Achieving your goals

Coalitions usually have mission statements or calls setting out the change they are seeking. However these goals are set out, at any one time a coalition should be able to explain whether it has achieved all, some of them or none of them. Different coalition members might have different perceptions of whether a goal has been achieved or not and those managing the coalition have an important job to avoid conflict around such differences (both in the short and long term). The achievement of a key goal, such as the adoption of a particular policy, a change in legislation, achievement of an international treaty, should be a time to celebrate the strength of a coalition, but it is also a time to ensure plans are in place for the future.

“After the Protocol was adopted we decided to work on ratification and implementation of the Protocol. But in this new phase the Coalition didn’t have quite the same focus and drive it had during the Protocol negotiating process.
There was also the added problem that key individuals left or moved jobs within their NGO, government or UN agency.”

Martin Macpherson, Child Soldiers International (formerly Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers)