Strategic Framework 2011-2015

Preamble and Vision

Nearly five decades ago the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) was founded, uniting Australian Non Government Organisations (NGOs) concerned with global poverty and delivering overseas aid and development. The Council’s mission was to reduce inequity within and between nations, and champion the human rights of the poorest in the world. The Council worked to reverse:

'…the huge and widening gap between the poorer and wealthier nations of the world and between rich and poor people within nations results in deprivation of basic human rights for more than half of the world’s population and constitutes a denial of natural justice and is a continuing threat to world peace.' [Australian Council for Overseas Aid: 1966]

Nearly half a century later, these features of the Council’s founding vision and purpose remain true.

Our Vision

A world where gross inequality within societies and between nations is reversed; and extreme poverty is eradicated.

A world where human development is ecologically and socially sustainable for the benefit of current and future generations.

A world where governments lead their societies in striving to protect and realise all people’s human rights.

This vision will be achieved through the collective efforts of civil society, Governments, business and all peoples who are concerned for the future of our collective humanity.

Our Role and Purpose

ACFID is the peak body of Australian NGOs working in aid and development. ACFID’s purpose is to provide leadership to the not-for-profit aid and development sector in Australia in achieving this vision and to fairly represent and promote the collective views and interests of our membership.

• We advocate with our members for Australia to be a leading force in international human development and human rights.
• We are the primary vehicle for collaboration and collective action by NGOs in Australia.
• We foster good practice and capture this in sector standards and self regulation.
• We foster peer support, learning and networking amongst NGOs, and all interested in human development, humanitarianism and human rights.

Our Strengths and Opportunities

In our fifth decade, ACFID has many strengths which position us well to face some significant challenges and make the most of opportunities.

We have experience and evidence that demonstrates that working collectively achieves influential change and impact on governments, the public and our peers.

• We have political credibility with the Government, Opposition and AusAID; and need to leverage this to the best effect to improve Government policy and practice as it impacts on the lives of the poorest people in developing countries.
• We have enormous capacity in the human skills and experience of our members’ staff, volunteers and Boards. We have harnessed the power of peers working together in effective ways so as to share and capture information, knowledge and skills.
• Our Code of Conduct has become the highest industry standard for aid and development NGOs in Australia. A newly revised Code crystallises the intellectual capital of the sector by incorporating contemporary principles and obligations around development effectiveness, accountability and transparency.

Strategic Direction 1: Advocacy and Leadership

We will provide leadership so that Australian NGOs can make a major contribution to sustainable human development and help realise human rights around the world.

To achieve this objective we will:

Deliver a sustained and comprehensive program of advocacy work, focused on a small number of well chosen issues, regularly updated.

Our advocacy work in the next period of ACFID’s story will be characterised by responding to key global challenges:

• Halving global poverty through the achievement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals
• Preventing conflict, promoting peace where there is conflict, and reducing the impact of humanitarian crises on the poor and vulnerable.
• Addressing the sustainability of the planet as climate change, population growth, urbanisation and migration impacts on the world’s poorest people
• Ensuring the effectiveness of aid and development cooperation globally in alleviating poverty and achieving social justice for the poorest 20 percent of the world’s population.

Champion human rights, gender equality and women's empowerment and the role of civil society in our advocacy and programmatic work.

Decades of experience teach us that these vital areas play an essential role in contributing to sustainable human development. We will therefore continue to give prominence in our advocacy to governments’ primary responsibility to protect and promote the rights of their citizens; the differential impacts of poverty and lack of human rights for men and women; and the evidence for civil society's role in helping build democracy, equality and human prosperity.

Influence Australia’s foreign policy and aid program

We will continuously seek to influence Australia’s foreign policy as it relates to the realisation of human rights, aid and development through our strong working relationships with AusAID and by broadening our influence to the whole of Government.

Invite and encourage vigorous debate across a wider group of players

We will find different and more effective means of drawing on a wide diversity of organisations and individuals for their research and policy analysis capability in order to inform the development of robust policy and practice in theatre of international aid and development.

Bolster public support for aid and development

We will ensure that collaborative lobbying, campaigning and public awareness successes, such as the Make Poverty History campaign and Micah Challenge, continue so that the Australian public’s knowledge of and support for international aid and development and the vital role of the NGO sector continue to grow.

Strategic Direction 2: Sector Development

We will promote a strong, collaborative, highly effective and accountable NGO development sector in Australia.

