A Micro study on the Re-
Organization of the Red Cross
Student: Jakob Brandin Tutor: Manuela Nilsson Examiner: Susanne Alldén Semester: VT 20
Subject: Peace and Development
Level: Bachelor degree
Abstract
This study contributes to the understanding of how humanitarian and development non- governmental organizations function and how they improve their work efficiency in order to be able to fulfil their goals. The thesis focus lays on the reorganization of the Swedish Red Cross and especially their new management project Framtid2020. The project’s purpose is to change the structure of the organization and hopefully make the organization more united. The thesis is using a qualitative method with 7 semi-structured interviews and two different theoretical perspectives to be able to analyze the finding as broad as possible. The interviewees are 7 different people, with different perspectives, experience and thoughts of the project. The findings from the interviews are best to summarize as hope for the Framtid2020 but also a fair for feeling overthrown and not represented.
Framtid2020 is the greatest change done to the Swedish Red Cross since the creation of the organization. The core action of the project is the merging of groups. The merge is a change from decentralization to centralization, all of the Red Cross groups in the same municipality becomes one large centered controlled group. For the case of Växjö, 12 groups will become one group with one board. The two theoretical perspective that the thesis is using is David Lewis theoretical tools of development NGO´s management and Stephen Cummings perspective of centralization and decentralization. The theoretical perspectives analyze what caused the need for a reorganization this large and the material from the interviews provides what the workers see as the cause. The research questions the thesis will answer is, how has the Red Cross functioned in Växjö before the new strategy was designed, why did the Red Cross decide to undergo major structural changes, what does the new strategy look like and how have the Red Cross workers responded to the new strategy.
Keywords: The Red Cross, The Swedish Red Cross, Framtid2020, Centralization and Decentralization, Non -governmental organizations, Reorganization.
Index
Chapter 1: Introduction, research problem and relevance... 4
Objective ... 5
Research questions: ... 6
Chapter 2: Literature review ... 6
Chapter 3: Theory ... 11
3.1 Lewis theoretical tools on how a development non – Governmental organization is managed. ... 11
3.2 Centralization and decentralization explained by Stephen Cummings. ... 14
Chapter 4: Method ... 16
4.1 Qualitative method ... 16
4.2 Case study ... 16
4.3 Interviewees ... 17
4.4 Documents on the Framtid2020 project ... 17
4.5 Ethical considerations ... 18
4.6 Limitations and delimitations ... 19
Chapter 5: Background ... 19
5.1. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) ... 19
5.2 The Swedish Red Cross ... 21
Chapter 6: Findings ... 22
6.1. The Red Cross in Växjö until today before the Framtid2020 ... 22
6.2. Problems with Red Cross activities in the past ... 24
6.3 Working with and for the communities ... 25
6.4 Framtid2020 ... 27
6.5. The launching of Framtid 2020, initial reactions and future structural changes ... 29
Chapter 7: Analysis ... 32
Chapter 8: Conclusion and Recommendations ... 37
8.1 Conclusion ... 37
8.2 Recommendations based on the findings ... 38
REFERENCES ... 39
Chapter 1: Introduction, research problem and relevance
This study purpose is to understand how the world’s largest humanitarian and development organization works on its work efficiency. The organization is The Red Cross.
The International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement got created 1863 for the sole purpose to ensure protection and assistance victims of armed conflict and strife.
In 2020 The International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the world largest humanitarian network. The purpose of the organization has expanded since the creation, such as to alleviate human suffering and uphold human dignity(International Committee of the Red Cross, 2020, Who we are).
The Red Cross is one of the world´s biggest organizations and is always trying to improve their organization. There is always room for improvement (International Committee of the Red Cross, 2020, Strategies, outcomes, achievements). This study has chosen to focus on how the Red Cross evaluates its work efficiency and how they work with improving it.
This study focusses on the case of the Swedish Red Cross and the reorganization of the Red Cross. How the Swedish Red Cross strategies are implemented and how it affects the Swedish Red Cross workers.
The literature on how international development NGO's reorganize in order to adapt to the changes in their environment is non-existent. The cause of the non-existence of literature on the subject may be that there has not been enough focus on major reorganizations done to the international development NGO's because the focus is on the NGO purpose and not on the management of the NGO. This thesis will fill the gap on how international development NGO's reorganize and the special case of the Swedish Red Cross.
Why this study is relevant is it provides a local perspective on one of the biggest changes of the Swedish Red Cross and an insider look on the importance of non-state development organizations’ work. The study will interview local workers and get an understanding of how the project will affect the local groups, also how the work has functioned so far, what the problems were, why this reorganization is happening and what the workers think the outcome will be. There hasn’t been any research on the topic because the project started
2020, this is why the results that this study may get can help the organization to get a perspective on how the project goes. This study gives a perspective of what the workers of a merging group think of the project, which may help the Swedish Red Cross with merging groups. The Swedish Red Cross has a structured plan for the project, and they have a theory of possible outcome from the project (Framtid2020(Future2020), Red cross Sweden, 2017). This study also contributes to the importance of understanding how development NGOs adjust to problems and changes in their organizational environment in order to continue their work and improve their efficiency and how these adjustments affect their work. The ability to adapt to the needs of the environment. The perspectives of the donors are also relevant to the study. Why the donors perspective is relevant is because one of the Framtid2020s goals is to be more efficient. The donors donate money because they believe in the organization and what the organization stands for, so if the organization becomes more efficient and united, the donors will hopefully be more satisfied. The because of the merge of the groups, the economy will be more structured because there will only be one group per municipality and not 12, for example. The money will be divided into the areas, but there will only be one economy for the whole group, so the resources will be more equally distributed (Strategisk Inriktning, 2020 – 2023).
Objective
Through interviews with local Red Cross workers in Växjö, this study evaluates the possible impact of the Framtid2020 project on the work of the Red Cross at the micro- level and how the local workers see the project.
This study will research how the local groups will be affected by the project and how they view the project. The people this study can reach out to is the Red Cross, other NGO’s and charitable organizations. The study also reaches out to the mundane people because it will give a local perspective to a project that affects the hole Red Cross organization and may affect another NGO's as well. This study will give a view on how organizations like the Red Cross can reform how the local groups work and hopefully regain the local commitment (Framtid2020(Future2020), Red cross Sweden, 2017).
