11

Proposed Results Management Framework

for 2010-2012

K. Cleaver, AP/PMD for CRMT, 7 April 2009

IFAD’S COUNTRY PRESENCE – TOWARDS A LONGER-TERM STRATEGY

Kevin CleaverInformal Board Seminar

13 December 2010

22

Country Presence – the background

Field Presence Pilot Programme, approved by the Executive Board in December 2003, with an implementation period of 3 years, a budget of US$3 million.

Evaluated in 2007. IOE stated that field presence had: markedly greater achievements in countries with and after field

presence, in IFAD. positive effect on development effectiveness in comparator

organisations

At the request of the Executive Board, IFAD management: presented one year activity plans for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011; undertook a self assessment in 2010; and agreed to present a Country Presence Strategy to the EB in May 2011.

This informal seminar aims at getting feedback from EB members on the draft country strategy.

33

Self-assessment methodology and limitations

Methodology Bi-annual progress reports submitted by ICOs

Perception survey of PMD staff, including country office staff

Interviews with staff involved in country presence

Visits to eight ICOs

Statistical analyses, comparing ICO and non-ICO data

Findings from evaluations

Limitations

IFAD’s operating model changed significantly over the review period. Country Presence is only one of the variables that changed.

Separation of ICO achievement from that of the country programme is difficult.

ICOs are too new to allow definitive analyses.

44

Current status: Country office establishment and host country agreements

Most governments desire to sign a host country agreement. Current status:

Eight HCAs signed. Two finalised, awaiting signature. Fourteen draft agreements are being

negotiated. Requests for HCAs have been sent

to four countries.

On average, initial Note Verbale to signature of host country agreement has taken more than one year.

Approved Established

Country offices 30 28

CPM-led 12 6

CPO/ consultant-led 18 22

Note: Country offices considered established when staff or consultants are in place. Figures are as at 15 November 2010. 4 CPO-led COs will be CPM-led, once the CPM is in place.

55

IFAD staff are housed in other agencies

IFAD relies on other UN organizations for hosting its offices.

This reduces costs and allows IFAD to focus more on programmatic work.

IFAD is willing to host its offices in other IFIs, but these institutions usually cost more.

Procedures for IFAD contribution to office refurbishment/ rehabilitation yet to be established – MOSS compliance, moves to UN House(s), One UN buildings.

Host agencyNumber of ICOs

UNDP `15

FAO 6

WFP 3

Government 1

UNON 1

Under negotiation 4

Total 30

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Current level of staffing

National staff were initially given UNDP, FAO, or WFP contracts, in which the terms of reference and salary levels were set by IFAD.

President’s Bulletin issued on 15 October 2009 allowed for IFAD’s direct hire of national staff.

20 IFAD contracts issued 18 are in process Others hold UNDP or FAO contracts

Staff typeNumberof staff

Outposted CPMs (international staff) 6

Outposted Associate CPMs 3

Technical Professional (mix of national & international) 10

CPOs (national staff) 23

Support Staff (national staff) 21

Total 64

.

7

Country office staff at IFAD

Regional divisions have mainstreamed the budgets for ICOs and have integrated the ICO staff into all facets of the divisions. ICO staff attend regional implementation workshops/retreats and

are assigned responsibilities for presentations or specific outcomes.

The names and titles of ICO staff are available on regional intranet sites, and in most cases also available on the Internet.

ICO staff have participated in IFAD sponsored training at headquarters and in-country, including: supervision, procurement, financial management, logical framework, M&E.

ICO staff have participated in internal reviews of project designs (either at QE or QA), some remotely.

8

Estimated costs

2010 2011

(USD '000)

Average cost of national officer led offices 127 135

Average cost of CPM-led offices 293 426

Less: CPM cost at headquarters 204 204

Incremental cost per office * 89 222

*Assuming all national recruitments are incremental. These recruitments will help in reducing the tasks outsourced to the consultants.

9

Estimated cost: some comparison

Cost of national-officer led country offices are kept at low level; equivalent to cost of one project design or about 2-3 supervision missions per year.

As cost of CPMs for CPM-led offices represents transfer of costs, incremental cost are limited.

