Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
GUIDELINES
May 2000
Developed by:
CARE NEPAL
Kathmandu
TABLE OF CONTENT
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5. INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING .................................................................................................... 23
5.1 WHAT IS INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING? ..............................................................................................23
5.2 WHY INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING?....................................................................................................23
5.3 HOW TO DO INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING?..........................................................................................23
5.4 SOME EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT ......................................................24
6.1.1 ORGANIZATION................................................................................................................................25
6.1.2 FUNDING............................................................................................................................................26
6.1.3 OVERHEAD ........................................................................................................................................26
6.1.4 FINANCIAL REPORTING & MONITORING ..................................................................................26
6.1.5 DURATION .........................................................................................................................................26
6.1.6 TRANSPARENCY ..............................................................................................................................27
6.1.7 MONITORING ....................................................................................................................................27
6.1.8 PROCUREMENTS ..............................................................................................................................27
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ABBREVIATIONS
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DEVELOPING NGO PARTNERSHIP: GUIDELINES
1.0 Background
Partnering with local institutions has proven to be an important means of increasing
the reach and sustainability of development initiatives. Implementing activities
through local institutions, particularly local NGOs has the double benefit of providing
services to beneficiaries while increasing the institutional capacity of the
implementing organization. As Nepal's NGO sector evolves, many development
organizations are placing increasing emphasis on partnering as a valuable strategy.
CARE Nepal has identified partnering as an important way to increase the reach and
sustainability of its programs. CARE Nepal already works with a wide variety of
partners, ranging from government, to local Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs),
Savings and Credit Cooperative Ltd. (SACOS), Community Forest Users Groups
(CFUGs) and most significantly, Community Based Organizations (CBO). This
emphasis on partnership is in-line with CARE Nepal's current Long-Range Strategic
Plan (LRSP), which aims to "develop more effective partnerships at all levels to
increase impact and coverage".
The objective of this document is to provide guidelines for CARE project staff to
identify, select, and implement various activities through partners within all projects of
CARE Nepal. The document only deals with partnership with district-based
organizations (NGOs, CBOs, SACOS, FUGs, Registered Users Committee) and
external/professional/support organizations. It does not deal with partnership with
government line agencies, private sectors, and VDC/DDC, which will be dealt
separately on through another guidelines.
The contents of this document include guidelines on all facts of partnership process.
The partnership process includes the identification, selection of partners at the
project level, conducting capacity assessments of the selected organizations,
institutional development, and monitoring/evaluation of the activities, process of the
long-term partners selection.
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1.2 PARTNERSHIP DEFINITION
Similarly, the CARE's Asia regional partnership conference in Dambula, Sri Lanka in
November 1997 provided the following definition:
1
Partnership and CARE Nepal a short-term strategy paper, 1996
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1.4 TYPES OF PARTNERS
CARE Nepal works in partnership with different organizations as the following table
shows:
TYPES OF PARTNERS
SN PARTNERS EXAMPLES
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1.5 DIFFERENT FORMS OF PARTNERSHIP RELATIONS
However, depending upon the situation and needs the Project Management Team
can make decision as required with valid justifications.
2.1 HOW TO BE GOOD PARTNER
The relationship between NGOs and INGOs and donors are giver and receiver
not the partners. INGOs and donors provide money, NGOs implements
activities, and in most cases, INGOs and donors decide every thing. Because
3
Ninth Plan document (3.2.18)
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of long involvement as implementers, INGOs and donors have developed a
kind of biases of "implementers". At the same time, the NGOs feel that they
are the implementing agents of the INGOs and donors.
Despite this situation, there are many potentials in working with the NGOs
such as low cost of the program operation, can mobilize local expertise, skills,
and other natural resources for the sustainability of the activities at the
community level.
But, the capacity of local NGOs is not in quite favorable to implement activities
in partnership. That is why CARE should include the institutional strengthening
component in the program for the local NGOs and community as well. By
including this component in some cases the program cost might go little high
but it should no be considered as operational cost, rather it should be
considered as program strengthening cost. Partnering with NGOs presents
special learning opportunities from which both CARE mission and the NGOs
can benefited by sharing the experiences and resources. Considering the
situation the organization like CARE should follow the following partnership
principals:
PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLES
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2.2 QUALITY OF GOOD PARTNERSHIP
The thrust of developing partnership is not only to implement the activities but also to
improve the capacity of partner organizations in relation to program delivery and
institutional strengthening. To ensure the improvement of the capacity of the partner
project can use the following indicators:
To facilitate this process project may jointly develop a detail tool with partners. While
developing the tool project and partners should decide in which area they want to
focus, accordingly they can give the weighted on each indicator. Please refer Annex
- 5 for sample out line of the tool.
