5-Year Planning Process
As Arm in Arm in Africa begins its 25-year anniversary, it becomes important to understand where we want to be over the next 25 years. To make the process more manageable, we decided to start with a 5-year plan. There are a few key elements that are critical to developing a successful long term plan:
Do you have a common vision of where you are today and where you want to be 5 years from now?
Do you have the right people and/or partnerships to help you get there?
Do you know what you have to do to achieve your goals? and…
Can you measure and track your results?
In addition to our normal duties, this is what Arm in Arm in Africa’s board of directors has been working on for the past 9 months. It’s been an exciting process that has given us all a renewed sense of purpose. Here are some of the initial highlights…
Our common vision was clear. We needed to move from an organization that provided gifts of food, healthcare, and education to an organization that provides self-reliance and empowerment. We’ve already started our journey towards self-reliance by focusing on how we can shift from food distribution to food production. This can be accomplished by incorporating climate smart community gardens as part of our food program.
Another example comes from our education committee. We have been supporting trade skills training through a partnership with Rainbow Education and Skills Development. They have trained over 45 women to become plumbers. Six are currently working in their communities and 2 have been certified and working for private companies. We are currently looking at the opportunity to start a plumbing company using the graduates of the training program as employees. We have made significant progress towards our vision of self reliance and empowerment!
Arm in Arm in Africa has been expanding our partnership base to include other Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) that support marginalized communities in South Africa. INMED is an organization that has built and helps maintain over 110 climate smart gardens. They’re working with us to create a pilot program that will help us incorporate food production into our current food distribution model.
Nicci Scott Anderson is the CEO of Commercial Transport Academy. Her organization has trained over 1200 women to be truck drivers. She has provided us with coaching and insights as we look to expand our women’s plumbing program.
Arm in Arm salutes the women who have completed training. Plumbing kits funded by AIAIA will help these graduates put their new skills to work.
Finally, as we think about people and partnerships, we’re in the process of recruiting more board members from South Africa. This will be a critical way to ensure our programming efforts are linked to unmet needs at a local level.
The last two components of our 5-year planning process are to establish actionable goals and track our progress achieving them. We’re in the final stages of completing our first AIAIA scorecard that includes the top priorities for 2025 from our Food, Healthcare, Education, and Leadership committees. We’re all excited for what the next 25 years will bring!
AIAIA AT 25
The last two components of our 5-year planning process are to establish actionable goals and track our progress achieving them. We’re in the final stages of completing our first AIAIA scorecard that includes the top priorities for 2025 from our Food, Healthcare, Education, and Leadership committees. We’re all excited for what the next 25 years will bring!
Ed Luterbach
AIAIA Board Chair