Related Content Sep 14 Sep 06 Preliminary Report on social media monitoring in Moldova highlights the need to regulate online political campaigning. Aug 02 Summer Democracy Action in Sudan. Jun 18 Ethiopia's encumbered elections. A first crucial set of questions, linked to responsibilities and competencies, is about the constitutional and legal position of the party.
Where does it get its funding from? What are the regulations surrounding funding and fundraising? Are there any legal obligations with respect to activities or outputs? Are there any legal restrictions with respect to activities and outputs? To what extent do current activities and outputs fall within such boundaries? And to what extent is there unexploited room for manoeuvre within these boundaries?
A second set of questions concerns the partys organizational structure. How is the party governed internally? What are relations like between the different sections of the party? How do they mutually coordinate? Are they accountable? What is the partys concept of membership? How is party membership organized? How many members are there? How important are membership fees to the funding of the. Once the preparatory work of Phase I has been completed, it is time for the strategic planning team to get to work.
The thorough analysis undertaken in Phase II will ensure that the resulting plan is realistic, feasible and effective. A baseline analysis helps to develop a party-organization vision and an analysis of internal and external stakeholders. The partys mission and values are identified and articulated, and the process ends with an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats SWOT.
Figure 4. A vision statementoften called a vision of success describes what the organization should look like in order to successfully implement its strategies and achieve its full potential Bryson It is important to highlight the partys vision at this point in the process because, even though it is still unofficial and open to alteration along the way, it provides a clear goal or purpose for the partya dot on the horizon at which all subsidiary actions and efforts are directed.
At this point, it is not necessary for the vision to be very detailed, as long as it sets concrete and believable aspirations, motivation and direction. Worksheet 3 takes the working group through the step-by-step process of developing a vision. To illustrate how the Georgian parties formulated their visions, an example of one partys vision is provided in Box 4. The vision of a Georgian political party In two years time 1. Examples of such stakeholders are voters, party members, electoral management bodies, knowledge institutions, suppliers, civil society organizations CSOs , counterparts in neighbouring countries, regional and local branches, the media, a youth wing and donors.
The stakeholder analysis is undertaken in a number of steps. The first step is to identify, by way of first individual and then collective brainstorming, all the internal and external stakeholders. It is important to be as specific as possible in naming each of the stakeholders. Stakeholders will come in various categories, or sets, with individual actors or organizations part of each category. This brainstorming session will result in a long list of categories of stakeholders and, within those categories, of stakeholders themselves.
Encouraging the participants to think about what they are working towards helps make the process concrete and contributes to a more systematic approach to the stakeholder analysis later on. The next step is to answer a number of questions about each internal and external stakeholder if appropriate, they can be answered for a cluster of stakeholders.
What is your sense of the impression the stakeholder has about the performance of the party and its organization? What criteria does this specific stakeholder or cluster use to form its opinion of the party? How does the stakeholder influence the party, and how does the party affect this stakeholder? What does the party need from the stakeholder, and what does the stakeholder need from the party? How vital is the stakeholder to the party?
Once these questions have been answered, a socalled power versus interest grid can be drafted Figure 4. This grid groups stakeholders according to their interest how much of an interest the stakeholder has in the existence and performance of the party and their power how strongly the stakeholder can affect the performance or even the existence of the party. Plotting the complete list of stakeholders in a power versus interest grid can lead to some surprising. A stakeholder is any person, group or entity that can place a claim on the organizations attention, resources or outputs or that is affected by such outputs.
Collectively, the stakeholders make up the environment of the party, which it serves, competes in and depends on. This environment determines the frameworks within which the party must operate as a political actor and an organization. Strategic planning is about enhancing the partys positioning vis--vis its environment in order to improve performance and realize its goals. Understanding its environment is of the greatest importance. For a political party, the degree to which it is able to address the needs and desires of crucial stakeholders is the key to success.
A stakeholder analysis is an instrument for systematically identifying the partys. Source: Eden, C. It may be that the party has previously focused on stakeholders that are not very powerful, and had no great stake in the partys existence and performance.
It is also possible that some highly relevant players with a significant interest in the party and substantial power have previously not been given the attention they deserved from the point of view of the partys own interests. The power versus interest grid can thus serve as a compass for future engagement with actors and organizations in the external environment, as well as actors and sections within the party.
