January 15, 2026By Momentum

When Strategy Meets Upheaval

What does it take for a newly designed strategy to hold when a country enters sudden political upheaval?

That question moved from theory to reality in September 2025, when GenZ-led protests erupted across several regions and the capital in Madagascar, sparking a national political transition. Just days earlier, the UNDP team, guided by its Resident Representative and Deputy, had wrapped a five-month effort to recalibrate its strategic direction and organizational structure.

The timing was almost cinematic, and the question was urgent: would any of the work still stand?

We believe that the answer to this reveals something important. Not just about the adaptability of UNDP’s team in Madagascar, but about the power of combining bold visioning with grounded, systems-based organizational alignment.

A system under strain

Over the course of 2024, the Madagascar team became increasingly aware of a need to rethink its positioning: Demand for UNDP support was rising, spanning governance, institutional reform, energy access, and climate resilience. But so were the pressures: shrinking resources, an increasingly crowded partner landscape, and signs of internal fragmentation.

As one programme analyst put it in an early workshop:We’re doing a lot. But are we doing the right things – and are we doing them together?

That simple but poignant question captured the core of our assignment. This wasn’t about reorganization for its own sake. It was about guiding a transition from a busy but scattered operation to one grounded in shared intent: strategically focused, financially sound, and operationally coherent. In a country facing widespread poverty, unreliable electricity, and chronic drought and food insecurity, the stakes were far from abstract.

Method meets mindset

From June to October 2025, we supported the UNDP Madagascar team through two interlocking phases: the first, visioning phase clarified future positioning, surfaced high-value impact areas, and designed four integrated flagship portfolios as the new backbone of the strategy. The second, optimization phase translated that vision into a fit-for-purpose structure, improved internal processes, and modeled delivery capacity and financial sustainability.

We carefully calibrated the methodology for this assignment. In hindsight, though, it wasn’t just the tools that made the process distinct (though those were robust): strategic niche mapping, functional capacity scans, partner perception reviews, and scenario-based financial modeling.

It was the way the team allowed us to draw on their contextual intelligence, and their readiness to own the process. From deep-dive positioning and foresight sessions in Antananarivo to field visits in Ambovombe and Fort Dauphin, the process amplified lived insights, reinforced shared purpose, and generated genuine momentum for change.

Unexpected stress-test

Then, just as the process concluded, the social tensions mounted and the people mobilized. Youth- led protests gained traction. The regime fell.

Could the strategy – just finalized – hold up in this radically new context?

Thanks to earlier, deep reflection and the contextual fluency of the UNDP team, the answer was a confident yes. Social tensions, service delivery gaps, and governance fragilities had already been flagged as strategic entry points, and the flagship portfolios were designed with these dynamics in mind. Rather than pivot, the team accelerated.

Under clear-sighted leadership, UNDP adjusted its rollout prioritizing engagement with civil society and transitional authorities, launching a national transition support offer, and engaging youth on leadership, civic education, human rights, and electoral reform.

A strategy built on foresight didn’t break – it smoothly adapted.

Lessons for resilience

UNDP Madagascar’s journey offers early but compelling takeaways:

Foresight builds resilience. Investing in lessons learned and horizon scanning pays off. A strategy withstands systemic shock, when it is built based on a nuanced and systemic understanding of context and possible futures.

Diagnostics create confidence. Deep analysis strengthens internal resolve and donor trust – enabling bold, timely decisions, including the phasing out of lower-impact activities.

Integration unlocks scale. Shifting from dozens of fragmented projects to four flagship portfolios brings strategic clarity, resource alignment, and narrative coherence.

Leadership and ownership drive change. External facilitation might help shape the path, but sustainable transformation requires committed leadership and empowered internal champions – as was the case in Madagascar.

For us – and, we believe, for any organization navigating complexity – this experience affirms that a carefully crafted process of combined visioning and realignment is not just valuable, but a meaningful investment in futureproofing.