To achieve this objective we will:

Bring our members together to act, share and learn collectively so they have greater impact

We will facilitate the linking of our members and their personnel in active and invigorated communities of practice dedicated to the achievement of good standards in program delivery, advocacy and administration. This will be achieved through clearer structures and processes to guide committees and working groups, as well as giving attention to the creation of learning networks amongst our membership.

Develop learning and a broad consensus around the factors that improve aid and development effectiveness

We will facilitate robust dialogue on good practices in the delivery of aid and development, drawing a wider circle of organisations into the discussions to challenge and be challenged. Participants will include our members, institutes and researchers, private for-profit organisations, and government agencies. We will actively explore and promote useful new ideas and innovative practices.

Set and champion standards of good practice and accountability

During the life of this plan the ACFID Code of Conduct will become a flagship of ACFID membership, along with advocacy, peer learning and collaborative action. We will deliver a Code which is applicable to international development NGOs of various sizes, types and purposes and which continues to hold them to a high standard of practice and accountability.

Foster the partnership with and environment in which government policies and practices contribute to the sustainability, capacity and vitality of our sector

We will work through our partnership agreement with AusAID to champion the role of the NGO sector in the delivery of international aid and development, to mutually learn and collaborate, to strengthen AusAID’s funding and accountability mechanisms in dealing with the sector and to represent the collective views of our members to government. We will work in alliance with other not-for-profit bodies to tackle selected regulatory issues that affect many of our members.

Strategic Direction 3: Organisational Strength and Capacity

We will build a capable and focused organisation that is a recognised and respected force for change in the Australian development sector.

To achieve this objective we will:

Develop and implement a membership recruitment and retention strategy

We will significantly increase our membership through an active and purposeful campaign to draw in more organisations from our traditional membership base. We will also explore a more expansive set of membership arrangements which allows organisations that have aid and development as only one element of their business to affiliate and participate in our activities.

Implement a significant communication and branding campaign

We will build ACFID’s profile and reputation through an integrated and proactive communication strategy so that ACFID has greater advocacy impact.

Continue to build a strong governance structure befitting a membership based peak body

We will review our governance, committee structures and participative arrangements to ensure they are equitable, democratic and foster the participation of current and aspiring leaders in the sector in ACFID’s governance and decision making.

Clearly align our resources, structures and processes to support achievement of our strategic directions

To achieve this ambitious plan, we will ensure that our work program is tight and focused on having an impact on our chosen priorities and that our planning and budget process is linked to our agreed strategic directions. We will also explore a range of funding models to expand and diversify ACFID’s resource base and improve our sustainability.

Continue to build a vibrant, well informed, effective and well supported secretariat capable of delivering this strategic framework

ACFID’s staff supports the work of the wider membership organisations and ensures that we are able to have the impact we desire. We will support our staff with training, professional development, good systems and technology and build a workplace culture which joins staff together, fosters fresh thinking and supports strategic discussion and decision making.

We will continuously review the performance of ACFID against our stated aims and directions and make adjustments to our practice as a result

We will meaningfully monitor and evaluate our work to determine how well we are performing and how we can have a bigger impact.

The Trends Informing This Plan

1. What does the future of human development look like?

Population growth

By 2050 the UN Population Division estimates that the global population growth will halt and stabilise at 9.15 billion people (today’s global population is 6.83 billion).

Coupled with this will be a population youth boom in the developing countries. Over 70% of the world’s population growth between now and 2050 will occur in 24 countries, all of which are classified by the World Bank as low income or lower middle income with an average per capita income of US $3855 in 2008.

Many countries have few ways of employing youthful and growing populations of inhabitants and many will be attracted to migrate to employment in developed countries where populations are ageing. Equally, social instability may increase in many countries, particularly in urban areas. Triggers for violence will be apparent inequities between groups, ethnic tensions, disputes over land and employment opportunities, and food or fuel shortages.

Urbanisation

The world is urbanizing to an unprecedented degree. Whereas less than 30% of the world’s population lived in cities in 1950, by 2050 it will be 70%. Lower income countries in Asia and Africa are urbanizing especially rapidly as agriculture becomes less labour intensive and employment opportunities shift to the manufacturing, industrial and service sectors.

The UN projects that the urbanized proportions of sub Saharan Africa will nearly double between 2005-50 from 35% (300million) to over 67% (I billion).

Many countries already have multiple cities with over one million residents each – Pakistan -8, Mexico 12, China 100. By 2030, 2 billion people—40 percent of urban residents—are expected to be living in slums.

