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Ethiopian Red Cross SocietyAfrica with a population of about 90 million, of which more than 80 percent live in ruralareas.3The majority of the population lives in the highlands, with farming as the main ruraloccupation. The lowland areas are mostly inhabited by pastoralists, who depend primarilyon livestock production. With accelerating economic growth, declining poverty andimproving levels of food security, Ethiopia is on the ascendance improved standard ofliving. Although Ethiopia is on track to reach most of the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs)4, sustainability is threatened by unstable growth and high poverty with more than20 million people living below the poverty line.5 Nearly 10 per cent of the populationremains chronically vulnerable to food insecurity and dependent on government facilitatedsafety-net programs.Every year several million people require emergency assistance to meet their basic survivalneeds. Ethiopia’s economy is dependent upon rain-fed agriculture which constitutes 46percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This makes the country particularly vulnerableto climate-related shocks such as drought, flooding, internal conflicts alongside human andzoonotic diseases.Despite great improvement there remains inadequate access to clean water, sanitationfacilities, and basic health care, including life-saving maternal and neonatal services.Increasingly, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are contributors to the high morbidityand mortality rates owing to significant lifestyle changes.Although Ethiopia is mainly a rural country and largely dependent on agriculture, risks,vulnerabilities and hazards in urban areas are growing as a result of increased populationand informal settlements, industrialization, lack of health infrastructure, and changing landuse patterns. Linked to urbanization, at least 70 people die in every 10,000 vehicle accidentsannually mainly due to lack of proper medical services and basic awareness of road32014-2017 Population Projection of Ethiopia, Central Statistics Agency, 20134UN in Ethiopia http://et.one.un.org/index.php?option com content&view article&id 14&Itemid 4885UNDAF 2012-2015 onsDevelopmentAssistanceFramework 2012to2015.pdf

Ethiopian Red Cross Societysafety.6Among others poor road network, limited enforcement of existing traffic laws andpoor condition of vehicles add to the number of accidents.1.2. ERCS BackgroundThe Ethiopian Red Cross Society was established by government decree on 8 July 1935and became 48th member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red CrescentSocieties on September 25 of the same year. The NS is an independent organizationestablished and recognized by law through a National Charter adopted in 31 October1947.The Charter has undergone various parliamentary revisions, the last being that of1999.ERCS has a structure consisting of 11 regional offices, 33 zonal branches, 88 district(woreda) branches, and more than 4,500 committees (Kebele Red Cross Committees) atgrass root-level.7 The NS is governed by elected board members at national and branchlevels. The boards set the general direction of the National Society. A national assemblyis convened every two years and elections of governing board members are held every fouryears.The ERCS began its humanitarian operations to the woundedsoldiers sick combatants andcivilian victims of the Italian war of aggression in 1935. Since its establishment it has beenrendering various services to communities vulnerable to and affected by natural andmanmade disasters through provision of ambulance service, community based first aidservice, emergency responses, restoring family links, essential drug program, water andsanitation, HIV/AIDS and related services. It also runs disaster risk reduction programslike food security, climate change adaptation, livelihood diversification and institutionalcapacity building interventions with the aim of creating resilience households andcommunities.Across all its structure, the NS has a total employee of 1,114 out of which 271 are based atthe HQ and 843 at branch offices. Women account for 27% of the overall http://www.redcrosseth.org/articled.php?arid 1&mnid 2&smnid 1

Ethiopian Red Cross Society8Furthermore, there are 27,311 volunteers participating in ERCS services throughout thecountry.9In the budget year 2006E.C, ERCS collected a total income of 241,377,623 Eth Birr frommembership fee, fund raising, various IGA schemes, government subsidy, and others. Onthe other hand, the NS utilized a total expenditure of 154,334,613 Eth Birr for staff salaryand other running costs.10Largely, ERCS works in partnership with the International Red Cross and Red CrescentMovement partners to mobilize technical and financial resources for operations andactivities. The Government of Ethiopia is also a major partner providing considerabletechnical and financial support for the national society’s humanitarian services andcommunity development interventions at all levels. In addition, the NS has started buildingpartnership with UN agencies such as UNICEF and the International Office for Migration(IOM) to extend humanitarian services in places of need.1.3. Lessons learned frommidterm strategy 2020implementationofThe implementation of strategy 2020 was started in 2011 and since then variouschange activities were carried out. The fol lowing were some of theachievements and shortcomings of mid-term implementation of strategy 2020that is covering the period 2011 -2014.Achievements Organizational structure including staffing, job evaluation, salary scale and jobdescriptions reviewed and implemented which alleviated one of the most criticalissues identified on the strategic plan; Human resource management policy and procedure developed and implemented;82005E.C ERCS Annual report2006E.C ERCS Annual report102006E.C Audit Report9

Ethiopian Red Cross Society Various skills upgrading and change management related trainings provided for themanagement and staff improving the capacity of the NS to further drive the changeprocess, Financial backlogs cleared and financial recording updated; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software selected and implementation isundergoing. This system can provide integrated management information thatincludes finance, logistics, human resources and project management. Internal communication through the application of information technologyupgraded; Guidelines for members and volunteers reviewed and implemented; disseminationand internalization through all our system still to be continued; Beneficiaries and stakeholders satisfaction baseline survey conducted; Better external communication carried out which enhanced visibility of theNational Society; Successful community resilient projects including self-development planaccomplished. These could be replicated as best practices; OCAC was undertaken two times during the mid-term (in 2011 and 2014) strategicplan period and the improvements were more systematically ascertained.Short comings Shared mission, vision and core values were not adequately realized across thewhole echelons of the NS; Some miss-alignments between strategic plan and operational plans were noticed; Systems improvement initiatives which were expected to be completed within themid-term strategic plan period have not been completed; Resource mobilization which was planned to make the NS to some extent selfsufficient was not fully realized; The reviewed organizational structure was not fully implemented at all levels of thebranches; Even if volunteers’ management was identified as one critical issue among othersduring the strategic plan, much has not been done to bring about shift in this area;

