[afro-nets] Expressing Interest in Monitoring and Evaluation

[Peter Burgess <Profitinafrica@aol.com>]

Expressing Interest in Monitoring and Evaluation... but more for
TRAC excellence
----------------------------------------------------------------
[the response refers to a message from AF-AIDS:
"Call for Expressions of Interest: Monitoring and Evaluation"
attached below]


Dear Ian Grubb,

I am so pleased to learn of WHO's interest in strengthening its
work in the area of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). You may al-
ready know something of my concern about the very weak M&E that
is practiced by the official development assistance (ODA) or-
ganizations, and the emerging solution to this problem that is
being developed by TRACnet, a growing community of professionals
in many countries with an interest in transparency and account-
ability (TRAC) and a determination to change the way accounting
and management problems are being addressed.

Our work is taking on an increased urgency, because it is more
and more apparent that the ODA community is faced with an enor-
mous problem in terms of keeping track of the resources that are
available... small relative to the need maybe... but huge in
terms of potential for misappropriation.

One of the issues TRACnet is addressing is the underlying weak-
ness of management information and systems in the ODA community,
and the focus on M&E rather than on improving basic systems. M&E
has informed us for years (decades) that the accounting has not
been adequate and therefore the resources are missing, but im-
proving M&E does not improve the accounting, it just makes the
reporting of failure more efficient. Good professional account-
ants would not approach the problem this way, rather they would
argue for better accounting in the first place, and for the man-
agement and leadership to give the organization the accounting
tools and the accountants enough status so that the accounting
can do its job. What the ODA community needs is not stronger M&E
but stronger basic systems and basic reporting, and a willing-
ness to accept a high level of transparency.

There has been a lot of dialog about improving transparency and
accountability in the ODA community, and of course in the last
fifteen years Transparency International has carved out a role
in this arena. But the bottom line is that there has been an up-
grading in the talk about TRAC, but rather less action to really
improve TRAC... and improved M&E is not going to make much of a
difference. There are almost no professional accountants in-
volved in the ODA world and addressing the TRAC issue.

To highlight what I mean... last week the OECD - DAC organiza-
tions had a meeting to address the problem of governance and
corruption (not the exact title of the meeting) and of 44 people
who were to speak or were invited VIPs, only one, Mr. Nussbaum
of Transparency International, was identified as having any pro-
fessional accounting background. I find this of concern for two
reasons (1) what ever happened to the profession of accountancy
and their concern over getting the numbers right; and, (2) why
is it that the ODA community is not trying to get experienced
accountants into the middle of the situation to try to get the
problem resolved.

Drawing on my early training when I worked as an auditor... the
answer to the what ever and the why above is probably quite sim-
ple... and that is the underlying problems are so huge and em-
barrassing that leadership has no other option than to keep the
problems hidden. Essentially that is Audit 101... and the more I
look and listen, the more it appears that this is the problem.

OOPS

Please bite the bullet and get some good professional account-
ants, with forensic experience involved... and get some systems
operational that will deliver excellence in TRAC

Sincerely

Peter Burgess
in New York
Tel: +1-212 772 6918
mailto:peterb@afrifund.com
Database
http://www.afrifund.com/wiki/index.pcgi?page=AfrifundDatabase
Coffee: http://afrifund.coffeefair.com
Blog http://taame.blogspot.com


***********************

From: AF-AIDS [mailto:af-aids@eforums.healthdev.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 9:18 AM
Subject: [af-aids] Call for Expressions of Interest: Monitoring
and Evaluation

Call for Expressions of Interest: Monitoring and Evaluation
-Ian Grubb

Call for Expressions of Interest to Provide Monitoring and
Evaluation Support to the WHO Preparing for Treatment Program
and the HIV Collaborative Fund

Background HIV/AIDS treatment preparedness - encompassing advo-
cacy, literacy and community mobilization for people living with
HIV/AIDS and other affected communities - is central to realiz-
ing the target of providing antiretroviral treatment to 3 mil-
lion people in developing countries by the end of 2005 ('3by5')
and optimizing the impact of longer term plans, resources and
delivery systems for HIV/AIDS treatment. In order to contribute
to improved global treatment preparedness in countries and com-
munities, WHO has established the Preparing for Treatment Pro-
gram (PTP), based in the Department of HIV/AIDS at WHO headquar-
ters in Geneva. To the extent possible, resources available
through the PTP will be provided to partner organizations that
have expertise and are currently engaged in or have capacity to
undertake treatment preparedness activities. The initial phase
of the PTP involves a WHO contribution of USD 1,000,000 (one
million dollars) to the Collaborative Fund for HIV Treatment
Preparedness. The Collaborative Fund is structured as a global
partnership between the Tides Foundation, the International
Treatment Preparedness Coalition, more than 15 donors and tech-
nical assistance providers. The core activity of the Collabora-
tive Fund is grant-making to support HIV treatment literacy, ad-
vocacy and community mobilization projects in community-based
organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean
and Eastern Europe/Central Asia. Funding priorities, application
review and decisions about disbursements from the Collaborative
Fund are made by autonomous Community Review Panels comprising
people living with HIV/AIDS and community-based treatment advo-
cates and educators in each funding region or sub-region. It is
anticipated that WHO's contribution to the Fund will directly
support at least 40 small grants to be made in all regions be-
tween November 2004 and December 2005. The partnership between
WHO, Tides Foundation and the Collaborative Fund creates an im-
portant opportunity for monitoring, evaluation and research into
HIV treatment preparedness in order to identify what programs
and practices affect treatment preparedness, and to assess best
practices to guide treatment scale up activities in other set-
tings. It also provides an important opportunity to promote and
evaluate the application to a significant global program of the
principles of greater involvement for people living with
HIV/AIDS (GIPA). WHO has therefore undertaken to provide addi-
tional resources to assist in monitoring and evaluating of the
Collaborative Fund's activities.

Expressions of Interest

Expressions of interest are sought from organizations to lead
the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation
activities for the Collaborative Fund, beginning in January
2005, including consensus building among relevant stakeholders
about methodologies to be used and the use of monitoring and
evaluation tools at global, regional and project levels. The
Evaluation Contractor will also provide and coordinate technical
assistance for monitoring and evaluating the Collaborative
Fund's activities, and produce a final evaluation report in
April 2006.

Process for Submission

Qualified organizations with appropriate experience in commu-
nity-based and community-driven monitoring and evaluation, and
monitoring and evaluation of activities at global, regional and
community levels, are encouraged to submit an Expression of In-
terest in leading this project. Expressions of Interest should
be brief, summarizing relevant experience and qualifications,
and sent to Ian Grubb by email (mailto:grubbi@who.int) or fax
(+41-22-791-4834) by 08.00 hours Central European Time on Tues-
day, November 16, 2004. The subject field of the fax or e-mail
should contain the wording "PTP Monitoring and Evaluation Ex-
pression of Interest". For additional information, contact Ian
Grubb by email, or by telephone at +41-22-791-3304. A short-list
of candidates will be developed, based on the Expressions of In-
terest received. Short-listed candidates will be sent a Request
for Proposals in the third week of November, 2004 and invited to
submit a detailed tender for the project. Tender proposals will
be due at WHO by mid-December, 2004. WHO reserves the right
freely to choose, without justifying its choice, those individu-
als or organizations selected for short-listing based on Expres-
sions of Interest received pursuant to this call. It further re-
serves the right, if it so decides, not to pursue further this
international call for expressions of interest. No claims or ap-
peals will be accepted from any individuals or organizations
whose candidatures are not selected.

Ian Grubb
WHO, Geneva
mailto:grubbi@who.int