Aune _Strategic Mngmnt

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STRATEGIC PLAN

For

Namibia Youth Credit Scheme (NYCS)Employment Programme of the Ministry of Youth, National Services, Sport and

Culture

January 2014 to December 2018


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Executive Summary

Strategic planning keeps an organization on track over time, and allows the organization to respond

to change while remaining faithful to their mission and vision. The process itself may have as much

value to the organization as the final plan, since so much can be learned from surveying both theposition of the organization and the state of the environment in which the organization operates.

Like other developing countries, Namibia has a small labour market, which cannot accommodate

young people searching for formal employment. Though it is now 24 years since independence,

Namibia is still trying to work out ways that will contribute massively to the fight against

unemployment, underemployment and poverty in the country. It is against this background that the

Namibian Government through the Ministry responsible for youth affairs embraced the initiative

from commonwealth to implement Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative which is currently

known as Namibia Youth Credit Scheme. Namibia Youth Credit Scheme is a programme of the

Ministry of Youth, National Services, Sport and Culture. Namibia being a member state of the

Commonwealth, this programme was started as an initiative of the Commonwealth Youth

Programme in 2005.

The programmes objective is to empower and positively contribute to the

living standard of young people in Namibia. NYCS is an integrated business development model

that targets committed out of school youth and prepares them to start and grow their own

enterprises with the objectives of generating incomes, creating employment opportunities and

contributing to the alleviation of poverty.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section Page

Executive Summary 2

Table of Contents 3List of Abbreviations 4Mission Statement 5Statement of Core Values 5Organization Profile and History 5Strategic Planning 8Strategic Programme Goals and Objectives 11Conclusion 14


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List of Abbreviations

NYCS Namibia Youth Credit

Scheme

CYCI Commonwealth Youth Credit

Initiative

MTR Mid Term

Review

NAMFISA Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory

Authority

NAMFLC Namibia First Luxury

Corporation


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MISSION STATEMENT

The NYCS (Namibia Youth Credit Scheme) empowers and positively contribute to the living

standard of young people in Namibia.NYCS is an integrated business development model that

targets committed out of school youth and prepares them to start and grow their own enterprises

with the objectives of generating incomes, creating employment opportunities and contributing to

the alleviation of poverty.

NYCS STATEMENT OF CORE VALUES

The Namibia Youth Credit Scheme, NYCS, is a member-driven organization.

NYCS exists to maximize the resources of its members in accordance with the

organizations vision and mission statements.

NYCS, a regional organization, now has partners from across the SADC region that

collaborates in the training and betterment of the Namibian Youth.

ORGANIZATION PROFILE AND HISTORY

The programme, from a pilot phase in 2005 that covered only four regions of Northern Namibia,

now has presence in all the fourteen regions; thus becoming a national programme. The rollout of

the programme to all the regions and its consolidation on the basis of lessons learnt during

implementation was based on a five year programme document, launched in 2007 and ending in

July 2012. It therefore finds itself in the unenviable position of an institution that has the following

features:

Assets on the ground, particularly financial assets running into millions of dollars;

a growing number of clients (youth), some trained and awaiting to receive loans;

a vibrant institutional framework complete with a board and management systems; Revised operating guidelines;

full alignment with Vision 2030 aspirations

Continues to receive financial support from the parent Ministry every year;

leaning on a programmatic infrastructure that expired in 2012;

The programmes continued operations without a legal mandate to stand on, coupled with its

growing complexity (both institutional and operational), and has become an enduring constraint to

continued service delivery and growth. The board finds itself without the legal mandate to make


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decisions while at the same time having to oversee several contractual arrangements. The

Secretariat, as staff assigned from the parent Ministry and also accountable to the board, find

themselves in a situation of dual loyalty and the growth of their capacity only determined by the

staff assigned and not the needs of the programme. At the programme level, there is an expanding

revolving loan fund whose required management competencies are not available at the Ministry.

In view of the foregoing, there is an urgent need to transform the programme to an institution that

would be able to enter into contractual arrangements, a board with powers to recruit staff as

determined by programme needs and a capacity to develop long term policies and strategies.

I nstituti onal Background

The programme has gone through three broad phases since inception: the design and

implementation of a pilot phase from 2005 to 2007; the design and implementation of the main

phase and the current post-main phase period.