Research questions:
1. How has the Red Cross functioned in Växjö before the new strategy was designed?
2. Why did the Red Cross decide to undergo major structural changes?
3. What does the new strategy look like?
4. How have the Red Cross workers responded to the new strategy?
Chapter 2: Literature review
The literature review is made up of two parts, one part that is literature on development NGO's adept and reorganization to the needs of their environment. The second parts literature focuses on the Red Cross and the researches done on changes in the organization.
The Red Cross has a lot of material and literature in its archive on what the organization have achieved, and the literature review won't go into detail on the material. Material that is relevant to the case study will be presented in the method chapter below.
The literature on how development NGOs adjust to changes and reorganize to fulfil their goals is very limited. Only very few researchers have taken up aspects of reorganization.
A focus of that research is decentralization and centralization as presented below.
Agenda-Setting in Greenpeace and Amnesty: The Limits of Centralization in International NGOs by Emily Matthews Luxon and Wendy H. Wong. Luxon and Wong study the perspective on how international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) manage their relationships between their international offices and their grassroots offices. This can be simplified as how an international organization can have centralized international offices and still uses the decentralization strategy with grassroots offices. Why Luxon and Wong took the perspective of INGOs internal managing strategy’s was the lack of research on
that shows the campaigns that the international and national offices have run, they also use a case study, but the main material is the dataset. This reflects how national and international offices run a campaign. This reflects a local diversity and a global unity, which leads to reveling how the organization is structured, which is a combined centralized agenda-setting with a decentralized agenda implementation (Luxon. Wong. 2017). Luxon and Wong’s research finds that there is a “measurement gap” for understanding the accountability and effectiveness of INGOs. Luxon and Wongs declare that if there will be a more complete reaches on INGOs, there must include attention on internal organization and structural diversity (Luxon. Wong. 2017). Because INGOs have different strategy’s depending on the level of offices as Luxon and Wong mentioned. To fully understand how an INGO is managed, the organization's relationships between the offices need to be research to get as broad as possible (Luxon. Wong. 2017).
Luxon and Wongs study is the only existence study on reorganizations in development NGOs, below there is two different examples where business organization reorganize.
Kimbu and Ngoasong have taken a social network theory perspective on tourism development in Sub- Sharan Africa, mainly Cameroon. The purpose of the study is to understand how stakeholder in the tourism industry is implementing tourism policy in Cameroon. The policy is a tourism development that is centrally coordinated but has a decentralized network that reaches out to the representative (Kimbu. Ngoasong. 2013).
The challenge for tourism in Sub- Sharan Africa is to make a system that mobilizes the stakeholder and make the tourism more effective. Kimbu and Ngoasong declare that centralization and decentralization both have good benefits but that there are different strategies.
“Centralization will ensure better coordination and policy formulation. Decentralization will improve stakeholder participation and policy implementation." (Kimbu and Ngoasong, 2013, P 236)
Kimbu and Ngoasong quote can be simplified as the centralized policy will form and coordinate how tourism will be more efficient, and the decentralized perspective will implement the centralized policy and to let the stakeholders participate more in the tourism
development (Kimbu. Ngoasong. 2013). Kimbu and Ngoasong will have key informant semi-structured interviews with the tourism industry stakeholders as their main sources of material. The conclusion of the study is that the tourism development needs to the creation of a mobilization of the existing tourism network into a more active system that leads to more ensured participation by all the stakeholder in formulating and implementing the tourism development policies. Kimbu and Ngoasong declare that the key solution is not a full decentralized, controlled system because it has failed to successfully create such a system that is needed for tourism development. Kimbu and Ngoasong suggest that their quote is the best option from the material perspective. Having a centralized system that coordinate and formulate the policy and then have a decentralized system that implements and let the stakeholders participate in the implementation process of the policies (Kimbu.
Ngoasong. 2013).
The decentralization of the forestry sector field-based studies in India was done in 1996 by Mary Hobley, and the purpose of the study is understanding if the change to a decentralized forestry sector were the right solution. Hobley looks on the formal and the non – formal institutions, and the decentralization have impacted the institutions. Hobley declares that the state has increased power at the village level because of the decentralization. This is because the control over the forestry sector is based on a local level and not on a centralized level (Hobley. 1996). The cause that made the forestry factor in changing their strategy from centralization to decentralization was resources control and that the management would be more efficient, equitable and make the factor more sustainable. Since the study was done at the beginning of the process, there are no results on the outcome of the change of strategy (Hobley.1996). Since Hobley have already since change because of the decentralization such as the gained power by the state in the village level. Hobley states,
“Above all, what has become apparent from this review of literature and experience is that there is no one solution, but rather a continuum of institutional arrangements and levels of abstraction at which they operate.”(Hobley, 1996, P 46)
To simplify Hobleys statement as there are many factors that make a strategy such as decentralization work. There is no simple way to fix the problem; there are different solutions that need different factors to work. The decentralization makes it easier for the forestry institutions to govern and control the forest because they work on a local level and not a centralized level (Hobley. 1996).
The literature on centralization and decentralization is mainly focused on bigger operations such as tourism in Sub – Sharan Africa and how tourism is affected by the different strategies. Luxon and Wong's study is the study that has most in common with this thesis, and that is because both are studying NGO's. Luxon and Wong take the perspective on an international level and how the international level keeps its relationship with its national offices. This thesis is focused on how the relationship between the national offices and how the gets affected by changing from a decentralized strategy to a centralized strategy. There is no literature on the subject of a national level only such as the thesis, the cause of this is that the focus is mainly on the international level and how the organization governs on that level. Luxon and Wong mentioned that there is nearly no research done on the relationship between international offices and national offices in the perspective of centralization and decentralization. The cause makes be the "measurement gap" that Luxon and Wong discussed. This thesis will add the perspective on how the workers of an NGO sees the change of strategy and how the national level is affected by decisions made by the international offices in the country.
The Red Cross, as one of the largest international NGOs, has attracted much attention;
however, very little research has ever looked into the organization’s efforts to change, reorganize or improve its efficiency. Here are some examples of researches that have been done on the Red Cross efforts to change.
