The Director of the Anguilla Red Cross (ARC) recently co-facilitated the 2017 Mid Term Review (MTR) of the 2015-2019 Strategic Plan of the Bermuda Red Cross (BeRC). The MTR was also co-facilitated by Mrs. Jondo Obi, Director of the Cayman Islands Red Cross (CIRC). The ARC, BeRC and CIRC are Overseas Branches (OSBs) of the British Red Cross (BRC). The British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands also have branches of the BRC. The 6 Strategic Themes of the BRC and the OSBs for the 2015-19 Strategic Term are: Response, Resilience, Well-being, Funding, Our Voice, and People and Systems. The Outcomes of the Strategic Themes for the BeRC are:
• Response – Individuals and communities affected by emergencies or crises have access to necessary medical and emotional support from BeRC personnel.
• Resilience – Vulnerable communities are better prepared and able to withstand emergencies/crises and major disasters.
• Well-being – There is an increase in the number of persons in the community utilizing our (BeRC) various services and in the level of trust and comfort felt about these services.
• Funding – BeRC will have diversified income streams and reduced reliance on service income to deliver the needed services in the community and making a difference to vulnerable people on the Island.
• Voice – BeRC will be known and referred to as a community based organization, the full range of its services will be understood, and it will be more specific in targeting vulnerable groups by 2019.
• People and Systems – People in the community want to come to BeRC as a place to volunteer and the organization will have systems in place to track data of volunteers and beneficiaries.
Each OSB has branch specific Strategic Outcomes, based on the common Strategic Themes.
The Purpose of the OSB MTRs is for each OSB Board of Directors to review progress in implementing the Branch Strategic Plan: to identify whether there have been any significant changes in the local context since the start of the implementation period (2015), which has a bearing on the relevance of the strategy; and to identify whether adjustments need to be made to the strategy for the second half of the implementation period (2017-19).
The Objectives of the MTR are for each OSB:
a) To assess progress in implementing the priority areas of its Strategy.
b) To review the 2016 Branch Capacity Assessment (BCA) Action Plan and the 2017-19 Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Plans against the existing strategy.
c) To review any significant changes in the local context and whether these have any implications for the OSB Strategy.
d) To identify any lessons and make recommendations about any adjustments that need to be made to the content of the Strategy and/or the way it is being implemented.
The Methodology of the OSB MTRs is:
• Literature Review of all documents relevant to the Strategic Plan.
• Directors Preparation for execution of the MTR.
• Meeting with Board and Staff to discuss progress rating of Strategic Objectives and Indicators.
• Meetings with Donors, Stakeholders, Volunteers and Beneficiaries to ascertain perspectives on the Strategic Plan
• Determine consensus of Objectives and Indicators ratings from Board and Staff.
• Compilation, collation and reconciliation of responses based on Strategic Themes.
• Determine Findings and Recommendations.
• Preparation of Report for review and comment by Board of Directors.
• Finalize Report for submission to the Board (for subsequent adoption) and the BRC.
Inclusive of the above process are:
? An assessment on the progress of the Strategy since January 2015;
? Rating of the Branch’s success on each strategic area of the strategy, particularly the Strategic Objectives and Indicators;
? A determination of whether the strategy needs any amendments in the light of the 2016 Branch Capacity Assessment (BCA) and the 2017-19 Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Plans;
? Consideration for any significant changes in the local context, particularly details of the 2015 PEST Analysis.
The Strategic Plans of the OSBs informs Annual Plans and Budgets, which then inform Monthly Targets and Reports. The Director of the BeRC will Facilitate the MTR of the ARC Strategic Plan in September 2017. The MTRs follow the same Methodology for all the BRC OSBs.
– Press Release
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
