Guidance for Leadership and Management: Application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach. January 2012

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1 Guidance for Leadership and Management: Application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach 1. Introduction January 2012 The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to the National office Senior Management Team, including the National Director and Operations Director, on application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach. The National office Senior Management Team is accountable for the quality and impact of WV s ministry in contributing to child well-being, including child well-being (CWB) targets in alignment with the National strategy. After more than four years of research, development, testing, and refinement based on learning, the Integrated Programming Model (IPM) is now being mainstreamed as World Vision s Development Programme Approach. The term IPM adoption is now referred to as application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach to reinforce the importance of national level leadership and flexibility. World Vision s Development Programme Approach reflects and supports continuous improvement of our development practice. It is built on good practices of many World Vision offices and programmes, as well as learning from other organisations. It continues to evolve based on learning from the field. The essentials of the Development Programme Approach are the Programme Effectiveness Standards and the Critical Path. These are meant to be applied flexibly in context, based on a national office s experience and learning. This guidance affirms the following principles: Build on learning from promising practices: Over the years, every national office has developed promising practices that contribute to the sustained well-being of children in their own context. It is important that in applying the Development Programme Approach, national offices build on these promising practices. This is about continuous improvement and not implementation of a new initiative. Led and owned by the national office: Each national office will plan how to apply WV s Development Programme Approach, in line with Partnership policies, NO strategy and commensurate with NO context, experience and capacity. Accountability for results: The Global Center and the Regional office will not monitor your implementation of World Vision's Development Programme Approach. It is the national office s essential role to ensure that its ministry reflects the best of what we know and have learned over the years, both globally and locally. However, the line management will hold the national offices accountable for strategic ministry priorities, especially CWB Targets. We expect staff in programmes, NOs, ROs, SOs, and the GC to share learnings that contribute to ongoing improvement of our practice. We will learn how well programmes apply World Vision's Development Programme Approach through evaluations and other reviews that regularly happen rather than monitoring this as a separate organisational initiative. 1

2 2. Goal, Definition, and Objectives of Application of WV s Development Programme Approach Goal of application of WV s Development Programme Approach: Enable WV long term local level programmes to contribute to National office ministry strategy priorities, especially CWB targets, building on current and future promising practices. Definition: A programme applies WV s Development Programme Approach when it completes and implements a design or redesign using a version of the approach adapted for context, building on its current alignment to the Programme Effectiveness Standards 1. Application of the approach in ongoing programmes through redesign can only be gradual and to the extent communities and partners are able to absorb the changes. Objectives Within FY12: 1. All national offices have reviewed and tailored WV s Development Programme Approach to their specific contexts, based on their learning and good practices All national offices review their current organisational practices and decide what changes need to be made in light of their contextualised Development Programme Approach. 3. National offices develop an Application Plan in light of the changes required. This will take into consideration NO's current IPM Adoption Plan as a basis, refining and enriching based on the NO's learnings in FY Application plans will consider the following areas as may be needed: Alignment between strategic ministry priorities including CWB targets and programming. For national offices with child sponsorship, transition of sponsorship in programming practices as needed to to align with partnership standards, including SMPS Allocation of sufficient technical, financial and other resources for organizational capacity to effectively apply the NO s Development Programme Approach and deliver strategic priorities including CWB targets Consistent scale-up of evidence based promising practices across programmes Accountability, quality assurance and knowledge management mechanisms around delivery of strategic ministry priorities including CWB targets Organizational culture that support learning, innovation and risk taking within the organization This Application Plan should be fully incorporated in the National office business plan. National offices are asked to provide a summary of the Application plan to the Regional office by the end of June Please see Annex 3 for a template to provide this information. 1 The 13 Programme Effectiveness Standards (formerly known as the IPM Standards) are included as Annex 1. Many programmes already apply these standards to varying degrees. The self-review and action planning should take into consideration national offices context, experience, development processes, and achievement of quality in contributing to child well-being outcomes. 2 Annex 2 provides suggestions for NOs on tailoring WV s Development Programme Approach for context, based on the NO s experience, good practices, and learning. 2