An article on how the American Red Cross uses social media where the author interviewed 40 individuals from the American Red Cross. The interview's purpose was to see how the Red Cross uses social media to build relationships and communicate with volunteers, communities and the media. This chapter can reflect some part of this study by looking at the perspective of how social media can help an organization to gain more volunteers and followers. For example, the Red Cross uses social media to show where the second-hand
shop is open and how you can become a member easy just by clicking on the internet. The Red Cross also uses the social media a channel for showing their work for the society, for example now with the Corona pandemic, there is a lot of pictures or text from the Red Cross that says how to act and how they can help you if you are in need. This can lead to a lot of positive reputation for the Red Cross ( Public Relations Review, 2011).
In 2013, Carol McBryde Wheeler, Penny Pennington Weeks and Diane Montgomery wrote an article on how the leaders of the Red Cross responded on disastrous news ( Carol McBryde Wheeler, Penny Pennington Weeks and Diane Montgomery, 2013 ). The studies purpose was understanding how the workers of the Red Cross approached their leaders with disastrous news. The study was resulting in the discovery of four distinct leader prototypes between the Red Cross workers. The four prototypes are Show Me the Way;
See Me, Then Tell Me; Stand Beside Me; Please Understand Me. This article focusses on the dynamic between workers and their leaders and how the workers deal with their bosses.
This article can be reflected on this study by looking on the group dynamic perspective and how people change their behaviour from how their bosses are (Carol McBryde Wheeler, Penny Pennington Weeks and Diane Montgomery, 2013).
Lutz Schrader and Tobias Denskus (2010) have made an article on the debate on NGOs' legitimacy. The article discusses how economic globalization control the global community. Schrader and Denskus explain the debate by discussing that the actor with the most convincing arguments and concepts are the winners and not the most powerful actors.
The winners are those organizations that are the most successful in the debate and altercation of globalization, according to Schrader and Denskus. This article focusses on how the roles of globalization have changed because of how the world works. To make a parallel to this study, there is a similarity in how organizations change because of how the world changes. For example, the Swedish Red Cross need to reorganization their organization which this study is focusing on the article focuses on how the global community have changed because how globalization works differently (Schrader L., Denskus T, 2010).
Whatever little that has been written so far on the Farmtid2020 project will be explained in more detail in the methods chapter below.
Chapter 3: Theory
The study will use two different theoretical perspectives; the first perspective is David Lewis theoretical tools on how a development non – Governmental organization is managed, and the second is Centralization and Decentralization explained by Stephen Cummings. The two theoretical perspectives will give different perspectives on the findings in the analyses chapter.
3.1 Lewis theoretical tools on how a development non – Governmental organization is managed.
David Lewis’ (2001) theoretical tools of the management of non - governmental development organizations and focus on the chapter NGO relations with the communities (Lewis 2001, p. 146). The categorizing tools focus on how NGOs manage their relationships with the communities and how the NGOs empower and let the communities participate. Categorizing tools that help to analyze relationships between NGOs and communities. Lewis provides three categorizing tools to understand NGO-community relations. The first one then is his division between direct and indirect relations, the second the different roles. The third, internal and contextual issues that provide management difficulties. Example, from that he derives the theoretical perspective that direct relations, expressed through measurable acts such as services that are focused on the needs of the community, are conducive to a good and cooperative relationship.
The direct relationships perspective works with the communities direct and have project directly with the communities, for example, how the Red Cross worked with refugees and to integrate them into the society. The indirect perspective is when NGOs works more distant, for example representing the communities in advocacy works (David Lewis, 2001, 146).
Lewis (2001) has made a model for which role the NGO's plays in society (David Lewis, 2001. 109). There are four different roles: service provider, advocates, innovators and
monitoring agencies. The different roles have functions. The service providers help directly when there is a need for help. They provide services such as goods, resources and special services to people in need. For example, NGO's that are operating healthcare services, micro-credit extension and educations programs that are non – formal. The advocate's purpose is making the government support the NGOs' goals by supporting with funds and other resources. For example, make institutions and individuals to wider change which can result in the government to change their education policy or urge the government to debt relief impoverished nations, for example. The innovators guide and help societies to understand how things can be different, for example, understanding human rights and your rights (David Lewis, 2001, 109). The model's purpose is to categorize NGO's mainly in the development sector, but it can be applied to other NGO's as well (David Lewis, 2001, 110).
The role from the model that is the most direct and visible is the service delivery, from Lewis perspective. The service delivery role is separated into three main roles. The first role is to create an agency or group that delivers the service directly to the people. The second role is to support and help the already existing public service delivery systems by supporting with resources and help to sustain all the need that the systems need. The third part is that the NGOs can work with other service providers such as other NGO's, the state or other institutions (David Lewis, 2001, 109).
How the tools can be applied on the findings can be done by looking on the interviewee's answer on what has caused the need of a reform of the Red Cross and how the new reform will change the organization. This will be done by understanding how the organization chose to reform on what caused the change by looking on how the Red Cross worked as a model role if the Red Cross fulfils the criteria for their model roles.
Lewis discusses that the communities respect and support to the NGO's depends a lot on the results, and if the communities see that the NGO's helps works directly. This results that's the commitment to NGO's depend a lot on how well the NGO's adept to the communities' problems and how they handle changes in the society (Lewis, NGO's and the management of relationships.).
Lewis perspective how an NGO can be managed from the perspectives of three different cases, Lewis (2001) have chosen to focus on examining the key management challenges faced by development non-governmental organizations. Lewis is looking at internal and contextual issues. The NGO world is constantly changing to fulfil the needs of the societies, which makes them part of managing a constantly changing organization hard.
Lewis is using three different examples to explain how NGOs can be managed. One example is the NGO BRAC (The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee). BRAC is formed as bureaucratically structured NGO that works closely with the government.
BRAC mirrors aspects of how the government and the private sector structure and manage their organization. For example, large scale work and formal bureaucracy. Because BRAC is working so close to the government, the organization take inspiration from the government how to manage an organization, but BRAC is doing the business and public prevailing in their own way.
The second example is the NGO Jute Works which is also located in Bangladesh. Jute Works purpose is to provide a marketing outlet for low-income women handicrafts producers; the targeted buyers is northern based solidarity-based NGOs and their supporters. In 1990 the handicraft market got more competitive and the rise of the new ethically driven movement "fair trade". This caused the organization to reorganization the management of the organization and how they would follow the "fair trade" guidelines and how to keep up with the other organizations. Jute Work started to take inspiration from the private sector for new skills, such as product design, marketing and quality control.
The third example is how fast the international level of the NGO world is changing.
