Lessons Learned from the New Partners Initiative Technical Assistance Program

The NPI TeamJuly 11, 2012, Greeley Hall

Presenters (in order of speaking)

Folami Harris Katherine Holmsen Amita Mehrotra

The New Partners Initiative

• The New Partners Initiative (NPI), a $200 million inter-agency initiative designed to identify and strengthen new USG prime partners under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), was launched in 2006.

• Fifty-six Cooperative Agreements in total awarded by USAID, CDC and HRSA over three Rounds (43 by USAID)

• Initial awards ranged from $600,000 to $9,000,000 to strengthen and scale up Prevention, OVC and Care and Support activities in 14 PEPFAR Countries.

• Most awards centrally managed

• Three Technical Assistance Providers: - CAP-NPI TA / FHI 360 - NuPita / JSI - TA NPI / JSI

FHI 360 Program OverviewFHI 360 Core

Organizational Development Focus Areas

• Governance• Program Management• Monitoring and Evaluation

• Human Resources• Financial Management • External Relations• Technical

FHI 360 New Partners Initiative supports 29

grantees in 13 countries:

BotswanaCote d’IvoireEthiopiaHaitiKenyaMozambiqueNamibia

RwandaSouth AfricaTanzaniaUgandaVietnamZambia

Awards

INGOs: 14 PartnersLocal NGOs: 15 PartnersSub-partners: 0-29

Three year grants but 22 Partners received cost or no-cost extensions

FHI 360 Field Liaisons (in Africa, Haiti, and Vietnam) and Regional Experts (based in FHI 360 Kenya and South Africa Regional Offices) address grantees’ capacity

development needs through training, provision of materials, south-to-south transfers, and customized technical or organizational assistance.

• NPI grantees began with a participatory organizational capacity assessment to review their capacity in our “core” organizational development domains

• A technical assistance (TA) plan was developed to address self-identified areas of need

FHI 360 Model of Participatory Capacity Development

Lessons Learned: Our Approach

• Group training followed by tailored technical assistance

• Partners start out on different levels of capacity-progress at varying rates

• TA needs to be customized and flexible

• Our model is more of a “coaching,” “encouraging” approach- Trust is key

• Providers need technical/personal skills

• Partners don’t know what they don’t know

Lessons Learned: Building Relationships with Grantees

• TA Provider not a grants manager– Not holding the purse-strings has allowed for a more

honest relationship– Trust and transparency

• Cannot impose TA/Partner must buy in

• Partners are busy!

• But …perceived as a level of supervision

• Little leverage to push partners

Lessons Learned: Empowering Grantees• Direct Funding from USAID

– Raised Partners’ status in field and with government– Learned to negotiate with donors (i.e., USG)

• FHI 360 helped navigate their relationship, which allows for different perspectives

• TA is not mandated

• But…Letting partners “fail”/mistakes

• Partners choose to push back

Lessons Learned: South-to-South Collaboration

• Built peer networks/communities of practice – Networks expose Partners to diverse program models – Encourages collaboration

• Example: GRS supporting TLF in building their M&E database

• Hands-on experience through site visits– Example: BORNUS nurses wanted to expand their OVC expertise. They

worked with their Mission to support a site visit to TLF (South Africa) for optimal learning

• Peer Leadership (Modeling and Pressure)

Lessons Learned: Planning vs. Flexibility

• Soft skills create hard impacts– Soft skills such as leadership and internal organizational

communication can affect the outcome of programs and TA being implemented throughout organization

• Some organization able to run with TA– Example: Strategic Planning with WHI

• Partners resonated more strongly with tailored TA, adapting to needs as they would arise

• Flexible planning skills to adapt to changing funding landscape

Challenges

• Mission/USAID DC — communication

• Direct Funding– Large amount of funding initially required grantees to scale up rapidly

(low burn rates)

• Changing funding landscape- sustainability needs to start from the beginning

• High level of staff turnover in Partners-

• High level of Finance TA

• Partners with weak leadership- Boards

• How to measure Capacity Building

NPI Results

PARAMETERS & LIMITATIONS

• This exercise was limited by the tools used at baseline and end line; while common measures are compared, different tools were used to assess status at start and finish

• Organizational capacity assessments under NPI were facilitated self assessments, therefore heavily influenced by grantee perceptions of themselves

• Staffing changes within grantee organizations over the life of the program influenced perceptions of change

Overall Capacity Patterns at Baseline

• The majority of grantees assessed monitoring and evaluation as the domain in which they had the least capacity –most of their scores fell within “beginning” (<70%)

• The majority of grantees scored themselves as having solid capacities in External Relations and Governance –most of their scores fell just above “developing” (80%)

• Half of the grantees scored their functioning in human resources at the “beginning” phase

Self-Assessed Level of Organizational Functioning from OCA to CLOCA N=27

Level of Functioning at OCA Level of Functional at CLOCA

Change in Institutional Capacity by Domain N=27

When using the same assessment tool…

Selected Indicator Data

Patterns at OCA

• 48% of grantees had and used a strategic plan to guide operations

• 35% had guidelines for travel, procurement, and inventory

• 21% conducted staff performance assessments routinely

• 48% had guidelines for financial management

Patterns at CLOCA

• 87% of grantees have and use a strategic plan to guide operations

• 91% have and use an Admin. Manual to guide travel, procurement, and inventory

• 87% conducted staff performance assessments at least annually

• 96% have and use a Finance Manual to guide financial management

Collectively, Grantees showed a 2% to 14% improvement across domains

Achievements in Securing Additional Funding

Grantees reported submitting applications for funding to different funding agencies between Sept 2009 to Feb 2012. Among the respondents:

• at least $22,425,638 in additional funding has been disclosed to date

• 16 of 21 grantees have reported receiving additional funding to continue program work

• Awards ranged from $694 to $4 million

FHI 360’s Approach to Capacity Strengthening & Country Ownership:

Food for Thought

OUR CONTEXT

• Organizations (including governments) in low-resourced communities with rigid social hierarchies and dependence on external donors

• Many of these communities, in addition have experienced years of disenfranchisement, disempowerment and cultural alienation

• In today’s global village, all of these communities experience– severe brain drain– complex socioeconomic challenges – effective, well financed social marketing that promotes lifestyles

and attitudes that cannot be attained by the majority

OUR GOAL

To create the conditions necessary for sustaining the effort we have supported technically:

•Building local the capacity to:– institute management practices that ensure effectiveness,

efficiency and accountability to the funders involved (… but not necessarily to the intended beneficiaries)

– financially or materially carry on with desired activities

•Yet experience teaches us that the sustainability of institutions or interventions occur only when the desire and capacity to maintain a particular effort outlives external support --ownership

SUSTAINABILITY

Empowerment

OUR APPROACH

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

• …[capacity building] has to prepare people to play a dynamic and constructive part in the development of a society …in which progress is measured in terms of human well being, not prestige buildings, cars or other such things

– Julius Nyerere (1992-1999)

RESOURCES AND TOOLS

RESOURCES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE• NPI Resource Guide

• NPI-Connect eNewsletters

• Implementation Tips for USAID Partners

• Organizational Development Toolkit

• Financial Management Training Series – Timesheets

UPCOMING RESOURCES• The Role of Partnerships in Program Success – Case Study

• Financial Management Training Series – Completing the SF-425

• Sustainability Modules

NPI-Connect.net

NPI-Connect.net – About NPI

NPI-Connect.net – Events & Trainings

NPI-Connect.net – Resources & Tools

Financial Management Training Series

Organizational Development Toolkit

NPI-Connect.net – Document Library

Discussion

Q & A

•Questions & Answers

Thank You!