FINANCE AND OPERATIONS SUPPORT

Operational excellence

With our drive for operational excellence and quality, 2016 saw several key projects undertaken to improve and clarify governance and efficiency. Those projects focused on the revision of policies, analysis of business process flows and assessment of risks in operational processes. Following the IT Strategy, a trajectory for a better architecture of the primary system was begun. Mitigation of risks by IT controls is taken into account in system design.

Our current ICT environment is not optimally adapted to the recent growth in size and complexity of our organisation. Therefore we plan to move towards a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system in 2018, which will better support our processes and which will be suited for the poor internet connections in some locations where our programmes are implemented.

In 2016 we requested proposals from various IT suppliers. In 2017 we will continue this process. We will also focus on optimising our information and knowledge management procedures and systems, and on strengthening information security measures to protect our data and ensure the continuity of our business processes. We will work on implementing stronger policies and improved processes. Soft controls, which will positively influence the organisational culture, will play an important role in this.

War Child’s operations are guided by a set of internal and external policies and principles. War Child continued to strengthen the application of human rights values, donor requirements and its internal standards across all levels of the organisation during 2016. War Child fundraises within the framework of ethical guidelines, ensuring that the practices of our donors do not interfere with War Child’s mission and vision.