Vetwork UK is an NGO that was created by an activist in the United Kingdom with the purpose of improving animal health in low-income society in poor countries. It started as an information organization on the internet run by the activities that were dedicated volunteers as well. After a year, a similar organization got created in Sudan; this was the start of creating a network that will support the initiative of this kind around the globe.
Lewis mentions how the management of NGOs takes inspiration from the local governments and the private sector, but there is not a guide how to manage an NGO because it depends on where it is located, the purpose of the organization and the relations to the private sector and the local government (Lewis. David. 2001). Lewis declares that there are two perspectives on how NGO's can be managed. One way is to take inspiration
from sectors and how they are managed, for example, look at the business sector and how the companies are managed and apply it to the NGO's. The second way is to seek and develop their own distinct way of management by experiment with models and go outside the existing boundaries of the western templates of organizations. Lewis state that this is a far stretched idea and, as well as not being a complete and functional model (Lewis.
David. 2001).
3.2 Centralization and decentralization explained by Stephen Cummings.
The second analytical tool chosen for this thesis is Stephen Cummings perspective of Centralization and decentralization, which he in 1995 wrote an article on and how NGO's are affected by the two strategies. Cummings using a "deconstructive" perspective on the two perspectives. The "deconstructive" approach is chosen because it organizes and simplifies the strategies by breaking them down to what the purpose of the strategies is and how it will be achieved (Cummings.S.1995). The "deconstructive" approach is created by the France philosopher Jacques Derrida (Derrida. 1976). Cummings purpose of the article is to address how different "external" environmental forces affect how effective the different strategies is (Cummings.S.1995).
"This paper highlights the tension between the poles of centralization and decentralization, and proposes a theory to the effect that while "pendulum swings"
towards one or other pole may be sparked by environmental changes and developments, the tension between the two is at the same time inherent to organizational dynamics by being inhered within the terms themselves, and consequently within each human being." ( Cummings, 1995, 103).
The quote is used to clarify what the purpose of Cummings paper is, how the two different strategies get affected by different factors and why one is more effective than another because of the factors (Cummings.S.1995).
Centralization can be described as a head-controlled strategy, which is that the centre of the organization makes all of the decisions and decide how the organization will pursue.
For example, project Framtid2020 is a centralization project. There will be one group for each municipality, and that group takes the decisions and makes plans for the organization in the municipality (Cummings.S.1995).
Decentralization is the opposite of centralization; it is a group-controlled strategy. It can be described as a body-controlled strategy; all of the groups work together and is having smaller responsible areas. This would lead to having more groups then if it was centralized.
It focuses on covering more areas and having smaller groups then having a big group that is covering a controlled area.
Centralization and decentralization relevance are highly affected by external factors says, Cummings. The factors that Cummings is referring to is changes in society and how the organization handles the changes. For example, is the modernization of technology such as social media and easier ways to reach out to people. Today you can reach out to all of the members and followers just by writing a message from your phone. Cummings discus also the perspective on the environment and how it affects the two strategies. Since the evolution of technology, the need for physical meetings has declined because followers and members can see what the organization is doing by looking at its social media platforms. Cummings mention the aspects of how the people that work for the organization affects the two strategies. For example, the workers need to adjust to the needs of the societies and need to adapt to changes and how it affects the organization. For example, some organization struggles with getting new board members to reach out to their local communities. A centralized organization focus mainly on one specific place, for example, Växjö city or the specific part of the city. A decentralized organization is made up of smaller groups that have on a specific place that is focused, but the groups work together on a bigger project as well (Cummings.S.1995). The two strategies of efficiency depend on what the purpose of the organization is. If the purpose is to reach out to a lot of people that are spread out in different places, the decentralized approach is better because it focusses on covering a larger area. If the organization have a more direct focus plan, the centralization approach is more efficient. The most common approach for NGO's is the decentralization approach because it can reach out to a broader area and can help the organization to reach out to more places (Cummings.S.1995). Cummings wrote his paper
in 1995, and because the evolution of technology there can be a change of which approach is most efficient.
Chapter 4: Method
The method chapter is arranged in different parts. There is one part on the method, one on the case study and why Växjö, there is one on the interviewees and one that discusses the different document that mentions the Framdtid2020 project.
4.1 Qualitative method
The study will use a qualitative method because the study will use interviews and depends on the data that the interviews gather. The interviews will be semi-structured, which will follow an interview plan but will give some space for discussion. Why this method has been chosen for the study is because the studies objective is to get the perspective of the local workers, which this method resolves with. The qualitative method can be explained as the method that looks more on the words then statistics and numbers. This is because the method takes the perspective on how the theoretical perspectives and the research are comparable (Alan, Bryman, 2016). Bryman explains a qualitative method ss content and theory focused method. The result of the thesis depends on what source of the material is used and what theoretical perspective is used to analyze the content (Alan, Bryman, 2016).
4.2 Case study
The case study is based on interviewing staff from different Red Cross groups in the Växjö municipality. Why the study has chosen to interview staff from all of the different groups is to hopefully get more perspectives on the Framtid2020 project. The groups are different from each other because there are different staff, and the groups have different work projects and events. There is even a difference in economic perspective between the groups and on how they work. For example, there is one group that is a youth Red Cross group which give a different perspective from the other groups. The case study uses a semi- structured interview; this is because it gives the interviewees place to discuss its perspectives on the Framtid2020 project. The interviews are structured by an interview guide. The Växjö Red Cross groups got chosen because there is a great diversity between
them, such as some are located in the city and some in the countryside. The first aid group has only one purpose, and that is to teach people first aid, other groups have many purpose and projects such as the Växjö Red Cross group. The diversity between the groups leads to a broader perspective because the different groups have different ways to work and have volunteers that have a different experience. To clarify, Växjö became the case study because there are well-established groups that have different perspectives and that Framdtid2020 will affect them a lot because there are 12 different groups.
A case study method was chosen because it can be applied on a municipality such as Växjö. Because Framtid2020 does a municipality plan, the thesis can do a study on a specific municipality and use interviews to understand how the municipality will be affected by Framtid2020.
