Regions: Sub-Saharan Africa
"African poverty and stagnation is the greatest tragedy of our time" —Blair Commission Report for Africa, 2005
Despite signs of significant progress, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the world's most pressing development challenge. The challenges are complex and interconnected-from curbing HIV/AIDS and malaria, preventing and resolving conflicts and decreasing corruption to spurring growth, strengthening democratic governance, raising health and education levels and protecting the environment. At the same time there are many promising developments in the region-peace in Sierra Leone, growth in Tanzania, progress against HIV/AIDS in Uganda and a new generation of African leaders taking responsibility for development.
Since the late 1980s SI principals and the SI team have worked in or consulted on projects in 50 Sub-Saharan countries. Working in collaboration with USAID, the development banks, UN agencies and various NGOs, our strategic approach focuses on strengthening key institutions, programs and partnerships that can positively affect people's lives. Since the early 1990s we have worked to promote collaborative, multi-sector approaches to fight HIV/AIDS.
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West Africa/Designing a Program for the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP), USAID, 2007
As part of a long-term plan to combat terrorism in Trans-Saharan Africa, USAID/West Africa in 2005 created a counter-terrorism partnership with governments to promote constructive alternatives to political violence motivated by extremism. The program focused on Niger, Chad, Mali and Mauritania. The regional office requested SI to conduct an assessment and program design in Chad, Niger and Mauritania to work with communities to mitigate destabilizing factors in the region by reaching out to local leaders, youth and Muslim populations in the target countries. With our partner, Eastern Mennonite University, SI fielded a team of two program design, regional and conflict prevention experts to Chad and Niger. After assessing the current situation through a desk review and field study, they developed a design for future TSCTP programming. These products became the basis for subsequent planning and implementation of U.S. Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism efforts.
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Mozambique-Support for Monitoring PARPA II, 2007
Mozambique's Second Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA II) included for the first time a monitoring instrument, the Strategic Matrix, prepared by a joint government and donors team led by the Ministry of Planning and Development (MPD) and involving all line ministries and key agencies. Social Impact built on earlier World Bank support to Mozambique to ensure the timely collection and analysis of data from the PRSP (PARPA) Strategic Matrix indicators. Those indicators are used by relevant agencies implementing PARPA II. SI assisted the effort in three areas: 1) assisted line ministry staff to strengthen and refine 150 poverty reduction indicators; 2) prepared technical notes for each indicator to be monitored; and 3) prepared a work plan to define decentralized levels of responsibility in monitoring indicators. Preparation of the work plan also involved participation by the provincial governments. The Monitoring Plan has become a tool of government to manage for development results and to better allocate resources to achieve poverty reduction outcomes.
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Ethiopia—Organizational Strengthening for the Center for Disease Control, 2006
CDC Ethiopia's work with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) focuses on national-level HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment. CDC's programs are carried out through 10 international and 16 national government, universities and NGO partners. Through several organizational strengthening activities involving over 200 participants, Social Impact worked with CDC to design and facilitate an annual staff retreat, an annual partners retreat and an organizational assessment. Using participatory and appreciative approaches, the activities resulted in refining CDC's internal organizational structure, re-connecting staff to CDC Ethiopia's mission, improving team coordination and morale and building agreement on specific actions to improve partnerships and program quality. A key result was to sharpen the program focus to meet beneficiary needs. The organizational assessment collected data from CDC staff and partners on communication and management systems using anonymous surveys, staff and partner interviews and focus groups. Resulting recommendations are being used by CDC to strengthen program and human resource management.
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Kenya—Building Capacity of Local Organizations fighting HIV/AIDS: USAID, 2006-2011
A common problem for many of the organizations and networks working to fight HIV/AIDS in Kenya's Coast Province and Rift Valley is that they lack capacity for sustained impact. Specifically, NGOs, CBOs and FBOs lack adequate capacity to develop clear mandates, manage resources, fine tune leadership structures, plan and design programs, monitor progress and manage partnerships. As a partner to Family Health International on the AIDS Population and Health Integrated Assistance Program (APHIA II), SI addresses these challenges by working with intermediary organizations to build their capacity and the capacity of network members using Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The AI strategy rapidly identifies organizational assets and best practices; envisions what is possible; and designs and delivers positive change for individuals, teams, organizations, partnerships and communities. With SI support nearly 200 local organizations are strengthening their operational capacity to fight HIV/AIDS through strategic planning, clarifying missions, improving services to clients, strengthened leadership and teams, and improved financial management. Additional SI services in this area can be quickly acquired through the USAID AIDSTAR II contract which extends through 2011.
