Connecting Government Agencies and NGOs

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Connecting Government Agencies and NGOs
Australasia
| 2008 |
Government / Non-government

We helped the New Zealand government re-invigorate its relationship with partner NGOs.

In 2008, we worked with the Office of Community and Volunteer Services (OCVS) in Wellington, New Zealand. OCVS contracts with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to deliver services set out in national government policy. The relationship between the two groups had become strained, in part because public oversight of the government has forced the OCVS to develop new processes and procedures that make it more difficult for NGOs to provide services. We facilitated a process with a cross-sectoral group of OCVS and NGO staff which rebuilt trust and relationships, and which created new, mutually respectful and supportive ways of working together.

Explore this project

Learning about the current reality of the relationships between the Office of Community and Volunteer Services and the non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Behind us, our notes are illumined from the sunshine streaming in; they also keep us cool. One of the exercises we used extracts both 'cynical' and 'believing' attitudes about the potential to work together successfully during our days together.

Condensing a small group's thinking into a presentation in plenary.

A 'systems game' shows just how challenging it is to perceive and understand behavioral norms in a social system. We use games to help people attend to both visible and invisible aspects of shared reality - the possibilities for change.

A learning journey to a local printing press that provides services to the government organization.

The quiet, native wilderness is never far away in New Zealand.

Participants spend some time by themselves in nature. A short 'retreat' like this enables participants to approach their shared reality from a renewed and refreshed vantage point.

Deeper reflections on our learning, at just the right moment, help uncover less visible, but very powerful, influences in the ways participants see and deliver their work.

A model building session, even with humble natural materials, stimulates the mind and hands, allowing for greater connectivity and creativity in the task of rethinking and reworking the relationship between goverment and non-government organisations.