Based on the results of the power versus interest plotting, informed judgements can be made about how various stakeholders should be engaged during the strategic planning process. Theoretically, this ranges from ignoring some parts of the crowd quadrant to potentially granting decision-making authority to some stakeholders in the player quadrant. For a stepby-step guide to the stakeholder analysis see Worksheets 4, 5 and 6. Most political parties have a statement of principles, which indicates the partys ideological orientation and values democracy, solidarity, individual freedom, ecological sustainability, non-discrimination and equality, etc.
This does not mean, however, that the party as an organization has a clear mission. There is a clear distinction between the partys political mission and its organizational mission.
This distinction is connected with the difference between strategic planning for electoral campaigning, policy realization and organizational development.
One Georgian political party formulated its political mission and organizational mission as follows:. Any political party derives its reason for existence from striving to make some sort of identifiable societal or political change or to maintain the status quo. The party and its organization are therefore a means to a broader societal or political end, and not.
Our political mission is to strengthen Christian-Democratic values in the country through rational-constructivist approaches. We promote politics based on dialogue and the Christian ethic. We preserve traditions and the national identity. We strive to increase the prosperity of Georgias population and to create a positive environment for employment. Our organizational mission is to optimally facilitate the realization of this political mission in a manner that reflects our Christian values and that is professional, incorruptible, internally democratic and efficient.
We as an organization strive to engage as many fellow Georgians as possible in the political mission of our party. A partys political mission is usually formulated in ideological terms, whereas its organizational mission is an action-oriented formulation of the partys purpose. In addition, the mission statement articulates the actions the party organization will take to make conditions as conducive as possible to realizing the partys mission.
Therefore, as a minimum, there should be congruence between the political-ideological values. The organizations actions, programmes and operations flow directly from the organizational mission. The partys political and organizational missions can be formulated by answering a number of questions. What is our current mission?
What does it say about who we are, our purpose, who we serve and how we are unique? What are our political-philosophical roots? Which societal values do we hold dearest? What basic societal or political problems do we exist to address?
How do we believe these problems should be addressed, and what is our role in doing so? How does our party differ from other parties?
These questions can be answered following the steps in Worksheet 7. Separate from the mission statement, but clearly linked to it in its content, is the statement of organ-. Organizational mission and operations support political-ideological mission; congruence of values.
In other words, the values statement describes the party culture. How can the partys current culture best be described? To what extent is the party organizations culture in line with the culture that is required if the party wants to achieve both its organizational and its political-ideological missions? Does the partys current culture facilitate or hamper the partys performance? Are there elements of party culture that should be changed or emphasized to make it more effective or successful?
Worksheet 8 provides guidance on completing the statement of values. This step returns to the strengths and weaknesses of, opportunities for and threats to the party. A preliminary SWOT analysis was undertaken as part of the baseline analysis in Phase I to get an idea of the partys starting position.
The initial SWOT analysis is now revisited and carried out in more detail. The purpose is to evaluate the party as a political actor and an organization.
Performing a SWOT analysis is an effective way to identify the major internal and external issues a political party faces. The strengths and weaknesses refer to the partys internal environment, over which it has some influence. The opportunities and threats related to the partys external environment, over which it usually has only limited influence.
Using the SWOT framework helps a party direct its attention and target its activities where they will be noticed more, better appreciated and more effective. A SWOT analysis also raises awareness of new or unexplored opportunities, and of limitations that should be taken into account. When thinking about a political partys strengths and weaknesses, relatively simple questions can help provide clarity.
What does the party do well? Where are its capacities and talents, as well as their quality and appreciation? What does the party do less well? Where are the shortages, scarcity and frustration?
Box 4. A series of questions needs to be answered for each of the four SWOT elements. It is important to keep in mind that the focus should be on the organizational side of the party, and not primarily on its ideological orientation or policy agenda. The questions should be interpreted in relation to the partys organizational structure, human and financial resources, capabilities, competencies and so on, rather than in relation to why our views are better than those of the other parties.
Formulating answers to these questions can be done either individually or as a group. The working group could decide to organize focus groups in order to engage a larger number of people, either to widen access to the specialist expertise needed to answer the question more accurately or to include points of view from different positions within the party.
