Amanda Younge Hayes is executive member (director) of Amanda Younge cc, a consulting firm providing services primarily in the fields of strategic planning, facilitation, public process management, project management, evaluation and training.
Amanda is a strategic planner with a wide range of experience in facilitating multi-stakeholder strategic planning workshops and processes. Amanda uses a range of methods to ensure that planning processes are enjoyable, participatory and meaningful to all participants, and have practical, focused and clear results.
“I work both as an individual and with teams of associates, depending on the contract’s needs. I have extensive international and local experience, and specialist knowledge of local government, strategic planning, land-use planning, integrated development planning (IDP), biodiversity conservation and community development. More recently I have become interested in monitoring and evaluation, both to improve strategic planning and evaluate its effectiveness.
“I am a highly-skilled generalist facilitator, working comfortably with stakeholders from a range of different backgrounds, including high-level government officials, the private sector, NGOs and rural communities. I have strong strategic conceptual abilities, excellent report-writing skills and a proven ability to achieve high levels of stakeholder consensus and commitment to implementation.
“Amanda Younge cc was established in 2000. I manage both multi-stakeholder strategic planning processes, and in-house strategic planning workshops. In consultation with the client, I design and run the strategic planning workshop, involving key stakeholders. On the basis of the agreements at the workshop, I prepare the Strategic Plan.
“A key focus has been on preparing Strategic Plans for Government and Public Entities, conforming to National Treasury Guidelines for Strategic Plans and Annual Performance Plans. For government agencies, an integral part of this process is developing the indicators and targets for the Annual Performance Plan, which is also done in a participatory manner.
“I have also facilitated large-scale regional conservation planning initiatives for WIO-Lab, the Peace Parks Foundation, the Succulent Karoo Ecosystem Profile , the East African Marine Ecoregion Strategy, the Eastern Cape Biodiversity Conservation Plan, and the WIOMSA Strategic Plan.
“Prior to establishing Amanda Younge cc, I coordinated the CAPE project, a participatory strategic plan to conserve biodiversity in the Cape Floral Kingdom (fynbos biome), the smallest of the world’s six floral kingdoms, on behalf of WWF-South Africa.
“From 1994 –7 I held the post of Director of Planning in the City of Cape Town, and was responsible for land use and development planning for the municipal area. Prior to that I had worked as both a planner and manager in the City for ten years, in environmental, statutory, landuse and development planning.
“I am a founder member of Development Action Group, a housing and development NGO active in the Western Cape since 1986. My (volunteer) work in DAG focussed on supporting communities resisting removals, particularly those facing removals through the implementation of apartheid structure plans.
“In the early 1990’s I coordinated the Western Cape Local Government Commission of the African National Congress (on a volunteer basis), and was closely involved in the transition from apartheid to democracy in local government in South Africa, and in the Cape Metropolitan Area in particular.
“I have a background in social research, having conducted a survey into living conditions and housing needs in Cape Town in the early 1980s).”