NFA has adapted the business incubation model which is a common practice in the business sphere to support start-ups. NFA provides this incubation service to new organizations that are led by persons with lived experience of statelessness. Currently, NFA is providing such service to Citizenship Affected People’s Network (CAPN) in Nepal. This is timebound support aimed at helping the organization grow and get to a position where they can scale themselves. The institution incubation entails the following services for the incubated organizations:
- Project Implementation: NFA provides the necessary support and guidance to the staff members of the incubated organization to implement their ongoing projects. For the period of the incubation NFA may take the necessary decisive actions with the informed consent of the organization regarding the implementation. This also includes training the staff members on project management and on using different tools of project management. NFA recently supported the production and broadcasting of the podcast ‘State of Statelessness’ and is currently the implementation of their outreach and capacity strengthening project.
- Operational support: Based on the need of the incubated organization, NFA provides operational support to the incubated organizations depending on their need and capacity to undertake the responsibilities themselves. This support includes overseeing the daily operations of the organization; preparing organizational policies; ensuring the legal and financial compliance of the organization; undertaking or supporting the financial planning, and training the staff members on organizational operations. Currently, NFA provides all the aforementioned support to CAPN.
- Mentorship and Guidance: To ensure that the incubated organization does not become dependent on NFA, NFA lists out certain activities that do not require NFA’s active participation. NFA only provides mentorship and guidance to the staff members of the organization to implement such activities. NFA helped CAPN plan the podcast and also helped them record the first two episodes of the podcast. For the rest eight episodes, NFA has only been providing necessary guidance and has refrained from interfering with the recording and editing process.
- Planning and Fundraising: New organizations generally have limited resources and capacity, and have little bandwidth to focus on long-term strategic planning. NFA organizes workshops and meetings with the organization to understand the needs and interests of the organization members and help them prepare their long-term strategic plan and advocacy roadmaps. NFA organized the strategic planning workshop for CAPN and is currently supporting them to prepare their strategic plan. NFA also supported CAPN to apply for funds and as a result have received certain funds through the support.
- Managing emotional labor: Persons with lived experience of statelessness are often requested to share their lived realities to educate other stakeholders working on statelessness. This results in them spending their emotional labor and reliving their lifelong trauma. NFA provides support to the incubated organization in documenting stories, making use of allies and persons with learned experiences, and educating the stakeholders through NFA in an attempt to manage their emotional labor. NFA has been supporting CAPN’s founder member Deepti Gurung by documenting her story and mentoring their Program Officer (who is not someone with lived experience) to take on responsibilities that require more emotional labor from Deepti.
Lived Experience Leadership Model
- Lived Experience Young Fellows Program: NFA and CAPN are jointly organizing a six-month fellowship program for stateless persons or persons with lived experience of statelessness in Nepal. A young fellow has been placed in an organization of their choosing to gain the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience in their preferred sector of work.
- Lived Experience Leaders Program: NFA has designed a year-long leadership development program for two senior staff members of CAPN. NFA has prepared a customized program for each individual.