Manual for writing a Strategic Programme Plan (SPP)

Transcription

1 Manual for writing a Strategic Programme Plan (SPP) Introduction Partner organisations that seek financial support for their multi-annual programmes from Red een Kind (ReK) or Woord en Daad (WD) are requested to describe these programmes in the form of a Strategic Programme Plan (SPP). A format for a SPP (use is compulsory) is available and this document serves as a manual for using the SPP format. After a section with general information the manual guides the applicant through the various elements of the format. Theory of Change The focus of the SPP is on the Theory of Change (ToC) of the programme. The ToC describes the long-term goal of a programme and the route towards this long-term goal. This route is described as a set of change pathways that explain which consecutive and causally linked changes have to occur to result in the ultimate change and describe which actions are planned to bring about the various changes. This manual guides the applicant through the various stages of ToC development, which are as follows: 1. A critical analysis of all elements of the context relevant for the programme an important prerequisite for a good ToC (process) is that the participants in the ToC process have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the target group, their mind-set, capabilities and challenges, and of the various elements of the local and wider context that influence the development of the target group. 2. Identify the long-term outcome 3. Develop pathways of change - starting with the long-term outcome, determine which intermediate outcomes (preconditions) need to be attained first in order to achieve/contribute to the long-term outcome 4. Actor mapping - identify which other actors are present in the context and what can be expected from them in terms of positive or negative actions or influence and how you can best relate to them 5. Define interventions - weighing and choosing the most effective interventions to bring about the desired change, including advocacy actions to involve other actors 6. Articulate assumptions - this includes: 1) assumptions about why each precondition is necessary to achieve the result in the pathway of change and why the set of preconditions are sufficient to bring about the long-term outcome; 2) assumptions about how programme activities lead to specific outcomes for specific populations or communities; 3) assumptions about the context in which the theory of change is situated (including assumptions about interventions of other actors). 7. Summarise the ToC in the form of a diagram with a concise narrative explanation After elaboration of the programme s ToC the format asks additional information for a limited number of issues and asks for some annexes. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 1/10

2 Process of funding the SPP REK-Donor and WD-Donor will review the SPP. For this review, input from the regional alliance (RA) will be sought as the SPPs are expected to link up to the strategic plans of the RA in a relevant way. In the review of the SPP the focus will be on: 1) the quality of the context analysis; 2) the soundness of the programme logic (does the ToC make it sufficiently plausible that the development barriers identified in the context analysis will be addressed effectively?); 3) the match of the SPP with the policy of the donor (are target groups and strategies in line with strategic donor choices). After a positive review by donor the SPP is accepted as the strategic framework for collaboration and the applicant can send in operational annual plans based on the SPP. These annual plans will be the basis for annual funding contracts. Organisation and programme level ToC It s very important to have or to develop a Theory of Change for your own organisation before you start to develop a programme level ToC. An organisation-wide strategic document, like an organisational ToC, could help to get clear what the organisation itself envisions and what possible programmes would fit the organisation s mandate. The ToC requested by WD and ReK is a programme level ToC, describing the theory of change of that particular programme. An organisation can have various programmatic ToCs, but has only one organisational ToC. Process or product? It is good to realise that Theory of Change is both a process and a product and that the benefits of working with a ToC are only obtained if both the process and the product get enough attention. Therefore, the SPP format should not be just filled out as a donor requirement by the programme manager alone, but that the process of developing a ToC should be used as an opportunity to strengthen the (capacity for strategic programme planning of the) organisation as a whole. Developing the ToC with a larger group of organisation staff and rethinking the logic in the ToC is stimulating the whole organisation to be focused on the key logic of the programme. Organising a ToC workshop with a broad delegation of the programme staff and management and preferably also a number of representatives of key stakeholders (such as other NGOs, government, private sector, target group) also enables various angles of expertise to be taken along in the multi-annual planning, and the creation of ownership for the programmes. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 2/10