The questions summed up in Table 4. What are the activities or programmes that it delivers really well? Which programmes and activities fall into this category? In South Africa for instance, the African National Congress ANC has undergone strategic planning and self-assessments that have led to attempts at serious internal reforms.
The political mission of the ANC is as follows: The African National Congress exists in order to unite all the people of South Africa to transform our country as rapidly as possible into a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous country, based on the principles of the Freedom Charter. The ANCs elaborate organizational self-assessment that it conducted in included a SWOT analysis on several aspects of the partys organization.
This analysis was laid down in the partys organizational report, which was presented by the partys secretary general at the national conference in It is worth summarizing its set-up here. The report first analyses contextual and societal developments that may affect the party and its organization.
It then discusses the membership and structures of the party, including recent developments, strengths and challenges. Specific attention is paid to the procedural aspects of membership, membership of the various branches and membership in the various regions. The next section deals with the political and party-organizational developments in each of the nine provinces of South Africa.
Then specific performance reports, strengths and weaknesses are presented concerning each of the national structures the National Executive Council, the National Working Council, the Youth League and the Womens League. After this, the performance and prospects of national-level sub-committees are discussed. Examples of these sub-committees are the committees on political education and training, media and communications, international relations and constitutional affairs.
Interestingly, the ANCs secretary general used the report to publicly address serious shortcomings in the partys organization. For instance, it was registered that although party membership increased throughout the country, there was a scarcity of active members; that unity and cohesion should be increased; that there was a risk of sectarian practices and that weak political consciousness among members was an important concern. This strategic planning exercise thus motivated the party leadership to push for internal reforms.
The analysis of the organization and its environment during Phase II is the necessary groundwork for Phase III, which involves identifying and assessing the strategic issues faced by the party, formulating a strategy to address these issues, and reviewing and adopting a strategic plan. Figure 5. Phase III activities Identifying and assessing strategic issues Formulating strategies Reviewing the strategic plan and adoption. Worksheet 11 helps the working group draw up a master list of key strategic issues.
Anything can be included in this list, as long as it: a refers to organizational aspects, rather than strictly electoral or political-ideological aspects, of the party; b is phrased as a question to which various answers could be given and c pertains to issues over which the party has a considerable degree of control. What is a strategic issue? When is an issue a strategic one? A strategic issue can be defined as a fundamental policy choice or challenge that affects a partys responsibilities, competencies, mission, target audience, programmes, costs, funding or structure.
The difference between strategy, man-. This distinction is also relevant here. The best way to separate strategic issues from operational ones is to first list all the issues that seem important to the party and its performance.
The operational issues should then be separated from the strategic ones. As a general rule of thumb, an issue is more likely to be strategic than operational if it meets many of the following criteria: 1. A separate statement should be made for each of the strategic issues included on the master list. This statement puts the essence of the issue into words, and provides a justification for why it is or should be considered a vital strategic issue on the organizational agenda.
It should also be made clear how each issue relates to the organizational mission, the partys responsibilities, the vision and the SWOT analysis. In order to assess the importance and urgency of each issue, the consequences of not addressing the issue should also be discussed. Worksheet 12 is a user-friendly checklist for distinguishing between operational and strategic issues. The sorting of operational and strategic issues will produce two results. The first is a list of operational issues, which affect only one or a few party units, with minor or moderate implications; the best approach to resolving such issues is relatively clear, and the strategic planning working group can hand these issues over to the executive board to be addressed and resolved at the appropriate managerial or operational level within the party.
The second result is a master list of strategic issues, which in turn can be reworked as a list of key strategic issues and sub-issues. The working group will, if necessary or appropriate with the help of experts from outside the working group, prioritize the most important issues and formulate an issue statement for each of the priority issues.
Care should be taken to relate the issues to the partys mission, vision, political goals and societal objectives, and to the SWOT analysis. In addition, some broad goals to address the issue should be formulated.
It is important that the issue statement is framed as questions or concerns that the party can do something about. Box 5. How to carry out monitoring? How to implement financial management? Each of the key strategic issues must now be provided with an action-oriented plan. These issue-based plans together will form the strategic plan. The individual strategies may differ in scope, complexity and time frame. Some strategies will be directed at a part of the party or its organization, while some will cover all of the party.
