The Municipal Service Project (MSP) has just updated its website. MSP is an inter-disciplinary project made up of academics, labour unions, non-governmental organisations, social movements and activists from around the globe. The project is guided by a Steering Committee, made up of representatives from project partners and coordinated by the project co-directors, David McDonald (Queen’s University, Canada) and Greg Ruiters (Rhodes University, South Africa). It is a five-year inter-sectoral and inter-regional research project that systematically explores alternatives to the privatisation and commercialisation of service provision in the health, water, sanitation and electricity sectors. Having spent the first two phases of the project (2000-2007) criticising privatisation, this phase of the project (2008-2013) will analyse service delivery models that are successful alternatives to commercialisation and to understand the conditions required for their sustainability and reproducibility.
Useful Resources
This manual outlines some of the practical and organisational considerations required to set up support groups for survivors of domestic violence in a way that enhances their safety and self esteem. It also presents three possible models, any of which can be used as basis for running such groups. Two of these models are facilitated support group programmes and the third model is that of an un-facilitated self-help group. It looks at some of the practical and organisational considerations required to set up support groups, the roles and responsibilities of the facilitator and the co-facilitator skills, knowledge training and experience that are needed to run support groups for survivors of domestic violence, how to plan, promote develop and manage a support group, group policies and protocols and how these can contribute to maintaining the proper environment necessary for survivors of domestic violence. It provides ‘how–to’ guides for running sessions for the two different facilitated models that are known to work effectively.
This manual is a free online guide that provides very basic guidelines for small non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the developing world regarding fund-raising, focusing on the importance of adhering to the basic principles of good governance. The first impulse of many such non-governmental organisation (NGO) seeking funding is to request the contact information for possible funders, and once such information is received, these NGOs often write immediately to the potential funder, stressing how desperately funds are needed. Sadly, this approach often harms the NGO, rather than garnering support. Not only does it rarely attract funding, it can turn funding sources against the NGO altogether. This manual intends to discourage that behaviour and, instead, encourage simple activities by small NGOs that help continually cultivate and attract support. It is, instead, a set of guidelines on how to prepare an organisation to be attractive to donors, how to search for potential donors that support organisations in the developing world and how to approach such potential donors.
Planning, monitoring and evaluation in development requires a focus on nationally owned development priorities and results and should reflect the guiding principles of national ownership, capacity development human development. This handbook is aims to enhance the results-based culture within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and improve the quality of planning, monitoring and evaluation. While written with UNDP staff, stakeholders and partners in mind, the handbook provides a useful overview of why and how to evaluate for results that can be used in other contexts. This handbook concentrates on planning, monitoring and evaluating of results in development and is designed to be used as a reference throughout the programme cycle. It deals with the integrated nature of planning, monitoring and evaluation, and describes the critical role they play in managing for development results, as well as the conceptual foundations of planning and specific guidance on planning techniques and the preparation of results frameworks that guide monitoring and evaluation.
The Policy Analysis and Capacity Enhancement Unit (PACE) website at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has now been launched. A portal to serve the wider policy and development community in South Africa - civil society, government officials and academics - has been strongly endorsed and Phase 1 of the process has been concluded. Collections of policy-related information are being developed in the following thematic areas: the developmental state, gender, health, poverty, social & economic policy, social innovation and social protection. The portal aims to provide a platform for key issues being debated including national health insurance and poverty alleviation. In addition, the site is developing a collection of information on policy methods – the ‘how-to’ of policy – to support the work of different sectors. Sections of the site include -
Information on methodologies for getting research into policy, policy into action, and on monitoring and evaluation; Policy-related events and training; Journals and listings of policy associations, centres and networks. The portal hosts invite feedback and submision of policy-related information.
Real-time evaluations (RTE) is one of the most demanding types of evaluation practice. It requires wide range of skills from evaluators but also a tightly focused professional approach in order to meet the demands of an RTE. This pilot guide is intended to help both evaluation managers and team leaders in commissioning, overseeing and conducting real time evaluations (RTEs) of humanitarian operational responses. Drawing on practices, it is intended as a flexible resource that can be adopted to a variety of contexts. The guide concentrates on RTEs undertaken in first phase of an emergency response, where RTE fieldwork takes places within a few months of the start of the response. This is because these particular RTEs can post particular problems to both evaluation managers and evaluation teams. The guide offers 25 tools and techniques designed to help both evaluation managers and teams working through their respective steps.
The main aim of this counselling handbook is to strengthen counselling and communication skills of health providers including skilled birth attendants, helping them to effectively discuss with women, their husbands/partners and families and communities the important issues surrounding pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, postnatal and post-abortion care. The handbook relies on a self-directed learning approach. Although it is designed to be used by groups of health workers with the help of a facilitator, it can also be used by an individual. All topical sessions contain specific aims and objectives, clearly outlining the skills that will be developed and corresponding learning outcomes. Practical activities have been designed to encourage reflection, provoke discussions, build skills and ensure the local relevance of information. There is a review at the end of each session to ensure that the learner has understood the key points before progressing to subsequent sessions.
Civil society organisations (CSOs) are facing increasing pressure to demonstrate their accountability, legitimacy and effectiveness. In response, a growing number are coming together at national, regional and international level, to define common standards and promote good practice through codes of conduct, certification schemes, reporting frameworks, directories and awards. This project provides the first comprehensive inventory of civil society self-regulatory initiatives worldwide. What does the database offer? The map and initiative search pages provide information on each initiative. Available information includes summaries, contact information, lists of participating organisations, full texts of initiatives, analysis of compliance mechanisms, similar initiatives, and assessments of the role of many initiatives within the CSO sector. Users can filter their search according to their particular needs, using criteria such as the location, type, and areas addressed of the initiative.
This training manual on mainstreaming gender into Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes is an integrated approach to both gender and WASH issues. It aims to provide participatory gender-sensitive training to water professionals at the policy, project and administrative levels through building their capacity for mainstreaming gender into WASH programmes. The authors hope this manual will be useful to other public, private and civil society training institutions and agencies, both in Rwanda (where this manual was written) and in other countries around the world. The manual aims to provide participatory gender-sensitive training to water professionals at the policy, project and administrative levels and promote an understanding of and commitment to the importance of participation of both women and men in sustainability of these programmes. It is divided into three modules, which cover WASH programmes, theoretical concepts of gender, gender mainstreaming and analysis tools, and gender-sensitive indicators and a log-frame for WASH programmes.
Social issues should be addressed socially and in multi-stakeholder mode, not by private interest and experts alone in processes of knowledge production, planning and decision-making. This guide is an important step in the creation and mobilisation of practical, authentic knowledge for social change. The guide has been divided into two parts. Part 1 outlines the concepts and skillful means needed to support multi-stakeholder dialogue. It also provides detailed instructions on how to integrate and ground collaborative inquiry in the projects, plans, evaluations and activities of multiple stakeholders. Part 2 highlights a selection of techniques and learning for collaborative inquiry and examples of real life applications in South Asia and Latin America. Examples focus on a range of issues including land tenure, local economic development, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and organisational development. Techniques include using Action Research Training (ART), problem tree, force fields, CLIP social analysis (collaboration, conflict, legitimacy, interests and power).