Guide to Strategic Planning Process for a National Response to HIV/AIDS: Strategic Plan Formulation (UNAIDS, 1998, 32 p.): I. Introduction to strategic plan formulation: I.2 Different options of strategic plans: (introduction...)

Guide to Strategic Planning Process for a National Response to HIV/AIDS: Strategic Plan Formulation (UNAIDS, 1998, 32 p.)

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I. Introduction to strategic plan formulation

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I.1 Why formulate a strategic plan?

I.2 Different options of strategic plans

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Example: Philippines National HIV/AIDS Strategy

I.3 Using this module

I.4 Who will use the finished strategic plan?

II. Responsibilities

II.1 Overall responsibility

II.2 Strategic plan formulation team

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Example: Members of a working group on youth

II.3 Administration of strategic plan formulation

II.4 Scheduling of steps

III. Formulating a strategic plan

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What is a strategy?

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Example: Multi-initiative strategy for increasing condom use

III.1 Re-examine the national guiding principles

III.2 Confirm priority areas for a national response

III.3 Set objectives in priority areas

III.4 Develop strategies to reach objectives in priority areas

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Example: Turning an obstacle into an opportunity

III.5 Develop a strategic framework for the national response

III.6 Examine the strengths and weaknesses of proposed strategies

III.7 Revise objectives and strategies where necessary

III.8 Plan flexible management and funding to ensure support for emerging strategies

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Example: Strategy formulation for one priority area: Reducing HIV transmission among young people.

IV. Producing a strategic plan document

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IV.1 Example: Outline of a strategic plan

IV.2 Circulating the strategic plan

IV.3 Using the final strategic plan

V. Next steps: Resource mobilization, operational plans, implementation

VI. Bibliography

Back Cover

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Whereas all strategic plans have a set of characteristic features in common, there are several options to planning strategically, according to the level of detail and operationalization:

A strategic plan may be conceived as a general framework for implementing the national response. Such a strategic framework sets fundamental principles, broad strategies, and the institutional framework, and is the basis for a subsequent formulation of more operational priority projects and programmes.

In the second option, the strategic plan would not only include the strategic framework as defined above, but also the more detailed strategies necessary to change the current situation, and the successive intermediate steps needed to reach the stated objectives.

The “strategic plan for action” - the third option - takes the level of detail still a step further: the priority actions contain not only operational plans, but also detailed alternatives for each strategy, to overcome potential obstacles.

To illustrate the first option, the following example lists the guiding principles contained in the Philippine National HIV/AIDS Strategy, as it was published after many months of consultations with the agencies involved in the national response.

While this first option provides a valid framework for subsequent planning of priority strategies, it remains quite theoretical, and may be less conducive to immediate action. The third option would require sophisticated techniques and highly specialized human resources. The option implicitly adopted in the present module is the second one, where a strategic framework is defined as well as a number of priority strategies.