Strategic Planning and Organizational Capacity-Building for Federal Agency Partners in the Pacific Islands (2003-2004)

CONCUR provided strategic planning and facilitation services to assist key governmental agencies to form a stronger partnership in the vast Pacific Islands Region. In the spring of 2003, the Pacific Islands Region was established as an autonomous region within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The establishment of the new region created a strong impetus for the three federal agencies primarily responsible for fisheries management and conservation in the region – the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council, the Pacific Islands Regional Office, and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center – to begin acting together in a more coordinated, cohesive, and integrated fashion. Interaction among the three organizations had suffered in the past from conflicting organizational mandates, differing emphases on research and policy goals, poor communication, divergent organizational cultures, and outright competition for budget allocations. To address these challenges, the three organizations committed to co-develop a comprehensive strategic plan for the entire region.

To assist in this process, CONCUR worked with the executive officers of the three organizations to design a work plan for improving inter-organizational cooperation and effectiveness. This entailed a series of joint planning activities, including several staff workshops. The purposes of the workshops were to: introduce the three organizations, and their staffs, to each other; solicit staff input on strategic planning goals and priorities and on how to better link the organizations’ respective research, policy, and management missions; and establish a series of “operating protocols” by which the three organizations would work together to accomplish key actions requiring cross-organizational collaboration. CONCUR also worked with the executive officers and high level staff from the three organizations—via in-person, teleconference, and videoconference meetings—to articulate priority actions for the new region, a schedule and interim milestones for accomplishing these actions, and associated budgetary needs.

An early work product of this effort – rolled out in March 2004 at a public workshop in Honolulu attended by over 100 people – was a 20-page document entitled “Strategic Plan for the Conservation and Management of Marine Resources in the Pacific Islands Region—Summary.” Of particular note, the three organizations jointly proposed to increase budget allocations for the new region from $37 million to $73 million.