4.3 Interviewees
The case study material is based on seven different interviewees. The age between the interviewees was between 25 to 70. Three of the interviewees was paid workers that worked for the Red Cross full; the other four was board members of different rang such as president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. How many years the interviewees had worked for the Red Cross was between 1 year to 50, the longest paid worker had worked for the Red Cross for 32 years, and the longest volunteer had worked for 50 years. One of the interviewees had to change Red Cross group from Kalmar Red Cross group to a Växjö Red Cross group. The interviewees got contacted via email and threw contacts such as the tutor for the thesis and the interviewees themselves. Three of the interviews was done via personal meetings, and the other four was done over skype and telephone. The average time for an interview was around 30 to 45 minutes. Four of the interviewee worked at groups close to the city, and the other two worked at countryside groups.
4.4 Documents on the Framtid2020 project
One of the texts that discuss the Framtid2020 is the discussion document from the leader group of the Framtid2020 project. The document discusses the project and how it can help the local groups and the hole Red Cross organization(Strategisk Inriktning, 2020 – 2023).
The second document that further, the discussion is the strategic review 2020 - 2023. The review is established at the national conference of the Red Cross 2019. The review
discusses how the local groups will unite and create the kommunkrets before 2023. The review purpose is to inform the workers of the Red Cross how the Framtid2020 may affect the organization and how to help each other under the process (Strategisk Inriktning, 2020 – 2023). 2016 the Red Cross had another strategic review on how they would work as an organization, the review was made for 2016 - 2019. The review is established at the national conference of the Red Cross 2015, with the purpose of under 2016 -2019 the Swedish Red Cross will work for helping people in crisis and need. To support the people in their homes but also all around the world, and also to prevent people from affected by the crisis. 2015 is the same year the Framtid2020 project first discusses. The review from 2016 - 2019 is the difference from the review from 2020 - 2023 because the first review focuses on how the organization can help society and people around them. The second review focus on how the organization can improve and change (Strategisk Inriktning - 2016 - 2019(Strategic review 2016 - 2019), Red Cross Sweden, 2015).
The Swedish Red Cross has published a guide on how the local groups will handle the process of becoming one big group per municipality. The guide uses six steps to guide the groups to start the process of merging and to successfully keep the group working after the merging. The guide also provides different templates to help the groups with the merging. Example being a template for how the board meetings should be held, one template on how to register the new group and how they should be formed (Guide for merging of Red Cross groups, 2020,).
4.5 Ethical considerations
The ethical considerations are structured so that the interviewees are anonymous, and the study will uses quotes from the interviews and not the whole interview. The study does not tell which group the interviewed is representing because there are only 12 groups in Växjö, and the staff of the groups are not big. The different groups are outlined in the background chapter because the groups have a different perspective. For examples, youth group, student group, smaller and bigger groups.
4.6 Limitations and delimitations
Framtid2020 started 2020 and are planned to be finished in 2023 because the project is active there will not be any results on how the project went and if it was finished in 2023 as planned.
Because of the 12 different Red Cross subgroups in Växjö, it was a good limited case.
Because of the diversity between the groups in Växjö, the case contributes to different perspectives.
Chapter 5: Background
5.1. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
The creation of the Red Cross idea happened in 1859 by a young Swiss man named Henry Dunant. Dunant got the inspiration from the bloody scenes of a battle in Solferino were 40 000 men where dead or lying on the deathbed where the wounded lacked medical attention and recourses. Dunant started to organize the local people to aid the soldiers wound and fed them. After that, he went to the government and called for creation for national relief organization that would assist the wounded in the war. This action laid the ground for the future of the Geneva Conventions. Dunant published a book (A Souvenir of Solferino) where he called for the help to improve the care for the wounded soldiers in wartime (The international committee of the Red Cross, History, 2020.).
In 1863 five men from Geneva, including Dunant set up the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded. Later the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded become the International Committee of the Red Cross, the emblem of the organization is an inverse model of the Swiss flag. Under that year, 12 governments adopted the first Geneva Convention, which was a milestone in the history of humanity, which offered care to the wounded and made medical services "neutral on the battlefield. The purpose for the creation of the organization was to ensure protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and strife through direct actions around the world and encourage societies to respect the international humanitarian law (IHL) (The international committee of the Red Cross, History, 2020).
At the beginning of the organization, their role was to coordinate people to support the humanitarian law and to gather resources that could help the wounded and strafed.
Gradually the role of the organization became more involved with the field operations because of the need for neutral intermediary help (The international committee of the Red Cross, History of the ICRC, 2016).
The Red Cross has seven fundamental principles that all of the Red Cross organizations need to follow. The principles are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality (The international committee of the Red Cross, The seven fundamental principles).
During the first world war, the ICRC established a Central Prisoners of War Agency in Geneva. Its purpose was to restore the links between the captured soldiers and their families. The ICRC also acted against the use of mustard gas in the war by renouncing it.
They undertook an unprecedented mobilization to run ambulance services and help the wounded on the battlefield and the hospitals (The international committee of the Red Cross, History of the ICRC, 2016).
After the first world war, the role of the Red Cross changed. First, they founded the League of Red Cross Societies with the purpose to become a larger organization, support for the Movement and to broader the coordinating. 1929 the ICRC helped government to adopt the new Geneva Convention for the purpose to provide greater protection for prisoners of war (The international committee of the Red Cross, History of the ICRC, 2016). At the outbreak of the second world war, the ICRC objects were to assist and protect victims on all sides of the war. The ICRC and the League shipped relief supplies all around the globe to help the victims of the war and prisoners. The ICRC helped family members around the globe by helping them with exchanging messages between the family members that were separated from the family. The ICRC sees the second world war also as their biggest failure because there were not able to stop the Holocaust and other persecuted groups. The lack of specific legal basis and that they were bounded to the Swiss establishment there were unable to take decisive actions or to speak out (The international committee of the Red Cross, History of the ICRC, 2016).
Since 1945 the ICRC has further there work to urge governments to strengthen the international humanitarian law and how the governments respect the law. ICRC worked with conflicts that occurred after the second world war starting with the Israel and Palestine conflict. In 1977 the ICRC adopted two Protocols to the Conventions, the first protocol on international armed conflicts and the second to internal ones, which where is a major move for the Red Cross (The international committee of the Red Cross, History of the ICRC, 2016).
5.2 The Swedish Red Cross
Sweden was one of the first countries to create a national group of the Red Cross. The Swedish Red Cross got created 1865 only two years after the creation of the international organization. The first actions of the Swedish Red Cross were to start a nurse education and prepare for humanitarian aid in upcoming wars. The Swedish Red Cross focused on helping other Red Cross organization with financial resources, material and manpower (Svenska Röda Korset, Vår historia, 2020).