3 From the end of FY12 onward: 1. The National office implements changes required at the National office level in line with the Application Plan. 2. All new programmes are applying the NO's contextualised version of Development Programme Guidance. 3. All redesigning programmes ending their first programme cycle conduct a selfreview using the Programme Effectiveness Standards as part of their evaluation, then develop a plan to transition towards these standards as appropriate to their contexts in the next programme cycle(s) All National offices report on their contribution to the well-being of children in line with the National office strategic priorities by the end of FY14, if not earlier. 3. Roles and Responsibilities in Application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach National offices have the primary responsibility for leading application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach in their programmes. The regional offices support this application by NOs. The region coordinates response by the GC and SOs to requests for technical assistance by NOs that the region itself is unable to provide. At the global level, Global Field Operations has primary responsibility for guiding application of WV s Development Programme Approach and helping ROs and NOs harmonise this with other processes. The GC Integrated Programming Effectiveness (IPE) unit has responsibility for ongoing global refinement of WV s Development Programme Approach and for coordination of learning, capacity building, and technical support to the ROs and SOs, in close collaboration with Global Field Operations and with other Integrated Ministry groups. The table below summarises the responsibilities of the GC, RO, NO, and SO in application of WV s Development Programme Approach. Key Roles and Responsibilities in Application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach Programme Tailor application of National office version of the Development Programme Approach to the local context, implementing flexibly to contribute to well-being of children in alignment with local context and national strategy. Document and share learnings NO Tailor the global version of World Vision s Programme Approach to the national context, ensuring it aligns to national office context and experience Refine national office plan for IPM application developed in FY10, based on learning to date Implement NO plan for application Allocate sufficient technical, financial and other resources for building staff and organizational capacity to effectively apply its Development Programme Approach across its programmes, contributing to the NO s strategic priorities including CWB targets Assure accountability, transparency, and effective documentation of learning and results in alignment with the NO Strategic priorities including CWB targets. Create an organizational culture that supports learning, innovation and risk taking within the organization 3 At each programme cycle, all redesigning programmes review Sponsorship in Programming guidance, including Sponsorship Minimum Programming Standards, to define any phased transition plans needed for alignment. 3

4 RO Support NOs in tailoring World Vision s Development Programme Approach for the national context and strategy Coordinate capacity building support for NOs across the region, engaging GC and SO resource people as appropriate Document and share learnings Report on the contributions toward CWB targets that will result from the application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach at the Regional level and other parts of WV s ministry SO Provide technical support to programmes as requested by the NO Make some time of technical staff available to fulfill specific requests for building capacity of other entities in the application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach (optional; typically through GTRN) GC Global Field Operations: Help ROs and NOs harmonise application of WV s Development Programme Approach with other WV Partnership processes Identify key challenges in application and work with appropriate parties to resolve them Report on the contributions toward CWB targets that will result from the application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach at the global level Integrated Programming Effectiveness: Coordinate global learning, capacity building, and technical support to ROs and SOs for application of WV s Development Programme Approach Develop and refine resource materials and capacity building approaches to reflect learnings Work with GFO and other parts of WV (e.g. Finance, P&C, IT, etc.) on organisational changes needed to support application of WV s Development Programme Approach Children in Ministry / Sponsorship Collaborate with IPE and other parts of IM in maturing the approach to Sponsorship in Programming, to align with the Development Programme Approach and the Sponsorship Minimum Programming Standards (SMPS) Facilitate application learning of Sponsorship Minimum Programming Standards (SMPS) and sponsorship integration through regions in FY12 Coordinate global learning, capacity building, and technical support in the application of SMPS and sponsorship alignment and integration 4

