WAY WE WORK

Management

The management comprises of the Executive Director, who takes overall direction and is responsible for resource generation for the organization. The Executive Director is assisted by an Associate Director, who besides taking responsibility for project direction related tasks also takes specific responsibility for Finance and Administration. The Directors are supported by a Program Policy Team comprising of the unit facilitators and personnel in senior management roles.

The unit approach to program development and implementation has helped LAYA to decentralize systems for more effective functioning. Each unit has not only been encouraged to function autonomously in administrative matters but also to collaborate through organic linkages with other units on the program front. In the field, we collaborate with and are assisted by Adivasi representatives and community-based organisations (CBOs) in all the districts of the project areas. As a general management strategy of the organisation, we believe in maintaining relatively small core personnel with a wider outreach through our network with CBOs and collaborative relationships with other NGOs.

Organisational Systems

Our organisational systems encourage the units to function autonomously. In due time, LAYA envisages that some of these units will emerge as autonomous organisations and it will provide a co-ordinating link for a network of organisations. The system encourages transparency and maintains broad policies to facilitate management efficiency.

In terms of financial systems, specific standards and principles have been developed for daily functioning, which has also enhanced the financial control systems at the main office and at the field offices. Efforts are being made to make our reporting systems more transparent and easily accessible while meeting quality standards. This facilitates regular monitoring of programes.

Since several years, LAYA has sought to address the challenge regarding financial sustainability. Several decisions were taken by the Board of Management to enable financing of the operational costs of the organisation. This has mainly been carried out through charging of service costs, where applicable, and use of the training centre facilities. Likewise, voluntary contributions for various periodicals and other publications have aided in part self-financing of the cost.