Organizational Strengths and Vulnerabilities

Like any organization, NEWI has key strengths and vulnerabilities that influence its ability to achieve its strategic Mission and Vision.  Among NEWI’s greatest strengths are its talented and committed staff, its generous donors and fund holders, an outstanding public reputation, strong executive leadership, a committed corps of volunteers, Board of Trustees and extensive relationships in every sector of the community. Notable among its strengths is a robust and intentionally cultivated organizational culture that emphasizes caring, inclusivity, accountability, and excellence.

Similarly, NEWI as an organization has vulnerabilities – issues that could become barriers to achieving its strategic objectives. Staff, Board of Trustees and partners identified primary vulnerabilities that include inadequate staff capacity, relative to the workload; fundraising strategy, robust monitoring and evaluation framework and organizational sustainability strategy.

We endeavor to ensure we achieve maximum integration of effort and resources, by maximizing our diverse resources and strategies in an integrated and collective way. We shall realign resources at our disposal with four community empowerment objectives, by being strategic, proactive, consistent with community priorities, and focused on demonstrating impact. This directly depends on the ability to manage “soft issues” (people related) in a changing environment that has become a prerequisite for any development initiative. The rate of change additionally demand strategic foresight and strategic awareness applied with flexibility.

NEWI therefore pursues empowerment as a process of “opening closed doors” by connecting people to opportunities, services, skills and ideas to create change. Empowerment is also viewed as the development of fresh ideas, forging new partnerships and designing strategies that engage people, their communities and partners.

NEWI sees the triangular relationship between the program target population, the development partners and the local implementing organizations as a necessary mix in realizing meaningful developmental milestones aimed at improved social and economic change. Roles, responsibilities and associated risk are shifting with major implications. A service which embodies a holistic application of competencies and skills are therefore required. These competencies and skills need to be linked with functional network relations with a broad base of partners while leveraging on existing government structures in order to provide a complete solution or outcome in the mould of a “one stop shop solution”.