Mokoro : Services
Evaluations
Using aid effectively depends on rigorous evaluation. Parliaments and taxpayers in donor countries are right to insist that the use of aid is properly monitored and evaluated. Rigorous impact evaluations, when feasible, are ideal. But they can only be part of the armoury. Randomised control trials are often not feasible, and aid agencies often have to make rapid choices on limited information, in countries where data are weak. Evaluators need to use mixed methods approaches to maximise lesson-learning that can feed into decisions about the allocation and design of aid.
We have led formal global evaluations, including the Joint Evaluation of General Budget Support and the evaluation of the Education for All Fast Track Initiative, and also less formal multi-country case studies and reviews, such as the Aid on Budget study and the study of Sector Budget Support in Practice. We have also undertaken individual country programme reviews and evaluations. Our clients have included donor consortia for joint evaluations, and a range of bilateral and multilateral agencies, including the African Development Bank, DFID, Danida, Irish Aid, the Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA), the World Bank and the World Food Programme and the Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA). Our evaluation work is led by Stephen Lister and other highly experienced consultants include Martin Adams, Rebecca Carter, Catherine Dom, Anthea Gordon, Alta Fölscher, Stephen Turner, and Muriel Visser-Valfrey.
Institutional Reviews
Organisations and institutions engaged in the sustainable development to which Mokoro is committed include government departments and agencies; parastatal bodies; international organisations; and NGOs that range from global bodies to local structures. To perform effectively, all such bodies must not only monitor and evaluate their programmes and projects, they must also review their own organisational and institutional performance. Such reviews may assess organisational structure; human resource capacity; funding strategies and management; thematic focus and policy priorities; management effectiveness; knowledge management; performance and risk management; relevance in the working environment; and relations with other agencies in the same field.
Mokoro’s competence in such institutional reviews lies mainly in the thematic area: helping such bodies to assess and, where necessary, reshape their performance in order to optimise relevance and impact. Such contributions are grounded in the ability to understand the broader structure and challenges of institutions, in particular their policy focus and direction and the leadership and management strategies they adopt. Often, these skills are applied in the context of large organisations’ evaluations of specific programmes or policies. To be meaningful, such assessments require a broad understanding of the culture, focus and direction of the agency as a whole. We have carried out reviews of institutional capacity strengthening projects for various clients in the Palestinian Territories, Zambia, Ethiopia, Swaziland, FYR Macedonia and Jordan.For example, in 2010, Peter Oates and Trish Silkin undertook an evaluation of the Capacity and Institution Building Project at the Office of the President of the Palestinian Authority in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Literature Reviews and Bibliographies
Rigorous background work is key to evaluations, impact assessments, training, policy formulation and project and programme design. Strong literature reviews and bibliographies can be used to change opinion and to provide vital background for findings and recommendations.
Most of the assignments carried out by Mokoro include an element of literature review and all reports include a comprehensive bibliography. Recent extensive literature reviews carries out by Mokoro’s Anthea Gordon include a thematic literature review on cross-cutting issues (such as fragility, data and M&E, governance, capacity development, education finance and policy and impact evaluation) for the 2010 evaluation of the Fast Track Initiative of Education for All; in 2011an extensive review of literature on fragile states for a study on the use of budget support in fragile states for Oxfam Novib; in 2010/11 a literature review of the use of policy-based lending operations with case studies of the Asian Development Bank, European Commission, World Bank and several bilateral donors, carried out in conjunction with Oxford Policy Management for the African Development Bank.
Networking
Working on policy issues, programme/project design, monitoring and evaluation necessarily involves a great deal of networking because a wide variety of different actors are involved. Through our long-term and in-depth experience, our consultants have built up networks globally and in various countries.
A good example is in the area of land rights. When working as Oxfam GB’s land adviser, Robin Palmer consciously sought to build up networks of researchers, activists, donors, lawyers, people working for governments and for civil society organizations etc, who he could draw upon in special situations, e.g. in post-tsunami Aceh. This was supplemented by a land rights in Africa website and a women’s land rights in eastern and southern Africa list serve. Robin has sustained these links since joining Mokoro in 2007 and has developed others, for example in the food sector, when working on the issue of global land grabbing. Encouraging progress was made at the African Studies Association of the UK biennial conference in Oxford in September 2010, and at a large international conference on global land grabbing at IDS Sussex in April 2011. As a way of raising awareness of the issues, select bibliographies of both reports and press cuttings on biofuels, land rights in Africa and global land grabbing are regularly posted here.