Ethiopian Red Cross Society Disaster preparedness and response capacities were not built to the expected level.1.4. Purpose for the revision of the strategic planStrategy 2020 has been implemented for the last four years. During this strategic period,two years (2012-2014) change plan was designed and implemented followed byCooperative Agreement Strategy (CAS) (2013-2017). Apart from time elapse of the changeplan implementation, there were concerns about the implementation of the strategic plan.These included, inadequate alignment,insufficient integration, and poor focus, especiallyregardingthe alignment and integration of programs and projects with the overall strategicobjectives.Moreover, performance indicators have not been clearly portrayed in thestrategic plan against which results were to be tracked.However, examining the achievements of change plan implementation and identifying andprioritizing critical issues that need to be addressed in the remaining strategic plan period(2016-2020) has become crucial. This leads the NS to carry out mid-term review of thestrategy 2020 through a tool that can address challenges of alignment and integrationalready mentioned. As a result, the introduction of IPMS using BSC is chosen as a strategicplanning, change management and communication tool of the NS.The Balanced Scorecard Institute has stated the benefits of BSC as follows:11 increasesfocus on strategy and results; improvesorganizational performance by measuring what matters; aligns helpsorganizational strategy with the work people do on a day-to-day basis;to focus on the drivers of future performance; improves helpscommunication of the organization’s Vision and Strategy; andto prioritize projects / initiatives.The tool helps to make strategy everyone’s daily concern by creating alignment and servingas an impetus towards the organizationally shared vision and strategy.11/http://www.balancedscorecard.org /

Ethiopian Red Cross Society1.5. Approach applied in the revision ofstrategic plantheThe approach followed in the revision of the strategic plan using BSC is the Nine Steps toSuccess model developed by the Balanced Scorecard Institute. The model which has sixbuilding steps and three implementation steps as listed here under provides a strategicdirection for the ERCS: Step 1: Conducting Assessment through SWOT/ PESTEL Step 2: Formulating Strategic Themes/ Results and determining Perspectives Step 3: Setting Strategic Objectives Step 4: Mapping the Strategy Step 5: Measures and Targets Step 6: Choosing Strategic Initiatives Similarly, the implementation phase of the scorecard includes three steps whichare: Step 7: Automation Step 8: Alignment through cascading objectives Step 9: Evaluation121.6. The Strategic Plan Revision ProcessIn the strategic plan revision process using the BSC framework the following activitieswere undertaken: The change process remapping to introduce IPMS was prepared and communicatedto key stakeholders; External consultants certified by US-based Balanced Score Card Institute deployed; IPMSteam which is composed of members of major sectors of the NS has beenestablished as a team to work together with the consultants;12/http://www.balancedscorecard.org /

Ethiopian Red Cross Society Awarenesscreation sessions on BSC were carried out for National Board,management, movement partners and staff; Secondary datacollection & analysis from different sources within and outside theNS (such as National policies/strategies, IFRC and ERCS related documents) ; Focusgroup discussion with the Movement partners; Key informant Discussion Preparationinterview;with the National Board on future direction of the NS;of draft SWOT analysis, stakeholder analysis, beneficiary valueproposition, pains and enablers used as an input for discussion in the leadershipstrategic planning workshop; Trainingand workshop on BSC for executive and senior management membersincluding branch heads, trade union representative and the youth council presidentin which they verified, modified and ratified the SWOT analysis, stakeholderanalysis, beneficiary value proposition, pains and enablers and revised NS’sMission, Vision, Core Values. Theleadership of the NS crafted the NS strategic themes, strategic objectives, thecorporate strategic map, performance measures and targets, ; TheIPMS team refined the revised strategic plan as per the inputs obtained duringthe workshop; Preparation of draft revised strategic plan for 2008-2012 E.C(July 2016-June 2020)presented to the management of the NS; Variousstakeholders workshops were held to movement partners, membersorganizations, volunteers and staff on the draft strategic plan; Based on inputs gained from various stakeholders, the final draft strategic plan wasprepared and presented to the National board.2. Organizational Assessment2.1.1.Overview of related National policies/strategies

Ethiopian Red Cross SocietyIn order to enhance national development safety and security, a country should havedifferent policies and strategies. Similarly, Ethiopia has formulated different policies andstrategies which are supposed to guide all efforts of the country.In this document, four major national policies and strategies which are more relevant toERCS have been assessed and used as input in formulating the strategy plan. A specialattention was also given to the disaster risk management policy of the country.3. Agricultural and ruralstrategy and systemdevelopmentpolicy,The economy of Ethiopia is primarily based on agriculture. The livelihood of more than 80percent of the population is based on agriculture. However, it is more of traditional andunable to ensure food self-sufficiencyat household level.Human resources capacity develo

Ethiopian Red Cross Society Ethiopian Red Cross Society Strategic Plan 2008-2012 (E.C) [July 2015-June 2020] June, 2015 Addis Ababa