5 Annex 1: Programme Effectiveness Standards [Formerly IPM Standards] The standards below define the essentials of Programme Effectiveness, organised according to the four main aspects of WV s Development Programme Approach. These standards are the basis for programme selfreview and quality assurance. They are intended to be applied flexibly according to context. Further explanation of these standards can be found in the Programme Effectiveness Self-Review Tool. Contributing to the well-being of children within families and communities, especially the most vulnerable 1. The programme contributes to the sustained well-being of children, especially the most vulnerable. 2. The programme vision and priorities are developed with and owned by the community and local partners. 3. The programme integrates lines of ministry, sectors and themes, reflecting the national office strategy and the local vision and context. 4. Programme design, monitoring, evaluation and reporting clearly reflect the programme s contributions to child well-being outcomes. 5. In programmes with sponsorship, Sponsorship Minimum Programming Standards are applied through programming that contributes to the sustained well-being of children, including registered children, and enables meaningful engagement with sponsors. Working effectively with communities and partners 6. World Vision s preferred local role is to serve as a catalyst and builder of capacity of local partners and partnerships for child well-being. 1 In areas where children face critical well-being needs demanding immediate action, World Vision works with local authorities to plan its direct operational role in addressing these issues while strengthening the capacity of partners to assume the role over time. 7. Programme staff support communities and local partners in advocacy with government and other authorities. Equipping local level staff 8. Key programme staff are committed to incarnational living among the people they serve Programme staff have the core competencies required to fulfill their roles. 10. Programme staff have access to the technical resources and support they need. 11. Programme staff engage in regular, intentional reflection and learning that leads to improved practice. Basic programme parameters 12. The geographic size of the programme is manageable and corresponds to existing local government boundaries. 13. Adequate resources are available to achieve the programme outcomes and meet organisational requirements. 1 Depending on context, potential partners include government; churches, faith-based organisations (FBOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs),community-based organisations (CBOs), community groups, and other civil society groups; and local businesses. 2 Incarnational living is defined in the Ministry Framework. Each national office will decide how to apply this appropriately in context. 5

6 Annex 2: Suggestions for National Office Contextualisation of World Vision s Development Programme Approach In FY12, each national office is expected to tailor World Vision s Development Programme Approach to context if the NO has not already done this. Regional staff can support NOs in this tailoring process by providing an orientation, sharing experiences of other offices, facilitating learning visits to/from other NOs, and serving as partners in dialogue to review and complete the contextualised version. The process of tailoring WV s Development Programme Approach to context is an excellent opportunity to reflect on and celebrate a NO s good work on development. This provides an opportunity to bring together a NO s experience and good practices with learning from across the WV partnership, in order to refine the NO s approach to development for the next generation of programmes. It is important that a national office engages some of their best minds from all levels of the NO in this tailoring process. It is suggested that the NO s tailoring process includes listening to and learning from staff in innovative programmes that are contributing effectively to child well-being. The current National IPM Learning Coordinator will be a key resource person, sharing learning from experience applying IPM to date. The starting point for tailoring global WV s Development Programme Approach to context is the set of thirteen Programme Effectiveness Standards in Annex 1. A national office should start its process by considering how to apply these standards in its context, and what changes are needed in the office to enable this. Further explanation of these standards can be found in the Programme Effectiveness Self-Review Tool. 4 Next, a NO should consider how to apply the Critical Path appropriately in context. In its most basic form, the Critical Path is a set of eight simple questions that can be asked at various times in the programming process to help WV work with communities and partners towards child well-being. The Critical Path 4 All documents noted in this annex are available as part of Guidance for Development Programmes at 6

7 A version of the Critical Path has been developed through the operational research and piloting process for use in new programmes starting up and in existing programmes going through redesign. For each step in this Critical Path, a set of guiding questions and basic outcomes has been developed. These are included in the World Vision s Handbook for Development Programmes. In adapting the Critical Path, national offices consider how best to address these guiding questions and outcomes in ways that are appropriate and effective in context. The key issues to keep in mind when adapting the Critical Path include: How are we listening to children and communities? How are we empowering them to develop and act on their own vision for child well-being? How are we collaborating with other groups and organisations already working towards child well-being in the area, rather than undermining or duplicating their work? How are we helping those groups and organisations working towards child wellbeing to work more effectively together, leveraging greater commitment and more capacity than we can bring ourselves? How are we fitting with government processes and roles? How are we ensuring the most vulnerable are appropriately included? How are we addressing the most critical well-being needs of children, especially in relation to child well-being target areas, in a timely and effective manner by working with relevant partners who share a similar vision and have resources to contribute? How are we working with others to build up a committed cadre of volunteers in contributing to child well-being including targets? How are we defining sponsorship activities to be fun and meaningful for children and communities, and enabling meaningful engagement with sponsors? How are we selecting children for sponsorship and applying the SMPS in the primary programme focus areas? Practical examples of how the Critical Path can be applied in new programmes are available in the document Good Practices for Putting Development Programmes into Action. This is a synthesis of learning from pilots and early adopters across the WV Partnership. It brings together good practices in child-focused development work, local advocacy and disaster risk management, DME, accountability, and learning as well as sponsorship in programmes with this. This document also includes links to tools that have been tested and found useful by WV programme staff who have implemented the approach. Finally, it contains tips, cautions and examples from programmes that have used the approach to date. It is available as a reference for national offices and programmes to consult as they consider how to tailor WV s Development Programme Approach to their context. The key product of the tailoring process will be a NO s contextualised Development Programme Approach. This will be high level and flexible, so that local programme staff can further adapt at local level to reflect. A draft template is on the next page. Regional leaders may provide more specific guidance on the format sought for this product, to enable consistency with regional priorities, as well as the process that will be used in the region to support NOs in developing its contextualised version. Examples of NOs contextualised versions are available on the Programme Effectiveness CoP site in wvcentral. 7

