What is the one critical factor that can help to ensure that international development and humanitarian responses are relevant, effective and create a positive impact?
At INTRAC, we know that organisational development (OD) support has a key role to play. It’s not enough to only invest in projects or services, without investing in the organisations and networks that are delivering them too. Research studies estimate that between 75-80% of organisational change efforts fail, but we also know that lasting success is possible providing civil society organisations have control and agency over their own development. For this reason, OD support is a fundamental part of our vision of helping civil society actors, organisations and movements across the world to develop, engage with others and do what they want to do, better.
INTRAC has a long history of providing support to development of civil society organisations, since it was founded in 1991. Today, we continue to provide tailored OD support through consultancy, research, training and our free publications.
We provide this support through our dedicated team of OD consultants and trainers on staff, and our network of experienced independent OD consultants around the world.
Our OD approach
OD can be defined as a “planned and systematic approach to enabling sustained organisational performance through the involvement of its people”, and as OD practioners, we believe that how we work is important.
In all of our work, we aim to practice ethical and values-driven consultancy. Our OD work in particular is based on a deep understanding of organisational and human dynamics, and we work with individuals, teams, whole organisations and networks and the OD ecosystem, to inspire change.
This means making sure that we focus on the interconnected and human dimensions of change for example. We focus on ensuring that our clients are in the driving seat, as ownership of any change process is key to lasting impact. Finally, we recognize that each organisation and context is different, and will tailor our approach to your specific situation.
Our OD consultancy services
INTRAC provides a range of OD services, organised within three broad categories.
Organisational change and transformation
Whether you need help with an organisational change process, leadership development, or capacity strengthening of your internal financial management systems, INTRAC offers a range of OD services to INGOs and intermediaries, Foundations and directly to Civil Society Organisations themselves.
Effective partnerships
If you’d like support to develop effective, equitable partnerships between international and national organisations, or need someone to facilitate an independent partnership review, INTRAC has access to a network of experienced consultants and accredited Partnership Brokers that can help. We specialise in effective partnership management, as well as in responsible transition and exit processes.
Systems change
We recognise that our sector needs to change, and are actively engaged in helping to develop the ecosystem of local OD provision in countries such as Indonesia and Ghana, through our flagship ‘Consultants for Change’ programme. We have also helped organisations and networks to grapple with their new roles in a changing world, and can support initiatives to ‘shift the power’ to ‘localise’ and to ‘decolonise’. We are excited to partner with courageous organisations, networks and other stakeholders as part of a global movement for sector-wide change.
Our OD and capacity strengthening training
INTRAC’s flagship open training course on Partner Capacity Strengthening places issues of power, privilege and ownership at its centre. It is regularly run by experienced practitioner Caroline Nyamu, a member of the INTRAC network, based in Kenya. This course is aimed at programme staff and OD practitioners who work directly with grantees, community-based organisations, networks and international partners. We can also deliver bespoke training tailored to your needs, either as in-house training sessions or as part of a larger programme of wrap-around support on topics such as ‘coaching skills’ and ‘partnership management’ for example. Previous in-house clients include HelpAge and Oak Foundation.
Our OD research and publications
We believe in sharing our new knowledge and learning with the sector in a way that is easily accessible to our external audiences. This is why we continue to publish a wide range of free publications related to OD topics, rooted in the first-hand experience of our staff and network members. These resources include toolkits, papers and blogs, covering topics such as: leadership, financial sustainability, partnership transitions, partner capacity strengthening, and resource mobilisation. These are available in our resource library.