WESSA Phase 1 report to HHCT_28.10.2021

Executive Summary

I. Background This report is about Phase 1 (“Discover”) of a design thinking process to review WESSA’s medium term strategic plan. The objectives are to: • Understand WESSA's current interventions, governance structures and strategic plan • Assesses forces that influence WESSA's value, risks in the context of • South and southern Africa's environmental challenges and opportunities and highlight • Trends, scenarios and alliances. II. Methods The team conducted 49 stakeholder engagements and surveys and studied 65 WESSA documents and used a mixture of qualitative and quantitative analysis and interpretation to synthesize key issues, patterns and anomalies. III. The WESSA ecosystem ('as it is') • The WESSA ecosystem consists of internal and external stakeholders, and enabling support systems, with connections between them ranging from strong to very weak • The resilience of the WESSA ecosystem hinges on connectedness among and between elements. Connectedness is fostered through information flow, trust and social capital • The ecosystem is balanced on the WESSA Board, strategic plan, action plans and the organization culture, brand, trust and credibility.

IV. Seven critical success factors 1. Clarity of purpose and value proposition 2. Governance systems and processes 3. Human resources 4. Support base, alliances and partnerships 5. Identity, brand and culture 6. Financial sustainability 7. Monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management.

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