Sussex Development Lecture on Civil Society, by Roy Trivedy, Head of Civil Society, DfID

1. Civil Society in a changing landscape -
Presentation to the University of Sussex
Roy Trivedy,
Head Civil Society Department
8 March 2012
Slide 1

2. Objectives
• Key changes landscape of international
development - how are these affecting civil society?
• How CSOs are responding to challenges and
opportunities?
• Flag some areas where researchers and academia
could assist more effectively
Slide 2

3. Changing Global Context
• 3 Years to 2015 - review of MDGs
• Economic downturn
• Climate and environment challenges
• Rise of emerging powers
• Poverty in MICs and countries affected by
conflict
• Humanitarian work –Pakistan floods, East Africa
famine, changes in MENA global economic
downturn
• Poor facing: Food, fuel and financial crises
• Impact at home and overseas.. cuts in public
spending, pressure on public giving, aid flows
and remittances
Slide 3

4. UK Government response
• Dealing with the budget deficit DFID
• Structural Reform Plan • BAR, MAR & HERR
• Focus on:
• Push for more efficient public  Results, Outcomes and Impact
services  Evidence based work
 Value for Money
• Stronger Commercial ethos  Transparency
 Women and Girls
• ‘Big Society’ not ‘Big Government’  Learning ..better practice
• Bribery Act 2010 • Independent Commission on Aid
• Commitment to meet UN aid Impact (ICAI)
target of 0.7 of GNI in 2013
Slide 4

5. Why work with Civil Society?
“CSOs help relieve poverty by reaching disadvantaged groups
and geographical areas that governments often fail to reach”
“CSOs can respond quickly and flexibly to humanitarian needs
and are often better at supporting particular groups of poor”
• Important to protect ‘space’ for vibrant civil society
• But limited evidence of:
(viii)CSOs (individually or collectively) enabling chronically poor
to organise and do things for themselves;
(ix)CSOs consistently performing more effectively than other aid
modalities
Slide 5

6. Objectives for DFID’s work with civil society
1. Deliver goods and services
2. Empower citizens to be more effective in holding
governments to account and to do things for
themselves
3. Influence policies at national, regional and
international levels including on aid effectiveness
4. Build and maintain space for active civil society
5. Promote public support for development by
encouraging UK citizens to contribute
internationally
Slide 6

7. DFID Afghanistan
DFID Nepal Liberia
DFID Mozambique DFID Ghana
DFID Pakistan DFID Sierra Leone
South DFID Malawi
DFID India Asia West & DFID Nigeria
DFID Zambia
Division Southern
£80M Other £63M
DFID Bangladesh DFID Zimbabwe
Other
Middle East, Caribbean,
DFID DRC DFID Burundi DFID Tanzania
North Asia Division DFID Indonesia DFID Rwanda
£23M DFID Ethiopia
Other Iraq Other
Country East &
DFID Vietnam Africa DFID Uganda
Programmes £170M
Central
DFID Caribbean Latin America Africa Conflict & Humanitarian £67M
£273M DFID Sudan
& Nicaragua DFID Cambodia
Africa Regional
Department
DFID Kenya & Somalia
Pan-Africa Strategy & Programmes
= Fragile State
DFID Southern Africa £40M
= PSA Country
= Budget Support Country
= PSA & Budget Support Country
DFID
£515M Civil Research
& Evidence
Society
Other Dept. Trade Policy
UNDP £141M Unit
World Bank Policy &
Multilaterals Europe & Central Research Growth & Investment
Donor Relations £242M Directorate
Minimum £160M £175M
Evaluation Governance &
Department Social Development Climate & Environment
Human Development
EC Communications Division
Conflict, Humanitarian
and Security
Slide 7

8. Key changes in DFID’s work with Civil Society
• Balance between support for • Introduction of new ‘Business
small, medium and larger CSOs Cases’ to justify investments
• More competition, stronger focus • Increased pre contract due
on outcomes, outputs and VfM diligence
• DFID focal countries + HDI bottom • Encouraging matched and
50 performance based funding
• Increasing focus on tangible • Emphasis on use of evidence and
results/less on campaigning work independent evaluations
• Ceiling on central funding to CSOs • Aiming to generate learning,
- max 40% of org income sharing and better practice
• Transparency Guarantee
Slide 8

9. How are CSOs responding?
• The example of Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw…
“Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson (1998)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEH6fvU8i7o&feature=related
Slide 9

10. Results and ‘theory of change’
“An intervention will begin with a
belief about how it will work – but
the process through which
• Improved understanding of what programme inputs lead to outputs,
works - judgement based on the and outputs covert to the Outcome
strength of evidence supporting and Impact, often remains opaque
interventions (‘the black box’ of the change
process). This needs to be
articulated, and its theoretical
foundations made explicit….”
DFID Revised Business Case How to Note,
August 2011
Slide 10

11. What are we learning?
“I think you should
• Be explicit about all the be more explicit here
causal links between each in Stage 2…”
stage between inputs,
outputs, short and long term
outcomes
• Spell out assumptions –
about causality/theory,
programme implementation
and external factors
• Indicate evidence (or lack of
it) for each causal link and
seek beneficiary feedback
Slide 11

12. Improving Value for Money
• VfM means maximising the impact of every £1 spent to improve
poor people’s lives …not necessarily doing the least cost option
or easiest to measure thing
• Aims to develop understanding of costs of delivering work to
enable better informed, evidence based choices to be made
• Challenge to know the cost of inputs; develop better ways to
assess ‘value’; and consider ‘opportunity costs’
• A process of continuous improvement
Slide 12

13. Evaluation Systems and Practice
• Due Diligence work shows ..
“Patchy systems and practice” across civil society (UK and Global)
• Some strong examples
• But generally need for more systematic, research guided interventions -
to put ‘evidence into use’
• Investment needed to improve systems that contribute to better practice
Slide 13

14. Responding to the Aid Transparency Challenge
• Bond Survey Jan 2012 -
Which information
does your
organisation intend to
publish in the IATI
format?
Slide 14

15. Valuing Learning
•Establishment of a new DFID/CS ‘Learning
Partnership’
•Focusing on:
Empowerment and Accountability
 Inclusion
 Resilience
 Institutional Effectiveness
• Challenge to assess how the learning leads to better practice!
Slide 15

16. Next steps
• Portfolio Review refresh (June 2012)
• Mid term evaluations of key CS programmes used to allocate
DFID resources and design new programmes
• ICAI Review (end of 2012)
Slide 16