The design of the Pilot Phase commenced in August 2005 through a collaborative arrangement

between the Government and the Commonwealth Secretariat. The latter provided technical

assistance to operationalize their youth economic empowerment toolkit the Commonwealth Youth

Credit Initiative (CYCI). The Pilot Phase, named CYCI Namibia, was launched for two years in

2005 (with the Commissioning of the first MAB by the then Minister for Higher Education, then

also responsible for Youth Affairs) and ended in 2007, with a budget of N$ 2,000,000. A Mid Term

Review (MTR) found that the project had a profound effect on the participating youth, some

owning assets for the first time in their lives. A stakeholder validation workshop to discuss the

MTR report recommended that a main phase be designed to roll-out the project in other regions of

the country.

The main phase, renamed NYCS, was launched in July 2007, with a budget of N$ 40,000,000, to

run for five years, to July 2012. The focus of this phase was consolidation of the programme in the

initial four regions and replication in the rest of the regions. It had as its target outputs creation of

13,000 jobs; establishment of a N$15,000,000 revolving youth loan fund and mobilization of

savings by young people to the tune of N$ 10,000,000. The phase was highly successful in its

objective to roll out the programme in all regions, a feat which was achieved in 2011. It has also

trained and provided financial access (loans and savings facilities) to 5000 young people and

established a revolving loan fund of N$ 7,200,000 which continues to expand with new capital


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injections and loan repayments by young people.

The main phase was to form the basis of the institutionalization of the programme, starting with the

development of a Policies and Procedures Manual in 2008 to further refine the organizational

structure. The MTR, to assess to what extent the goals of the programme continued to be relevant

and propose ways forward, was commissioned in early 2011 but its findings and recommendations

have not been adopted due to governance issues (the last boards term expired before they could

adopt the report and this was followed by lengthy period when there was no board). The

programme hence lapsed in July 2012 without any determination on the way forward.

The current phase, which commenced in August 2012, operated for several months without a board

to offer strategic direction. A number of youth trained (in excess of 1,000) during this period could

not access loans, leading to a general sense of frustration at the Secretariat, service providers andthe youth. Reporting also suffered, in terms of reports emanating from the field. The current board

was commissioned by the Minister in May 2013. A number of activities have been undertaken to

create the foundations for a robust institution that continues to serve the youth of Namibia

efficiently and effectively in years to come.

Programme funding

The pilot phase (2005-2007) of the programme was funded by three partners; the Government of

Namibia, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Social Security Commission. The pilot phase had

a budget of N$ 2,000,000. The Commonwealth Secretariat (SSC) provided a seed fund of N$

340,000 and technical assistance to support the programme design. SSC contributed an additional

N$ 1,000,000 and the Government covered the budgetary shortfall.

The main phase of the programme (2007-2012), with a budget of N$40,000,000, was financed by

the Government and the SSC.

During implementation, the programme has provided loans to youth, which have been repaid and

now form a pool of resources which will be used to set up a national youth revolving loan fund.

Going forward, the proposed institution will require being in a position to recruit and maintain its

own staff, whose complement will be guided by its own staffing needs. It will also be in a position

to develop programmes and products in response to changing needs of its target client, youth, while

maintaining appropriate accountabilities to its stakeholders.

This calls for an assured funding in order to provide predictability to programme strategies, policies


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and products/services.

I nstituti on management

The proposed institution is an enhanced variation of the existing programme with following

characteristics:

In place of Management Advisory Board, it will have a board of directors with powers to

set strategies and policies, develop institutional structures and frameworks, offer strategic

direction, and recruit and oversee staff management.

In place of a Secretariat assigned by the parent Ministry, there will be a management led by

a CEO accountable to the board of directors. The CEO will have staff running the various

departments/divisions whose recruitment and management will be guided by the board. In line with practice elsewhere for programmes with similar objectives and mandates, the

institution will investigate the potential of recruiting volunteers to run its affairs at the

constituency level while at the same time developing a working relationship with staff of

the parent ministry at the regional level (Youth Employment Officers).

In place of Management Advisory Board, it will have a board of directors with powers to

set strategies and policies, develop institutional structures and frameworks, offer strategic

direction, and recruit and oversee staff management.

In place of a Secretariat assigned by the parent Ministry, there will be a management led by

a CEO accountable to the board of directors. The CEO will have staff running the various

departments/divisions whose recruitment and management will be guided by the board.

In line with practice elsewhere for programmes with similar objectives and mandates, the

institution will investigate the potential of recruiting volunteers to run its affairs at the

constituency level while at the same time developing a working relationship with staff of

the parent ministry at the regional level (Youth Employment Officers).

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Features of the programme

The target beneficiaries are youth (18-35 years)

Operations through the group lending methodology

Training in basic business management skills. This precedes the receipt of any credit.

Development of business plans.


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Provision of credit. This is a series of three small loans, the participants qualifying for each

succeeding (and bigger) loan after servicing the previous loan.