Notes

January 8, 2026By Momentum

2025: Lessons we are taking forward

An action-packed year for Momentum: in motion, in learning, and in partnership. We had the privilege of supporting nine organizational realignments, working with two teams on performance and Team Collaborative Frameworks (TCFs), we conducted one UN System Review, and helped shape two full organizational strategies. Each project brought its own complexity – and its own set of deeply moving human stories.

Our engagements stretched from Berlin in the North to Antananarivo in the South, from Baghdad in the East to Rabat in the West. Whilst our experiences were as varied as the cities we visited, a few moments stood out across the physical and operational landscapes:

In January, in Egypt, we found ourselves receiving unexpected applause after a particularly challenging workshop – it wasn’t just recognition for a job completed, it was appreciation for empathy shown, space given, and meaningful listening. A very moving and validating moment for us.
In March, in Jordan, beside the still waters of the Dead Sea, we paused for our first proper annual retreat: two quiet, reflective days that reminded us why we do this work in the first place.
In September, in Madagascar, our work took an unplanned turn when GenZ-led demonstrations broke out just as we wrapped a strategic realignment - forcing a real-time test of the strategy we’d just crafted.

What follows are insights and lessons we’re taking with us from 2025. Not conclusions, but reflections – still evolving, and very much shaped by the people we worked with along the way.

Resilience has a name, and it's the UNDP team in Gaza.

If you’re ever in doubt about the power of human commitment, spend a week with the UNDP team in Palestine. Actually, scratch that – spend 24 months, like they did, facing relentless pressure and insecurity in Gaza and still showing up with grit, grace, and purpose. Working alongside them was nothing short of humbling. They didn’t just move mountains, they shifted water, tents, rubble, and waste. Their resilience taught us more than any playbook ever could: that a deeply shared purpose isn’t just motivational fluff. It’s operational fuel.

Strategy first, structure second: confirmed (with a plot twist in Antananarivo)!

We’ve always believed that strategy should lead structure, but Madagascar confirmed it yet again. We helped UNDP rearchitect their programme and define four flagship portfolios before diving into their organizational realignment, and the sequence paid off. Then, just as we were packing up, GenZ-led protests erupted and the regime fell. Cue: national crisis. But the newly minted strategy held up beautifully. The building blocks were all there, thanks to the foresight and contextual brilliance of the UNDP Madagascar team. Turns out, if you build with foresight, your strategy doesn't shatter when reality takes a hard left.

Scenario planning: still imperfect, but incredibly useful.

Yes, the methodology debates rage on. No, scenario planning isn’t a crystal ball. But after guiding scenario work in Sudan (2024) and Gaza (2025), we’ve doubled down on our version of it. It’s helped teams define the possibilities with clarity. Not to predict, but to prepare. Even when the darkest scenarios unfortunately materialized, clients were better equipped to respond. That’s not forecasting. That’s resilience-by-design. And it’s why we’ll keep doing it.

Adaptability is no longer a skill, it’s a condition.

Across 2025, change was not an interruption but a constant. Working with various international teams navigating conflict, political shifts, and resource constraints reinforced a simple truth: there are rarely perfect solutions, only responsible ones. What stood out was the care with which leaders approached difficult decisions; balancing strategic coherence, financial sustainability, and minimizing harm. That discipline, grounded in humanity, is what allows organizations to hold steady in turbulent times.

Leadership: it doesn’t make all the difference. But it makes most of it.

We worked with 14 senior leaders last year. Fourteen different leadership styles. Fourteen different ways of steering through uncertainty. And the difference was palpable — not just in meeting rooms, but in how teams behaved, adapted, and stayed sane. Leadership isn’t everything, but it’s close. The way a leader shows up in a storm shapes how others move. It’s reaffirmed why we’re so drawn to this topic – and I think we may just turn it into one of this year’s blog pieces.

If 2025 reminded us that change is constant, our hope for 2026 is for fewer crises, more room to breathe, and greater stability for the development professionals carrying much of this work forward. Calm, when it comes, creates the conditions for recovery, reflection and better decisions.

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