1. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. CARE Mozambique’s Leadership Team On the Road to Participatory Decision- making, Team-Building and Strategic Leadership

2. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. Basic facts: CARE Mozambique From war to peace: CARE started working in emergency mode in 1986 then moved towards rehabilitation and now in development mode (with emergency programming) Strategic Plan (2006-2009) emphasizes Food and Economic Security, strengthening local capacity in water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS and health (whole continuum) and a new area, Governance. All via capacity building and facilitation. 16 projects, financed by 14 different donors. CARE Mozambique currently employs around 340 staff, of which 11 are international.

3. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. Geographic dispersion

4. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. History of decision-making SMT model 1 (1986-2001): Composed of CD, ACDs and very few senior staff (only two nationals), all based in Maputo. Heavily dominated by expatriate staff. SMT Model 2 (2001-2004): Composed of all CO senior staff (CD, ACDs, PMs, program support managers). Management position was basic condition for membership. Too large to be effective, thus 3 or 4 members would actually decide at the end of the day. COLT (2004-present): Due to increased pipeline, there was a staff-led structural review which resulted in the design of a Country Office Leadership Team and Sub-Office Coordination Teams

5. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. COLT: What does it do? Leadership and internal coordination Strategic Planning and decision-making Policies and Procedures Leading CI and CO vision, mission and program principles Composition: Originally 10 to current 13 members. Core team of CD, ACD-P and PS, HR/LA and Sub- Office Administrators. 3 elected members from Nampula/Cabo Delgado, 2 from Northern Inhambane and rotating 2 Coordinators Criteria: Leadership skills, gender and program/program support & regional balance Quarterly meetings at different offices with e-mail discussions between meetings

6. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. Sub-Office Coordination Team Region-specific issues Coordinating representation with local government, partners and donors Operational decisions Provide issues for COLT decision-making Composition: PMs, head of program support units and one staff representative. Monthly meetings

7. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. Where the COLT is now? Where the COLT is now? Beginning was rocky but with every meeting, COLT matures In February 2006, the COLT answered six questions in a self-evaluation and it was clear that we did not fully understand our role/mandate (COLT identity), nor our links to the sub-office coordination mechanisms and the rest of the organization. This evaluation was repeated at the sub-office level with similar results. Staff did not understand what the COLT did, despite numerous communications. As decided in our AOP 07, we contacted L&OD and a coach to help on how we can improve our COLT, strengthen team-building.

8. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. What has been innovative and worked? Diversification: geographic and different levels of staff Inclusive participation, decentralization of decision making and increased national representation and voices Meetings now use AOP as agenda and some space for non-AOP issues COLT common trip format to reinforce collective responsibilities Collective Terms of References with principles, shared norms Program visits as part of COLT meetings to motivate staff and see our work with communities During AOP discussions and teambuilding exercises, great to have outside help for feedback to improve how we plan and make decisions

9. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. What has been challenging and recommendations Time, people and money: Meetings for 14 people in different sites for 1 week a quarter, plus translations add up to quite a few $$$. We ’ re considering it an investment that ’ s worth it out of our UNR Communication with wider organization is still challenging. We send many emails and ALLMOZes but people don ’ t read. Need to figure out different ways to communicate effectively Linkages: Still need to strengthen linkages between sub-office decision-making mechanisms and COLT Still difficult to wear two hats: Wearing different hats to represent specific versus organizational interests, as well as making sure decisions remain at strategic level

10. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. It ain’t easy... But it’s worth it Rotation: Rotation of staff and staff diversity (levels, regions, gender, program/program support) creates difficulties in moving forward and teambuilding. Known as the dip. But it ’ s worth it to become a high performance team.

11. © 2005, CARE USA. All rights reserved. What have we learned so far ? Strategic decision-making is much more inclusive, participatory COLT ownership of AOP Continued maturity and improvement Improved planning, monitoring and annual evaluations of Strategic Plan and AOPs. Will continue to work on teambuilding and learning Capacity building of staff in leadership and organizational issues for future leaders Most importantly, we think that the increased participation, diversity as led to better results in CO management, learning and strategic decision-making.