3 1 General information 1.1 Name organisation Fill the name of your organisation 1.2 Name regional alliance Fill the name of the regional alliance of which your organisation is part. Options are GLARA, GHARA, KUSSRA, SARA, WARA, CLARA, ARA or India. 1.3 Contact person for this SPP Person of WD or ReK who is your direct contact person in developing this SPP 1.4 Title of programme Give a concise but sufficiently descriptive title for the programme described in this SPP 1.5 Type of programme Thematic programme (give theme) or integrated programme (for example CCCD) 1.6 Programme period E.g or other multi-annual timeframe for the particular programme 1.7 Intervention area(s) Give country and localities within country where the programme will be implemented. Please be precise and give at least country, province and district level. 2 Context analysis Indication: 3 p. (with option to provide further details in annexes) The quality of the programme strongly depends on a broad and thorough knowledge of the target group and of the local and broader context. In this section a concise but complete description is expected of the programme s target group and of contextual factors relevant for target group selection and selection of effective programme strategies. It is important that the information for this section is carefully selected on the basis of relevancy for programme development. Especially statistical information should be specific enough to be relevant for the target group and/or for the programme intervention areas (which means that the easily available national statistical data are often not specific enough). The sources for the context information should be provided as well: refer to information sources using superscript numbers in the text; provide full details of information sources( author, year, title, web address(if relevant)) in footnote or collect these in a list at the end of the SPP) The context analysis should be strongly analytical in nature, i.e. the information provided need to be analysed and it should be made clear what is concluded from the information regarding programme set-up. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 3/10

4 The whole context analysis should result in an identification of the barriers for development for the target group and a thorough analysis of the root causes for these barriers. This will then enable to formulate which development barriers and whose barriers the programme will address. Below, guidelines are given regarding the type of information that is relevant for a thorough context analysis that can effectively inform the programme development process. Describe the crucial contextual factors by looking through different lenses on different levels. The levels which need attention are Macro- level (country), Meso-level (between different intervention areas) and Micro-level (within intervention area). On Macro-level: Identify and analyse legislation and (government, private sector) regulations relevant for the programme and intervention area. On Meso-level: Explain why you have chosen to implement the programme in the selected intervention area, and why not in other areas of the country. On Micro-level: A precise definition of the target group(s) of the programme A relevant description of the defined target group (situation, assets, capabilities, mind-set) A description of relevant aspects of the context of the target group and the programme (physical, social, economic, political and spiritual aspects) A mapping of all relevant actors active in this same area (a listing with a short description of their (potential) roles suffices here; how the programme will relate to these actors will be elaborated at 3.3) It might be possible that during the development of the SPP it becomes clear that some elements of the context need to be studied more thoroughly. If this information cannot be collected on short notice and included in this SPP, the applicant is requested to take up this additional context analysis as planned activity in this SPP and indicate which additional context information will be collected and when and how this analysis will be done. 3 The Theory of Change of the programme A ToC describes the long-term goal of a programme and the route towards this long-term goal. This route is described as a set of change pathways that explain which consecutive and causally linked changes have to occur to result in the ultimate change. This route also describes which actions are planned to bring about the various changes. This format guides the applicant through the various stages of ToC development ( ); in 3.6 the ToC is summarised in a diagram with a narrative explanation. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 4/10

5 Below, each element of the ToC is briefly described. However, this is not done in much detail because partner organisations will be offered a workshop by WD-ReK during which one or more programme-level ToCs will be developed together with a facilitator. 3.1 What is the long-term outcome the programme aims at and why? Indication: 0.5 p. Developing a ToC for the programme starts with identifying the long-term outcome (similar to: overall objective, vision of success, impact, mission) the programme aspires to achieve or contribute to. The formulation of the long-term goal should be as accurate and informative as possible. It is important to realise that the long-term outcome should be formulated at a level that is higher than the thematic level. In most cases the long-term outcome will be related or even similar to the mission of the organisation. 3.2 Which intermediate outcomes need to be in place before the long-term outcome will be reached? Indication: 1 p. Starting with the long-term outcome, define which intermediate outcomes need to be attained first in order to reach ultimately the long-term outcome. Reasoning backwards from long-term outcome, via one or more intermediate outcomes to immediate outcomes, change pathways are described. Within these change pathways, the successive outcomes need to be causally related: it should be logically plausible that one outcome will lead to the next outcome, which will lead to the next one, etc Describe actors that have (potentially) substantial influence on the programme and describe how the programme will relate to these actors Indication: 1 p. Partner organizations and their programmes are active in a context with a broad variety of different actors that (potentially) have an effect on them: governments, businesses, knowledge institutions, CBOs and NGOs. It is expected that the partner performs a detailed analysis and that the outcome of this analysis is summarised in this paragraph. Actors and relationship to actors: Main actors relevant for the programme have been described in the context analysis (2) already. Here an analysis is expected of the potential influence on the programme of each of these actors and a description of how the programme plans to relate to each of them. What is the exact role of each actor, and how can your organisation relate to this role and avoid duplication? Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 5/10

