Planning of Health Non-Governmental Organizations in Palestine under the Conditions of Instability

Often, planners are forced to operate under unpredictable conditions or use imprecise information. This paper examines the strategies adopted by Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the period of instability between 1986 and 2000 and how they coped with the situation. The effectiveness of the NGOs is also investigated, and the relationships between planning strategies and organisational effectiveness ratings were examined. The research sample was 20Palestinian health NGOs in West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. A multimethod approach combining a self-administered questionnaire and semi-structured interview was adopted in order to collect both a large volume of comparable data and a rich picture of respondents’ opinions and behaviours. Indices were constructed as proxies for the use of five planning strategies Risk Analysis, Gambling, Organisational Learning, Contingency Planning and Instrumentalism as well as for measuring organisational effectiveness. NGOs reported that planners used all five strategies to varying degrees. Instrumentalism was the most used, and greater use of this strategy was associated with higher ratings of organisational effectiveness. Organisational Learning was associated with effectiveness only for the more stable period. All other strategies were negatively correlated with effectiveness. More effective organisations selected and combined strategies flexibly.