The Forum of Non-Governmental Organisations of Angola (FONGA) was one of the first platforms to begin this journey with Forus. The process began with bilateral conversations to understand the platform’s situation, review available information, and identify what type of support could be most useful.

FONGA’s trajectory shows that institutional rebuilding takes time. When a platform is supported by a small team, often with parallel professional and personal responsibilities, even the first steps—such as identifying equipment needs, gathering documents, responding to forms, or organising meetings—can take more time than in a fully equipped institutional context.

In the case of FONGA, the support included office equipment and guidance from a strategic advisor with experience in the international movement of NGO platforms. Between September 2025 and the early months of 2026, FONGA worked on building essential instruments to guide its new phase: an annual operational plan, a three-year project, a theory of change, a logical framework, a risk and mitigation matrix, and a SMART matrix for monitoring results.

The process also made it possible to initiate an exchange with ABONG in Brazil, creating a South-South learning bridge between organisations that share challenges related to civil society representation, membership strengthening, and institutional sustainability. Beyond these issues, another prior exchange had been carried out with CNONGD, the platform of NGOs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with which aspects related to organisational and functional structures were shared, in terms of provincial representations, operational levels, and levels of engagement with various types of decision-makers.

FONGA’s experience reminds us that documents such as plans, matrices, and logical frameworks are not merely administrative requirements. When built with political and organisational purpose, they can function as tools to restore clarity, renew commitments, and rebuild trust.