The birth of HUNDEE goes back to the demise of the Dergue regime where the livelihood and the life of the Oromo had been profoundly affected despite being the most populous ethnic group of Ethiopia that contributes almost 50% to the national GDP. Series of critical review and reflections as well as in-depth understanding of the root causes of poverty and development underpinned the development of overarching organizational vision and mission statement.
Our policies and guidelines have been developed over longer period of time across different organizational trajectories. For HUNDEE, policies and guidelines are frameworks or roadmaps developed against overarching organizational elements; organizational learning and best practices; as well as lessons drawn from experiences of CSO/NGOs operating at international and national level. Against this backdrop, the following key points briefly capture the rationale underpinning HUNDEE’s policies and guidelines.
- Our policies and guidelines primarily articulate the position of HUNDEE and thus sets direction for us to remain vibrant CSO in a highly unpredictable environment we operate in;
- Ourpolices and guidelines are crucial in elaborating and clarifying normative organizational principles and values into sets of directions and standards that steer our journey to the anticipated organizational goals and beyond;
- Our policies and guidelines provide direction and support to HUNDEE staff, partners and often sub-grantees in order to ensure they meet local, national and international CSO standards and best practices;
- Our policies and guidelines also provide information about HUNDEE’s understanding and organizational positions;
- Our policies and guidelines often depict HUNDEE’s understanding of societal dynamics and thus helps to stipulate our unique orientations and operational philosophies aimed at addressing the most marginalized and vulnerable community groups we work with and for;
- Our policies and guidelines contain background information on HUNDEE as well as a specific information to assist programs in attaining its goals. The information in our policy document applies to all our programs except where specifically noted; and
- Our policies and guidelines help to demonstrate our commitment to upholding different legal regimes pertaining to CSO/NGO sector and also helps to roll out HUNDEE’s embedded conviction to remaining vibrant, accountable, transparent and transformative CSO.
HUNDEE’s major policy documents and guidelines are briefly captured as follows. Details of such documents can be accessed upon request.
- Finance and Accounting Policy: financial transparency is central to ensuring both performance and organizational accountability aspects. HUNDEE’s financial and accounting policy is based on internationally accepted accounting and auditing principles. On top of robust internal controlling and financial management system, HUNDEE undertakes annual financial auditing procedure (this often entails compliance and capacity auditing) by an external auditor assigned by the General Assembly, the highest organ of HUNDEE. Our finance and accounting documents are maintained both in hardcopy and softcopy (standard Peachtree Accounting software).
- Human Resource Policy: of all resources in our disposal, HUNDEE appreciates human resource as the most crucial and detrimental resource essential for steering organizations towards anticipated vision. Our HR policy takes note of internationally accepted protocols mainly that of ILO, UDHR, national and regional constitution and Ethiopian Labor law proclamation 177/2003. Our staffs are our treasures that consistently uphold HUNDEE’s principles and values in all their engagements. HR policy captures the standard human resource management framework which is developed against the backdrop of the principles of dignity, participation, accountability, responsibility, stewardship, versatility, respect and sensitivity to the receiving culture, do-no-harm, embracing differences, protection of children, sensitivity and responsiveness to gender and rule of law.
- Gender Policy: organizational commitment to ensuring sustainable human development entails the need to consciously and systematically working on structural causes of poverty. In areas where we have been operating and beyond, imbalance in gender relationships and the relegation of women/girls’ to secondary importance despite their immense contribution both to the wellbeing and transformation of the community profoundly necessitated the need for committing our organizational position towards the ultimate gender equality goal. HUNDEE’’ gender policy serves to set standard sets of processes and products both at organizational and programmatic levels sought to making HUNDEE gender sensitive and responsive organization. Our gender equality goal, which is also the goal of HUNDEE’s gender policy, pursues a twin-track strategy of women empowerment (programs/projects directly targeting women/girls’) and gender mainstreaming (mainstreaming issues and concerns of women/girls’ into sets of HUNDEE’s policies, procedures, and programs).
