mapping of training and consultancy providers for civil society organizations in serbia

Mapping of Training and ConsultancyProviders for Civil Society Organizations in Serbia

Sum

mar

y

Mapping of training/consultancy community in Serbia

June 2014. 2

Coordination of initiative „Training and Consultancy Forward" National Coalition for Decentralization Milena Velojic, Director Partnerships TACSO Serbia Zorica Raskovic, Resident Advisor Tim TRI of Civic Initiatives Dubravka Velat, Coordinator Institute for Sustainable Communities Aleksandra Veselinovic, Capacity Building Director Donor Institute for Sustainable Communities and USAID Bogdan Gavanski, Chief of Party Authors Aleksandra Vesic Antic – independent consultant Mladen Jovanovic – consultant of European Non-profit Strategies and Chairperson of NCD Board of Trustees


June 2014. 3

1. Mapping objectives

• Creating conditions for development of trainers and consultants community through:

◦ Identification of people who provide training and consultancy services to CSOs in Serbia;

◦ Connecting process of trainers and consultants;

◦ Dialogue establishment on ethical and professional standards of trainers and consultants who work with CSOs in Serbia.

2. Notes

• On-line questionnaire with 51 questions – www.konsultacijeitreninzi.com;

• By the end of May, 178 trainers and consultants were registered;

• Through research, data of 160 trainers and consultants who registered by the deadline set were processed;

• Mapping is of a research character, but in the first place, it is a sort of trainers and consultants "census".

3. Findings: Profile of trainers and consultants in Serbia

3.1 Who are training and consultancy service providers in Serbia?

• Provide both training and consultancy services (82%);

• Average age 42 (67,5% between 30 and 50);

• Have at least bachelor degree (more than 91% have either bachelor, master or doctor’s degree);

• Live in one of the three largest cities (almost 63,8% live in Belgrade, Novi Sad or Nis);

• Employed (about 60%, but not necessarily as T/C);

• Have more than 5 years of experience (76%);

• Use „our“ languages1and English language (63%);

• Most often have domestic CSOs, government institutions and agencies, foreign CSOs and private sector as clients;

• Provide services on the entire territory of Serbia and countries of the Western Balkans (66%);

• Are members of some (formal or informal) group, association (80%).

1 Official languages of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro

http://www.konsultacijeitreninzi.com/

http://www.konsultacijeitreninzi.com/


June 2014. 4

3.2 Food for thought

• 13% of examinees do trainings only and 7% consultations only, although training and consultancy works are significantly different. Does that happen because we don't have clearly defined differences between trainings and consultancies or is the expertise that we have really broad?

• Trainers and consultants are grouped in biggest cities. However, they provide services outside their residences. Is it necessary to invest into HR development in small communities?

• Around 65% of consultants and trainers have job status which is not related to training and consultancy work. It implies that a trainer/consultant is still not a "profession" in terms of employment. Is it necessary to invest into this aspect of professionalization and how?

• Serbia is a country with huge minority populations, but very few trainers and consultants provide their services in minority languages (4 in Macedonian and Hungarian, one per Albanian, Roma and Bulgarian) One examinee uses sign language. Should we invest into development of these resources?

• High percentage is "associated" in some way, but these associations are cut and insufficiently connected. Is it to be changed and how?


June 2014. 5

4. Findings: trainers–(sub)area coverage

4.1 The most and the least covered training areas in Serbia

The most covered (sub) areas – more than a half of examinees:

• Needs/conditions assessment (broader than organizational)

• Basis and tools for strategic planning

• Project cycle management, reporting, M&E

• Writing project proposals for domestic and international donors

• Communication and communication skills

The least covered (sub) areas – less than one third of examinees:

• Management (Board, finances and HR);

• Sustainability strategy, local fundraising strategies, business plans, state funds, corporate and individual donations;

• Constituency building for advocacy, changes of public budgets and monitoring of public finances;

• Implementation of campaigns/strategies of communication, crisis communication, on-line communication.