Follow-up training, counselling and mentoring.

Access to other products after graduating from the initial package

2 Products of the programme

The programme offers a variety of products, whose features are reviewed from time to time in line

with changing market trends. The flagship product of the programme is an integrated youth

enterprise development package that includes initial training, a series of three small progressively

increasing loans. The other products of the programme are:

Training

The programme from the outset realized that its core target, out of school unemployed youth, has

only limited exposure (if at all) to basic business management. This led to a collaborative

arrangement with a global network of enterprise development trainers (CEFE) to develop

customized entry level training materials. This has the dual purpose of acting as an empowering

tool for youth entering business for the first time and also as a loan risk mitigation measure. This

training is the entry point for all youth into the programme. Other training offered is to strengthen

the entire system of programme delivery. The training products of the programme include:

Basic Business Management Training

Follow-up training for youth in business

Counselling

Training in basic risk management for service providers

Review and material updating training for training service providers

Capacity building training for Secretariat staff and regional youth employment officers

Exposure visits and training for board members

Mentoring scheme for business sustainability

Procedures for l oan disbursement and repayment

The programme does not deliver loans directly to youth but through a number of specialized


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service providers who cover specific regions of the country. Their operations are guided by an

implementation agreement with the programme.

The programme, through the service providers, currently delivers financial services through two

delivery models:

The Omusati model, utilizing the savings and credit associations (SCAs) to deliver credit.

They operate under cooperative laws.

The group lending model. This is the model adopted by NAMFLC but has also been

adopted by all the other service providers who are not registered as cooperatives.

An important distinction between the two is that while under the SCAs, savings and deposit taking

are allowed by law; no deposits/savings can be collected under the group lending model. However,

the model also facilitates youth to save by opening group accounts.

The Omusati Model is mainly applied in regions with strong presence of the cooperative

movement.

The service providers deliver and recover loans from the youth. Repaid loans form part of the

programmes national youth revolving loan fund. Currently the programme charges an interest rate

of 20% on a reducing balance basis and hopes to review this downwards to 16%. Over time, there

will be need to respond to changing market conditions and diverse needs of youth through the

following instruments:

Product reviews to adjust features of existing products;

Development of new products.

Proposed fu tur e loan products and del ivery models

As the programme enters the institutionalization phase, there is an ever present need for the board

to continuously review the loan products on offer for the purpose of keeping the programme

relevant to the changing needs of youth. Section 3.4 above outlined the current products and their

delivery model. In view of lessons learnt in the past few months as the MAB has reflected on ways

forward, two delivery models could be used to address the needs of two distinct needs of youth:

Lower level loans for youth joining the programme. This would normally be small and

delivered as a package, just in section 3.4 but through a different delivery model.

Higher level loans, delivered through financial intermediaries, competitively identified by

the programme.

Lower level loans and their delivery


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The proposed delivery model would involve the establishment of an infrastructure by the

Secretariat (hopefully by then transformed into the arm of the programme that has the following

three levels:

At the national level with the management of the loan fund, with full staff complement;

At the regional level with regional programme coordinators, under the management of the

NYCS;

At the constituency level would be volunteers, hired through the programme.

This delivery model would involve four related steps:

The youth, after mobilization and training, would complete loan application forms and pass

them on to the volunteers;

The volunteers would collect the forms and pass them on to the regional NYCScoordinators for processing and onward transmission to the national level;

At the national level, the loans would be disbursed, through an intermediary (such as

NAMPOST which has national networks and broad reach in the countryside) directly to the

youth

Loan repayments would be by youth (through youth group accounts) directly to the NYCS

revolving fund account or a facility established for that purpose.

The immediate benefit of this model is the removal of an implementing agency and related costs,

affording the programme an opportunity to charge minimal interest fees and making the repayment

burden to the youth very light. This has implications on survival of youth initiated businesses. It

model would however require more detailed cost-benefit analyses and refinement of the

institutional structure before roll-out. The entire operation has to be compliant with NAMFISA

guidelines for financial service delivery.

STRATEGIC PROGRAMME GOALS ANDOBJECTIVES

a. Reporti ng

The programme has mandatory requirements as follows:

Quarterly reports to the funding partners

Annual Audit Reports

Quarterly progress reports from implementing agencies to the MAB

Quarterly consolidated reports from MAB to the lead agency.


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Quarterly Reports on the Revolving Loan fund operations from implementing agencies

Evaluation reports

b. Data gathering

The NYCS programme design envisages information collection and dissemination at all levels. The

level and sophistication of processing will be dependent on the end-use. It is however envisaged

that information and processing at the grassroots level will be as simplified as possible to avoid

over-taxing information and processing capacity at that level. There is therefore need for a robust

management information system.