Programme and Project Design, Supervision and Appraisal
Much of the global effort to tackle poverty and promote sustainable development continues to be structured in time-bound allocations of resources for specified activities intended to achieve defined objectives - the projects and programmes that have now been the backbone of the development process for half a century. One major reason why those fifty years of work have achieved comparatively little is the weakness of programme and project design, supervision and appraisal. Many programmes and projects have not been clearly specified. They have typically been too ambitious. Commonly, they have not been adequately founded on accurate data and analysis about the issues they aim to address. Despite the routine bureaucratic procedures typically surrounding project supervision, project managers and funders have often failed to assess and react appropriately to developments surrounding implementation (or the lack of it)
Mokoro consultants have these skills, developed relevant skills over decades of practical experience with the design, appraisal and supervision of the development process as it is implemented through projects and programmes. Recent work includes Catherine Dom’s on-going engagement with the Overseas Development Institute’s Budget Strengthening Initiative working on design issues in the DRC and South Sudan, and her work to inform and guide the education sector work of AusAID programme staff in Canberra and overseas and to contribute to broader agency thinking/guidance; Stephen Turner’s 2009/2010 inputs as team leader for UNICEF-funded assistance to the preparation of Botswana Social Development Policy Framework; and Martin Adams’ 2009 work funded by Sida on examining options for a new rural development programme in Rwanda.
Research
Most Mokoro assignments involve applied research; systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions with practical relevance are the bread-and-butter foundations of ensuring evidenced-based, authoritative, and ultimately useful policy and programme design, support and evaluation.
Some of Mokoro’s work has involved in-depth original research, for example the on-going WIDE (Wellbeing and Illbeing Dynamics in Ethiopia) longitudinal study into the long-term impacts of development interventions in rural Ethiopia (undertaken by Pip Bevan, Rebecca Carter, Catherine Dom and Alula Pankhurst), with qualitative field-research in 20 communities over repeat visits (1995, 2003, 2010/11). Other primary research has involved reviews of donor practice, for example Stephen Lister and Rebecca Carter undertook an assessment of donor practices on aid predictability (accompanied by country case studies by Liv Bjørnestad, Rebecca Carter and Mailan Chiche) as an input into the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011.
Strategy and Policy Formulation, Advice and Support
Mokoro’s consultants have typically worked directly with governments and bring a very practical perspective to advice on strategy and policy. Often this has been linked to public expenditure reviews or national and sectoral development strategies. Mokoro has assisted governments in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the CIS with economic policy and sector strategy development at country and sub-national level over many years. Our preferred approach is to work with national officials in developing robust procedures for strategy development and coordination, and to provide hands-on guidance and technical support with the introduction of new systems and procedures. At the heart of our approach is the concept that government policies and programmes need to reflect an understanding of the appropriate role of government, that the private sector and civil society have important contributions to make, and that a realistic assessment of available resources is essential to the credibility of economic policy and strategy frameworks.
Our recent work has included support to strategic planning for the National Development and Innovation Committee in Mongolia (Ray Purcell), to the preparation of National Development Plans in Botswana (Ray Purcell, Charles Harvey) and Uganda (Dr Lynne McKenzie, Dr Graham Scott), and advice on the institutional development arrangements for the Palestinian Recovery (Trish Silkin and Peter Oates). Mokoro consultants have also recently been involved in the development of a social development policy for Botswana, on behalf of the Ministry of Local Government and Unicef (2009-2010) (Stephen Turner) and the preparation of a national land use policy for Lesotho (2011) (Stephen Turner).
Training
Donors invest in their staff knowledge and skills through training events and discussions; engendering high quality development practice depends on donor staff keeping abreast of the latest lessons emerging from development implementation around the world. With many years of practical experience working in a range of different countries and contexts, Mokoro consultants are frequently asked to provide training and facilitation for donor workshops, seminars and retreats. Mokoro consultants are also experienced trainers for other clients, including parliamentarians.
Mokoro’s Stephen Lister is a regular trainer for donors on aid modalities and instruments, presenting and acting as a resource person for Danida at a workshop on general budget support in Accra in 2011; and presenting on the risks and benefits of using country systems at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands also in 2011. Alta Fölscher prepared a Parliamentary Handbook on Aid Effectiveness for the European Parliamentarians for Africa in 2009. Martin Adams has been the facilitator and trainer for SADC/Sida International Courses on Land Administration in Sweden, Tanzania, Botswana and Zambia, from 2008 to 2011. Other Mokoro trainers include Elizabeth Daley, Catherine Dom and Ray Purcell.