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Results-Based Monitoring for Reducing African Poverty: African Development Bank, 2006
Since the 1990s the African Development Bank (AfDB) has worked with its regional member countries to support monitoring and evaluation capacity through a variety of advocacy and knowledge sharing initiatives. With the advent of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and increased efforts to alleviate African poverty the demand for strong country-led M&E systems has increased. Working with AfDB and the World Bank, Social Impact provided M&E training and technical assistance to 30 PRSP focal persons from 18 African countries. The seminar addressed issues including coordination of PRSP monitoring activities, utilization of M&E data in policy making, designing performance metrics, conducting impact evaluations and addressing institutional, political and capacity constraints to effective PRSP monitoring. Teams from each country developed action plans for enhancing PRSP monitoring and are currently implementing these in each of the 18 countries. Participants ranked the seminar as highly effective in promoting learning and exchange of good practices for improving PRSP performance. New learning groups to continue knowledge sharing were established and continue to provide a rich exchange of knowledge and practical experience for the participants.
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Rwanda—Assistance to Community-based Organizations working in HIV/AIDS: USAID, 2005-09
The $40 million Rwanda HIV/AIDS cooperative agreement awarded to Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) aims to support the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through assistance to community-based services in HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment. SI is a major subcontractor responsible for developing and transferring simple monitoring and evaluation methods and reporting systems to a broad variety of community based organizations and government officials. SI provides two full-time staff in Rwanda to establish and manage the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit. SI also provides capacity building for local NGOs.
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Mali-WINGSPAN Participatory Evaluation: Winrock International, 2005
Winrock International has been working in Mali with USAID funding to increase women's influence on community decision-making to strengthen decentralization. Winrock works to increase women's active engagement in public roles and to further mobilize women in community development. SI assisted Winrock by working with local NGO partners to evaluate the first pilot phase of the program, focusing on capacity building and participatory data-collection and analysis. Winrock and SI now believe that because of participatory monitoring training, local NGO partners will be able to conduct their own regular monitoring and impact evaluations throughout the life of the project.
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Angola-Final Evaluation of USAID/OTI's Angola Program, 2004
OTI's program in Angola aimed to help the country make a successful transition to a peaceful and democratic society. SI's final evaluation of the Angola program used a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the extent to which OTI met its stated goal and objectives, the overall management and operation of the program, lessons learned, and ways OTI could improve future programs. Key recommendations centered on the need for OTI to do more to build the capacity of NGOs/CSOs for advocacy and engagement, expand responsibilities for local staff and to ensure stronger communication and coordination between OTI and its implementing partner.
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Zambia, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone—Strengthening Country Programs: World Bank, 2004-05
SI conducted three in-depth assessments to improve the program design quality and effectiveness of the World Bank country programs for Zambia, Tanzania and Sierra Leone. Each assessment analyzed the quality and realism of project and program outcomes, selection of performance metrics, alignment of projects with the Bank's country assistance strategy (CAS), and alignment of the CAS with the host country poverty reduction strategy. SI's three country reports-with reviews of over 50 projects—were used by country teams to strengthen project and program quality, M&E systems and the strategic alignment of the Bank's country work.
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Ethiopia-Building Capacity for Performance Management: USAID/Ethiopia, 2004
SI helped improve USAID/Ethiopia's orientation to results-based management (RBM) by providing training and technical assistance in strategic planning and performance measurement. Over two phases, SI worked with USAID/Ethiopia SO teams to develop a performance management plan for the mission's new strategic plan focused on food security and sustained economic growth. As a result, USAID/Ethiopia is now utilizing performance monitoring and evaluation data to design stronger programs and to better monitor the results of U.S. foreign assistance.
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Eritrea: New Performance Management Plan for Capacity Building: USAID/Eritrea, 2004
To strengthen USAID/Eritrea's orientation to results-based management (RBM), SI provided onsite technical assistance and tailored training workshops in the areas of performance measurement. SI worked with the Mission's Strategic Objective Team focusing on "Participation in Growth and Development" to develop a performance management system for the Mission's new Strategic Plan for FY2003-07. With the new management system the team is better able to monitor program results and make management decisions to improve program performance.
