Members of AED and the RA Chamber of Advocates gather to evaluate the progress of the Strategic Plan implementation.

The 2007-2011 Strategic Plan developed for the RA Chamber of Advocates is evaluated between May and June 2008.

As a result of the 2004 Law of Advocacy the RA Chamber of Advocacy was created, uniting the preexisting two unions together. A strategic plan was created in order to ensure smooth operation of the Chamber and assist it in achieving its goals. The strategic plan will last for four years, from 2007 to 2011.

In 2006 through USAID/HICD project the newly established Chamber underwent an overall assessment by two international experts, an institutional capacity development expert to work on performance improvement recommendations and a legal expert to consult on subject matter Based on the experts’ recommendations, the RA Chamber of Advocates developed its Strategic Plan for 2007-2011.

A follow-on activity, an assessment on the progress of the 2007-2011 Strategic Plan, was conducted in 2008 by a local staff of the Academy for Educational Development with on-line consultations and guidance from the international expert on planning, methodology and approaches for the assessment. The goal of this assessment was to provide the members of the Chamber with an in depth analysis of their goals and determine how much progress they had made. The main objectives were to observe the chamber’s strategic management and provide recommendations on how to improve the operations of the chamber. The international expert, David Hirschmann, Ph.D., Director of the International Development Program in School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC, USA, was involved in the 2006 assessment of the Chamber funded by HICD/USAID.

During the evaluation the AED evaluation team observed the activities of the Chamber, determined current problems, and offered solutions to these problems. In addition, the AED in collaboration with the Chamber distributed questionnaires to the members and employees of the Chamber. The questionnaires asked the respondents to rank each department/topic on a scale from 0 to 5, 5 being the highest, on how satisfactory they are. 49 questionnaires were returned and the scores ranged from a 3.30 to 4.10 in the various departments/topics. This indicates an increase in the progress of the Chamber operations but suggests that there is room for even more improvement. There were several focus group meeting with different stakeholders including the Chamber’s Board.

In conclusion it was determined that the Chamber has a very clear mission. The 2007-2011 Strategic Plan consists of realistic goals and effective strategies to achieve these goals. However, the Chamber was left with a list of recommendations that will help increase its productivity. Among these it is recommended that they create an executive body to improve management. This group will be responsible for overseeing all the operations of the Chamber. The experts found that previous improvements were made in areas of priority only, while less important departments/topics were neglected. Thus, experts recommend improvements be made in these areas as well. The experts noted that the assessment went very smoothly and the members of the RA Chamber of Advocates were very welcoming and cooperative. They feel optimistic about future improvements of the Chamber.

Publication Date: 2008-09-15