Independent progress report
Download 0.55 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- 10. Sustainability
- How effectively has the Program supported coalitions of leaders to exercise leadership and enable change
Second, ‘enhanced leadership’ is not synonymous with ‘greater development impact’, as conventionally defined. For example, with Program assistance, Youth Challenge Vanuatu is expanding its youth training program, which has achieved notable success in finding employment for trainees. Potential returns on the Program’s support for enhanced leadership in the Pacific Council of Churches, in contrast, is likely to be far more long-term, given the Council is still in the process of securing support for the changes introduced from its own Board, the variable strength of its links to Pacific Island Countries and the generally conservative nature of church institutions in the region.In practice, there are a number of dimensions of potential interest to the Program when assessing progress and effectiveness, and it is clear that different partners are at different stages of ‘maturity’ for each one. While the Program has a good grasp of progress among different partners, more systematic ‘maturity’ assessments are not a part of the Program’s monitoring and evaluation approach. We can see value in more explicit use of such assessments, supported by clearer articulation of the expectations for particular partnerships, incorporating anticipated timelines, and so on. A consistent assessment process would help the Program develop a portfolio perspective on the partnerships, which of course would be revised in the light of actual experience, but which could help inform future choices regarding existing and new partnerships. This could also help avoid elite capture, and increase the probability that the ‘mix’ of partners was most likely to promote developmental change and poverty therefore poverty reduction.10.Sustainability
Box 4: Defining a coalition In simple terms, a ‘coalition’ is a grouping of individuals and/or organisations focused on the pursuit of a particular issue or issues, the attainment of which provides the ‘return’ to its members. Levels of structure and organisation vary but in general responsibilities and resources will be consciously allocated within members to facilitate the pursuit of the issue(s). In comparison, a ‘network’ may have a broader, more open, membership base that covers a range of interests of varying importance to individual members. Its value may be in the contacts it provides, the exchange of information it enables among members, and the opportunity it affords to establish relationships that may be useful in the future. The value of reform coalitions7 as a vehicle to promote this type of developmental change, the role of leadership within them and the role of a donor-funded program in supporting them have become areas of increasing attention for the Program over the last 18 months. In part, this evolution in thinking has been informed by findings from research, such as that from the Development Leadership Program and Asia Foundation. In part, it is a response to the question the Program has been posing itself during Phase 2: “Partnership for what?” But it also reflects the implementation experience of the Program to date.
|