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The vision of local institutions for changing the society and the living quality to the better

The institutions of civil society have witnessed notable changes recently and have become an important entity in the lives of individuals and populations. For these institutions to achieve their mandate in improving societies they have to plan for their future.
Strategic planning is defined as the methodic process that helps the organization achieve a better job by choosing the best suited way to respond to the changing conditions of the work environment and to face the needs of regional societies. Strategic planning also helps leaders choose among priorities and take initiatives to execute them. These were the definitions by which Al Ard trainers have moderated their meeting with the members of social justice association around the importance of strategic planning in order to help them answer the following questions.
- Who are we?
- What are our capacities/what can we do?
- Which problems are we solving?
- What is the difference and change we wish to bring about?
- Which problem need our response?
- Where should we allocate our resources, what should be our priorities?
From there Al Ard center organized a workshop in cooperation with Justice Association, where 25 attendees participated from the members and their friends, of which 80% percent are women. The association is recently established and aims at empowering the members and honing their skills in setting strategic plans that state clearly the vision of the association, its mandate and aims. By the end of the workshop a draft for a preliminary strategic plan for the association has been prepared, where different efforts in various fields have been coordinated in order to guarantee effective participation in achieving the objectives.
The first session:
Discussed the definitions of vision, mission and how to set them for an association. The workshop has emphasized that the vision is the dream that members seek to achieve, while the mission is what shows how to achieve the vision and the ways to do so.
The workshop has pointed out that the mission of the association is changing the society to the better for the benefit of those who are maringalied and of limited incomes in the village and neighbouring villages. Adter divifding the participants into working group, the following has been paid attention to during their study of the vision and dream of the association:
• A vision can be written or just agreed upon in general
• A vision is what you want to see in the future that everybody shares the aspiration for
• A vision can be bigger than the association
• A vision is what we aim at achieving through the work of the association and not necessarily what we can achieved
Next, the participants moved to the formulation of a mandate for the association, which emphasized the motto "we are a group of individuals interested in developing rural communities in the village of nekla and neighboring villages and wish to change our society to the better and improve the situation of marginalized groups in the village and neighboring village. The association we established will carry out achieving this mission." Participants paid attention in the working groups to respond to the following inquiries:
Developmental
1) who are we (identity) What are the social, political, economical and humanitarian issues that we would like to tackle?
2) what do we do, and for whom? Philosophy, values, culture that govern the aims and agenda of the institution
3) why we do so? The second session was around the importance of evaluation the current situation of the association with all its advantages and disadvantages by making a SWOT analysis in order to improve the situation of the association and the local community. Care was taken when dividing the groups and discussion that the points of strength can be used to improve the performance of the association and new opportunities for competition.
The working groups have discussed weak pounts and the ways to deal with them and rectify them. The discussions linked strength with weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Through internal strength, external threats could be reduced, similarly through external opportunities we can find new opportunities and use them.
The actual situation of the association has been analyzed, to show it as it is in order to identify the places of strength, weak points and the necessity to conduct field research and surveys to understand the vision of related parties with the association, by investigating the opinions of beneficiaries and taking their suggestions into account while preparing strategic plans. External factors, that the association cannot control, are also taken in consideration due to their effect on the activites and the future of the association. This can be achieved by analyzing the future opportunities or future risks the activity is subjected to.
Discussions in between groups showed a number of strength elements as well as those of weakness, external and internal threats and ways to avoid and cure weak points, and support strong points.
- The last session was about/:
- Analysis of the parites interested in the activities of the association like the public, authorities and beneficiaries and the working team of the public opinions and the similar institutions where interested parties have been identified and analyzed with regards to the current role of these parties and the expected future role, and the role of the association towards each of these parties.
- In addition, the working groups have discussed the cultural, economical, social and political variables to show how to deal with these variables and the concerned parties in order to achieve the goals of the society and its aims.
- The participants have emphasized the necessity of supporting marginalized people in Nekla village and improving their living statusquo through making developmental projects to improve their living standards in addition to renewing their strategic plans every three years , prvoded that the memvers of the association and friends would implement the plan in a voluntary manner to contribute to