Animation Reflection Circle Meeting was held on October 3, 2019, at Caritas India, Delhi. There were seven external members who attended this meeting, along with the members of Caritas India. The meeting was facilitated by Mr. Khilesh Chaturvedi, an external advisor. The agenda of the meeting was to review the progress of the Strategic Plan implementation and critically analyse the Key Strategic Pillars dissemination and outcomes till date and discuss the way forward.

Important observations and suggestions made on the progress and clarity of the Key Strategic Pillars. It was highlighted that each of the pillars are important. All four Key Strategic Pillars need to be wedded into thematic interventions. Thus, the Strategic Plan is an effort to take the initiatives and interventions of the organisation a notch higher. These pillars are to be seen as a culture rather than just another project or activity. Hence, this is why the four major approaches are coined as the ’pillars’ and not the themes.

It has been envisioned that these pillars would be mainstreamed in all the thematic areas to achieve the goal of the organisation.

An update on the Strategic Plan Implementation was shared  wherein it was stated that the key staff have been oriented on the strategic plan, reflection workshops have been conducted before the rolling out process commenced, a national team has been constituted, which consisted of members from fourteen Regional Fora and training on KSPs and CST has been conducted in all the fourteen Regional Fora by Caritas India. Various DSSSs and Partner Organisations have incorporated KSPs and CST in its ongoing activities. Few of the Regional Fora have decided to develop their  Regional Strategic Plan aligning with KSPs and CST while some organisations have made the organisational policies and child protection policies accessible and available both in Hindi and English. Higher sensitivity and rectifications have been seen regarding the payment disparity within the institution and few partner organisations have banned the use of plastic in the office premises. KSPs and CST contents have been translated into vernacular languages so that it could reach out to many.

Regarding the progress made till date, the members gave many eye-opening suggestions and reflections for the CI team as listed below:

• The need to report on the changes and action taken as a result of the changes.
• The focus should be beyond the activities and project-based approach.
• CI needs to have a strategy to implement this plan on the ground.

Members also provided suggestions for the closer accompaniment processes to the selected dioceses for the first year of implementing the Strategic Plan, which includes having a broad understanding on the larger context around the Strategic Plan and Key strategic Pillars with the partners.

The need to put down and have clarity on the role of and the expectations from the partners and CI for closer accompaniment journey.

It was observed that the composition of the committee is becoming richer and everyone is enthusiastic about this journey together.