Development and humanitarian work take place in increasingly complex environments with growing numbers of people in need. Resources are not sufficient to meet the needs, and donors require measurable results, accountability, and indicators of the efficiency and effectiveness of project interventions. These trends have challenged civil society organisations to improve their performance to operate with maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Caritas India has been keeping its focus on being a learning organisation, continuing to provide techno-managerial support to regional forums and diocesan partners in humanitarian response and disaster risk reduction.

With the aim of building local leadership, Caritas India has been implementing the Empower Asia programme to understand partner capacity enhancement needs so as to design improvement plans. In this regard, Caritas India has planned an emergency response capacity assessment and improvement plan. The selected 4 member organisations from Orissa and West Bengal regions, namely Catholic Charities in Bhubaneswar, BSSS in Balasore, KCCSS in Krishnagar, and PUS in Baruipur, were oriented during a workshop held on the 6th and 7th of September, 2022. It focused on Caritas Internationalis Management Standards that included Laws and Ethical Codes, Governance and Organisation, Programme and Finance Accountability, and Stakeholder Involvement, along with Cash Transfer Preparedness and Gender (HOCAI Tool).

Based on their understanding, the member organisations completed a self-assessment of their organisations over a period of 3 months. In order to maintain objectivity and facilitate professionalism in the self assessment process, Caritas India, with the expert guidance of Mr.Anjan Bag, DRR Thematic Lead, sought the support of Dr.John Arokiaraj, who is a member of the Caritas Internationalis assessor forum with vast experience in organisational assessments. The on-site visit to these four organisations, facilitated by Mr.Armstrong and Ms. Monisha, took place from April 12 to 19, 2023.

Caritas Internationalis has adopted the CI Management Standards in order to implement statutory requirements. The standards reflect what an organisation of ‘ordered charity” (cf. Deus Caritas Est) should look like. Management standards are the basis for organisational development and compliance against a set of existing good practises and accepted global principles within the humanitarian and international development communities. Articles describe the requirements to be met for specific organisational areas related to each standard. Good practise (GP) statements indicate what in particular is expected from the organisation. The average of the scores for the GPs related to an article gives the level of compliance for that article. During the on-site assessment, the member organisations were explained how to apply the scoring guidelines.

In each scoring guideline, “general guidance” indicates the importance of the good practise for a Caritas organisation or refers to relevant documents. This has to be read carefully and kept in mind when scoring, and any score should be based on evidence, and only the approved version of any document is considered evidence. The description of the five possible scores for the extent to which the organisation meets the requirement of a good practise is kept short and simple, and the member organisations were explained the basic principle of giving scores 1–5.  Though the scoring guidelines have been formulated in general terms, the nuances of their application, keeping in mind the context, local laws, customs, and policies, were explained in detail. How to check whether the organisation has alternative evidence in those cases where the evidence mentioned in the scoring guidelines is lacking was also explained.

It was a learning process where the partners collectively discussed and learned how to enhance professional competence, the key elements of organisation, changing organisational culture, serving as a link between partners and the wider community, strengthening fraternal cooperation, requirements for compliance, an accountability framework  and steps in the assessment process.

The two-day joint assessment with each of  the partners included revisiting the completed self-assessment using the Organisational Review Tool, revising the scoring based on the evidence, identifying the weaker areas where the organisation has scored below 3, encouraging the organisation to ensure a dialogue within the organisation to see how the threats are perceived and the level of importance given to the issues in question, and how the priorities could, but do not always have to, link to the level of the risks identified and other factors. This will be the basis for the organisational improvement plan for member organisations as one of the first responders during emergencies, beginning with the preparation of SOPs and a disaster management plan, followed by a staff capacity surge with accompaniment from CI.

“The CIMS assessment of BSSS was a good learning exercise, and we could really assess the present status and areas for improvement together. It also helped the staff be aware of the legal and organisational requirements and the need to be professional in their approach today. Thanks to the Caritas team for facilitating the assessment and supporting us to design our improvement plan,” says Fr.Lijo, Director of BSSS. “We were indeed glad to have Caritas India with us for the CIMS assessment. Through this assessment process, we have come to know our weaknesses and strengths. Now we will be able to grow by addressing those gaps. We still need your full support in making progress on those areas to strengthen our organisation,” says Fr. Amit Mondal, Director, KCCSS.

“It was our great privilege to learn the scoring system as self-evaluation tools from the staff of the organisation.” Through this scoring system, we have come to know the strengths and weaknesses of our organisation, as well as the availability of existing documents and legal aspects of where our organisation stands. An improvement plan has been developed with a set deadline to complete the task within the project span in the month of September 2023. Based on the improvement plan, many new policies, including safeguarding policies, guidelines, and manuals, need to be developed. We appreciate and acknowledge your support to build our capacity for documentation through the Empower Asia project. Fr. Saumen Malik, Director Baruipur SSS, and the director and board members of Catholic Charities said that this was an opportunity for strengthening the organisational system and building perspectives. It was a great experience for the staff team. As they successfully completed the self-assessment and improvement plan, they also shared their learnings on soft skills like dialogue, negotiation, partnership management, enabling the community to make decisions, maintaining objectivity, logical thinking and reasoning, owning up to responsibilities, and above all, upholding the rights and dignity of all stakeholders.

It was unanimously agreed that the reporting mechanisms should be accessible to women, children, and persons with disabilities, as well as vulnerable members of the community. Programme participants should contribute to the design of community-focused reporting mechanisms. Complaints must be responded to and resolved in a manner that is respectful to complainants, accounts for the safety and security concerns of all involved, reduces financial and reputational risk, and contributes to increased programme quality.

DRR Programme Associate Armstrong said, “It has been a fantastic experience learning about the CIMS assessment. It greatly helped me understand the process, methodologies, and how to use the tool properly to assess organisational capacities and gaps for further planning. Also assists each participant in learning about the policies and documents that must be available with the organisation in order to take things to the next level and provide quality services to the marginalised community. Dr. John’s experience, facilitation, and methodology helped me understand the CIMS assessment process, methodology, document review, and scoring.”

“Immensely learning experience for both the partner DSSSs and us. A thorough run-through of the Caritas Internationalis Management Standards with Dr. John Arokiaraj made it much simpler to understand. It was a good experience of evidence-based scoring along with the persuasion and animation of the organization’s members. “I would suggest other partners as well take up the exercise to better understand the needs and strengths of their organisations,” said Ms.Monisha Majumdar, Caritas India DRR Programme Consultant.