Trainer: Strategic and Annual Planning Linked to a Budget

Cordaid Iraq supports local civil society organisations in Baghdad, Basra, Erbil and Ninewa to strengthen how they are governed, how they plan and how they advocate. This training responds to the priorities identified in a recent organisational assessment of participating organisations.

A recent organisational assessment found that very few participating organisations work with a strategic or annual plan, and that where plans exist they are rarely linked to a budget. The need is greatest in Ninewa. This training is designed to move each organisation from no plan, or a plan on paper only, to a costed one-year plan it can take to its board and use through the year.

Training days, locations and language

Days differ by governorate because the assessment found different levels of need. The allocation is fixed at contract and can be adjusted by mutual agreement within the total.

Training in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul is delivered in Arabic only. Training in Erbil is delivered in Arabic and Kurdish (Sorani), mixed according to the participants in the room, so the Erbil trainer must be able to work comfortably in both.

What must be covered

• Moving from a mission statement to a one-year plan: a small number of objectives, the activities under each, who is responsible and by when.
• Costing activities honestly, including the staff time and running costs that most of these organisations leave out
• Building an organisational budget rather than adding up the budgets of current grants, and separating core costs from project costs.
• Attaching a budget line to every objective, so the plan and the money can be read against each other.
• Planning past the end of the current grant: what the organisation will still do when the main donor leaves.
• Taking the plan to the board: what the board needs to see in order to approve it, and how approval should be recorded
• Using the plan through the year: a quarterly review, what triggers a change, and how a change is recorded.
• Practical tools left with each organisation: a one-page plan template, an annual activity calendar, and a simple budget-against-plan tracker in Excel.

What each organisation must hold at the end

The training is practical. Each organisation leaves with the following, produced in the room:

• A one-page annual plan with a budget line against each objective, ready for board approval
• An organisational budget for the coming twelve months, built with the organisation's finance focal point

The trainer also submits a short completion note per governorate (one to two pages, template provided by Cordaid) listing which organisations produced each document, and which did not and why.

Fee and payment

• Quote a daily rate in UAD per training day delivered.
• Cordaid pays only for training days actually delivered. Preparation days, materials development, reporting, travel, accommodation and meals are not paid and must not appear in your offer. Price your daily rate with this in mind.
• Cordaid arranges the venue, participant invitations and refreshments through its hub facilitator in each governorate.
• Payment is made after each governorate's training is completed, on the basis of signed attendance sheets and an accepted completion note.
• Fees are subject to tax deductions under Iraqi law.

Timing: 

Delivery between 1 November 2026 and 14 February 2027, on dates agreed with the Cordaid hub facilitator in each governorate.

Trainer profile

• Organisational development facilitator with at least seven years of experience supporting small and medium civil society organisations, preferably in Iraq
• Able to work with organisations that have no planning document and no dedicated planning staff, and to produce a usable plan within the training days
• Comfortable with budgeting. This assignment is not a strategy workshop; it ends in a costed plan
• Arabic required for all governorates. Arabic and Kurdish (Sorani) required for Erbil.

Please apply through link: Application Form 

Note:

Individual trainers, teams and firms can apply/Joint proposals are welcome. Two trainers can team up and submit one proposal for the same services, for example to combine legal and facilitation skills or Arabic and Kurdish. The proposal names a lead trainer who signs the contract and receives payment, shows which trainer delivers which days, and quotes one daily rate per governorate. Each trainer submits a CV and a signed declaration.