6 Networking: Networks can play an important role in information sharing and in facilitating joint actions and are, therefore, relevant for programme quality. Please, describe in which networks the organisation will participate (including goals and activities of the network) and what the added value for the programme will be. 3.4 Which interventions will the programme use to reach the intermediate outcomes described at 3.2 and through them the long-term outcome described at 3.1? Indication: 2 p. Describe for each outcome as identified in 3.2 what actions/interventions/strategies the programme will implement to attain these outcomes; organise the text by change pathway. Main strategic choices should be clearly described and it should be explained why these options were chosen with reference to the effectiveness of the option selected (this can e.g. by reference to a published best practice or to refer to its own track record). For this stage important points of attention are: Do not assume too easily that the programme need to provide a service but consider if other actors are already providing a good quality service (and the programme can focus on improving access of the target group to these services) or if the programme should lobby and support other actors to become active in service delivery; in other words: make clear what the added value of the interventions proposed is for this specific context Ideally the most effective interventions are chosen to attain an outcome, so it is important to have information about the effectiveness of various options Critical reflection is very important at this stage: simply choosing for the traditional tried-and-tested approaches is not enough; it should check whether innovative approaches or best practices of others are more effective than the traditional approaches. Realise that often several interventions in combination are needed to attain an outcome, e.g. providing skills training in combination with an intervention directed at mind-set change. Provide attention to innovative approaches. What innovative pathways of change does your organisation propose? Is there a need for this innovation and why? 3.5 What are main assumptions that are critical to the validity of the ToC? Indication: 1 p. Getting depth and critical thinking on assumptions is widely agreed to be the crux of a theory of change process. An assumption can be defined as: An assertion about the world that underlies the anticipated change process. Assumptions are determined by organisational values, experiences and beliefs. However, assumptions are not always valid and often implicit. Normally organisations take assumptions for granted in their programme logic. However in ToC, you are challenged to make the assumptions (and accompanied risks) explicit. The process of identifying clear pathways of change and linking the long-term outcome to the intermediate outcome (as you have done under ) needs an elaboration of the reasons why you think the theory will work in practice. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 6/10

7 In this paragraph 3.5 you need to list a critical set of assumptions that your organisation thought of implicitly when drafting the outcomes of the ToC. Focus on assumptions that are most critical in the logic of the ToC. Furthermore, describe for each assumption what the effect on the programme will be if this assumption turns out to be not valid and what can be done to mitigate this effect. Be aware that there are four types of assumptions in general 1 : 1. Assumptions about the causal links between outcomes at different levels: operational or implementation assumptions, for example we assume that participants will turn up for the training we have scheduled or the facilitator has aligned the content with participants needs strategic assumptions or full pathway assumptions, for example training will change people s attitudes towards domestic violence, which in turn will change their behaviour purpose level assumptions, for example small scale farmers will be able to supply to global markets if they have good access to credit. 2. Paradigm or world view assumptions about the drivers and pathways of change, for example social change best occurs by civil society demanding and building responsive government. 3. Assumptions about the belief systems in society, which inform judgments about what is appropriate and feasible in a specific context. 4. Operational assumptions about the external context, for example about (lack of) political stability or freedom of expression. Try to focus especially on the first three types of assumptions, not too much on the operational assumptions of the external context. Only mention those if they have a direct link with your programme. 3.6 Graphic representation of ToC with narrative explanation Indication: ToC diagram 1 full page; narrative explanation page Provide a graphic summary of the ToC as worked out in the previous paragraphs. This ToC diagram should include the following elements: A box with the long-term outcome The change pathways the programme envisages will lead to the long-term goal; the change pathways can be depicted as chains of boxes (in each box one intermediate outcome) ordered in a logical order and connected with arrows indicating the causal relationships Interventions/actions of the programme and main outputs of them: connect actions with arrows to their outputs and these to the outcome(s) the action will contribute to Main external actors; indicate with arrows on which parts of the ToC they will have influence Main assumptions Links to other (thematic) programmes (if not yet mentioned as an assumption) 1 Guijt, Irene. ToC Reflection notes 3: Working with assumptions in a Theory of Change process. March Page 2 Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 7/10

