Designing In-Country Managed Funds
~ Section B | Delivery Mechanisms
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Once the objective, operating principles and criteria have been established, consideration should be given to which delivery mechanism is most likely to generate the outcomes and achievements sought.
In the case of small Funds, it may be advisable to support stronger, more established organisations where the chances of effective implementation are higher.
Larger Funds may formalise systems for capacity building, possibly in conjunctions with intermediary organisations or local consultants.
Issues to consider
Consideration should be given to the following issues:
- Programme approach versus projects - will the Fund provide support for the programmes of the development partners or individual projects with determined inputs, outputs and outcomes?
- Contestability - will proposals be sought and considered in some sort of a competitive arrangement?
- Advertise or pre-select - will funding opportunities be advertised widely or selectively, in response to enquiries, or through industry associations, umbrella or peak bodies? Will priority for funding be given to known competent organisations?
- Decision-making processes - will appraisal and approval of proposals be through representative committees or post staff such as the Head of Mission or NZAID officer? The responsibility of ensuring that proposals are in line with NZAID’s policies and objectives lies with the HOM.
- Responsive and/or partnership - will the Fund respond to requests received or will the Fund develop partnerships with a small number of key organisations?
- Administrative arrangements - to what degree will the Post be involved in the management of the Fund? Will it provide a representative to the selection committee of provide an administrative secretariat?
- Intermediary implementation - will responsibility for the management and operation of the Fund, or components of the Fund, be delegated to intermediaries such as partner governments, umbrella NGOs, management NGOs, association or business councils, official bodies such as development banks or management services consultants?
- Degree of involvement - will implementation be left to the partners/beneficiaries or will there be technical or procedural mentoring by the post or a contracted technical assistant?
- Frequency of grants- will a single grant only be provided or will multi-year funding be allowed? Will repeat proposals be considered and what are the conditions which surround these?
- Quality outcomes - who will be responsible and to what extent will they be involved in appraisal, monitoring, and evaluation?
- Processes - what guidelines are needed and what application, acquittal and reporting systems will be required?
Committees
The use of committees is a common approach. In general, and dependent on the size of the Fund, external stakeholder involvement in at least an advisory committee would be a preferable model in order to advance principles of participation and partnership. Careful planning is required around the precise roles and functions that advisory or management committees should have.
Policy and approval functions are usually separated from those involving identification and mentoring to avoid any conflict of interest. Appraisal and mentoring may be better handled by professional staff and/or consultants to ensure high quality technical inputs. Although functions and roles may be demarcated in this way, a committee member should still retain field exposure through, for example, involvement in monitoring visits.
Committee membership
Membership of any committee could involve NGO, community, industry, technical, government, post, gender or technical representation.
The issue of involving government representatives on management committees needs to be handled according to the context, and the government’s overall orientation to civil society. At a minimum, there is a strong case for involving a representative(s) of government line agencies to provide technical input and advice on government and development strategies. A representative of local government may also provide insight into local governance arrangements and possibilities for collaboration.