NGO support toolkit (English)  >  Technical support  >  Organisational development 

Policies and procedures

Policies and procedures are used to document routine and frequent processes involved in the day-to-day running of an organisation. For most NGOs and CBOs, these processes evolve over time, but by having them documented and well understood by all staff and volunteers, the organisation is likely to function more efficiently and within the local legal context. If documented, they also provide an easy reference for existing staff as well as a training resource to induct new members.

NGO/CBO support providers (NSPs) can provide different kinds of technical support for organisations either to develop, adapt, formalise or implement policies and procedures. Some CBOs may need to develop procedures as they grow to manage more volunteers and bigger projects, others may simply need encouragement to document existing informal procedures. Experienced NGOs may need help to identify new policies and procedures that are required, or review if existing ones are sufficient, when they embark on new areas of work.

NSPs providing technical support to develop policies and procedures in an NGO or CBO should always begin with a joint assessment looking at:

• What policies and procedures does the NGO or CBO need given its current state of organisational development and scope and scale of activities?
• What policies and procedures exist in writing and what exist informally in ‘custom and practice’.
• Even when documented, how well procedures are understood by staff in general.
• What systems are in place or need to be developed to ensure that policies and procedures are properly followed.

Issues to consider

• Whilst many of the policies and procedures of the NSP might be directly applicable to NGOs and CBOs, it is usually more effective to engage in interactive technical support to help them develop their own policies and procedures (using and adapting the NSP’s where relevant) rather than imposing them or handing them over ready made.
• There is usually an increased need to codify and document policies and procedures as an organisation grows. However, the staff time to do this may be most restricted at times of greatest growth. NSPs should be sensitive to the extra costs and resources needed to cope with growth when providing funding for partners to implement projects.
• NSPs should remind partners of the importance of regularly reviewing and updating policies and procedures. They should be adapted and altered to reflect changes in legislation and the working environment, but also periodically discussed within the organisation to ensure all staff and volunteers are familiar with them.
• The value of documented policies and procedures is enhanced by making sure they are clearly written in plain language, easily accessible at all times and can be grouped together for easy retrieval in manuals.
• There should be consultation with staff and volunteers during the development and drafting of policies and procedures to make sure they are practical and workable and meet people’s needs.

Related themes

NSP Administration & HR

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