February 2003

“Allah never changes the grace he has bestowed on any people until they first change that which is in their hearts and that is because Allah is Hearer, Knower” Holy Qur’an 8:53

“Plan for the hereafter as though you will die tomorrow, plan for this world as though you will live forever.” Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (A.S)

Executive Summary

This is a very exciting time for the World Federation – it has a well-established structure, strong community backing and the vision to look to the future and see what it can provide the Shia Ithna-Asheri community worldwide. There is no better blessing or responsibility than to be in this unique position to serve people. We need to maximise this opportunity that is before us, for the present time as well as for the future.  The work that has been done so far should continue to be effective long after the current generations inshallah. This document outlines the concept of a medium term strategic plan, what its requirements would be and the methodology that could be used to create and implement the plan. It is a discussion paper, looking at how the organisation can plan for the future.

Background

The World Federation has been established for more than 25 years and has carried out a whole range of activities, which are known only too well amongst its members and the community. The organisation was seen as being intertwined with Marhum Mulla Asgher, and owes a great deal to his personal efforts. It is by the grace of Allah that the good works he began continue on today. With such a wealth of experience and history, the organisation has recently started to move away from a prospective and historical view of its activities, and has turned to look to the future. 

In the last term, it has built a very successful programme of “Vision to Reality” which has already started the process of planning, and the organisation is seeing the immediate results of this. Conference 2001 set the vision for the World Federation as:

• Education for all
• Health care for all
• Self sufficiency for all
• Representation for all
• Effective leadership at all levels

This is a very exciting time for the World Federation – it has a well-established structure, strong community backing and the vision to look to the future and see what it can provide the Shia Ithna-Asheri community worldwide. There is no better blessing or responsibility than to be in this unique position to serve people. We need to maximise this opportunity that is before us, for the present time as well as for the future.  The work that has been done so far should continue to be effective long after the current generations inshallah.

 
What is a strategic plan? Why do we need one?

Every organisation needs a plan of what it wants to achieve. This helps everyone to focus on what needs to be done and to make sure that they have the right resources to do it.  It also means that all parts of the organisation are working towards the same goal instead of working in different directions. Having a common plan avoids the complaints that we often face that more time is spent on administration, finding resources and duplicating other people’s work, as well as discovering too late that opportunities have been missed.

Without such planning, we can often find ourselves missing out on opportunities or not dealing adequately in situations where we have responsibilities. Even an individual human being has a plan for their life, so why shouldn’t an organisation like the World Federation that affects hundreds and even thousands of lives?

Strategic planning is a process, which takes input from people within the organisation (who have lots of good ideas and experience) and tries to plan what activities the organisation wants to get involved in (in the case of unforeseeable activities such as the disaster-relief work, the kind of activity is looked at rather than specifics). This means the organisation can find resources (funds, volunteers, contacts, networks, publicity and so on) in an orderly and effective way so that the organisation and the workers within it can get on with the “real work” as it is sometimes called.

A strategic plan is simple and straight forward and full of common sense. It has four parts:

• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to be?
• How are we going to get there?
• How will we know if we go there?

In order to meet the needs of the World Federation, which is a unique organisation, the plan that is produced should have the following qualities:

• Concerned with adapting to a changing environment
• Future oriented
• Comprehensive
• Consensus-building process
• Based on extensive research and consultation

What does a strategic plan look like?

A strategic plan is a simple document of a number of pages, which includes the information that is discussed in this paper. It will cover these areas:

A review of what the organisation is doing at the moment. This will describe its activities, its budgets, its strengths and its weaknesses

A review of the organisation’s environment – what’s happening around it now, and what is likely to happen in the future?

The goals of the organisation – based on the current situation and environment and what is likely to happen, what should the goals of the organisation be? These could be similar to its current goals, or its possible that these will gradually change over time to reflect a growing organisation and a changing environment.

The strategies – once you know what goals you want to achieve, you have to explore the best way to reach the goal. That is a “strategy”

The action plan – this is the key part of the document. Its all very well knowing what you want, but you need proper actions on how to reach it. This gives everyone a clear idea of the kinds of things they need to be doing.