8 Draft Template: NO s Contextualised Version of WV s Development Programme Approach 1. Promising practices in the National office that have proven effective in contributing to child well-being 2. The IPM learning journey of the NO to date 3. Key features of the national programming context relevant to development programmes (e.g. capacity and willingness of government, of civil society, etc.) 4. How the Programme Effectiveness standards will be contextually interpreted and fulfilled over time 5. For NOs with Child Sponsorship, how partnership standards and good practices for Sponsorship in Programming are addressed 6. How the outcomes and key questions of the Critical Path will be applied in the NO s context Finally, a NO should consider programming approaches in contributing to specific ministry priorities of the NO including CWB targets. Involve the senior technical specialists from the NO as well as from programmes, peer agencies and academic institutions as necessary. What approaches are currently being used by programmes in order to contribute to specific strategic ministry priorities including CWB targets? Are the current approaches effective and sufficient in contributing to the ministry priorities including CWB targets? How do these programming approaches compare with evidence-based best practices at the global and national level? Have global project models been considered for adaptation and scale-up? Are there promising practices from within a few programmes of World Vision or other agencies that need to be scaled-up? What learning networks within the NO may be needed in the capacity building and scale-up of promising practices? Are there any partnerships with academic institutions or other agencies needed to shore up technical support? What kind of technical staffing is required at the National, Zonal / Base and at programme level in relation to each of the strategic ministry priorities? It is important that the NO s Development Programme Approach continues to evolve over time to reflect learning and to ensure continuous improvement in fulfilling the Programme Effectiveness Standards. Please note that the national office will be accountable for results according to the agreed National Office strategy. Application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach is an important way for the NO Senior Leadership Team to ensure that we offer the best of what we know and have in serving the poor and children. 8

9 Annex 3: Template for Summary of National Office Plan for Application of World Vision s Development Programme Approach Please summarise the plan using the following template and share it with the Regional Leader. 1. Key Adjustments Made to Tailor WV s Development Programme Approach for the NO Context [Please describe major changes made to global version of World Vision s Development Programme Approach in tailoring to the National Office context] 2. Implications of applying the NO s Development Programme Approach [Summarise the implications of application of the NO s Development Programme Approach in light of this management guidance. Implications could relate to the following areas a) Degree of changes required in programmes in relation to the NO Development Programme Approach, b] for NOs with Child Sponsorship, ways that partnership standards and good practices for Sponsorship in Programming (including SMPS) are being addressed in the NO s Development Programme Approach, c) Technical capacity in DME and in relation to strategic ministry priorities, d) Evidence based promising practices (project models) that will be scaled-up during design and redesign processes, e) Quality assurance processes in the National office, f) Partnership with other agencies / institutions, g) knowledge management in areas pertaining to strategic priorities, h) Strengthening recruitment and retention of programme staff i) Adjusting finance systems and practices] 3. Changes and actions required by the NO to address implications [This would deal with implications identified above] 4. Building the capacity of NO and programme staff to apply the Development Programme Approach [Describe how your NO will build the capacity of NO and programme staff to understand and work with the approach. This can be done in consultation with the regional office, flexibly using materials in from the Integrated Competency Development Learning Resources.] 5. Support needed from other parts of WV (RO, SOs, GC, other NOs) [Identify the support needed from other parts of World Vision to enable success of the NO plan for applying its Development Programme Approach]. 9