• What would I like to contribute as a president of the Governing Board? To coordinate the strategic review and the change program that this board will undertake. VRO faces some of its greatest challenges in its more than 40 years’ existence and I believe I can help to converge our founder, Father Michael Windey’s original objectives, to eradicate the endemic poverty in the villages, with the strengths of our current teams. We need to meet the needs and expectations of those we assist with the ones of our sponsors in a fast changing environment. We need to re-focus our attention from house building to village community building. We need to re-focus from providing to assisting with self help solutions. We need to address health, education, land use, equity and equality. We need to accept our responsibilities for the errors of the past and deal with them in an open and unambiguous manner. We need to improve and further professionalize our teams. We need to execute the current work program with diligence and ahead of deadlines. • China reduced its poverty from more than 50 % of the population to less than 10% in 30 years and thereby accounts for 75% of the global poverty reduction, it is the only country that is achieving the millennium objectives of the UN, India is lagging behind and on top of that we see an unequal distribution of resources between rural and urban development • .// • Our board will organize itself to harness the insights of these long term strategic thinkers to develop a plan for the next 10 years and to guide, train and develop our volunteers, regional coordinators and possible other structures to meet the new challenges ahead. Besides the exploration of these new directions we will also ensure that we continue to improve the operational efficiencies that we achieved in the previous phase. • When should we deliver results? I foresee to need between 6 and 12 months to develop a deeper understanding to disseminate this learning process in our movement and organization. 1
Transcript
1. What would I like to contribute as a president of the
Governing Board?To coordinate the strategic review and the change
program that this board will undertake. VRO faces some of its
greatest challenges in its more than 40 years existence and I
believe I can help to converge our founder, Father Michael Windeys
original objectives, to eradicate the endemic poverty in the
villages, with the strengths of our current teams. We need to meet
the needs and expectations of those we assist with the ones of our
sponsors in a fast changing environment. We need to re-focus our
attention from house building to village community building. We
need to re-focus from providing to assisting with self help
solutions. We need to address health, education, land use, equity
and equality. We need to accept our responsibilities for the errors
of the past and deal with them in an open and unambiguous manner.
We need to improve and further professionalize our teams. We need
to execute the current work program with diligence and ahead of
deadlines.
China reduced its poverty from more than 50 % of the population to
less than 10% in 30 years and thereby accounts for 75% of the
global poverty reduction, it is the only country that is achieving
the millennium objectives of the UN, India is lagging behind and on
top of that we see an unequal distribution of resources between
rural and urban development
.//
Our board will organize itself to harness the insights of these
long term strategic thinkers to develop a plan for the next 10
years and to guide, train and develop our volunteers, regional
coordinators and possible other structures to meet the new
challenges ahead. Besides the exploration of these new directions
we will also ensure that we continue to improve the operational
efficiencies that we achieved in the previous phase.
When should we deliver results?I foresee to need between 6 and 12
months to develop a deeper understanding to disseminate this
learning process in our movement and organization. Secondly I see
an implementation phase of another 12 to 18 months. During the
following six months of this 3 year period we will prepare a new
leadership team to solidify this interaction with our sponsors
through an elaborate communication program.
Letter from Theo Vaes,
With my current understanding as on 5/11/2010
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2. 1] Sense of Urgency
Talk of change typically begins with some people noticing a
vulnerability in the organization. The threat of losing ground in
some way sparks these people into action, and they in turn try to
communicate that sense of urgency to others. "Without motivation,
people wont help and the effort goes nowhere. It is hard to drive
people out of their comfort zones". In the more successful cases
the leadership group facilitates a frank discussion of potentially
unpleasant facts: about the changing environment, or other relevant
indicators. It is helpful to use outsiders ( to bring outsiders who
can share the "big picture" from a different perspective and help
broaden the awareness.) When is the urgency level high enough?
Kotter suggests it is when 75% of your leadership is honestly
convinced that business as usual is no longer an acceptable
plan.
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3. Organizational renewal program: Proposalsby the
President
Origin of the thinking process:
If it is not worth measuring it is not worth doing
Not everything that can be counted counts (Einstein)
If you cannot imagine it, you will never create it (Einstein)
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4. What has changed and what has not changed since the start of
VRO. I will try to explain my conviction that VRO needs sincere
efforts with long-term vision, sacrice, unbreakable social
commitment and good understanding. I took 2 weeks to look around in
India and spent a substantial part understanding the world around
VRO. This is what I did:Delhi (, TISS, IISS, Action Aid)
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5. 5
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7. 7
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9. 9
10. Ranchi XISS
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11. 11
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Fr Prakash Luis also participated in action aid activities. They
are member of the IPPA (International Partners Program
association). These seven organizations are funded by the UK
government for the time being. Apart from traditional development
work they also engaged in human rights actions and capacity
building.
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15. Bhubaneswar XIMB
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17. 17
18.