Kenya regional office costs are mainly incurred for:

Outposting HQ-based CPM and technical staff, and

providing most part of the disbursement processing services in East

Africa and so represents transfer of costs/activities from Rome.

10

Controlling costs

IFAD management is committed to expand its country offices to achieve higher development effectiveness, while limiting the costs associated with expansion. This goal will be achieved by:

Transferring international staff from HQ, when possible

Savings in post adjustment is substantial in many duty stations: for 56 countries average of 44%, compared to Rome’s 63%.

For expansion, relying more on locally available human resources

A NO-D (highest level) national officer on average (of 56 countries) costs about 40% of the P5 level, based in the same country.

General service staff on average (of 56 locations) at G4 level costs about 23% of their equivalents in Rome. At G5, this ratio is 26%.

Office costs will be kept at low level by opting for hosting arrangements with other UN/international agencies.

11

Findings from evaluation

Country Presence will improve IFAD’s development effectiveness in the dimensions of: project implementation support, policy dialogue, partnership development, knowledge management.

Other contributions: identification of problems, timely information flows, communication with partners, dialogue with governments, improved M&E. ICOs are particularly strong on implementation support and partnership building.

Comparator organisations: Other IFIs consider their field presence to be “essential to their development effectiveness”.

Further factors to consider: A thorough assessment of resource requirements (human, financial), definition of roles and responsibilities, delegation of authority, recruitment modalities.

1212

Impact on efficiency

In the last two years, ICO countries have taken less time in declaring projects effective than non-ICO countries

Time from approval to 1st disbursement has decreased consistently in ICO countries. For 2009/10, it is 3 months below non-ICO countries.

Transfer of loan withdrawal processing for Eastern and Southern Africa from Rome to Nairobi and some capacity building support at the project level has reduced processing time from 53 to 27 days (comparison Jul-Jun 2008/09 and 2009/10 in East Africa.

1313

Outcomes: Project design and implementation Better supervision/implementation support was rated as the most important

and better project design as the second most important outcomes of ICOs by respondents to Perception Survey.

Without a cadre of staff located in-country, the transition to direct supervision would have been less effective.

ICO staff follow up on mission recommendations through post supervision visits.

ICOs undertake prior review of work programmes, withdrawal applications and procurement documents.

The country offices play a facilitation role between line ministries and the ongoing IFAD financed projects and between IFAD and government.

In Yemen, the country office worked with Government to streamline procedures that had impeded the flow of funds to IFAD projects, by the end of 2008, disbursements for two projects increased by an average of close to 50%.

The office in Viet Nam has helped projects with the preparation of project exit strategies.

1414

Outcomes: Partnerships

Country offices meet more regularly with partners in-country. IFAD is a member of the UN Country Team in almost all of the ICO

countries. ICOs have contributed to the UNDAF processes. In Tanzania, part of the One UN initiative, IFAD is participating in the

development of a joint programme on environment and climate change.

ICO staff contribute to in-country donor thematic groups in agriculture, food security, micro finance.

In Ethiopia, IFAD’s response to Ethiopia’s poverty reduction strategy were communicated to development partners during the CAADP Ethiopia consultative workshops.

1515

Outcomes: Policy dialogue

IFAD country office staff identify project experiences that can be used to influence policies at national and local levels.

County office staff participate in government-led working groups

and meetings. In Congo, IFAD participated in the validation of the national strategy

for microfinance. In Sudan, IFAD is the only UN organization which is a member of

three high level committees of the Agricultural Revival Programme. The ICO in India is part of the core team to support the government

in the national Rural Livelihood Mission.

In SWAp countries (Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania), ICO staff are members of the steering committee.

1616

Outcomes: Knowledge management and innovation Knowledge management activities have focused on inter-project

exchange of knowledge and experiences: In the Philippines, the country office along with the government’s

National Economic and Development Authority, organised annual Knowledge Learning Markets.

The ICO facilitated exchanges between projects in The Gambia and Senegal, as well as networking visits of farmer organisations from the two countries to encourage closer ties.

Innovations that can be attributed to the ICOs include: Working with the Massai community, the Kenya office helped

introduce “Cows to Kilowatts” – an innovative programme to produce and use bio-gas that helps meeting household energy needs and reduce greenhouse gas.

