In the coming year, IICD will continue to work on its organisational strategic goals as mentioned under ‘Mission and strategy for 2007’.

Strengthening of the organisation

One of IICD’s main priorities is improved quality control (ISO follow-up). The health of IICD’s staff members will form a second focal point. More attention will also be paid to staff recruitment (improved selection procedures), staff development (in line with 2007), and the further improvement of the Management Information System.

In addition to these HRM activities, IICD will also begin an experiment to find out what it actually needs in terms of its organisational structure. The Uganda team will become rather small, and tasks will be divided differently among its members compared to other country teams. This is essentially a step towards a ‘matrix’ organisation. As more and more focal countries enter the ‘shared dialogue’ phase, we foresee that we will need to work with a different organisational structure. In this case, Uganda will function as a pilot to see how this can be realised. It may imply that some staff members will be asked to work in Uganda on a temporary basis. In 2008, we expect this will only happen on a handful of occasions.

Acquisition of funds and expertise through partnerships

With regard to the Dutch NGOs, IICD will build further on its existing partnerships with Cordaid, PSO and Hivos, but will also aim towards entering a new partnership with an as yet unidentified NGO.

In addition, the need for innovative technologies is of paramount importance. In line with this, IICD will focus on extending its five existing public-private partnerships from which innovative technologies and processes can be procured. IICD will also continue its strategy to acquire ‘intangible funding’ through public-private partnerships.

In 2008, IICD also hopes to find at least one institutional donor that will support its programmes.