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The TAABCO’s products and services clustered around five thematic areas contribute to increased developmental impact of its client organisations. These thematic areas include leadership and management systems i.e. transformative leadership, effectiveness of client management structures and systems; knowledge management i.e. ability of client organisations to understand and analyze poverty and its root causes and to design programmes that employ rights based approaches (RBA) and result based management RBM); cross cutting themes on gender, HIV and AIDS, environment and peace i.e. the recognition by clients of the need for mainstreaming gender, HIV and AIDS, peace and environments in development programmes and policies; peace building, conflict transformation and mitigation; and deepening dialogue and partnerships i.e. the inter-relationships between South – South and North - South partners.
TAABCO’s interventions cover a host of activities including Organizational Development (OD); Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL); Integrated Financial Management/OD, E-Management Information Systems (E-MIS), Research and Policy Analysis (RPA), and Training and Skills Development (TSD). Interventions in these areas are tailored for, faith-based organizations; community-based organizations; local and international NGOs. TAABCO believes in process oriented holistic delivery of quality services which enables the client to grow, learn and resolve issues, challenges and problems (a system-wide approach). Hence, interaction with clients is carefully managed and natured to ensure that a strengthened organization is achieved.
Transformative leadership: Transformative leadership is one of the most critical areas of intervention. This is because leadership contributes the most to the success or failure in organizations. TAABCO has therefore put a lot of emphasis in the training and mentoring of boards and other top organs in institutions. Some of the interventions under transformative leadership include; board inductions/training, team building, succession planning, mentoring and coaching.
Management Systems: Programme management too is a dynamic field in which policies are constantly changing. Management systems include Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL), Human Resource (HR), Financial Management (FM) and Management of Information Systems (MIS). These management systems must be efficient and effective and therefore development workers must be kept abreast with the changing dynamics and tools to ensure that their organizations can collaborate with their partners and are up to date with conceptual and practical changes within the development scene. TAABCO plays a role in this area by providing information on the socio-economic and political developments and how to adapt to the changes that have a direct impact on the work.
In financial management, TAABCO emphasizes the need for prudent financial management to assure stability and sustainability of organizations. The importance of financial independence for organizations cannot be overstated. The financial information required for decision-making is especially important and therefore, the organization conducts training for clients for them to keep up to and surpass prevailing standards.
Under E-MIS programme, TAABCO assesses the client’s management information systems (MIS) needs from an operational and strategic perspective to determine their long-range personnel and equipment needs so as to keep them abreast with the latest technology. The programme further enables clients to manage change through interventions such as software and hardware installation, configuration of the existing systems, upgrading, customization, and linking of the client’s existing systems; e.g., PMEL, Audit, Accounting, Payroll, HR, etc., programming and systems design. E-MIS programme also helps clients to develop computer networks via networking, data communication and implementation of Internet and Intranet sites.
Research, when combined with policy analysis and documentation, this area forms one of the core functions at TAABCO. This is because the Company exists to offer high quality consultancy services to clients, first and foremost in the area of research, and second, in other varied areas. Research is vital for increasing the Company’s organizational learning, and enhancing its efficiency and effectiveness of work, hence research, policy analysis and documentation provides both doer and support role.
In the doer role, knowledge management undertakes regular and targeted research and policy analysis, and documents these into research reports and other organizational outputs, e.g., newsletters (for internal and external sharing). The latter sharing is with the clients, partners, and wider public. The research findings are meant to enhance policy decisions.
The promotion of positive cultural and religious practices and values has gained increasing prominence in the recent past and TAABCO has been at the forefront in this new drive toward reviving the use of good indigenous knowledge which is almost getting lost. This knowledge has proved vital in peace building, nutrition, medicine etc.
The importance of peace in development became evident in Kenya during the post-poll violence in 2007-2008. Peace building has been one of the special areas for TAABCO for a long time. Partner organizations and clients have therefore benefited from TAABCO’s expertise over the years and also in the aftermath of the Post Election Violence (PEV) in our nation.
TAABCO provides a safe space for deepening dialogue and partnerships between Southern – Southern and North-South partners. Over the years TAABCO has effectively offered and will continue to offer this product and services to a number of partner organizations. The building of partnerships based on shared values such as equality and respect are critical. In this case, TAABCO seeks to reverse the historical trend where Northern partners have had an upper hand in North-South relations and where synergy between southern partners remains rather weak.
Since today’s development organizations and actors are facing a myriad of challenges in the ever-changing environment, TAABCO has developed a tailor-made training and skills development programme. The programme contains affordable courses that provide individuals and organizations with knowledge and skills for development work. Specifically, the courses are specially made for Kenyan and other African NGOs, CBOs, Churches and other civil society actors.
The key areas in the curriculum are: the changing paradigms of development, organizational development, programme management, integrated financial management, leadership and governance, mainstreaming Gender, HIV and AIDS, women transformational leadership, sustainability and resource mobilization, micro-finance, human resource management, research and policy analysis skills. |
