Lessons Learned for Strong Project Delivery & Reporting Sheelagh O’Reilly, Kristin Olsen IODPARC Independent Assessors for the Scottish Government IDF

Overview of Successful Applicants to Malawi and South Asia Development Funds Overview of Strengths/ Weaknesses of Successful Proposals, and Implications for Delivering Strong Projects and Reports, with a focus upon: – Exit Strategy – Experience/ Expertise – Budgets & Financial Reporting Overview of Presentation

Malawi Round: 55 applications: – 23 funded projects (8 unconditionally funded based upon the proposals submitted; 15 funded, on the condition that certain aspects of projects were improved) – Successful applicants included: 2 small organisations ( 1m p.a.) organisations. Between 40-50% applicants were successful within each ‘size category’. – Projects addressed a range of priority areas including health (9), sustainable economic development (6), education (4) and other (1). No projects for civic governance and society were funded. – Successful applicants include NGOs (12), trusts/ foundations (5), universities (3), health boards (2), and a research institute (1) Overview of Successful Applicants

South Asia Round: 27 applications – 12 funded projects (all on the condition that certain aspects of projects were improved) – Successful applicants included: 2 small organisations ( 1m p.a.) organisations. Between 40-50% applicants were successful within each ‘size category’. – Projects addressed a range of priority areas including health (4), food production (5), climate change (4), water (4), and education (1). No projects for renewable energy were recommended. 8 projects were considered cross-cutting across priority sectors. – Successful applicants include 1 research centre and 11 NGOs Overview of Successful Applicants: South Asia

Successful projects were deemed to be of high enough quality to warrant Scottish Government funding. In general successful projects : – were highly relevant to the objectives of the Scottish Government IDF; – clearly communicated how and what they were going to deliver based on good development practice; – were strongly integrated with national/ regional/ local initiatives, – had strong partnerships with local partners; – and had proposed good systems for M&E. Overview of Strengths of Successful Proposals

Key weaknesses in proposals, across both Malawi and South Asia funds were identified in: – quality of exit strategies (40% had weak exit strategies); – quality/ relevance of proposed personnel (34% had teams that lacked key experience or expertise to deliver the project) – quality and clarity of budgets (23% had poor/unclear budgets) These are critical components of a good project, which the Scottish Government will work with you to help you to improve on, and will expect to see evidence that this has taken place and is delivering results, for example through reporting. Overview of Weaknesses of Successful Proposals

Fundamental part of the design of a development project, so that the benefits of the project can continue to be felt long after the project is finished. Ongoing funding is not guaranteed: Scottish Government will provide support in developing exit strategy further. Key outputs and outcomes relating to sustainability/ the exit strategy, need to be incorporated into the logframe/ reporting system. Evidence that this is being achieved might be obtained/ presented through tracking of (for example): capacity built; sustainable community management structures established; finance raised or made accessible; relationships developed; formal agreements established. Strengthening Exit Strategies

In general staff proposed have got excellent experience, and expertise. Sometimes key expertise may be lacking in relation to key areas of project delivery (e.g. delivering gender equality) or there is no clear added value provided by the Scottish partner: A skills assessment can be a useful way of identifying skills gaps. Once these are identified experts (such as volunteers/ consultants/ local partners) can be identified to fill a specific role. Where ‘Scottish Expertise’ is not considered to add sufficient value – the gaps may also be found through reviewing expertise in Scotland that could be provided remotely. Consider developing outcomes related to efficient project management. This might be linked to internal/ organisation-wide reporting on organisational effectiveness. Outputs might include: recruitment/ involvement of a person/ organisation with critical expertise. Building the right team

Key for effective and efficient project management, and for accountability and transparency purposes: SG will have worked through budgets in detail, and provided specific advice on providing clear, detailed budgeting Financial reporting systems will have to be established, clearly linking expenditure (inputs) with project activities, outputs and outcomes Consider developing outcomes related to efficient financial management. This might be linked to internal/ organisation-wide reporting on organisational effectiveness. Outputs may include: Detailed budget and reporting system (developed and approved by SG and partners) Regular financial reports (e.g. monthly internal reports, 6-monthly reports to SG) Strengthening Budgets and Financial Reporting

Take these issues into consideration when designing your M&E system i.e. enable tracking of progress, and results against key outcomes – for example those related to sustainability, partnerships, expertise and financial management Ensure baselines are established early on and are fit for purpose How to Reflect this in your Reporting:

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