A critical analysis of the development of the strategic plan for the Khomas Regional Council
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Date
2009
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Abstract
This study undertakes a critical analysis of the development of the strategic plan for the
Khomas Regional Council in Namibia. The Khomas Regional Council was randomly
selected among the Office Ministries Agencies (OMAs) which had completed their strategic
plans at the time this research was carried out. The Khomas Regional Council tru1ed the
planning process in September 2007 and completed it in March 2008. The following
questions were pertinent: Why did the development of the Khomas Regional Council's
strategic plan take considerable time before completion? What challenges were faced by the
participants and facilitators in the implementation of the proce ? To an wer the e key
questions the study focused on the preparation done and the readiness for the Khomas
Regional Council and the level of involvement of the staff members in order to determine the
ownership of the proce s. The principal re earch objectives were:
(i) To critically analyse the process followed to develop the strategic plan for the
Khomas Regional Council with pecific emphasis on, the preparation done to
determine the readiness of the pa11icipants and input provided by the Khomas
Regional Council management staff during the process;
(ii) To identify the main challenge faced by the process a experienced by the
participants and the facilitator(s), and
(iii) To recommend appropriate intervention to improve the process a informed by
the research findings
The target population consisted of five members of the Regional Implementation Team
(RIT), and two external facilitators (the lead facilitators and facilitator from the Office of the
Prime Minister (OPM). The total number of seven participants was available a the need
arose. A purposive sampling strategy was applied to get the participants for this tudy. The
researcher chose a purposive sampling strategy because only the managing team and the
strategic facilitators were considered relevant to the objectives of the study. The data were
collected through semi structured interview and a desk study. Data was then analy ed by
categorisation and interpretation in term of common themes, pattern and meaning .
It was concluded that the planning proces la ted for ix months. This wa because it was the
first time the Regional Council had to plan u ing the balanced score card frame work and
participants did not attend any pre-training workshop as pa1i of their preparation. In addition,
there was no fixed programme of activities which made pecification in term of date, month
and year to complete the process. All participants agreed that the beginning of the proccs
(the development of strategic plans) by the OPM was not cleru·.
The study makes the following recommendations. The strategic plan framework need to be
updated ba ed on the lessons learned from the offices/Mini Irie /Agencie that have or not
completed their trategic plans. The c activities should be covered during the pre-work/ pre planning stage; pre-training for senior manager and all key pai1icipants. The pre-training
should cover surveys on customer's needs; re ource analy i ; and some basic information;
documents that need to be read for aligning trategic thinking. All relevant document should
be made available in good time. The contract and tenn of reference for the consultants need
to indicate the duration in term of month , date and not the number of days in general.
Description
Theses submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Administration
Keywords
Strategic planning