Case study: Strategy development for UNICEF
Background
UNICEF is the leading children’s organisation, reaching children in more than 150 countries around the world. The organisation focuses on children’s health, education, equality and protection.
The organisation has a network of National Committees working in developed countries to raise funds for the global work for children and to advocate for the rights of children.
The UK Committee for UNICEF is one of the largest National Committees, and it often leads the way in terms of developing strategic thinking or new initiatives.
In 2005 UNICEF UK decided it needed to have a radical review of its approach to strategy across all its areas of operation. The purpose of this was to ensure their strategy was fit for the emerging challenges for children – and to create a strategy that would engage supporters and staff.
Challenge
Previous plans had suffered from the classic challenges that beset strategy:
- they had been very long and technical documents and not always engaging to staff and board members
- they had perhaps drilled down to too tight a level of detail, which wasn’t appropriate as events changed
- they had not been fully joined up between the UK operation and the international priorities
UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director for Communications and Programme Anita Tiessen was charged with progressing this challenging project in conjunction with a project team drawn from throughout the organisation. She asked us to work with the senior team to develop a new language and approach to strategy that would energise all those involved in UNICEF – staff, managers, volunteers and donors.
=mc’s brief
=mc was asked to do three things:
- advise on what kind of strategic framework would suit a complex and diverse organisation like UNICEF. In doing this we had to draw on our experience of INGOs and NGOs such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and CAFOD where we had carried out similar projects
- design and deliver a programme of coaching and support for the Deputy Executive Director and others as they developed their new approaches – and ensure that they were joined up and integrated in a practical way
- run a series of training/facilitation sessions with the senior team to challenge their thinking about strategy, and how to develop plans that were robust and challenging, yet flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances
“At UNICEF we put children and their needs at the centre of all our work. =mc helped bring that vision and mission into the heart of our planning – and make it interesting and – almost enjoyable.”
Anita Tiessen, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF UK
What we did
In consultation with Anita Tiessen and other senior managers we helped design a programme of work to develop the strategy. The programme ran over several months and included:
- sessions on ‘what is strategy?’ and developing a common language and model
- designing some frameworks including work on key success factors (KSFs)
- establishing stakeholders in the strategy and their needs from the plan
- creating drivers and aims to set the key areas that UNICEF had to tackle
- developing a programme to cascade the work down to an operational level
We also spent significant time developing the notion of ‘thinking in colour’ – ensuring that any strategic document was designed and illustrated in a way which engaged and
motivated those who read it.
Result
UNICEF UK developed its plan in record time – and it was well received especially by the trustees who had to sign off some fairly radical initiatives. The plan helped contribute to the worldwide work of UNICEF and inform much of the
strategic work in its overall campaign for the interests of the world’s children. =mc continues its relationship with UNICEF UK and helped them in April 2007 with work on long-term outcomes.
Links
More information about strategy development
More information about UNICEF
