Services: Aid Effectiveness
There are now unprecedented opportunities for improving aid effectiveness.
The world has shifted. Globalization, a deeper concern for global stability, and reducing poverty requires development efforts to do more. Agencies must achieve measurable, large-scale results and outcomes.
Increased aid allocations, a sharper focus on country priorities, and donor harmonization create unprecedented opportunities for more effective aid.
SI provides a complete range of services to help aid agencies become more effective agents of development and social change. Our services include:
- Results-based Program Design-ensures projects and country programs have clear, realistic, and measurable development outcomes.
- Performance Monitoring Systems-design and implementation of program monitoring and evaluation systems for improved performance, learning, and accountability.
- Participatory Development-program planning and management with diverse groups to build ownership and program sustainability.
- Donor Coordination-strengthening donor collaboration in evaluations, strategy development, and country program design.
- Organizational Development-aligning people, organizational structures, and procedures to deliver development outcomes.
- PROJECT details
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Project Management Training for Accountable Entities, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), 2009-2014
MCC's mission is to fight poverty through economic growth. In 2009, Social Impact (SI) was awarded a major Task Order to build the management capacity of MCC local partners in up to 17 countries. The MCC's Accountable Entities (government bodies created to manage MCC programs) must deliver large and complex projects in agricultural and rural development, water and sanitation, large scale infrastructure and education in a fixed, 5-year time frame. Ranging in size from $300-500 million, MCC programs place enormous pressure on the Accountable Entities (AEs) to establish effective project organizations, schedule and manage projects, procure and manage contractors, manage risks, work effectively as teams and better integrate financial, procurement and performance reporting to achieve results. Under this Task Order, SI is responsible for assessing AE global program management needs, developing a flexible training curriculum, and providing customized training and technical assistance to AEs in project and program management. Through this support, the AEs will be able to achieve greater results and impacts for the MCC investments.
Together with SI partners, the World Bank Global Distance Learning Network (GDLN) and Emerging Markets Group (EMG), we have assembled a cadre of elite project management professionals to train the AEs, strengthening systems, procedures, structures, and incentives and building teamwork for effective project management. The MCC-beneficiary countries in which SI may provide this training are: Armenia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras, Lesotho, Mali, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Vanuatu.
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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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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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Building Global Capacity for Project/Program Management: USAID, 2005-09
SI is a member of the consortium led by International Resources Group (IRG) to strengthen the global program management capacity of USAID and its 7000 employees. SI provides training, management and advisory services to USAID for a suite of courses including strategic planning, budgeting and program/project management, monitoring and evaluation, and specialized topics in its areas of expertise such as gender analysis, managing partnerships and donor harmonization. Learn how to access SI services as part of the PPMT contract.
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Building Donor Harmonization on Results: World Bank, 2005
Recent efforts by the World Bank and other donors seek to harmonize donor procedures and reporting on outcomes, both to streamline donor collaboration and to reduce the M&E burden on developing countries. SI developed a set of case studies (Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, and Madagascar) to capture lessons learned on harmonization-and specifically on results reporting. The results of the studies are being used by the Bank in various staff learning events to promote donor harmonization.
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Building Global Capacity to Manage for Results: World Bank, 2000-present
Since 2000 SI has supported the World Bank in a Global Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Improvement Initiative to improve development effectiveness. Through on-site offices, SI developed Bank-wide M&E strategies, and provided technical assistance to strengthen the results-orientation of 200 projects and programs in all sectors for over 120 countries. SI also conducts project and program design workshops for Bank staff and borrowers, conducts portfolio reviews and delivers specialized M&E and program management training and technical assistance for sector teams. This work has helped to improve project design and M&E quality as key factors in program effectiveness.
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Strengthening Environmental Program Quality: Global Environmental Facility, 2005
The Global Environment Facility (GEF), hosted by the World Bank, supports programs that protect the global environment. SI provided specialized training to build the skills of GEF teams in results-based program design and management. As a result, the teams are better able to assess and strengthen the quality of new and on-going GEF projects and the new projects have a stronger orientation towards environmental outcomes.
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Enhancing Country Portfolio Performance: World Bank, 2004-05
SI conducted four intensive assessments of the World Bank country programs for Pakistan, Zambia, Tanzania and Sierra Leone to strengthen the orientation of each program towards development results. SI's four country reports-with reviews of over 70 projects—were used by country teams to strengthen program-level M&E systems and to better align the Bank's work with host country poverty reduction strategies and monitoring systems.
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Strengthening Global Sector Strategies: World Bank, 2004
The Bank's fourteen sector strategies define the scope, focus, and monitoring criteria for its global poverty alleviation work. These include strategies for health, education, rural and urban development, environment, energy, forestry, private sector development, social protection, transport, etc. SI provided an intensive assessment of each strategy and recommended improvements to clarify intended results, outcome metrics and monitoring systems. The results of the assessment are being used by sector teams to sharpen and reorient the strategies and to improve results-based monitoring.
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Improving Quality of Supervision: World Bank, 2002
SI worked with the Bank to assess and improve the quality of M&E systems for a sample of projects from the Bank's portfolio. SI assessed 30 projects from all sectors and regions with a focus on strengthening M&E—clarity and realism of project objectives, quality of M&E systems and quality of outcomes reporting. The results of the assessment, as part of the Bank's Annual Portfolio Performance Review, have been used to direct additional resources to enhance M&E and program quality.
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Strengthening Program Management: USAID/OTI, 2004
As part of a broader stocktaking of OTI's role in USAID and US foreign policy, SI helped OTI examine its internal country program management approach (involving team leaders, program managers, country representatives and deputy representatives). Based on global interviews and surveys with staff and key partners, SI recommended improvements in OTI's management model. The changes that were adopted helped build OTI's capacity to manage significant funding increases and to strengthen its programs and financial accountability.
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Building Capacity for Participatory Development: Asian Development Bank, 2001-present
SI worked with the ADB to build its capabilities and skills in participatory development (PD). SI assessed ADB staff skills and reviewed incentives, procedures and good practices, and benchmarked ADB's work against that of other donors. SI then designed and delivered a series of training programs on PD skills for groups at the Bank on topics ranging from participatory project design to participatory M&E and gender analysis. The training has been taken institution-wide with new trust funds for this purpose and ADB continues to make good progress in its PD work.
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Fiduciary Management for Local Communities: World Bank, 2002-03
As the Bank and other donors move more towards direct funding of community development there is a need to build local capacity to effectively manage donor funds. SI worked closely with Bank teams from around the world to consolidate good practices and then to design, develop and test a new training program on Community Management of Donor Funds. The program is now being provided by the Bank and the International Labor Organization to project teams around the world who are in turn providing it to local communities to improve their accountability and use of donor funds.
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Developing Tools for Development: U.K. Department for International Development, 2002
After ten years of technical assistance and training work with the British Department for International Development (DFID), SI worked with several other British consultancies to develop a handbook on good practices in managing DFID programs. The handbook entitled Tools for Development is widely used by DFID and local partners around the globe to improve development management and effectiveness.