Introduction (EN)

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The programmatic approach in the ICCO Alliance

An initial outline – March 2007

A programmatic approach means the combination of interventions which are executed in a comprehensive way in a given time period and in a given geographical area. Organisations with a variety of expertise and experience take part in the programme. They reach agreement on an objective and implementation strategy and the different roles to be played by the various organisations.

The ICCO Alliance’s ambition is to adopt a programmatic approach over the next few years. By 2010 we would like to be in a position where 80% of all activities take place within programmes and 80% are also implemented in the ICCO Alliance’s 53 focus countries. Because there is still considerable confusion as to what a programmatic approach really is, this document sets out to explain its objective; how we intend to achieve it; which internal methods and instruments we need; how it ties in with the process of decentralisation and co-responsibility; and how we intend to monitor and improve this new (at least for the ICCO Alliance) working method over the next few years.

Our interpretation of the programmatic approach is ambitious. It is unlikely, however, that we will be able to achieve this ambitious target in the near future. Collaboration between very different organisations is simply too complex a process. However, a programmatic approach does create a shared horizon and the prospect that future collaboration will be both more effective and more efficient. Members of the ICCO Alliance will therefore need to show evidence of plenty of insight, patience and support: insight into the political, social and economic changes that we and our partners work on; the patience to leave ownership largely to local partners who can then determine the pace of the process themselves; and our support for the process, at the right time, using the right instruments. This calls for a new approach from both partners and ICCO Alliance staff. This document sets out an initial strategy for such an approach.

1. A changing context

Why is a programmatic approach necessary? In many of the countries where the ICCO Alliance is active civic organisations have become more powerful and more articulate. Many organisations are aware of the correlation between the local problems they deal with and the causes that need to be managed on a national and international level. The launch of the World Social Forum and resulting coalitions and networks illustrate this.

At the same time, a number of other trends have come to light that impact on collaboration, complementarity and the process of institutional development:

· The past 15 years have witnessed an explosive growth in the number of local and international NGOs. Moreover, in many countries the government now plays a smaller role. The primary causes for this include the IMF/WB doctrine that strives for more limited governments; failing states; and the inability of the government to provide (especially poor) citizens with proper healthcare, education and other essential basic services. For that reason some institutional donors have channelled more money into aid via NGOs and other civic organisations. In some countries (such as Malawi and Bangladesh) churches and civic organisations fund more than half of all healthcare or education.

· Poverty and social injustice are no longer the exclusive domain of development co-operation organisations. During the past few years, new players have entered the field (small private foundations, the business sector, town twinning, etc.). There is also an increasing awareness that non-traditional players can exert considerable influence in the area of poverty and injustice. Illustrative in this respect are the influence of churches and businesses on the issue of HIV/Aids, the role of religion in conflict management and peace building, and Dutch consumers’ growing appreciation for fairly traded products.

· The effect of market forces on the development co-operation branch and soaring pressure to produce results has both positive effects (it rouses the branch and inspires new ideas) and negative effects (it leads to a lack of collaboration; a fiercer drive to attract donors; more stringent demands; higher overhead costs).

· Smaller organisations – especially membership, church and other grassroots organisations – are not always in a position to join this ‘professionalisation drive’ and, as a result, are ‘forced out’ by the large NGOs – which include an increasing number of major international NGOs (Care, World Vision, Action Aid) that implement their own programmes.

· We are witnessing a strong centralisation of decision-making on policy and funding priorities in the North and a decentralisation of implementation in the South. Accountability for results, meanwhile, takes place the other way around: NGOs are accountable to their donors and back donors, and to a far lesser degree to the people they seek to help.

· Specialisation: in the past a limited number of development co-operation organisations would devote themselves to a broad spectrum of countries and themes. Nowadays, organisations are increasingly focusing on a limited number of countries and themes.

The effects of some of these trends and developments are plainly negative. For instance, the increased pressure to produce results has led to a noticeable proliferation of red tape across the entire chain (ranging from the Directorate General for International Cooperation to partner organisations), which also increases the risk of creating a ‘paper reality’. Moreover, the intensified battle for donors is not conducive to garnering more public support in the Netherlands for development co-operation. However, some developments open up new prospects. The involvement of new actors, the emphasis on expertise and innovation as well as developments in the field of communication create new opportunities for the ICCO Alliance and the organisations in the South that we work with. We are aiming to make the most of some of these opportunities via the programmatic approach.