- Child Protection Policy: children are mostly regarded as ‘windows of hope’ and addressing the plight of children in general and orphan and vulnerable children’s in particular is a strategic way of working on sustainable human development while remaining highly conscious of the next generation. Our policy in this regard pursues a community based child programming built on the overarching child rights approach that attempts to address the provision, protection and participation pillars of the UN child rights convention and the African Charter on the rights of children. HUNDEE’s child protection policy and subsequent theory of change of our child development programming regards children as right-holders and accords the duty-bearer role for actors ranging from family/legal guardian, community and local structures, local/regional/national governmental agencies, CSOs and international communities as well.
- Workplace HIV/AIDS Policy: HIV/AIDS is a pandemic that is threatening the wellbeing of an individual person, the social capital stock of the community, and more importantly also affects sustainable human development. Our workplace HIV/AIDS policy is meant to put HUNDEE to a better sensitive and responsive position; and also helps to fight all sorts of discrimination against staff members infected with HIV/AIDS.
- Communication Policy: HUNDEE’s engagement highly builds on four elements of an organization in which “relating” with internal and external environment is understood as a strategic way to fostering our vision and mission; work in partnership with wide ranges of actors; and also share our experiences and lessons. HUNDEE’s communication policy provides sets of communication platforms and standards (both internally and externally) to staff members and sub-grantees (when the need arises).
- Safety and Security Policy: we operate in a highly volatile and unpredictable environment and thus the need for pursuing organizational vision and mission entails robust and periodic understanding of the environment and development of corresponding protection strategies both to the wellbeing of the staff members (including volunteers and interns) and other organizational resources namely the financial and material resources. Different early warning and notification strategies would be pursued in availing timely security information to all concerned in a way to minimizing risks associated thereof. Standard safety procedures and protocols are timely availed to all concerned based on periodic safety and security assessment, plan and accordingly systematically coordinated and managed across different organizational tiers.
- Cost Allocation Policy: this policy primarily serves as a guidance for allocation of costs across different purposes of expenditure (administrative and operational); core funding and target group development; as well as systemic allocation of costs along different donor agencies based on the volume, intensity, and magnitude of the program or project under discussion.
- Procurement Policy: a need for robust financial accountability and transparency requires the adequate exhibition of organizational engagements on procurement of goods and services. Our procurement policy is guided by different international and national legal regimes, standard auditing and accounting principles as well as HUNDEE’s unique organizational position to remaining vibrant, transparent, accountable and transformative CSO.
- Stakeholders Engagement Guideline: as overarching operational philosophy and crucial rule of HUNDEE’s engagement, ensuring active involvement and participation of stakeholders remains second-to-none across all our engagements. Ensuring stakeholders’ engagement fosters partnership, collaboration, sustainability and organizational legitimacy. To this end, our stakeholders’ engagement guideline systematically maps sets of stakeholder’s participation and involvement platforms with corresponding level of participation and indicators. It also recommends stakeholders participation both on organizational and programmatic levels of HUNDEE’s engagement.
- Program Guideline: based on its strategic plan, HUNDEE periodically revises its programs and makes timely strategic shifts in terms of program development and strategies. Program guidelines are mostly development in a comprehensive manner and recommends on wide ranges of strategies and theories of change for overarching programs or HUNDEE’s thematic areas of engagement.
- Monitoring and Evaluation Guideline: remaining accountable and transparent mainly requires the need for sharpening the cutting edges of organizations. Robust monitoring and evaluation is central to organizational learning and subsequent organizational positioning undertakings. Our monitoring and evaluation guideline mostly pursues a total organizational approach to monitoring and evaluation that brings together the four elements of an organization (BEING; DOING; RELATING AND LEARNING). HUNDEE’s monitoring and evaluation guideline describes standard learning discourses from the project, program to organizational level. To this end, our monitoring and evaluation guideline narrates major organizational and program level indicators and periodically plans to oversee its implementation accordingly.