None of this means that whatever is written is set in stone – the plan is a living document which is reviewed and updated over time. If something in the plan isn’t working, or if the environment changes, then so does the plan. Equally, there is no point spending time and effort to write a strategic plan if it is not going to be used! That’s why it has to be a realistic plan which everyone agrees on and which can easily be referred to.

Finally, it should be a document, which will tell the reader exactly what the purpose of the World Federation is and how it is going to achieve that purpose.

 
Target audience

No organisation lives in isolation and even at this early stage it is worth thinking about who is involved with the World Federation, who it works with and who is affected by it. All these groups will provide us with ideas on what plans the organisation should make. When we make a plan, all these groups become target audiences.

These include groups of individuals such as:

• Existing World Federation members and those involved in its activities
• Members of the Khoja Shia Ithnasheri communities worldwide who are not currently involved with the World Federation. These individuals fall into various categories: those who don’t know about the WF; those who have incorrect information about the WF; those who are indifferent; those who are loyal to its work
• Shia Muslims in the World Federation regions and worldwide
• Muslims in the World Federation regions and worldwide
• Those individuals who have been assisted in the past by the World Federation or who may require assistance in the future (the help may be of a type already provided by the World Federation or a new type of assistance)

The World Federation also interacts with partners, who have to be factored into our future plans. These include groups such as:

• Charities whose work overlaps with the work of the World Federation
• Charities who work side by side with the World Federation in related efforts
• NGOs (Non Governmental Organisations) that may have an impact on WF work
• Governmental bodies
• Other groups who may turn to the World Federation for resources and assistance in areas such as information, publicity, networks, consultation and advice.
  The last three areas and the details of them are relatively unclear at present since the World Federation has only tentatively ventured into this area.

The focus of the plan will therefore be on:

• Grassroots in the different regions – what do people want?
• Various boards internally and their counterparts at regional level
• Leadership at Jamaat and Regional organisations
• External partners that the World Federation interacts with or may interact with

How do we build the plan?

This paper outlines the methods which will be used to develop the plan. Once it is agreed, each step of the methodology will be analysed in detail. When the results are ready, the plan will be drafted using planning experts. There will be constant feedback from the working group members as well as the community. The final plan will be presented at the triennial conference and will be a key agenda item.
 
Appendix 1: Methodology

Audit – where are we now?
In order to build an effective plan, we must have a clear view of the current situation of the organisation both internally and externally.

An internal review will cover the following areas: distribution of resources by region for the past five years; distribution of resources of WF under the following themes:  religious, welfare, medical, capital projects and secular education; activity analysis of WF under the following themes:  religious, welfare, medical, capital projects and secular education; brief overview of the demography of the members and their constituency. In line with best practice for audit, desk research, one-to-one interviews and focus groups will be used to review the areas detailed above.

As well as establishing WF’s current situation internally, it is essential that its external environmental situation is also reviewed. This is a new step forward for WF, but is likely to prove very fruitful since it will make actions more effective and long lasting. This needs to cover the following areas from a (a) global perspective and (b) by region: political landscape, including legal regimes and implications; economic trends; social factors, including the environment; technological drivers.

Where do we want to be?
Qualitative and quantitative methodologies including telephone questionnaires, web-based questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, field visits to areas will be used. Again, best practice will always be used, and all activities will be reviewed by professionals in this field.

Appendix 2: Writing and implementing the plan

Since this is only a discussion paper, the following are noted here. However, they will require more detailed consideration and analysis.

To address the section on “How are we going to get there?” the various organs of the WF will be asked to look at the emerging themes and develop a response to these as part of their future workings.  This exercise will be along similar lines as the “Transforming Vision to Reality”.  It is essential that all parts of WF agree with the plan.

To address the section on “how will we know if we got there?”  Boards and the leadership will again be asked to propose indicators of performance that will emerge as a result of issues emerging from the section on “Where we want to be in 2008?”  These indicators will then be useful to monitor progress.