The National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) is a voluntary coordinating body of NGOs operating in Zimbabwe that champions, connects, and co-creates solutions to advance sustainable development in Zimbabwe. Since 1962 when the organisation was formed, NANGO has been a driving force in supporting the development aspirations of the country by leading in conducting demand-driven research and knowledge sharing, cultivating a conducive environment for its membership, that is NGOs in Zimbabwe, to thrive and achieve their institutional objectives and mandates by advocating for policies and laws that create a more suitable environment as well as providing platforms for members’ capacity development and enhancement. The association currently boasts itself with 1264 members from diverse backgrounds, including Trusts, Universitas, Private Voluntary Organisations and International NGOs. We pride ourselves on the richness of the membership and we have established 10 vibrant clusters covering areas of Youths Empowerment and Transformation, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, Disability Inclusion; Child Development; Health and Wellbeing; Economic Governance; Media, Arts and Culture; Environment, Natural Resource Governance and Climate Change; and Democracy, Good Governance and Human Rights.

Each cluster offers rich perspectives, enriching knowledge and fostering growth in their domains, thereby enhancing overall performance of the network. Together, we are on a mission to strengthen the civil society's voice and impact for positive change. Members benefit from a myriad of connections within an expansive and varied network of their peers, highlighted at events like the famous annual NGO EXPO and the Directors Summer Retreat, membership forums, and other opportune convenings. The membership also grants exclusive access to pivotal roundtables, facilitating collaborative lobbying efforts to establish favourable legal and regulatory backdrops that further propel the work of CSOs. Moreover, members are privileged with a wide spectrum of leadership and professional growth avenues, including master classes, peer learning forums and an extensive collection of research and survey publications. Lastly, we make sure that the work and impact of our members are widely recognized and amplified across diverse communication channels, both digital and traditional.

We have a new strategic plan which was recently adopted by the Board and launched with membership, partners and stakeholders. The association has traditionally played the role of interlocutor between the Government of Zimbabwe and civil society, with a clear position in matters of policy influencing, by carrying the voices of its members. We are at a time in which we are rebooting, resetting, and repositioning ourselves to regain the position and legitimacy as the convener, coordinator, and umbrella association of NGOs in Zimbabwe. There are many expectations from our members and stakeholders that we are determined to go all the way to fulfil. This is an ambitious 3-year strategic plan with 5 strategic focus areas which we believe responds to the current operating environment which we find ourselves in. 

Strategic Priority 1: Institutional strengthening for a higher-performing NANGO. We believe the stronger NANGO is as an institution, the more effective it will be in coordination and servicing of the NGO sector in Zimbabwe. This, for us, entails strengthening our governance framework, updating our policies and procedures to suit the current context, being true to our values and being guided by them in every aspect, optimizing the working environment within the organization, continually innovating to become a better fit for the future, improving accountability and communication with our stakeholders and raising sufficient resources to support our work.

Strategic Priority 2: Improving NANGO's value proposition to its membership as a convener and coordinating organization as well as making the NANGO brand more attractive to Zimbabwean CSOs. We seek to fully service our members through convening, coordinating and building collaborative networks among members. The organization will ensure that it effectively plays these roles to remain relevant and attract new members. Under the new strategy, we intend to revisit our value proposition to members, listen to them more and be more responsive to their needs and expectations of us as an umbrella body. 

Strategic Priority 3: Pivoting NANGO as the hub of choice for CSO capacitation, training, mentorship, knowledge curation, and operational support. Today, there is greater scrutiny on NGOs in terms of operational efficacy, sustainability, the imperative need for institutionalized capacity development, training and mentorship of these organizations has never been more pressing. As an umbrella body, we intend to leverage our alumni, networks, as well as our wide access to expertise and training resources within our networks to consolidate and package various kinds of training programmes aimed at improving the way NGOs are led and operate in Zimbabwe. 

Strategic Priority 4: Strengthening NANGO to become a solid platform for advocacy, lobbying, and policy influencing in matters related to the CSO operating environment as well as national development issues. For CSOs to operate effectively and achieve the desired impact in Zimbabwe, there should be an enabling operating environment in which laws, policies, practices and institutions regulating the CSO space achieve the desired oversight function while not causing undue bureaucracy, burdensome overreach and constraints to the work of the developmental organizations. We believe that the regulatory function should not choke operational efficiencies and that accountability should be mutual and not burdensome. Given current developments in the CSO regulatory arena, with an anticipated tightening of the operating environment throughout this strategic period, we commit ourselves to continue engaging and defending the CSO operating environment to enable ease of doing work among our members. Under the same token, we will also play our part to ensure that we protect our member organizations from abuse and mismanagement, which present the risk of regulatory overreach as a consequence. 

Strategic Priority 5: Promoting effective action on the SDGs. As NANGO together with our members, we are already playing a critical role in advancing the implementation and achievement of the SDGs through local-level programmes, complementing government developmental programmes and through national engagements. We are convinced, therefore, that deepening CSO participation in the SDGs processes, including convening the organization and coordinating actions aimed at building strategic collaborations with the government and private sector as well as keeping mutual accountability will be an important contribution by NANGO and its members in advancing the SDGs in the country.

Our capacity building initiatives continue to empower our members and implementing partners to be more ready to fulfil their obligations and build their resilience. The association took significant steps to enhance the capacity of its members by organising a series of online capacity-building webinars focused on Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and managing donor relations. This initiative was undertaken in collaboration with Intellectus Campus, a renowned training institution in the academic field. The decision to organise these sessions was based on the valuable feedback received from the association's membership satisfaction survey. The training sessions primarily focused on three essential aspects: monitoring and evaluation, data management, and effective engagement with donors. A total of 97 CSOs representatives benefitted from the series of capacity buidling sessions conducted with representation of all the NANGO regions.