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Nigeria: Assessment of USAID Rural Sector Enhancement Program (RUSEP), 2004
The primary objective of RUSEP is to strengthen agricultural enterprises in targeted areas of Nigeria. SI evaluated RUSEP for the purposes of documenting lessons learned, assessing program impact at the household and community levels, quantifying impact on agricultural productivity and access to credit, and identifying program components with the greatest potential for sustainability and replication. USAID/Nigeria used the mixed-method assessment to revise its five-year strategy with a stronger focus on rural livelihoods, farmers in remote areas and support for agricultural extension services.
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Liberia-New Strategic Plan for Transition Assistance: USAID/OTI, 2004
In Monrovia, SI worked with OTI to develop a shared vision and strategy for the new program, ensure common understanding of the objectives, develop an action plan of activities and tasks, gain a deeper understanding of OTI's experience in other countries and create a project monitoring system. The plan summarized a new program focused on good governance, independent media, human rights and transitional justice. These activities led to a rapid and effective program start-up in Liberia.
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Northern Sudan-Strategic Assessment for Transition Assistance: USAID/OTI, 2004
For USAID/OTI, SI conducted a rapid strategic assessment in Northern Sudan to scope new programming options. The assessment focused on the political situation and the potential for implementing a peace that promoted democratic reform, human rights and just development. The assessment outlined potential objectives and focus areas for OTI programming and recommended next steps for program design and start-up. The findings were discussed internally at OTI and rapidly led to a new program in mid-2004.
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Democratic Republic of Congo-New Strategic Plan for USAID/OTI, 2004
The objectives of the OTI/DRC program are to; i) re-socialize war affected youths and support their reintegration into local communities and; ii) increase citizen access to balanced information on reintegration and political transition issues. Using a participatory workshop approach, SI led the OTI/Congo team to revise its country strategy, develop a new project performance management plan and build the OTI team. Each of these components was critical in improving the performance of the fast track program during its final phase of implementation.
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Strengthening National Response to HIV/AIDS: World Bank Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program for Africa (MAP), 2002
The overall objective of the MAP, launched in 2000, is to dramatically increase access to HIV/AIDS prevention care and treatment programs, with emphasis on vulnerable groups. SI delivered training and provided technical support for MAP project design teams working to design new HIV/AIDS programs in Mali, Senegal, Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Kenya. The training helped to clarify project outcomes, strengthen performance monitoring systems and better align each MAP project with country priorities and WHO indicators for national AIDS programs.
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Kenya and Ethiopia—-Collaborative Design of National HIV/AIDS Programs: World Bank, 2000
SI worked with the Bank's Multi-country Program on HIV/AIDS (MAP) to design its first two projects for Kenya and Ethiopia. Following initial preparatory work by the Bank, SI led participatory planning activities in each country involving over 50 representatives from MoH National HIV/AIDS program, other ministries, private sector health providers, other donors, international NGOs and people living with AIDS. SI worked with each group to develop a "Results Framework" with clear outcomes, objectives, performance indicators and assessment of risk. The Bank funded the two MAP projects with $50 million.
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Zambia: Participatory Design of National HIV/AIDS Program: USAID (Impact Note No. 5)
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Strengthening Africa Region Program Quality: World Bank, 2000-present
SI supports the World Bank on a global initiative to improve program performance through better quality project and program designs (or Quality at Entry). Working with Africa Region project design teams-using Logical Frameworks and Results Frameworks-SI strengthened the design of over 100 projects and programs in all sectors for roughly 50 African countries. SI also facilitated project design workshops with Bank staff and host-country officials, delivered specialized project design training and technical assistance for sector teams and advised on participatory planning methods for in-country teams. In all, SI's assistance helped to improve project design quality for Africa programs totaling over $3 billion in development assistance lending.
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Angola—Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System for Angola Social Action Fund (FAS), 2002-03
SI worked collaboratively with Angolan counterparts to strengthen the M&E system for the $30 million World Bank-financed Social Action Fund (FAS) designed to rehabilitate community infrastructure and local services devastated by the civil war. To this end, SI conducted an assessment of the existing M&E systems and worked closely with FAS staff to design and implement a practical and participatory M&E system with strong community collaboration. As a result, the FAS M&E system is recognized by the Bank as a "best practice" example of M&E for community development activities.