These examples show how strategy, governance, learning and coaching become practical work. They include HLC assignments and experience brought by our independent practitioners. Each account identifies the contribution, the programme context and the available evidence.
Governance and organisational change
Making governance choices explicit in a changing partnership
A transition in the Syria Resilience Initiative raised a practical question: how should authority, resources and responsibility be organised so Syrian organisations have a meaningful role in decisions?
Contribution and outputs
HLC carried out a governance transition review, drawing on stakeholder perspectives, governance documents and lessons from other transitions. The analysis examined the programme management unit’s mandate, the Steering Committee’s role, duplicated support functions, partner resourcing and shared risk.
An appraisal of three governance scenarios, with advantages, constraints and next steps.
Recommendations linking representation with decision authority, budgeting and shared risk.
A continuity plan responding to the changed funding position, with a preferred single-lead model and an orderly-closure fallback.
Connecting authority with operational continuity
The work considered how Syrian organisations could have greater decision authority while maintaining assurance and continuity. The original options appraisal and the later continuity recommendation served different stages of that decision.
Evidence. The completed review documents analysis and recommendations. Adoption and subsequent effects are not established in this account.
Protecting purpose while planning for an uncertain future
IDRAAC · organisational strategy and resource mobilisation, 2026–2028
Period
Plans for 2026–2028
Contribution
Strategy and resource mobilisation · experience within our network
Stage
Strategy and planning outputs
The situation
For IDRAAC, a mental health organisation in Lebanon, strategic choices sit alongside sustained demand for care, uncertain funding and pressure on staff. The question was how to protect the organisation’s purpose while making a realistic plan for the years ahead.
Contribution and outputs
The consultancy brought together an organisational strategy and linked resource mobilisation plan for IDRAAC for 2026–2028. Staff insight, interviews and organisational documents informed a theory of change and four connected priorities: research, clinical and community care, national influence, and organisational resilience.
A Resource Mobilisation Plan linking those choices to funding, partnerships and core capacity.
Making ambition sustainable
The plans connect programme ambitions with protecting core roles, staff wellbeing and research time. They identify the need for flexible funding and manageable priorities, so delivery capacity is part of the strategic choice.
Evidence. The evidence is the strategy and resource mobilisation plans. Their intended 2028 outcomes remain forward-looking.
Women leading in humanitarian coordination face questions that confidence alone cannot resolve: whose voice is heard, what makes action risky, and who carries the consequences of a decision?
Contribution and outputs
HLC’s design and pilot contribution supported feminist leadership practice for women in humanitarian coordination across the Middle East and North Africa. The work combined power mapping, reflection on identity, peer clinics and coaching-informed practice.
A learning sequence and facilitator and participant resources for examining real leadership dilemmas.
Pilot facilitation that adapted to participation, language, privacy and coaching readiness.
Making action and risk discussable
The sequence asks participants to examine power, consider who carries risk, test options and decide whether to act, seek support or pause. This makes responsible non-action a legitimate choice. The later coaching pathway proposal remains a separate development of the work.
Evidence. Programme materials and practitioner records document design and pilot work. The needs survey informed the design; it was not an outcome evaluation.
Giving young people room to practise real decisions
Cugoano Changemakers at St James’s · learning and participation design
Period
Materials prepared October 2026
Contribution
Learning and participation design within St James’s programme · experience within our network
Stage
Learning and participation design
The situation
A youth leadership programme needs more than opportunities to speak. It needs clear decisions, resources and support, so participants can test what responsibility means in practice.
Contribution and outputs
Within Cugoano Changemakers at St James’s, the learning design brings coaching and youth grantmaking together. The Circles use reflection, small peer groups and practical scenarios to explore authority, resources, negotiation and accountability.
A consolidated facilitator handbook and participant materials for seven learning Circles.
Design arrangements for paid Circle participation, private reflection and different ways to contribute.
A clear distinction between deciding, jointly deciding, recommending and influencing.
Making a real say specific
The materials distinguish decisions participants control from recommendations requiring an organisational response. A delegated decision depends on an agreed scope and Charter. Required work outside paid Circle days is addressed separately, making time and authority part of the participation design.
Evidence. This account describes prepared learning materials and design arrangements. St James’s owns the wider programme; participant outcomes are not yet reported here.
UNFPA Asia Pacific · Leadership in Times of Change
Period
November–December 2025
Contribution
Design, facilitation and coaching · experience within our network
Stage
Programme delivered
The situation
Leaders holding responsibility for people and programmes needed time to reflect on their choices while working through change across a regional context.
Contribution and outputs
The programme combined shared leadership learning with individual coaching. Design and facilitation connected reflection and peer discussion with participants’ current responsibilities.
Five online learning sessions over six weeks, linked to individual coaching.
A sequence exploring purpose, trust and feedback, organisational relationships, identity and power, and commitments for practice.
Shared learning with space for private questions
Peer learning connected the themes to participants’ responsibilities. Individual coaching offered a separate confidential space for issues that were unsuitable for a group discussion. Exercises examined relationships, decision flows and assumptions influencing leadership.
Evidence. The programme outline and practitioner account establish the format and contribution. A longer-term outcome evaluation is not included.
Eighteen women from African National Societies came together in Gaborone, Botswana, in November 2025 to explore influence, boundaries and leadership in demanding humanitarian settings.
Contribution and outputs
HLC made a substantial design contribution to the five-day pilot, which was delivered by two senior facilitators. Discussion, reflection, practical tools and simulation brought questions of hierarchy, role clarity and shared responsibility into the room.
A five-day pilot for 18 women from African National Societies in Gaborone.
A reflective programme review bringing survey responses and facilitator observations together.
Using feedback to improve the design
The review recommended tiered simulations, more reflection time and continued coaching or peer support. These recommendations responded to differences in experience and the support participants needed to apply learning. Co-design was constrained during this pilot, an important consideration for future delivery.
Evidence. Participants reported greater confidence, agency and connection. The review drew on 13 baseline and 10 endline responses from 18 participants, plus facilitator reflection. This is early self-reported feedback; longer-term effects have not been established.
If one of these examples connects with your situation, tell us what you are considering. We can discuss the relevant experience, the people who could contribute and a useful scope. A concise capability summary or relevant references can support your assessment.