Development Effectiveness Experience sharing from the Czech National

Development Effectiveness Experience sharing from the Czech National Platform for TRIALOG V strategy meeting Vienna, Dec 4, 2012 Jana Miléřová, Fo. RS 1

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Code on Effectiveness 1. Grassroots knowledge 2. Transparency and accountability 3. Partnership 4. Respect to human rights and gender equality 5. Accountability for impacts and their sustainability www. fors. cz/user_files/fors_code_on_effectiveness_en. pdf

Self-assessment 2012 44 % members and observers made self-assessment according to the Code in 2012 Strongest areas of indicators by members: • Respect to Human Rights and Gender Equality • Accountability for Impacts and their Sustainability • Transparency and accountability Weakest areas: • Partnership – e. g. insufficient mutual information exchange among partners on cooperation with other stakeholders • Some aspects of grassroots knowledge

Actions to be taken forward What Fo. RS should to for members to improve the areas: • Fo. RS Working groups on specific topic to experience sharing – set up general Terms of Reference and communication among WGs • „Summer School“ from members and other stakeholders on actual issues in development and CSOs • Further capacity building on evaluation, monitoring, participatory planning, Most Significant Change, evidencebased analysis etc.

Examples of actions in Dev. Eff. • How to make assessment more objective? • How to build capacities of CSOs besides workshops? • How to enhance sharing expertise of the platform members? • How to involve small, volunteerbased organisations, with highly limited resources? • How to promote the guidelines beyond the platform? • … And how to do it with minimum costs? Development Coffee Peer Reviews

Development. Coffee. org 9

Development. Coffee. org 10

Development. Coffee. org Themes: • How can NGOs and companies work together on poverty reduction around the world? • What are the stereotypes in development cooperation? • How to ensure positive impacts of projects? • What are the new trends in development cooperation? (social media) Speakers: • Leading Czech development CSOs • Business Platform for Development Cooperation • Vodafone Foundation Czech Republic or • Globalisation Monitor from Hongkong 11

Development. Coffee. org Key features: • Democratic themes proposal and selection (crowdsourcing) • Use of social media, but regular meetings are essential • Different hosting organisations • Informal debate in an atmosphere of trust • Concrete stories of good / bad practice • Enhanced networking among CSOs, government officials, students, private sector Challenges: • Ownership of the process after both co-founders left • Need for outputs for wider dissemination • Need for evaluation of outcomes 12

Peer Reviews WG 1 Peer 1 Briefing To. R Peer 2 & report WG 3 Peer 3 Interested Peers WG 2 Final workshop Fo. RS Code of Effectiveness Self-assessment 13

Peer Reviews Key features: • Concrete objectives • Based on a framework (Fo. RS Code on Effectiveness) • But focusing on what the organisation is good at • Voluntary (focus, peers selection) • Trusted peers with versatile background • Platform facilitating the process and networking Challenges: • Realistic objectives • Buy-in and dedication across organisational hierarchy • Sufficient time to discuss the evidence of principles and reach set objectives. • „New“ priorities during the peer review process 14

Conclusions and Challenges CSOs (and others!) are interested in sharing and evaluating their effectiveness, provided they: • see benefits for their work, • have a clear framework with specific, meaningful indicators, • own the process, • have sufficient resources to reflect and • are systematically supported (Fo. RS Working Group and Secretariat). Development. Coffee. org and Peer Reviews • transform the Fo. RS Code to a capacity building rather than repression tool, • use the wide expertise of the Fo. RS membership, • use tools that are quick, easy & cheap to set-up and run, • use social media, but do not replace personal contacts, • are fully driven by target groups.

Thank you for your attention! Inka Píbilová inka@evaluace. com Jan Bohm honzabo@gmai. com Daniel Svoboda svoboda@dww. cz Jana Miléřová jana. milerova@fors. cz