The formulation of the strategies is naturally based on the information and analysis derived from the previous steps. At this point, it is clear what the issue is, why it is important and how important it is, as well as what, broadly speaking, the goals for each of the issues should be.
Therefore in this phase, the working group takes on more of a coordinating and collating role than in the previous steps. Well-informed, realistic and relatively detailed strategies must be formulated, and this will involve more interaction with other units or sections within the party. This involvement can consist of individual meetings with the key stakeholders for each issue or a consultative round of interviews, for instance.
Worksheet 13 provides a template that can be used to formulate the issue-based strategies. Each strategy will make clear the main underlying considerations, the specific goals, the necessary actions to be taken and what evaluation criteria are appropriate. In addition to describing the issue and the specific goals or desired outcomes, a number of items, ranging from the relatively abstract to the concrete and.
These are: 1 alternative routes to get from the current issue to the desired outcome, 2 possible barriers that may stand in the way of realizing the goals, 3 initiatives that should be taken to achieve the desired outcome and 4 the key actions that flow from these initiatives.
The key actions are then translated into specific steps that need to be taken within the specific time frame of the project, and a specific actor either an individual or group is made responsible and accepts responsibility for the step or cluster of steps.
In this way, it will be clear to any person who reads each strategy what the problem is, what solution has been proposed, how the proposed solution will successfully address the problem and why this solution is better than any alternative solution. The elaboration of the motivation behind the different aspects of each strategy will prove useful when the individual strategies and the plan as a whole seek formal approval and adoption in the next step.
After the individual strategies have been formulated, the working groups task is to create an overarching motivational top and tail to the strategic plan. What are the main themes of the strategies? Is there a common denominator? How can this common denominator best be framed so that it is clear to all internal stakeholdersand sparks the necessary excitement and commitment to make the desired change happen?
Depending on the size and structure of the party, various ways of creating wide agreement and authority might be most appropriate. One way is to first get broad agreement from the senior leadership and the executive board, for which the role of the process promoter becomes important once again. He or she should be able to present the plan, and explain and defend the choices made. It is important to have enough time, patience and flexibility to obtain the leaderships authorization. It may also be that alterations will have to be made to the plan, but these should be well argued, realistic and in line with the partys purpose and mission, or the political situation in which it finds itself.
The working group should obviously take a flexible approach, as it is more valuable to have broad support and authorization from the senior leadership than to insist that all strategies are implemented just as the working group first proposed. After formal support has been received for the content of the plans, the wider support of the rest of the party must be secured. A General Assembly or regional or thematic meetings can be used for this purpose.
Without the understanding, support and dedication of the internal stakeholders at the front line, the plans are unlikely to be implemented. Here too, the possibility of having to make some changes to the plan should be left open, once again based on sound arguments or some valuable information and experience that had somehow not found its way into the planning process thus far.
Worksheet 14 gives pointers for successfully and systematically completing this phase. The working group should be inclusive in its information gathering and consultations with both internal and external stakeholders, but before the strategic plan can be implemented, it will need a formal status and the commitment of both the partys senior leadership and its executive board, as well as the broad general support of all the branches and sections of the party.
In other words, the working group must sell its plans to the leadership and the party, widen ownership and receive formal authorization for its choices and plans. Clear, positive and attractive communication is key to getting support from above and below.
A positive and convincing tone will be needed in addition to all the necessary visual instruments graphs, tables and images to encourage the partys leadership and base to embrace the plans.
Example: the Australian Labor Party In February , the Australian Labor Party launched the National Review, a broad-based analysis of its internal organization, in response to a weak result in the federal elections and a persisting decline in membership.
Since internal strife had previously caused a change in leadership, the party commissioned a broad-based review of the party and its internal structure. The review was conducted by a committee headed by three senior party officials who represented the left and right of the party. The committee used a broad range of consultative instruments, including organizing membership forums throughout the country, conducting targeted interviews, studying some written submissions, and setting up an online think tank that collected approximately 3, party members and supporters suggestions.
The committees consultations revealed dissatisfaction with the lack of member influence over party affairs and the decline in branch involvement. The review also found that the partys membership was aging rapidly and that alliances with partner organizations, such as trade unions, had weakened. Out of these consultations, the committee extracted 31 recommendations for the party, some of which concerned ways to attract new members and involve current members more effectively in party affairs.