A system of data collection will be maintained at the following levels:

(i) The Omusati model SCA level: Data on membership, loan approvals and repayments, savings levels, age, types

of business supported, gender profiles, banking receipts, will be carefully maintained.

TMU level: Data from SCAs will be collected on a monthly basis and computerized and

analyzed. New data will be generated when interest rates are computed and allocated to

various uses and repayment rates per SCA determined. TMU will have primary data on

training and training providers under the Omusati Model in the four regions covered by

the pilot phase (there are also TMUs in Kavango and Zambezi regions). Lastly TMU will

maintain a clear record of expenses at the field level.

TMU will also gather qualitative data on the youth and their enterprises.

Enterprise/beneficiary level information will be collected at this level. The TMUs are the service

providers at the regional level.

(i i) The group lending model

In the immediate term this was applicable to NAMFLC but it is now applicable to all service

providers operating under this model and not registered as cooperatives.

Group level: Data on membership, loan applications and approvals, loan repayments,

savings, types of enterprises started, age profiles of members, gender profiles, banking

receipts will be carefully maintained. The groups will also maintain data on jobs created.

Service Provider level: The service provider will maintain information on trainees, loans

and trainers. It will also gather information from all groups for consolidation and synthesis.

Data on income and expenditures will be maintained at this level. The agency will also

gather data on qualitative data on youth and their enterprises.


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ii i) MAB level

MAB: A record of deliberations, decisions and actions taken will be kept.

(i v) Secretariat level

The secretariat will maintain data on income flows from funding partners, work plans and

progress reports from the service providers submitted to the MAB, requests for funding by

service providers, training service providers and their utilization. The secretariat will also

maintain a record on the submission of mandatory reports.

(v) Youth Centr es

The regional employment officers will maintain information on youth seeking information on the

programme, those joining the programme and the enterprises established.

c. Monitori ng and reporti ng instruments.

The monitoring instruments to be used will be the monthly reports (and weekly reports under the

group lending model), quarterly reports and reports of the regular monitoring visits. SCA maintains

data but the Service Provider (TMU) gathers the same for consolidation and computerization, this

is reported to the Regional Cooperatives and the SCAs. The service providers consolidate this

information in addition to information generated at that level and prepare a report for review by the

MAB. Reports to the MAB will include data on technical and financial implementation of the

programme. This will include a technical presentation of the performance of the loan portfolio,

using criteria to be provided by the Loan Fund Manager.

Qualitative information routinely gathered by the TMU will also be consolidated and analyzed for

presentation to the MAB. Under the alternative model, data maintained by the groups is

consolidated and analyzed at the service provider level. This information, together with information

generated at the service provider level, is analysed and a progress report prepared for review by the

MAB. This will include a technical presentation of the performance of the loan portfolio.

Qualitative information routinely gathered by the service provider will also be consolidated and

analysed for presentation to the MAB.

d. Evaluation: on-going, formative and summative.

Evaluation, a learning process involving reflection of set targets against achievements and lessons

learnt will be carried out by all participants on a continuous basis. Lessons learnt will be

incorporated into the implementation process and inform future programming. An all-inclusive

stake-holders forum, involving representatives from the participating youth, youth officers, service


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providers and the lead agency will take place on an annual basis. A summary of the resolutions will

be presented to the board for review.

The MAB will hold annual review (retreats) meetings to reflect on programme performance, the

institutional framework and make recommendations to the lead agency on the way forward. For the

main phase (which ended in July 2012, a mid-term review was to be undertaken by an external

evaluation team at the mid-point of the programme; i.e. after 30 months of implementation. The

MTR was commenced in early 2011 and the process is still work in progress. An end of project

evaluation will be undertaken at some point after the close of the programme.

CONCLUSION

In view of the foregoing, it is evident that the programme has evolved from just an idea in 2004 to

an institution that is today touching the lives of many young people. It is an institution that has

assembled a number of assets to its name and considerable goodwill from the community. It owes

its continued to growth and success in size, product range and institutional capacity mainly due to

the tremendous support it has received from Government and key stakeholders like the Social

Security Commission and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as well as participating youth. The

lessons learnt in the past nine years of operation and the momentum gained this far need to be

maintained and if practicable, accelerated.

In view of organizational growth challenges experienced in the past one year, and the vacuum

created by the expiry of the main phase, the programme can no longer operate on a business as

usual basis. The Secretariat assigned by the Ministry does not have all the competencies required

for running the programme of the magnitude of NYCS, mainly because it has no legal capacity to

source the required skills from the market.

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