The Swedish Red Cross established the first aid education in Sweden in 1880. They educated the Swedish government and workers of the Swedish train organization and the Swedish mail service. This education helped to develop the Swedish work protection law.
The organization helped the Swedish government with the creation of institutions such as ambulance plane, school health care, colonies for the children, aid for wounded and tortured and a helpline for the HIV and AIDS affected (Svenska Röda Korset, Vår historia, 2020).
The Swedish Red Cross follows the seven fundamental principles that the International Committee of the Red Cross have created to keep the organization to its purpose (Svenska Röda Korset, Sju grundprinciper, 2020).
Växjö Red Cross organization is made up of 12 different groups. The groups work with different tasks such as homework help for refugees, bicycle training, helping the elder and integrating refugees into society. The groups are depending on volunteers and ideal workers (Svenska Röda Korset Växjö, Växjö rödakorskrets).
Framtid2020 is the Swedish Red Cross first national reorganization since the creation of the national group (Svenska Röda Korset, Vår historia, 2020).
Chapter 6: Findings
6.1. The Red Cross in Växjö until today before the Framtid2020
There are currently 12 Red Cross groups in Växjö municipality fulfilling different functions and providing different activities. Red Cross group Dacke’s purpose is to maintain and work at Kupan. Kupan is a meeting point and a second-hand shop in the city.
Dacke Kupan is the first and biggest Kupa in Sweden. There is the Kupa in almost every municipality that has a Red Cross group that is active. The purpose of the Kupa is to let people donate things that they no longer use and resell it. The money that the Kupa gains is distributed to different projects, activities and to support other Red Cross groups. All workers and board members are volunteers. Some example for projects that the Dacke Kupan is helping with monetary resources is the emergency aid project and other Red Cross groups with financial support because the Red Cross groups work one Saturday in the month at the Kupa. The emergency aid project is one of the bigger projects that almost every group in the Red Cross does. The purpose is to gather resources and money if there would be a crisis in the future the Red Cross will be prepared (Svenska Röda Korset.se 2018).
Red Cross group Berg was created in 1942, and their purpose was to be able to help under the second world war and the aftermath. The focus was on helping the hospitals and other health care projects. Today Berg works mostly with the local community with activities such as Christmas-related activities, music events such as chorus, music café, lottery and giving out Christmas flowers to the elderly. There biggest activities are related to the Christmas time where they invite the village to celebrate advent and then have activities under the event. The Berg Red Cross group is led by 11 volunteer board members, and they have around 80 members (Svenska Röda Korset.se 2018).
Red Cross group Ingelstad got created in 1940 and went under the name of Östra Torsås Red Cross group. In 2013, Östra Torsås changed their name to Ingestad Red Cross group. The group got created because of the great need of help under the second world
war. The group is focusing mostly on working with the local community. They have six main activities, one visitor’s group that focuses on accompanying the elderly and helping them with duties. One activity is fundraising in spring, winter and on smaller occasions.
The money goes to the emergency aid project and the Swedish organization Världens barn;
they work with make the world a better place for the children. The emergency aid project is one of the bigger projects that almost every group in the Red Cross does. The purpose is to gather resources and money if there would be a crisis in the future the Red Cross will be prepared. They have a bread lottery in the spring and winter, and a flee market in August every year where many community members attend. The bread lottery works as a fundraiser and community gathering place. They also work at the Dacke Kupa one Saturday per month. They have an emergency group with the church (Svenska Röda Korset.se 2018). Red Cross group Lammhult’s main purpose is their second-hand shop Kupan. It is the same process as Dacke but smaller and younger than the Dacke Kupan.
Lammhult group was created in 1938 and the Lammhult Kupan in 1995. The group has activities such as first aid education and CPR. The group is also focusing on recruiting more members (Svenska Röda Korset.se, 2018). Red Cross group Nöbbele was created in 1944 with the purpose of helping people with suffering and trauma in the home or in the world. The group’s activities are fundraising for different charities, lottery, and working at the Kupan. They also work with educating people in first aid and activities for the elder such as parties, gymnastic and music sessions (Svenska Röda Korset.se 2018).
Red Cross group Söraby - Tolgs was from the creation in 1939 two separated groups, the merged in 2008 and became one group. The main activity for this group is to help the elderly in Rottne and Söraby by have birthday parties, lottery, meetings and having an autumn party for all the elder. They also have first aid help for kids in Söraby school. They work one Saturday in the month at the Dacke Kupa (Svenska Röda Korset.se 2018). Red Cross group Vederslöv – Dänningelanda (cannot find any information on the group). Red Cross group Växjö has two main projects, integration and social activity.
The integration sector works with projects such as homework help, bicycle training and mentoring. The social activity sector works with helping people that are alone not by chose, such as elderly people. They talk and hopefully make them feel less alone. They help them with grocery shopping and other duties. The Red Cross group Växjö is the biggest group in Växjö, according to members(Svenska Röda Korset.se 2018). Red Cross group Åby – Tjureda is a smaller countryside group that was created in 1949. The group
works mainly with gaining donations to different causes. Every two years, the groups give Åby school first aid and CPR classes (Svenska Röda Korset.se 2018).
Red Cross group First aid has a single purpose, namely to educate people in first aid and CPR. Other Red Cross groups can hire them to educate the groups or other people such as students. You need to be 18 or older to be a part of the First aid group (Svenska Röda Korset 2018). Red Cross group Arken Småland has two main purposes, helping and supporting HIV – positive people and their families with dialogue, practical help in normal life and social activities. The second is to prevent the spread of the disease, with educating people about HIV, AIDS and STI in the social life and sexual (Svenska Röda Korset 2018). Red Cross group Youth Växjö is a Red Cross group made off students from the local university. They work with five projects: homework help, a friend group, information group, action group and students for fair trade (Svenska Röda Korset 2018).
6.2. Problems with Red Cross activities in the past
The interviewees described the time before Framtid2020 as essentially well-functioning but characterized by a lack of connections between the groups. Nearly all of the groups worked alone and separated from each other. For example, interviewee 1 described “the work between the groups is often a one-time thing, or cooperation between groups could occur because the groups worked on the same activities or in the same building”. The size of the groups makes a difference, the bigger groups had larger activities and more resources to apply in the activities. The smaller groups focused more on having fundraising, creating social gatherings for the elder and the people that where alone.
