The latest merger in the development NGO sector has created one of the largest agricultural international nongovernmental organizations in the United Kingdom and Ireland — and the secret to making it work, it seems, was simple.
“If there are three things to getting it right, it’s communication, communication, communication,” said Ray Jordan, CEO of Gorta Self Help Africa, which was formed in July by uniting two Irish agricultural development organizations: Gorta and Self Help Africa.
He’s speaking from experience. The latest merger is the third joining of forces that Jordan, former CEO of Self Help Africa, has overseen in seven years. In 2008, Harvest Help and Self Help Development International joined to form Self Help Africa; in 2011, that organization took charge of parts of U.K.-based NGO Africa Now, including an ethical business services division that became a rebranded subsidiary of SHA.