2. Objective of the programmatic approach

The ICCO Alliance’s chief mission is to support people working at democratisation, income and wellbeing who claim there rights where needed. We pay special attention to strengthening the position of women, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable groups in society.

We hope the programmatic approach will allow us to work on these processes of change in a more strategic, sustainable, effective and efficient fashion. The programmatic approach features two distinct elements:

1) Collaboration and complementarity: the ICCO Alliance believes that collaboration with several, different actors is crucial for bringing about real change.

2) Specialisation and focus: these different actors work on the basis of a specific, jointly formulated objective. One such objective in Brazil is to help young people escape the cycle of poverty and violence; the objective in Mali is to improve access to and the quality of primary education; the aim in the Philippines is to gain recognition of land rights.

All players within a particular programme work on the basis of a shared vision. Each player within a programme has his or her own interest, but recognises the greater common good as well. A programme is never static and inflexible but dynamic. Linearity in design, implementation and evaluation does not automatically apply to a programmatic approach. Time and again, the vision, cohesion and direction of programmes will be scrutinised, while at the same time the programmes are expected to produce results.

Who has ownership over the programme? In principle, ownership lies with a small, regular core of actors – ICCO Alliance members + Southern partners – that support the programme. Not everyone participating in a programme needs to accept ownership. The core group will always accept responsibility throughout the various phases of a programme’s life.

3. What is needed?

Whether or not the objectives outlined in these programmes can be achieved depends on:

a. Proper understanding and analysis of the context, not just in broad terms, but also in detail. In other words, if we want to take a programmatic approach to the area of youth and violence in Brazil we will have to be fully aware of the context of the violence, the young people’s social position, perspectives, etc.

b. A stakeholder analysis: which actors operate in this area and how influential are they? Who are the most important drivers of change and how can we intervene most effectively?

c. On the basis of this analysis, the objective itself can be reformulated to ensure that it can be achieved within the set timeframe.

d. Drawing up a strategy: which methods are most likely to yield the best results?

e. Drawing up a programme plan: which actors will assume which responsibilities? Which instruments (time, money, manpower) are needed? Etc.

f. At the start of the process agreements will have to be made about monitoring, evaluation, learning and improvement.

g. Finally: all participating actors require transparency about the ICCO Alliance’s role and intentions.

h. ………..

Potential stumbling blocks

Although this approach offers a wealth of opportunities, there are also a few potential stumbling blocks. The list below is non-exhaustive:

1) For decades, donors and NGOs have had strong bilateral relations. However, the programmatic approach looks more at how various organisations relate to each other and how they can all work together. The ICCO Alliance is merely one of many donors. How do we keep the players together? The process of bringing and keeping players together requires both care and patience.

2) NGOs are familiar with the donors and the game; they might see this as yet another new fad and reluctantly conform to this ‘new insight’ or only participate for appearance’s sake.

3) These days donors are keen to set themselves apart and will probably not automatically welcome this ‘palaver’.

4) ……………

Participant profile

A programmatic approach will be successful only when a core group of participants is prepared to work with one another and with others (including businesses and local governments), is open to new ideas, prepared to scrutinise its own performance and willing to develop. The ICCO Alliance itself is expected to meet these criteria and we should be capable of creating a certain degree of trust among the participants.

It is crucial for the process to be inclusive, in other words, all actors that should and want to participate must be in a position to do so. The ICCO Alliance will initially work with its own partner organisations, but it is important that we not limit participation in the programme to these partners. More than anything, the ICCO Alliance will have to consider existing forms of partnership and reinforce and join those.

Roles

The ICCO Alliance is expected to offer more than just financing. Each programme will have to explicitly state its expectations of the ICCO Alliance and/or the participants:

I. Strategic financing: above all, the ICCO Alliance should support those organisations that provide added value to the overall programme. We should therefore aim for further diversification of partners to facilitate the creation of a broader network of partners that also targets collaboration and complementarity.

II. Brokerage: this difficult role involves ‘connecting the right people, organisations and businesses to generate added value’. The role adopted by the ICCO Alliance is clearly dependent on the context within which we operate. Sometimes the ICCO Alliance will have to take the initiative, while in other cases it would be appropriate to adopt a more modest role that ties in with local initiatives. It is obvious that the role of the ICCO Alliance should neither be ‘donor driven’ (which is unsustainable) nor ‘laissez-faire’ (which is ineffective). Between these two extremes we will have to find the role that fits us best and determine which roles we can leave to others: these might include I/C Consult; staff deployment; staff or partner organisations within the programme itself; local experts.