The office in Panama facilitated a contest for women entrepreneurs focusing on members of indigenous tribes.

ICOs are in a good position to identify innovations for scaling up.

1717

Country office operations and priorities for the future

IFAD’s long term vision will be guided by the following:

Country offices will continue to emphasize programmatic support to country programmes, with limited emphasis on representation;

Country offices will remain small in terms of staffing;

IFAD will adopt the most cost-effective method for establishing offices and recruiting staff; and

IFAD will also develop an exit (closure) policy for country offices, which are no longer useful or cost effective.

18

Indicative operating principles and priorities ICOs need to be selective in choosing their priorities:

in general, they will accord the highest priority to providing project implementation support.

ICOs will play an increasingly larger role in policy dialogue commensurate with the capacity of IFAD headquarters to support to support ICOs in undertaking such dialogue.

IFAD’s business processes and automation will increasingly factor-in and adapt to the needs of ICOs.

Further delegation of authority will be made as ICOs mature.

IFAD is committed to closing ICOs that become irrelevant.

1919

Guiding principles for setting up country offices

Indicative guiding principles for expansion into new countries would include:

Programme size, as the principal operational criteria: number of active projects total IFAD financing for these projects, and estimated PBAS allocation for 2013-2015;

Need for implementation support of the projects;Countries in special circumstances, such as weakly

performing and fragile states;Conducive policy and institutional environment allowing

country presence effectiveness;Demand for country presence by the government; and Inversely with proximity to Rome.

2020

Expanding country presence: the base case A cut-off of current IFAD financing of US$ 25 million generates a list of 56

countries which may need ICOs.

30 countries already have ICOs in place or planned: five more - are proposed for 2011.

The remaining 21 countries fall into 3 categories:

8 are MICs: Argentina, El Salvador, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Azerbaijan and Morocco; potential candidates for ICOs.

5 countries are relatively approachable from Rome: Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Syria and Turkey; no ICO needed.

8 are low income countries: Eritrea, Burundi, Cambodia, Benin, Nicaragua, Laos, The Gambia and Niger; potential candidates for ICOs.

In 2012, IFAD plans to expand its country presence to five more low income countries, taking the total number of ICOs to 40.

The long term plan is to remain within 45 ICOs. Out of the 90 countries in which IFAD finances projects, some 50 countries may be covered (some ICOs will handle more than one country).

2121

Expanding country presence: Alternate scenarios The base case presented thus far represents a moderate level of

ambition in expanding country presence.

Alternate scenario may involve: Larger number of ICOs:

(+) country coverage increases, IFAD becomes truly field-based.(-) marginal efficiency and effectiveness improvements of expanding

beyond 45 ICOs will be low.

Larger number of CPMs outposted: (+) enhanced development effectiveness, avoids potential duplication of

tasks between CPMs and CPOs.(-) organisational coherence may suffer as corporate vision gets blurred

during implementation. Larger number of sub-regional offices (beyond 3):

(+) some back office functions can be decentralised (re: Kenya office), which would help to reduce Rome-based structures and will save costs over the longer term.

(-) this may negatively affects knowledge sharing between regions and countries.

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Staffing

IFAD depends heavily upon outsourced technical skills, and retaining a flexible, adaptable structure is critical for IFAD.

ICOs therefore will remain small. Very indicatively 40 ICOs by 2012, including up to 3 regional service centres, may imply up to 150 staff:

20 CPMs, for CPM-led ICOs 20 CPOs, leading offices not led by CPMs 50 other professional staff, national and international 60 assistants, national

The CPMs and some of the professionals would not be additional, but would be outposted from Rome.

Over the longer term, a significant part of routine work at headquarters (contract processing, data entry, etc.) could go to the field, allowing for efficiency gains in Rome.

2323

Outposting of CPMs About half of the ICOs could be CPM-led by end 2012. IFAD

management, however, is facing difficulty in finding suitable CPMs for outposting.

IFAD management will consider an incentive measure for HQ staff to move to the field:

Offer one grade higher to those CPMs or other staff who are willing to be outposted. Upon return to headquarters these staff would revert back to the original grade, unless they have received promotion.

A rotation policy specifically addressing the issue of outposting and transfer back to headquarters of internationally recruited staff.