19. 19
20. Mumbai (Shroff Self Help Groups,)
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22. Healthcare
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23. Parntering & networked solutionsICDS centers, train
village level workers to enable them to connect and refer to 3rd
partly solutions
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26. This singlemarket vision has also spread to the NGO
sectorMadhavChavans vision for Pratham is to teach 60 million
children across India to read.We do not provide enough schools,
universities, basic civil infrastructure (housing, public health,
general hygiene etc) for the people we are adding each year in our
country. Expenditure and supervision in basic education, general
infrastructure is far from adequate to cater this increasing
population. Just one example- The right to education bill is
practically dead as states and central Govt is yet to come up with
required funding and political willingness to make it a
reality.
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27. Much of the recent literature favouring a multidimensional
view of poverty stems from Sens critique of a narrow utility-based
approach to assessing welfare in economics, in which he questions
the solitary focus on income levels and consumption choices as
markers of broader well-being (Sen 1985, 1987). Rather, his
pioneering approach judges individual advantage in terms of
capabilities, defined as the freedom and potential to actually
achieve or enhance certain valuable functionings (Sen 1999).
Poverty is conversely conceptualised as the inability of
individuals to acquire the necessary capabilities, prominent
amongst which is the capability to be healthy (Nussbaum and Sen
(eds.) 1993).
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28. Economic growth but..The national survey statistics are
starting to come out. India actually lost jobs, although
unemployment rates also decreased. The main aspect is that it was
mainly casual labors that have no assets who lost their jobs. What
we need to focus on is to help these people find the dignity of
work.
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29.
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31. Poverty statisticsOn the other hand, the highest incidence
of poverty (over 84%) is recorded in 5 district located in Orissa.
In fact out of seven districts that have more than 70% incidence of
poverty, four districts are in Orissa, ./..
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32. Empowerment - EntitlementsAs mentioned earlier: Government
initiatives such as right to education, right to work are there but
their implementation is dramatically low.VRO could consider it as
their mission to make these government initiatives actually work.
Very often government will choke initiatives that are not aligned
with their ideology. VRO could become a platform for peaceful
mobilization to assist the ST SC and OBC to inform them about and
get their entitlements. This will provide a substantial alternative
to armed struggle that is currently developing in India. It is
interesting to see that F Windey already pushed for this
Empowerment aspect.
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33. Empowerment
VRO should become active in villagers empowerment in a structured
way. ./..This will ensure a transparent bridge between the central
government policies and the ultimate impact there of on the village
level. In this way we facilitate the capacity building of the
government.
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34. Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful. The less
toil there is, the more time and strength is left for creativity.
And work, properly conducted in conditions of human dignity and
freedom, blesses those who do it and equally their output.
(Inspiration: Schumacher,)
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35. Reduce the physical geographical size Reduce the number of
our various activitiesStrengthen core competencesReduce the
distance to the Donors Get closer to State government (if not for
funding, at least for learning) Intensify Survey and Impact
measurement activities
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38. Satyagraha statement
Develop awareness campaign
Give everybody the opportunity to come clean with the pastwith a
legally binding settlement deed.
All VRO engaged people to commit to a clean VRO
Put any irregularity in the hands of the court.
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39. I always had these questions in my mind:
Should WE be doing some of the services we offer?
Should we still BE in some of the areas where we operate
today?
Should we be offering ALL the different services in those chosen
areas?
Are the areas that we operate in still the neediest or is inertia
keeping us there?
Should we not be considering addressing new needs?
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What do we stand for:
VRO becomes a national champion to fight endemic rural
poverty
VRO demonstrates operational excellence and is prepared to
benchmark this
VRO measures its impact both internally and externally in a
transparent way
VRO actively searches for the most needy areas
VRO moves on swiftly when the mission is accomplished, constantly
rewriting history in our heads.
VRO commits to pre-defined capacity building of its own teams
(*)
VRO continuously upgrades and disseminates its knowledge base
VRO people are ready to move on after a maximum of six years
cycle
VRO is an explicit clean hands organization
VRO values work hard, play hard and warm people
VRO cherishes the inspiration of Father Michael Windey
What do we do:
VRO delivers any service that can uplift villagers from endemic
poverty
VRO does not necessarily fulfill these services itself, it can
coordinate other parties
VRO surveys, tests, mobilizes the community and the resources
necessary for a
sustainable solution
41.
42. The Rainbow BridgeMany stones are on the earth,many houses
we can build,many walls can be trainedtall towers can be built
upon.Will you be stone among stones?Little is the protection of the
house,all walls must fallthe highest towers fall.You see, the
rainbow bridgespreads its high archbetween stars, between people.
-You are hovering just recovered!
Should you wear the rain bridgeyou must go with light feet.Will you
say the word that turned you,send your angels out to implore it.God
is mighty weak, not strong,forget about the forces that you
yourself have.On the shores of your dreams waiting
barges,contribute to more than holds your soul.
( Ephides)
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