• 66% of examinees said he/she covers 5 or more than 5 big areas, utterly different from each other. Is it broad expertise or quantity as opposed to quality?

• In those areas with strong training resources (in the sense of number of trainers who provide training services) civil sector still doesn't have strong capacities. These are areas such as strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, project proposal writing, communication and areas related to citizen engagement. Do we have good/real expertise or is investment into trainings insufficient? Is there a problem in selection method of participants or something third?

• Particular specific subareas, which gain importance with the current context in the country (donors withdrawal, need for monitoring of the government’s work, importance of social networks) aren’t well covered, such as online communication, monitoring of public finances, sustainability strategies and local fundraising, etc.) Do we need strategic shift/resources capacity building in these fields and themes?

• In each of 8 offered areas, the examinees had the opportunity to add another subarea if they cover the themes which are not mentioned in the questionnaire. It is interesting that the largest number of these answers is completely different from the given area, which potentially indicates that there is unequal understanding of the areas covered by the training.


June 2014. 6

5. Findings: Trainers and clients

5.1 How are the trainings in Serbia planned and designed?

• Trainers opinion: it is important that they are involved into decision making about expected results/outcomes (87,4%) and into the process of selection and training contents theme (83,4%). Interesting: fewer trainers think that they should participate in decision making process on training duration and number of training participants (79,4%, i.e. 73,5%).

• Practice: Trainers are consulted about expected results and outcomes (55%), i.e. selection of theme and contents (50,3%). Only 31,8% are consulted about training duration and 24,5% about number of training participants.


• In large number of cases trainers had small impact on the key elements of the training-especially in number of training participants and duration. Since these are two crucial factors for methodology selection, as well as for effectiveness of the trainings, the question is: What are the causes and how to involve trainers in the very process of training design?

• Since needs of training participants are motivation key, which is still basic pre-condition for learning in adults, the influence of objective needs assessment of training participants for training contents is extremely small. Isn’t that the big risk for training effectiveness?

CSO demands26%

Donors demands36%Needs of

participants defined through objective

method 21%

Trainers’ assessment based

on insight into CSOs needs

12%

no answer5%

Who decides about training topic?


June 2014. 7

6. Findings: Consultants – (sub)field coverage

6.1 The most and the least covered areas of consultancies in Serbia

The most covered (sub) areas- more than a half of examinees

• Needs assessment within organization;

• Strategic planning;

• Project and program management;

• External evaluation.

The least covered (sub) areas – below one third of the examinees;

• Broader needs assessment;

• Organizational management: management, M&E, board and financial management;

• Strategies and sustainability tools, local fundraising tools; business plans;

• Development of system for grants award

• Implementation of campaigns/strategies of communication, crisis communication, online communication


• Even 63,7% of examinees said that they cover 5 or more than 5 big areas, utterly different from each other. Is it broad expertise or quantity as opposed to quality?

• In some subareas we have high training capacities, and lower consultancy capacities and vice versa. High training and low consultancy capacities are in subareas, ex. broader researches/determination of needs, monitoring and evaluation, project proposal writing (especially for domestic donors), etc. On the other hand, a number of consultants who claim that they have expertise in HR (49) is in big opposition to the number of trainers with expertise in this area (15). How to interpret this data?

• In fields that have strong consultancy resources, civil sector still don’t have strong capacities. These are areas such as strategic planning, project proposal writing, communications and the themes of active citizens’ engagement. Do we have good/proper expertise?

• Particular subareas, which gain importance with the current context in the country (donors withdrawal) are not well covered, such as: sustainability strategies and local fundraising, local philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, etc. Do we need strategic shift/resources capacity building in these areas and themes?


