Noticias

On 19 August, the organization underwent an institutional assessment to monitor the quality of their work, in addition to auditing the overall functioning of the organization through a tool called System of Organizational Development Assessment or SEDO, for short. The SEDO is a periodic review to diagnose and evaluate the performance and capacity of an organization.

This review aims to provide evidence of good practices and detect problems, at the same time, it offers solutions to improve the overall management of the organization. The SEDO examination was applied at the headquarters of SOMOSGAY by an experienced management team and an institutional assessment consultant. In the interview were present Simon Cazal; Executive Director and co-founder of SOMOSGAY, Marcos Molinas, Operations Associate and Sergio López; Secretary-General, who provided all the documentation and evidence required by the evaluation team.

According to the final report of the evaluation team, the score assigned to SOMOSGAY is 5.00, the highest on a scale of 1 to 5. Consequently, the organization is in the range of "Institutionalized Organization," which means it has an organizational structure with an excellent job. This qualification encourages the continuous improvement of institutional management.

The evaluation was conducted under the project “Avanzamos”, funded in our country by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. All information provided by SOMOSGAY both in the interview and documents have been verified and examined, to provide useful information for the development of the institution, which allowed an overall evaluation of the institution indicated in the report including: Institutional Development, Financial Efficiency and Solvency, Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation and Social Impact. In each of these axis, the highest scores were obtained, as well as comments on how to improve or maintain such scores.

The report notes in the paragraph of Institutional Development that "SOMOSGAY has a good formalized structure, in line with the Transcript of Founding Laws and registered with the “Directorio General de Registro Público”, Series 1248, Folio FN #123 as of July 23, 2009. The bylaws are in full force and note that such acts as a consultation document and is consistently implemented. The organization has a permanent staff and a contracted staff. They apply their HR Manual containing policies, selection hiring, promotion and removal mechanisms for their staff which fall in line with the Effective Labor code. They also foresee an annual plan of training for its officers. "

In the area of Financial Efficiency, the evaluation says: "SOMOSGAY has a compliance-oriented goals, objectives and projects of the Organization Financial Plan. Budgets are discriminated by projects and programs. SOMOSGAY has as its major source of funding the following Agencies for International Cooperation: the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the European Union, the Global Fund and the contribution of amfAR, partners with whom they have executed projects such as the  Kuimba'e Clinic, Araroky Tava, Avanzamos, Evidence in Action and the Community Center itself, respectively."

As for governance, the following feedback was provided: "SOMOSGAY has a Board of Directors responsible, elected under the current statutes of the Association, where a formal description of the roles and functions each Board member should develop is set. The organization keeps a record of proceedings, meeting notes and agendas, attendees and decisions made. Board members participate in the process of developing the strategic objectives and policies of the institution. The organization has a strategic plan focused on sustainability and are outlined in the mission and vision of the organization."

The report continues with observations on the axis of Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, emphasizing that "SOMOSGAY develops a working system framed in its Action Plan with a responsible monitoring periodically the schedule of activities for each project to raise reports to the Steering Board. They execute projects with clear and specific indicators, metrics of their own and goals which are consistent with mission objectives, all well delineated within M&E practices. "

Finally, the review assessed the organization in its axis of Social Impact, offering the following comment: "SOMOSGAY has extended cooperation to achieve sustainable results in the community or target group responding to a local need with the creation of a Free Clinic and the Condom Cyber Café. The organization also has an evaluation through which the effects of project leaders or managers of the target community are displayed. A special mention is made on the fact that the Association has incorporated mechanisms including several actors and sectors in order to be pluralistic, open and non-discriminatory, with a democratic, participatory approach to promote human rights for development, all set out in its Constitution in its Ch. IV. "

Thus, SOMOSGAY seeks to fulfill its institutional duty of transparency and good governance, while reaffirming its commitment to the communities and beneficiaries of its work. The full text of the evaluation, as well as other institutional documents can be downloaded from our website at http://somosgay.org/quienes-somos (SPA)