III. Capacity development: the programme will have to contain details on the capacities the core group of participants would like to develop, how they intend to do so and what is needed for this. It is important to see capacity development not just as a means in itself (short-term – with programme-related targets), but also as an end; one such end could be the local development of capacity in this area.

IV. Constituency, participation and lobbying: both on the ground and at home. How are people who form part of the programme’s target group involved in the programme and what degree of support for change is there among this group? Which lobbying activities should be developed locally and what sort of protection (for instance for human rights activists) can the ICCO Alliance offer? What constituency and lobbying activities should be developed in the Netherlands and at a regional/global level?

4. Phases of the programmatic approach

The method of working (together) afforded by the programmatic approach will take shape gradually. During the preliminary phase, collaboration between partners in a programme will still be precarious, while some organisations may not be involved yet. However, this should develop over time, just as ownership of these programmes should eventually be in the hands of these partners in the South. In due course the ICCO Alliance will probably also offer a different interpretation of our role.

In order to get a clear view of the programmatic approach and to link it with the ICCO Alliance’s financing and support for the programme, the process is ‘carved up’ into 4 phases:

a. Exploratory phase: The ICCO Alliance will explore the programme’s potential – steps 1, 2 and 3 of the ICCO Alliance working method (see page 22 of the business plan).

b. Preliminary phase: Together with the various actors in the country/sub-region and the ICCO Alliance members, a programme will be drawn up containing the aforementioned 4 roles – steps 4 and 5.

c. Implementation phase: Agreement will be reached with all participating actors (partner organisations, ICCO Alliance members, potential other actors) on the duration of the programme (3 years, for instance), on who will do what and responsibility within the programme, on monitoring and evaluation, on projects to be funded and other activities.

d. Follow-up phase: Shortly before a programme draws to a close, its effectiveness and the roles of both partners and Alliance members will be evaluated. This will provide the basis for the programme’s follow-up phase.

The carving up into phases suggests a degree of linearity that is unlikely to occur in practice. When starting up a new programme it is important to get to the implementation phase as quickly as possible and to develop the programme from there. The 4 phases will be linked to the working and decision-making processes within the ICCO Alliance – see section 5 below.

5. Decision-making

The decision-making procedures and instruments will be adapted to suit this new approach. The emphasis will be shifted from project-based decision-making (which has been used so far) to programme-based decision-making.

The aim is to reduce the number of procedures and instruments and to make the remaining ones simpler and more flexible. Of course we must also keep in mind the requirements of our back donors.

6. Learning from the programmatic approach

The programmatic approach should not be seen as a fill-in-the-blanks exercise. It is a process that is often packed with surprises. Such a process is always open-ended and needs to be accompanied at all times by reflection and support. At times it may transpire that our chosen route is unfeasible or problematic. In such cases it is important to be able to quickly introduce changes.

It is essential therefore to rely on the professionalism and expertise offered by the programme officers, the programme co-ordinators and the programme specialists, and by the people already operating overseas in programmes on behalf of the ICCO Alliance. They are the ones who will have to turn this approach into a success story.

It is very important to watch these processes closely over the coming years. When setting up programmes good monitoring and evaluation will be taken into account. It is important to involve all participants here, including the partner organisations and others in the programme itself. The ICCO Alliance will launch a learning programme about the programmatic approach, in order to collect the various experiences , register stumbling blocks and dilemmas and improve our approach on the basis of these findings. The learning programme will be co-ordinated from ICCO’s Research & Development Department and contain the following elements:

a. Collect experiences: by the Learning Facilitators and programme specialists directed by the Programme Capacity Building’s coordinator. Periodically (every 6 weeks) the programme specialists will meet to share experiences. Items will be working method; ICCO Alliance’s role; thew process itself; various practical problems.

b. Exchange experiences: by means of peer review, programme officers, specialists and coordinators cab learn from each others experiences. At management team level, a case will be presented in every monthly policy meeting. Also, the plans for and progress in the programmatic approach will be discussed in every staff meeting.

c. Research experiences: in the ESCAD Programme universities research the DREO programme’s chain approach. Over the next few months, possibilities for similar research in other themes will be looked into. For instance, we could research with universities and knowledge centres how the programmatic approach is taking shape in programmes for democratisation or conflict transformation.

HD/March 2007

A first description of the Programmatic Approach

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