June 2014. 8

7. Findings: Consultants and clients

7.1 How are consultancies in Serbia planned and designed?

• Consultants’ opinion: involvement into defining of expected results and outcomes of consultancies (85%), involvement into selection of topics and contents (77%), as well as involvement into decision making about duration of consultancy work (77%). Interesting: the lowest percentage of consultants who consider that they should be involved into decision making about approach (67%)

• Practice: the most frequently, they are consulted when deciding about expected results and outcomes (51%), then in the process of selection and the contents of topics (41%), the method of work and approach (38%) and the least when it is about duration of consultancy work (28%)


• In large number of cases, consultants have small impact on key elements of the process- like deciding on approach and duration of consultancy work. Since these are crucial factors for the effectiveness of consultancy process, the question is: What are the causes and how to involve consultants more in deciding about the process?

• It is extremely small percentage of those who claim that the selection of the topic is influenced by independently determined needs. How big is impact of this on quality of consultancy process?

Clients' demands43%

Donors' demands28%

Independently defined needs

8%

Consultants' assessment

12%

No answer9%

Who decides about consultancy topic?


June 2014. 9

8 Assessment of standards and ethics of service provision

8.1 The attitude of the trainers and consultants regarding standards and ethics of service provision

• Trainers and consultants are very critical when assessing existing standards of work and ethics in service provision. The biggest number think that it is average quality (86 examinees or 53,8% of 147 examinees who answered this question)

• Prevailing comment is that the standards and ethics of service provision in our country have actually never been set nor harmonized.

Very high0% High

16%

Average54%

Satisfactory

11%

Unsatisfactory

11%

No answer8%

Assessment of working standards and ethics of service provision


June 2014. 10

9 Development of joint rules of ethics?

9.1 The attitude of trainers and consultants regarding joint standards

• Out of 160 examinees, the majority – 143 (89,4%) said that it was necessary to develop and adopt joint ethical working rules, 2 of them find this unnecessary, while 9 of them did not reply

• During the regional focus groups, the absolute consent was achieved that the development and adoption of ethical code is necessary because: “Each association or individual must know basic code of conduct that cannot be broken”, internal community organization is necessary, as well as determination of relation with clients on the market, defense and credibility development of the profession.

Necessary89%

Not necessary1%

No attitude6%

No answer4%

Opinion about potential development of joint ethical rules


June 2014. 11

10 Development of joint standards?

10.1 The attitude of trainers and consultants regarding joint standards

• 140 (87,5%) of 160 examinees consider that it is necessary to develop joint standards of training-consultancy community services in Serbia, 4 examinees find this unnecessary, 4 did not reply.

• Participants of regional focus groups consider that the standards and ethics are to be separated, because “someone can respect the ethical principles, but not necessarily the quality of work and vice versa”.

Necessary87%

Not necessary3%

No attitude7%

No answer3%

Opinion about potential development of joint standards for service provision


June 2014. 12

11 Rules of ethics- what is to be regulated?

11.1 Opinion from regional focus groups:

• Society commitment (what we bring back to society, contribution, development);

• Clients relation;

• Relation towards ourselves (professional development, personal responsibility, integrity;

• Relation, commitment, responsibility in work with colleagues in competence condition („fair-play“).

12 Associating and cooperation

12.1 Establishment of professional association?

• Participants of regional focus groups in Nis and Kragujevac claim that some type of form, structure is necessary to improve the quality of work in trainer-consultancy community, primarily because of need for coordination

• Participants of regional focus groups in Belgrade and Novi Sad claim that it is necessary to examine the need for such association, they consider necessary that the process goes bottom-up and that it is initiated by the training/consultancy community itself.


Two key questions:

▪ Is the establishment of Professional association realistic ?

▪ If it is, what should be its purpose?

Extremely satisfactory

2%

Highly satisfactory

4%

Average32%

Satisfactory18%

Unsatisfactory

40%

No answer4%

Cooperation in practice(%)

Development of this publication was enabled by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through "Civil Society Forward" program by Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). The opinions expressed in this publication

represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ISC, USAID or the U.S. Government.

mapping of training and consultancy providers for civil society organizations in serbia

Documents