Institutional Development Assessments

Strategy for the Assessment of Institutional Development

The Build Capacity activities are a part of the Operations Research Component conducted by Tulane University

Increased regional capacity for program development and implementation is one of the main results that the SFPS Project plans to achieve by the end of the project. The overall objective of the assessment strategy is to document the change in the institutional capacity of SFPS partner organizations (ABMS, ATB, CAFS/Lome, CEFOREP, CERCOM, CERPOD, ENSEA, FESADE, IRESCO, ISED, SANFAM). This includes documenting the way in which partner organizations are functioning in relation to the framework model for institutional development. The key partner institutions were assessed from January to August 1997 to establish baseline measures.

The framework for institutional development includes several dimensions (administrative, financial, technical) for assessing the institution’s functioning. The case study approach will allow determination of where the organization is along the capacity-building continuum and will allow for measurement over time.

For the baseline, a variety of methods were used to ensure that the assessment reflects the way in which the institution is functioning as well as documenting the relationship between formal procedures/documents and the perceptions of staff who implement the procedures. The data collection focused on observation/examination of documents along with interviews and self-administered questionnaires to various levels of staff.

For example, to determine the relationship of an individual’s performance in contributing to an institution’s functioning, examining the performance appraisal component of the Administrative dimension would reveal the relationship between appraisals and merit increases to reward performance. An institution’s Employee Handbook would be examined for systems/procedures for performance appraisal. As a complement to this, mid- and lower-level staff would be asked if they receive routine appraisals, whether the appraisal is linked to potential salary increases, and how they perceive the performance appraisal system to be working. The variance in information between that observed/in documents and that from interviews and questionnaires will highlight areas where discordance may show that systems do not work as expected/designed or that systems function in a different way from which they were designed. The findings are being used to develop, with the partner institutions, individualized action plans for addressing key areas for technical assistance in subsequent project years. There will also be a synthesis report of the status of all the partner institutions from the baseline assessments.

The information from this assessment will also be used to develop key indicators related to institutional development and rankings of these indicators will be contrasted with an assessment of these from a mail-out questionnaire to representatives of several key groups (SFPS component COPs, REDSO staff, project managers at other donor agencies, African institutional partners, collaborating institutions, others).

The results of the baseline institutional development assessments (IDAs) conducted with the SFPS African regional partners during the second year of the Project identified both strengths and weaknesses of partner organizations in the following areas: management capacity, financial management capacity, and technical capacity. The reports from each individual IDA include an action plan detailing potential areas of collaboration and proposed activities (inclusive of corresponding indicators and milestones) that will be conducted to address the institutional needs identified over the remaining years of the Project. Funds have been allocated under the Tulane Operations Research component for proposed activities to develop management and financial management capacity. The activities will be developed and managed jointly by JHPIEGO/OR and Tulane/TNG.

Given that the technical activities vary across the different components, each component will be responsible for addressing the technical needs of their respective partner institutions within their own budgets. Technical assistance at the institutional level will focus on what each institution defines as their technical skills and areas of expertise, including the appropriate assessment methods for evaluating activities, outcomes, and impact of the organization itself.

However, there are some key findings in the areas of management capacity and financial management capacity which seem to be common across several of the partner institutions. These commonalties include the following:

Long-term strategic planning: Several of the partner organizations possess strong leadership in the form of their directors who maintain clear, strategic vision for their organizations. However, these visions are rarely documented in a fashion that provides guidance and direction to the organization and its staff. In addition to providing this focus and common vision to the organization, a long-term strategic plan would also be an important tool in attracting additional collaborators/ partners.

Programmatic planning: For some institutions, the ability of staff to participate in planning exercises would serve to disseminate the organization’s mission and strategic objectives and thus provide a coherency between strategic and programmatic planning. This coherency would ensure the linkage between planning and implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation. A workshop on programmatic planning could be added to regional workshops on strategic planning as appropriate.

Marketing strategy: While many organizations acknowledge the need for a marketing strategy, few are able to completely define their niche nor possess a marketing plan to guide their efforts in attracting additional collaborators and promoting their services and/ or products. Market research needs to be undertaken in order to identify potential collaborators and thus increase the involvement of collaborators as well as the volume of services/ products provided.

Project/ resource management: Several Project partners have expressed the need for technical assistance in multi-project management. These partners have expressed the interest and desire to strengthen their ability to manage and organize multiple projects as well as provide transparent accounting and timely financial reporting as per donor requirements. Requests have also been received for assistance in calculating appropriate overhead rates to apply to project proposals.

Grant and proposal writing: A great need exists among several of the partners assessed to develop their skills and competencies in grant/ proposal writing. This activity would lend itself to a regional workshop scenario and would include the appropriate use of visual information to enhance the presentation of proposals and transfer of information.

The technical assistance for the areas outlined above will be provided through regional workshops to address the general needs of all the relevant institutions followed by site-based visits to address needs specific to each individual partner.

It should be noted that the above proposed activities are not stand-alone events but rather building blocks in the process of institutional capacity development. The Project recognizes the critical need of its partner organizations to develop long-term (3 - 5 year) strategic plans so as to guide their decision-making in regards to the allocation of resources and choice of activities. The existence of a well-thought out strategic plan taking into consideration the strengths of the organization, the composition of its clients and its niche in the market will also serve to guide the type of technical assistance to be provided by the Project. The strategic plan will be the cornerstone of Project and partner collaborative efforts and will define exactly what technical assistance is required as per strategic objectives.

To give an illustrative example, CEFOREP will be used to demonstrate why the Project is proposing the above-mentioned activities. CEFOREP is a relatively new organization having been formed in mid-1996 and has not yet developed a strategic plan. The Project proposes a regional workshop on strategic planning to introduce CEFOREP to the concept and importance of a long-term strategic plan. This workshop will emphasize that awareness of one's external environment is vital to this planning process as is the appreciation of an organization's strengths and its comparative advantage. Once CEFOREP has come to appreciate the utility of strategic planning and is able to identify its own comparative advantage (perhaps as MINILAP trainers), technical assistance will be provided to undertake a market study in order to identify a niche and potential sources of funding. The next step in this capacity building process will have CEFOREP develop a marketing plan based on the results of the marketing study and in the context of its external environment. This marketing plan will then be incorporated into the strategic plan to ensure that CEFOREP is well-equipped to pursue its chosen path within the context of reproductive health in Senegal and the sub-region. Once potential funding sources have been identified, the Project will offer a workshop on grant-/ proposal-writing so CEFOREP will be equipped to solicit funding and track the results of their efforts. This workshop will also include the use of visual information to enhance proposal preparation and facilitate the transfer of information. The Project also proposes technical assistance to calculate overhead rates for partner institutions who have not yet undertaken this activity. CEFOREP is one of the Project's partners who has not yet calculated an appropriate overhead rate. The inclusion of overhead rates/ indirect costs in project proposals will greatly enhance the recovery of operational costs and promote the viability of partner organizations over the long term. As the Project partners diversify their funding sources through the acquisition of additional collaborators, they will need to further develop and refine their multiple project management capacity in terms of resource and financial management. The Project proposes to provide technical assistance in this area on an as-need basis to its partners as appropriate. In the case of CEFOREP, technical assistance in this area has already been provided under the Tulane sub-contract to JHPIEGO with the intervention/ assistance of Deloitte & Touche. This firm has developed a computerized project management system to allow CEFOREP to monitor multiple projects simultaneously. This system has just recently been implemented and will be evaluated in the course of the next year. This example is not exhaustive in the scope of capacity building initiatives that the Project wishes to undertake but strives to represent the Project's commitment to the entire process of institutional development of its partner organizations.