Planning and Decision Making

Planning and Decision Making is referred as all organizational processes that

• Identify medium and long-term goals, based on context and needs assessments
• formulate written principles, rules, and guidelines to reach its long-term goals
• formulate strategies and create the means to achieve them
• make collective strategic decisions
Following this definition three main criteria were identified as essential for
good practices of youth peacebuilding organizations. Those are:
• Strategic planning
• Decision making
• Support measures (for planning and decision making)
Strategic Planning

• Strategic planning is a planned process in which an organization defines what it aims

to achieve and how it is going to achieve it.
• fundamental starting point
• guides the direction of the organization
• providing mid-term goals
With a strategic planning process, any organisation will be able to know:
• what it wants to achieve in the long-term – Vision
• which principles guide its work – Values
• how it wants to bring about change, what is it doing – Mission
• what specifically the organisation wants to see changed based on the identified problems
– Overall goal
• what the organisation wants to achieve in short to mid-term – Immediate objective
• which results the organisation aims to reach – Key results areas
 Once these aspects of a strategic
framework are defined, the organization
can start to engage into a process of
action planning.
 Decision Making
Decision making refers here to all organizational processes that allow the organization to make a
qualified choice between different options regarding operational and organizational decisions.
These decisions can be concerning:
• strategic planning
• local or international partnerships
• funding decisions
• project and program development
• internal structures
• management procedures
• communication strategies and policies
For Decision Making to be effective and contributing to the organization's vision, the following
features are helpful:
• transparent
• inclusive
• accessible
• applicable
 Support Measures
• This includes any policy, structure and procedures that supports the planning and decision making processes in an
organisation by making these processes more inclusive and effective
• Inclusiveness refers here to the extent to which the organisation manages to ensure a high involvement of all relevant
stakeholders in their planning and decision making processes.  Effectiveness means that the planned goals are achieved,
resulting in the expected effects or changes.
• Policies
• Organisational statute that is binding
. by law and provides organisational bodies with clear rights and responsibilities
• Organisational guidelines for planning and decision making processes which detail for example who is involved in the decision making, the
minimum number of members of an assembly or society that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting
valid, the method of decision making (consensus vs. majority), the frequency of decision making etc.
• A code of conduct or ethical guidelines detailing how conflicts are handled within the organisation and which principles and values underpin
the operations of the organization
• Structures
• A knowledge management system granting access internally to all relevant organisational documents including lessons identified, reports,
organisational guidelines, statutes and ethical guideline
• Travel funds or/ and  funds to cover Internet/ telephone costs for stakeholders or beneficiaries to join planning and decision-making processes.
• Procedures
• Obligatory translation of key organisational documents in relevant languages if working in multilingual settings
• External facilitation of internal planning and decision making meetings or workshops to ensure unbiased facilitation of crucial planning and
decision making processes
• Obligatory involvement of a diverse group of stakeholders and beneficiaries in planning workshops
• Annual dedicated financial resources for monitoring, evaluation and learning