The review suggested making resources and party positions available for party-building and training activities. Other recommendations related to changing the partys internal rules so as to give rank-and-file members a greater say over the selection of electoral candidates and the party executive, and over the formulation of party policies.
Importantly, when the review was discussed at the partys national conference in December , it received only partial support from members and party officials. Of the 31 recommendations, only 13 were adopted, partly due to disagreement between progressive and conservative forces within the party.
This result demonstrated to those who were involved in writing the review that a report alone will not automatically do the job; it is equally important to have the powers that be ready and willing to adopt reforms.
After the strategic plans have been reviewed and formally adopted, preparations must be made to bring the paper plan to life. In a real sense, concerns about how to implement and realize the strategic plan have played a role in all the previous phases and activities.
Nonetheless, at this point a truly practical plan of action needs to be developed. Just like in Phase I, a number of questions, such as how to break large tasks up into manageable activities and assign them to individuals and groups, come into play.
The strategy makes clear which party units or individuals are responsible for, and who should otherwise be involved in, implementing each element of the strategy. To a large extent, political parties operate in cycles from election to election; each cycle contains re-occurring stages.
Therefore, a distinction should be made between one-off elements and those that should be considered part of an ongoing cycle of events that parties have to focus on continuously or at repetitive intervals.
A specific and detailed list will have to be made for each plan, stating the explicit goals, actions and expected outcomes, the resources required funds, people, technology, etc. Worksheets 15 and 16 provide guidance on these aspects. It is useful to regard the individual elements of the strategy as normal projects, for which the use of regular methodologies and guidelines for project management is advisable.
It is also recommended to use software programmes for executing, managing and monitoring the realization of each element of the strategy. Once the implementation process has been completed hopefully on time and within budget with the help of the project management tools, the final step in the strategic planning cycle is evaluation.
This is. The evaluation should be broken down into two distinct parts: evaluation of the strategies themselves, and evaluation of the process by which the strategies were developed and implemented.
The strengths and weaknesses of each individual strategy can now be identified, as well as the modifications that would be desirable with the benefit of hindsight. Based on these considerations, it can be determined whether a particular strategy should be maintained, revised or abandoned. A strategy can be discarded for various reasons: the issue has been resolved or effectively addressed, it was unsuccessfully implemented or changed circumstances make the strategy no longer relevant.
Evaluation should be oriented towards the process side. The strengths and weaknesses of and any possible modifications to the various process elements process design, time, resources, direction, support, etc. Subsequently, decisions can be made on whether the various process-related elements should remain unchanged, be replaced with new or revised elements and principles, or be abandoned altogether. These evaluations will provide valuable information about what should be done in any future cycles, and how.
This approach can help improve the quality of both the process and future strategies of each cycle. Worksheets 17 and 18 provide guidance on the strategy and process evaluations.
Annex IV provides guidelines for interviews with the main stakeholders after the planning process has been concluded. It helps to look back and identify successes and areas for improvement in future cycles of strategic planning. Example: Peru and the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana APRA Perus April general electionsthe countrys first elections that were deemed free and fair by all political forces after Fujimoris decade in powerpositioned its oldest party, APRA, as the first opposition force in the legislature.
APRAs candidate narrowly lost a presidential run-off held in June, obtaining more than 5 million votes, about 30 times the partys vote share only a year earlier. It proposed a new structure that was organized along three different dimensions of the partys life: 1.
The recommendations were translated into a proposal for a new party constitution that was then approved by the 55th party plenary in September and finally the 22nd national congress in June The social and governmental dimensions were the new elements, and their heads would be part of the top decision-making body: the National Executive Committee.
The new social dimension encompassed five directorates: women, professionals, workers, CSOs and popular organizations. The state dimension consists of 17 directorates that mirror nearly all cabinet posts similar to a shadow cabinet.
The new party constitution also created a permanent National Commission for Strategic Planning with a mandate to provide the national leadership with strategic advice. This demonstrated that APRA considered strategic planning to be a permanent task of the party rather than a one-off. December 9, December 7, Reaction to online political ads regulation proposal. November 25, November 15, Joint Statement on Recommender Systems. November 4, October 20,
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