Interviewee 3 describes the activities as a project that try to help society with modern and current problems (Interviewee 3). “Our main activities is to help the elder and the alone people in our local community; we help them by arraign social meetings where they can meeting other elder and alone people." That was just an example from interviewee 4 (Interviewee 4). The activities are changed by the needs of society. For example, when the refugee crisis happened in 2015, the Red Cross focused on helping the refuges intergrade into society with different methods. For an example of methods interviewee, 5s group focused on helping them to learn Swedish and to understand norms and customs; this was achieved with Swedish lessons and social gatherings that the volunteers helped with Swedish customs and norms. The majority of the interviewees have understood that the
organization have problems that will only be addressed through a reorganization of the organization. Some of the problems are the lack of work and unity between the groups, and one of the major problems is that the smaller and countryside groups lack members and boards members. The additional problem is that the groups want to do their activities and do it the same way that they have always done it because the same people have been board members for a long time and now they are too old for being active in the organization which leads to disbanding of the group. Interviewee 5 does not really think that there are any problems that need reorganization and fears that the reorganization can lead to a bigger problem than the current problems. Some example of interviewee 5’s fears is that there will be a centrally controlled board and that the countryside groups will not feel accepted and useful. The interviewee is also mentioning that community members might feel that their countryside groups funds go to the central group and won’t donate because they want to support their local group and not the central group (Interviewee 5).
The major struggle for the groups was to gain new members. The smaller- and countryside groups had the hardest struggle with gaining members and new board members. At its peak, the Swedish Red Cross had around 2200 groups in Sweden, and in 2019 there are around 750 groups left. The cause of the disbanding of groups is that the groups can't get new members and especially new board members that want to lead the group. This has affected the groups in Växjö as well. The groups in Växjö worked with different projects and activities depending on the size of the group, the resources that the group had and where the group is located, as mentioned before(Interviewee 6).
To summarize, the main problem has been that there is a lack of cooperation between the groups and the gap of resources between the groups. The majority of the interviewees thinks that Framtid2020 is necessary for the Red Cross to unite again, but some of the interviewees disagree and see Framtid2020 as a big chance, even though it might cause the smaller group to be disbanded.
6.3 Working with and for the communities
The local communities, members, donor and volunteers are the key actors the Red Cross works with. The activities, projects and the whole organization depends on the connection
with local communities, members, donor and volunteers. All of the interviewees work with the key actors in some way. The majority of the interviewees work with them by organizing activities, such as fundraising for an organization or having celebrations or social meetings for the elderly. Interviewee 5 organizes a social meeting place for people.
All of the interviewees work one Saturday per month at the Red Cross Dacke Kupan.
Dacke Kupan is a second-hand shop and also a social meeting place for everyone.
Interviewees 1 and 2 often work with integration projects such as tutoring and teaching Swedish to people in need (Interviewee 1 and 2). Interviewees 3 and 4 work with helping the elder and giving them a social place to gather and talk about everything between heaven and earth(Interviewee 3 and 4). . “The elder and alone need to feel that they are a part of society, and they need people to talk to because they are often alone. The Red Cross works with helping the elder to feel less alone" (Interviewee 3). The activities that the groups are adjusted to the needs of society, such as meeting points for the elderly and giving them a chance to talk to people or having a second-hand shop that resells everything. The emergency aid project is a prevention project. The focus of the project is that all of the Red Cross groups gather resources and useful materials to stock up and reserve. When the crisis comes, the Red Cross have already gather resources and useful materials. The activities follow the seven fundamental principles of the Red Cross:
humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality.
Funding for the projects is mostly generated by the second-hand shop and donations from Växjö municipality, Länsstyrelsen and other organizations, or donations from private people and the headquarters of the Red Cross (Interviewee 1 and 2).
One of the main reasons for the creation of Framtid2020 is the loss of local commitment.
The loss of commitment can be described as that the members, volunteers and donors do not support the organization as much as they did before the loss of commitment. Examples of losses of commitment are that the countryside groups can't find any new board members because people have lost the interest of the organization. The smaller groups have the problem that no new members join them, which results that they cannot afford activities and project the same way the other groups can. Why the communities lose the interest for the organization is hard to understand. Interviewees 2 and 7 thinks that the problem is that the organization is not adapting to society enough (Interviewee 2 and 7). . The groups can do the same activities and projects that they have done since the beginning they need to
local communities needs of the organization if the organization fill the needs the local commitment will be regained" (Interviewee 4). For example Red Cross group Åby – Tjureda and Red Cross group Söraby – Tolgs, at the creation of the groups they were four different groups because the lack of new board member and support from the local communities they needed to merge or they would be disbanded. The loss of the local committee is also a cause for the reform. The Red Cross groups in Växjö have lost some of its local commitment, for example, that there is fewer than donate and wants to become members(Interviewee 3).
All of the interviewees think that the local commitment will be regained, at least in the long run. Interviewee 5 thinks that when the project is finished that the community will not be affected directly, they will be affected by the new board and how they will control the organization. Interviewee 5 thinks that the new knowledge and experience will lead to regaining the local commitment, but it will take some time before it affects the local community. All of the interviewees agreed that the focus, in the beginning, will be on making the best board for the organization and to help the new board with task and plans to fulfil the needs of the local communities (Interviewee 5).
To summarize, the interviewees think that it will take some time before the community will be affected by the reorganization. Because all of the new knowledge and experience, all of the interviewee are positive that the communities will be affected positively in the long view.
6.4 Framtid2020
This part of the findings chapter is focusing on Framtid2020 contents. What the objectives of the project are and what causes that have made the project necessary.
According to the strategic documents published by the Red Cross, the three main reasons for the reorganization project. The first is that the organization is not at its fullest potential, which keeps it from fulfilling its goals. The organization need to muster national and most importantly, local. The organization need to gather the organization and focus on making the organization easier to maintain. In the majority of the groups, the board members struggle with only working on making the group go around and having it functional when
they actually should do activities, projects and broader their group. The organization need to follow the phase of the society, now there is the social media phase, and the organization need to be available and can even help people through social media. This problem comes from that groups are not available to keep up to society, do all of their activities and projects and maintain the organization at the same time. The organization need to reform so that the groups can do what they are meant to do, which is doing projects and activities for the communities(Strategisk Inriktning, 2020 – 2023).
