Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation – End-Term Review of Organisational Development Assistance

Background

The partnership between the Norwegian Nurses Organisation (NNO) and the Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) started in its current form in 2001 (at that time Zambia Nurses Association).

With funding provided by Norad and NNO a Needs assessment survey was conducted among nurses, midwives and other health personnel. It concluded that all these “caregivers” needed support to avoid HIV-infection, both at the workplace and in their social life, and that those already infected were in need of care and support to enable them to live positively and maintain their professional careers for as long as possible.

A project titled “Project cooperation on HIV/Aids among nurses and midwives in Zambia” was initiated. The project was running from 2002-2007, and focused mainly on “caring for caregivers” and establishment of support groups for nurses and midwives.

During this period, the Zambia Nurses Association (ZNA) had few members and little influence. After 15 years of process, ZNA was granted trade union status in 2007 – and the Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation was formed. In 2008 new Norad funded projects were initiated, focusing mainly on developing the organisation.

In the project called “ZUNO Institutional Capacity-building project” running from 2009-2011, organisational development and growth, development of a national network of branches and provincial offices, establishment and consolidation of recognition agreements with employers, and socio-economic issues relating to members, were the main strategies. This evaluation is the end term evaluation of that project. 

Purpose/objective

1. To review outputs and outcomes of the projects supported by the Norwegian Nurses Organization;
2. To assess organizational strengths and weaknesses;
3. To give recommendations on future areas of collaboration.

Methodology

The main methods used to gather the information were focus group discussions with ZUNO members (nurses and midwives) from the North Western and Southern provinces of Zambia. Out of the sample size of 200 people, a majority were from Government sponsored institutions. In addition to this, people from the ZUNO management were interviewed through a check list of questions presented in a tabular form.

Key findings

Review of outputs and outcome of the project

1.  ZUNO signing and implementing recognition agreements with the government of the Republic of Zambia and other health care institutions that includes four (4) mining companies and two (2) private health institutions thus seven (7) in total by the year 2009.  ZUNO has signed recognition agreement with the government (trough the Ministry of Health), two mining companies and one private health institution
2. Training of leaders at various levels of the organisation’s structure in matters relating to labour laws, professional issues and collective bargaining skills by December 2011 as follows; 25 national leaders, 30 provincial leaders, 330 branch leaders and 300 shop stewards, with 225 individuals being trained each year.  Target met, except for shop stewards (180 is trained instead of 300 - but likely to meet the target fast)
3. ZUNO successfully negotiates with public and private sector employers for improved salaries and conditions of services, including rural retention packages, allowances and free uniforms to nurses and midwives.  Objective met to some degree (see table 3 in report for more details)
4. Establishing nine (9) provincial offices, where three (3) of these offices have at least one paid staff member by December 2009, another three (3) have at least one paid staff member by December 2010 and the final three (3) have at least one paid staff member by December 2011.  No offices were set up in 2009 and 2010, four offices established in 2011
5. At least one hundred and ten (110) ZUNO branches are established by December 2009 with elected office-bearers, where 90% implement activities in accordance with ZUNO’s three-year strategic plan (2009 – 2011) and annual work plans.  Target met, however most branches set up are not effective 
6. ZUNO’s paying members increase from 5,000 as at December 2008 to 7,500 by December 2009, 10,000 by December 2010 and to 11,000 by December 2011.  Less than 7000 members recruited, out of which 57% are paying membership fee

Organisational strengths

• Successfully registered as a labour union and signing of recognition agreements with Government, two mining companies and one private hospital organisation
• Being both a trade union and a professional organisation with long history
• Having affiliations and collaborations with local, regional and international organisations
• Having a comprehensive website
•  Enhancing negotiating and advocacy skills

Organisational weaknesses

• Ineffective communication (between branches and members, and between branches and the ZUNO secretariat)
• Irregular visits to the branches by the national leadership
• Lack of space and resources to sustain branch activities
• Lack of training in labour related matters among most of the branch officials
• Lack of ZUNO student chapters in nursing schools
• Weak ZUNO brand
• Poor internet literacy among the general membership

Recommendations

• Develop a communication strategy that should be able to achieve the following:
  - Market the ZUNO brand and make it appealing to the nursing and midwifery professionals and other stakeholders. This is for the purpose of ZUNO becoming the first choice for the nursing and midwifery professionals so as to rapidly increase the number of contributing members on the register. The strong ZUNO brand will also enable management teams of various health institutions to be aware of the union and its core values;
  - Identify the best media to market the ZUNO brand as well as the best promotion materials for the ZUNO brand marketing; and
  - Disseminate the appropriate information to various stakeholders at an appropriate frequency.
• Continue the training of shop stewards and female members in labour and professional related matters so as to ensure effective representation of the union members and back stopping the trained officials in the event they are unavailable, respectively. The training of female nurses will help promote women to take up leadership roles
• Help branches find office accommodation by entering into MoU with employers. A well-functioning and effective branch network will guarantee ZUNO’s sustainability as that is the platform were the membership is drawn.
• Regular branch visitation by the national leadership, one visit per NEC member per province per year. Since ZUNO is relatively new, the national leadership should invest time and resources in visiting the branches and articulate the values of ZUNO so as to strengthen the branches. All the branches visited revealed that they came to know about ZUNO and what its mandate is from the union president when he visited their respective branches.
• Initiate student chapters and market the ZUNO brand to the students so that they become part of the ZUNO family right from the start of their career.
• Scale up the initiative of providing ICT resource centers in each district. The internet cafes should be used as a venue for members to access internet. This will enable them to draw the best from the use of internet generally and get information about ZUNO activities from its website and the electronic mails/brochures/newsletters that ZUNO may be sending to the general membership in future.

Comments from the organisation, if any

To work on the recommendations given in the end-term evaluation, a new agreement with Norad, NNO and ZUNO came to place in a project running from 2012-2015 (“ZUNO Institutional Capacity-building project”).