8 Provide a concise and complete narrative explanation of the ToC diagram in plain language. The combination of ToC diagram and narrative explanation will serve as programme summary and need to contain all main elements of paragraphs , and must be based and clearly linked with the context analysis of paragraph 2. 4 Selected programme quality issues 4.1 Target group selection and involvement Indication: p. The target group has been defined above at 2. In this paragraph a description is expected of how the programme will ensure that all members of the defined target group can have access to the programme. It is important to consider this more explicitly in light of new research about the access of the poorest of the poor, which made clear that the true poorest of the poor are generally not reached by the majority of development interventions, also not by those interventions that are meant for this group. Targeting procedure: It is requested to describe the targeting procedure (how will the programme select participants) and provide a reflection on the expected effectiveness of this procedure (will all members of the potential target group have an equal chance to access the programme and if this has not been the case in the past what will be done to improve this?). Participation: Furthermore, a description is expected of how representatives of the target group have been involved in the planning phase of the programme and what their contribution was to the actual programme plan. Finally, describe how the programme plans to involve the target group during the implementation phase. 4.2 Sustainability Indication: p. Sustainability is an extremely important aspect of programme quality and has various aspects. Here the focus is on two aspects: 1) sustainability of results: extent to which results will remain/be maintained; 2) financial sustainability of the project: extent to which the project on long-term can be continued without external (e.g. W&D or ReK) funding. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 8/10

9 Sustainability of results: Describe how the programme will ensure that the benefits of the programme for its participants will last. For this to happen sufficient ownership has to be developed; how will the programme work on this? Financial sustainability: Describe the strategy the programme will use to ensure that the programme will gradually become more independent from external funding. In other words: what is the phase-out strategy of the programme and its time path towards complete phase-out of external donor funding. 4.3 Scalability Indication: 0.5p Describe what your organisation would do in a scenario when only 50% of the funding can be granted by WD-ReK donor. What strategic choices will be made? Will certain programme parts not be implemented or will the number of beneficiaries be decreased or both? 5 Capacity to implement the programme Indication: p. Mapping capacities: Reflect on the capacity in your organisation that is needed to implement the programme proposed successfully and identify relevant capacities that are fully present, capacities that need strengthening and capacities that are still (almost) lacking. Focus on organisational capacities and capacities of programme staff. Input: Relevant input for this reflection are reports of 5C discussions (which reflect on strategic organisational capacities), evaluation reports, PMEL audits, organisational and financial audits and client satisfaction surveys. Experience from previous years of implementation are very relevant as well, if you continue with a certain programme which has been running for several years already, please explain what have been strengths and weaknesses of that programme, and link those to your current programme plan(toc) and the organisational and staff capacities you need for this. Action plan & support: Finally, describe how weaknesses and gaps in capacities will be addressed, which role the regional alliance will play in capacity building/learning and if and which support for this capacity development is sought from WD-REK. General note: If your organisation currently has already a (multi-annual) capacity building plan that is being implemented (e.g. with SPN funding from ReK or WD), it is expected that this plan will also be considered and referred to in this paragraph. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version 1 0 9/10

10 6 Financial planning and coverage Indication: 1 p. Estimation: Here, a rough estimation of the total budget needed to implement the programme is requested. In this stage it t is enough to `breakdown the total into the main cost categories e.g. to give cost estimates for each output (and its related activities). Contributions: Furthermore, a plan to cover this budget from year to year is needed in the form of a table listing for each year of the period, the donors from which funding will be sought with the percentage of the budget each donor is expected to cover, including the own contribution of the applicant. The table should provide insight into issues such as increasing donor diversification and increasing independence from external donors (i.e. an increasing percentage of the partner s own share in budget coverage). 7 Annexes 7.1 PMEL plan to be added after acceptance of SPP After acceptance of the SPP by REK-Donor or WD-Donor as a guiding document for programme development and implementation, a PMEL plan need to be developed by the applicant. This plan will describe the PMEL system that will be used to track programme implementation, evaluate the results achieved, manage and re-direct the programme if needed, and learn and improve. A format for this plan will be made available. Annex 2_Manual Strategic Program Plan Final version /10