The second reason is that the organization loses the local commitment from the communities. When the organization was at its peak, there was 2500 Red Cross Groups in Sweden, in 2020 there are 770 groups left. Nearly 50 groups per year get disbanded, and the major cause of the disbanding of groups is that there are not enough volunteers and board members. If not, this problem is done, the organization will only be weaker. The cause of the loss of commitment might be that the organization doesn't full its potential and can't fulfil what the society needs from them. One problem is also that the work between groups is very limited; the organization need to be more united and become one organization and not different groups(Strategisk Inriktning, 2020 – 2023).
The third reason that there is a need for Framtid2020 is that the organization can see indistinct and fragmenting. The problems are that it can be hard for another organization or institution to work with the Red Cross. For example, the municipality can have it difficult to understand how the organization works and functions. This can be a reason why the organization have lost a commitment from the communities because the organization is complicated to work with and as an organization, individuals and volunteers. That's a problem that needs to be fixed according to the Framtid2020 content (Strategisk Inriktning, 2020 – 2023).
The objectives that the project have implemented in the project is based on the reasons that make the project necessary. The main objective that the organization needs to achieve is to start regaining the local commitment and to make it easier to work for the organization. The plan to regain the local committee is to make the organization stronger by making it united. This is done with the merging. The merge will help with making the organization muster, becoming equal in the perspective of resources. To prevent more
communities want from them. The project will adapt to society by using social media and trying to understand which role they need to be to regain the local commitment. One objective is to make the organization easier to work with and even make it easier for the Red Cross workers so they can focus on regaining the local commitment. The projects plan on how they make the work easier is by merging the groups so there are only one big group and some of the workers focus on making the groups functions and the majority of the workers focus on working with projects and activities. The merge will lead to an easier way to work with the organization because there will be one group per municipality and not 12, for example. The Red Cross will be easier to contact because there will only be one group and not different. If all of the workers work as one big group, they will be stronger than they were before. Some risk with the merge is that the smaller groups can feel that the bigger groups take more place, one board for the whole municipality and that some workers can feel less represented. The regular size of a Red Cross board is between 3 – 7, which makes it hard to have twelve people in one board. In order to prevent this, the project has made templates how board meeting should be done, and there will be checkups on the group and if all feel represented and treated fairly(Strategisk Inriktning, 2020 – 2023).
6.5. The launching of Framtid 2020, initial reactions and future structural changes
All of the interviewees agreed that the main goal of the Framtid2020 project is to renew and reorganize the organization to make it more united and structured. Interviewee 7 describes Framtid2020 as a project that focuses on making the organization stronger by making it one big group and making the organization more structured by having one board that plans and structures all activities. The project will help to eradicate the problem that the smaller groups have with disbanding and not finding new board members. The project will also make the organization stronger because when every group works together, they are going to share knowledge and experience with each other, which will result in more knowledge for the organization. Framtid2020 is necessary because the organization does not work together, and there is a gap of resources between the groups. The organization needs to be united. (Interviewee 3,4 and 6).
The first time that the project got discussed happened at the national conference in 2015.
At the national conference 2015, the president from every group attended, and after the conference, all of the presidents for all of the groups in Växjö decided that the needed to create a project group that discussed the possible project. In the start, the majority of the groups were against the project because of the feeling of getting overlooked and controlled by the new board that would be created. There was also a fear of who would be a member of the new board because 12 different boards needed to become 1. Every group felt that they needed to be represented, or they would be disbanded because they would be overlooked and forgotten. With the creation of the project group and that the people got to discuss their thoughts of the project, the majority started to see more positive aspects than negative. After the national conference in 2019, the presidents got a structured plan and guided how the project was planned and how the groups would merge. When all of the board members got to see the plan and guide, they understood the need of the project more.
They understood that the project won’t affect their work as much as they thought, the will still be able to do the things that they have done before but with more help from the other Red Cross workers. Interviewee 3 thinks that the project will help the organization to be more united and efficient, but the old groups can do the same activities and plan that they had before the project. Interviewee 5 think that in the beginning, the new board wants to do new things and try to come up with new projects and plans but after some time all of the old groups can do the same thing that they did before the project. The members, donors and volunteers won't be affected in the beginning because the project affects the board members mostly. In the long run, the members, donors and volunteers will be affected positively because of the newly gained knowledge and experience. This may even lead to more work opportunities because of new projects and more planned activities.
Interviewees 3 and 4 have the perspective of the smaller and countryside groups and interviewees 5, 6 and 7 have the bigger group perspective. Interviewees 3 and 4 are frightened that the smaller and countryside groups may be overlooked by the bigger groups. Interviewees 6 and 7 see that the project is necessary to help the smaller and countryside groups and not the bigger groups. Interviewee 5 discusses how hard the merging will be for the bigger groups and that the smaller and countryside groups will follow their examples. Interviewee 5 is nervous how the economy part will be organized since all of the group economy gone become one economy. "Hopefully there will be a guide on how the economy will be structured and organized," says Interviewee 5. All of
the interviewees agreed that the new board need to represent all of the 12 old groups (All of the interviewees).
To summarize in 2015 was the first time the project got discussed; after that, a project group got created. After the national conference in 2015, the majority of the groups were against the project because of the feeling of being overlooked and that their economy would be controlled by someone else, after the national conference in 2019 the majority of the groups where more positive than negative. The work won't be affected negatively, and the purpose of the project is that the organization needs to be more united.
As a result of the new structure, the groups will be merged into one group. Twelve boards will be one board, and the merger starts with the bigger groups because they have the most workers, resources and activities (interviewee 5. This is because the bigger groups are mostly in Växjö City which makes it easier to merge because they are close to each other, then the bigger groups are more active, and the merger needs to happen fast so that the new group can keep up with the activities and projects. There is also a struggle on which name the new big group will take because the bigger groups want their name for the big group. There is some rivalry between the bigger groups concerning the name issue. The optimal way is to make all of the group's votes on which name they want. Interviewee 5 sees the merger also as very important, because all of the groups need to be satisfied with the new board and how the merger went because if the new board starts with conflicts, it won't be easy to maintain a fair organization. Every group needs to feel equal and treated well. The merger is the toughest part of the project, according to interviewees 3, 5 and 6.
The merger will be done before 2023. In the first phase, the bigger groups have one year to merge, and then the other groups merge with them. The merger is the project’s hardest task because the groups must be equally represented and feel that the new board functions well.