Natural Disasters and Conflict

There are an increasing number and greater scale of intra-country humanitarian crises around the world, with an upward trend in climate change induced environmental catastrophes such as droughts and extreme weather events – storms and flash flooding. Uneven economic development and conflict for natural resources is leading to food shortages and future potential conflict over food supplies and water. Relatively weak global and regional governance has an impact on the international community’s capacity to respond effectively. Many conflicts have humanitarian consequences that spill across borders with flows of refugees.

Growth as usual?

Barring a global catastrophe, it is expected that global economic output will increase 2-3% each year, out pacing population growth over the next four decades.

Between 1950 and 2000 the global economy has grown five times. If it continues to grow at the same rate, it will be 80 times bigger in 2100 than it was in 1950. However, human prosperity can no longer be equated with untrammelled economic growth.

A fifth of the world’s population earns just 2% of global income. The richest 20% by contrast earn 74% of the world’s income. Government and private sector growth policies in most countries are failing to tackle inequality meaningfully.

Sixty percent of the world’s ecosystems have been degraded or overused since the mid twentieth century. Unfettered economic exploitation is exhausting many of the world’s natural resources, threatening ecological collapse in some regions. Forests, river systems, seas, potable water, and mineral resources need to be preserved for future generations.

The International Panel on Climate Change argues that a limit of 450 parts per million (ppm) of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is necessary if climate change is to be restricted to an average global temperature increase of 2°C. Achieving that target could mean reducing global emissions by up to 85% of 1990 levels by 2050.

Global atmospheric concentrations are already at 435ppm. If humanity wants a 75% chance of staying below 2˚C, the global economy can only afford to emit a total of 1 thousand billion tonne of CO₂ between 2000 and 2050. Scientists argue that we have already used up a third of this budget by 2008.

2. The Australian Environment

Government

The presence of government agencies in the international aid field other than AusAID, such as Treasury, the Federal Police and the Australian Defence Force, will remain. They lay claim to the aid budget, and greater information is needed about the degree to which these agencies pursue development effectiveness as a primary aim in their overseas operations.

Government regulations potentially affecting NGOs in areas such as taxation and counter-security measures are proposed, but move slowly at present.

OECD donors still have a general preference for dealing with larger INGOs and this trait is present within AusAID.

Public

There are stronger global and domestic demands for accountability and demonstrated effectiveness in aid –whether it be Government or NGO - by an informed donor base, the media, think-tanks and government. This is balanced by NGO’s increasing ability to tell their story in the media.

Public engagement with international development issues continues as positively evidenced by the recent successful campaigns (such as Make Poverty History and the Micah Challenge) and upward trends in public giving.

The sector in Australia

ACFID member disbursements have doubled in the last decade, from $500 million in 2000/1 to over $1 billion in 2009/10. Community support has more than doubled with Australians donating more than $800 million per annum to ACFID members. AusAID funding to NGOs is increasing in certain areas.

Due to the increased mobility of Australians travelling in developing countries there is the rise of new NGOs focused on international development work, many of which will be micro and wanting to do work directly with partners and feel different to larger established NGOs.

New trends in communications mean that website based NGOs are now acting as direct intermediaries between donors and projects on the ground, which could mean some NGOs are by-passed.

Australian NGOs continue to affiliate with international networks to have greater programmatic and humanitarian reach, increase branding recognition, and share resources both human, intellectual and financial.

Managing the New Directions

This Framework sets out ACFID’s intention to focus and deepen the work that we do with the goal of having an even greater impact on aid and development policy and practice in Australia. In order to carry out the new directions proposed, some things will change in ACFID’s work plans over time. We will continue to engage our members in discussions about the shape of these changes, but signal a number that are of particular significance.

We will target our resources on a smaller number of advocacy issues, which will be determined by our Executive Committee. This will enable us to have more meaningful consultations with members, AusAID and other key stakeholders and a bigger impact on key issues.

Because there is a decreasing number of development NGOs who seek formal accreditation from AusAID, there is greater responsibility on the ACFID Code of Conduct to ensure accountability, transparency and effectiveness. Those working to the Code need to be engaged in a robust community of practice and we will therefore be moving towards phasing out the current two tier structure between sole code signatories and full members during the period of this framework. We will also focus our training and professional development resources on providing support to our members to understand and adhere to the Code and will provide advice to those members that wish to accredit with AusAID.

During the period of this Framework, we will be actively working to review our services and benefits to members, and how we deliver these, to ensure that what we are doing is having the greatest impact. Our aim will be to offer a base level suite of benefits that are very clear and can be easily accessed - through direct contact in some instances but also through the provision of relevant materials and referrals. We will increase our engagement in the international development sector broadly and in particular our support and partnerships with other peaks globally so that we are better able to connect our membership to global trends, views and opportunities.