptive to much-needed internal capacity reinforcement (which might have been perceived as too threatening). This led to a mismatched capacity between the participants and the project owner. A power struggle ensued.
- Despite some prior knowledge of Surinamese culture, familiarity with Hindustani subculture was inadequate, especially with respect to gender (male-female interactions) and the caste system. Nor was there sufficient understanding of how the different population groups related to one another and how this might affect the project.
- Before the project, insufficient thought was given to how the project might affect the personal position of the participants in their surroundings. The negative side effects were therefore not properly anticipated.
- Be aware of the purpose of training people and of what prospects what prospects their participation in the programme will yield. A project should not end once the people have been trained: that is when the real work starts. Assign trained rank and file for the benefit the local community, and group them in networks wherever possible.
- Partnerships between local counterpart organisations need to be clearly stipulated. Describe roles and responsibilities properly.
- Adapt the programmes to reflect the availability of the participants: meet after working hours if necessary.
- Try to conduct the programmes where the participants work and live.
- Involve the organisations with which the participants are affiliated as early as possible in the programme to build the capacity of these organisations and to expand the foundations for development.
- Keep the organisational structure simple: start small and end large (if possible).
- Institutionalised organisations, such as schools and churches, are in a better position to apply the material learned than are less institutionalised organisations, such as sports associations and youth movements.
|
|
|