Ethiopia: Civil Service Reform
The Government of Ethiopia wished to base its civil service reform programme on UK experience, and draw specifically on UK expertise in developing and implementing its strategy. The purpose of the consultancy was to manage the development and administration of this programme of collaboration on civil service reform. Consultants:
- worked with the Ministry of Capacity Building to identify, prioritise and develop a logical framework
- provided support in establishing a partnership programme or twinning relationships and provided advisory support for effective implementation of the civil service reform
- facilitated the development of a framework agreement with each HMG partner to ensure that their contribution responded to country-led demand and maximised benefits to the recipient government department
- managed and monitored the delivery of the programme (DFID, 2006-07 and 2007-08).
Bangladesh: Transparency International Bangladesh – Impact Assessment
The overall objective of the consultancy was to inform Transparency International’s emerging strategy paper, by assessing the impact of Making Waves – a project which is implemented by the Bangladesh Chapter of Transparency International (TI-B).
The focus of this consultancy was initially to develop an appropriate framework and approach to the impact assessment and then carry out the assessment by focusing on the impact of Making Waves on reducing corruption and generating accountability and transparency in service delivery institutions; the impact of Making Waves on accountability and transparency of local and national government; best practice interventions to reduce corruption in service delivery and raise accountability and transparency of local government (DFID, 2007).
Yemen: Study on ‘Youth Bulge’, Issues and Implications for Yemen
Over 20% of Yemen’s population is aged between 15 and 24 and, according to UN estimates, by 2025 will have increased by 69%, and has high rates of illiteracy.
A framework researcher was hired to analyse and explore what lessons could be learnt from experiences in the MENA region, to provide an understanding of what donors, governments and the larger NGOs have done in terms of recognising the problems as demographic, policy and practice.
The themes providing the focus were unemployment and education, and security and stability (DFID, 2007).
Kenya: Annual Review of the DFID Kenya Social Protection Programme
DFID is providing £122.6m of support over 10 years by:
- developing a national social protection strategy and implementation framework
- a cash transfer programme for OVCs
- a Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP).
A multi-disciplinary team of consultants comprised of specialists in institutional development, monitoring and evaluation (including logframe design), communications and influencing, and the delivery of social protection systems carried out an external output-to-purpose (OPR) review of the Social Protection Programme (SPP).
The review assessed progress since the start of the project in August 2007; developed the programme’s logical framework; and made recommendations to strengthen achievement of Phase 1 objectives (DFID, 2008).
United Kingdom: Literature on Governance Insights on Land Reform
The aim of the review was to update DFID’s governance research findings around the institutional and political issues of ‘secure access to land’. The purpose of the review was also to:
- distil key findings from existing knowledge, based on best research into the governance issues of security of land tenure and distributional inequalities over land
- support DFID’s effort to tackle the problems by indicating research findings on effective ways to build capacity, accountability and responsiveness of the institutions governing access to land (DFID, 2007).
Zambia: Fiduciary Risk Assessments Social Cash Transfers
The objective of this piece of work was to inform the design of social cash transfer pilots and a possible national programme to ensure timely and full delivery of resources to beneficiaries, while mitigating fiduciary risk to acceptable levels. This consultancy focused on financial aspects of social cash transfers, taking into account other work on
- targeting methods
- making payments (delivery options)
- MIS development (DFID, 2008).
United Kingdom: Interim Governance Advisor
A governance consultant was required to assist DFID with their high demand for governance input in all four of the CRD teams for which the team had insufficient resources to meet demand:
- growth and livelihoods
- human development
- social, political and environment change
- communications.
Outputs have included a report to DFID on the, “review of governance structures of the foundation for agricultural research in Africa (FARA)” (DFID, 2008-09).
Sierra Leone: Promoting Information, Voice and Transparency in Elections (PIVOT): Post-Elections Evaluation Exercise
The purpose of the PIVOT programme was to support free and fair elections by improving citizens’ ability to engage effectively in the electoral process through enhanced capacity of media and civil society. A framework consultant assessed the programme’s performance to determine progress towards the achievement of the stated objectives in the logframe (DFID, 2007).
Uganda: Design of Multilateral Effectiveness for Gender Equality Programme
Uganda has a relatively strong legal and policy framework for promotion of gender equality, but progress in implementation and change in underlying beliefs, behaviours and cultural practices has lagged behind policy commitments.
Stronger institutional mechanisms and increased resources for mainstreaming, co-ordination, and implementation were urgently required. To design DFID’s support to a joint UN programme, our consultant reviewed documentation from the UN on its proposed joint programme on gender equality in Uganda and discussed details of the proposed programme with relevant UN contacts, key GoU agencies, and with the DFID Social Development Adviser.
The consultant also identified outstanding concerns and proposed solutions, drafted the DFID project memorandum on gender equality in Uganda, and drafted DFID’s project documentation (DFID, 2009).
United Kingdom: ESN/Technical Appraisal for DFID Global Schools Partnership Programme
The DGSP offers support and guidance to teachers, and grants to schools to make the most out of a school partnership as a learning tool. There are currently around 1,450 active partnerships. The second phase of the programme will aim to significantly increase the number and range of participating schools.
The consultant was tasked to complete a high quality environmental screening note in line with relevant DFID procedures, and produce the technical appraisals section of the project document in accordance with DFID guidelines.
This included a short analysis of the programme in each of the following areas:
- economic appraisal
- social appraisal
- institutional appraisal
- political appraisal
- environmental appraisal (DFID, 2009).
