NGOs and Civil Society organisations usually request our services to monitor progress or evaluate the success or otherwise of projects they have supported. We may work alone or as members of a team. The terms of reference specify the aspects of monitoring or evaluation we would be responsible for. Related to this are baselines surveys which we may be asked to perform. These are development benchmarks; an inventory of development attributes at a point in time. Our reports are used subsequently to measure the impacts of projects.
Because of our broad experience and knowledge of the local development scene, NGOs may ask us to participate on project formulation teams. Our role here has primarily been, as financial management experts, to review project's proposed administrative structures and provide input to ensure that there will be proper accounting and reporting during implementation.
Financial Management necessarily develops recommendations which grantees need to implement in order to better manage the funded projects. Donors are in turn keen on the implementation of improvements in line with the now global aid philosophy of technology transfer and strengthening the management of recipients to assure project sustainability. Because we would have developed the recommendations in the first place, naturally donors look to us for solutions. Examples of services we provide to enhance Institutional support includes:
- Review of organisation structure and administration arrangements to recommend changes necessary for grantees to become more effective in the pursuit of their objectives.
- Review of the financial management function to identify problems, if any, and recommend changes necessary for the function to serve the organisation better.
- Review of terms and conditions of service for grantee employees having regard to best practice, prevailing conditions and local laws.
- Provision of technical assistance (advice and effort) to implement recommendations arising. This takes a variety of forms including recruitment, training, progress monitoring and provision of assistance to deal with more difficult areas during implementation.
- Studies to assess sustainability of grantees' activities should donor funding cease. Such studies suggest strategies for income generation and revenue base stability.
- Ad hoc requests to provide assistance to introduce operate or modify specific internal controls in grantees
We have clear documented country knowledge of the central government, local government, public corporations, civil society organisations and private enterprises. We understand their budgeting, funding and expenditure mechanism, operating environment and challenges faced.