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3.0 IDENTIFICATION AND SELECTION OF NGOs FLOW
CHART
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3.1 IDENTIFICATION AND SELECTION OF NGOs
DETAIL PROCESS FOR DISTRICT BASED NGOs
An important part of an effective partnership is identification of appropriate and
compatible NGOs. The following process is recommended for the
identification and selection purpose.
To find out the general overview of the organizations in the project district (s).
The project should prepare a database of the NGOs of the project district/s.
For which the format: GENERAL INFORMATION OF DISTRICT BASED
ORGANIZATIONS can be used. A sample format is shown in Tool - 1.
The information can be collected from the secondary sources such as District
Administration Office, Social Welfare Council, District NGO Coordination
Committee4 and NGO Federation District Branch.
4
This is a group of NGOs federating for specific purpose
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3.1.1.3 Form a NGO Management Committee
The project should call for submission of a letter of interest from district based
NGOs to implement selected activities and programs in partnership with the
project. At least 10 days (based on the geographical condition the time
allocation may vary) should be given to potential NGOs to submit the letter of
interest. The interested NGOs should submit the letter of interest along with
organizational background, which includes experience and expertise of the
applying organization. A sample format of organizational background is
shown in Tool – 2.
The NMC will perform preliminary screening process by using selection criteria
developed by NMC. The NMC should publish a list of selected NGOs within 7
days of the last date of submitting the letter of interests.
The project staff can start initial exploratory discussions with short-listed
organizations, visiting their offices, projects, meeting with members and staff
of the organization. In this step project, staff can determine the status of the
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NGO in relation of how strong is that NGO in following areas: managerial
capacity, technical capacity, and political affiliation.
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3.1.2.3 Organize introductory workshop on partnership process &
procedure
Two representatives (active board member who can read and write) from each
NGO should be invited. Project should not provide any financial as well as
other support for the participants of the workshop. The reason for not
providing financial support is to determine the NGOs commitment and
resources.
The project should give at least 7 days (based on the geographical condition time
allocation may vary) advance notice to potential NGOs to show their interest to
participate in the introductory workshop. The introductory workshop outlines
are shown in Annex – 3.
The NMC should call for proposal from the organizations, which participated in
introductory workshop and the project's current partners. The selected
organization should submit proposal in pre-developed format. The suggested
checklists for the content of the proposal are as follows:
• Situational analysis of proposed • Local resource mobilization strategy
working areas • Project management
• Process of prioritizing community • Project duration and action plan
needs • Monitoring and evaluation plans
• Objectives of the program • Job description of project personnel
• Expected outcomes • Details of budget
• Direct & indirect beneficiaries • Progress and financial reporting
• Implementation strategy frequencies
• Financial requirements
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A sample format of proposal outline is Tool - 6. The NGOs should submit the
detail proposal along with detail organizational profile. A sample of
organizational profile format is shown in Tool –4.
The project will facilitate the assessment process of the partners and prepare
the assessment report. This report should contain the strengths, weaknesses,
and recommendation for the organizations.
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3.1.4.2 Select the organizations
Project will make the final selection of the partner organizations on the basis of
the NMC's recommendations and the findings of the capacity assessment of
the selected organizations. If required the project and partners will make
necessary adjustment in the proposal submitted by the NGOs.
NGOs should note that project will not provide all supports needed to address
recommendations indicated in the assessment report. NGOs are encouraged
to explore other sources of support. Such support and the responsibilities of
each NGO should be clearly described in the agreement.
Invite selected NGOs to develop agreements between the selected NGOs and
the project.
Depending upon the approval authority of the project manager the selected
proposal and along with draft copy of the agreement documents (printed copy
as well as a floppy diskette) should be forwarded to CARE Nepal country office
for signing the agreements. The approval limit for the project manager is
shown in Annex – 4.
The NGO should develop and submit a detail of Annual Implementation Plan
(AIP) in consultation with the project. Once the AIP is finalized the NGOs
should submit the fund request to the project and the project should have to
release as per the agreed schedule.
Based upon the AIP the NGOs should prepare the Monitoring and Evaluation
Plan (M&E). As per the AIP and M&E plan NGOs implement the activities.
AIP/M&E plan should clearly define the roles and responsibilities of project as
well as the NGO.
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The partners will have to closely monitor the activities as in AIP and M&E plan.
The project staff should also monitor the activities being implemented by the
partners. While monitoring the activities being implemented by partners the
project staff should analyze the achievements against the project logical frame
work. During the monitoring, project staff and NGO personal should provide
mutual feedback to each others. Project staff try to make monitoring activities
itself as a part of capacity strengthening of the partners. During the monitoring
project staff can provide technical as well as managerial inputs to the partners.
The monitoring activities should not only be restricted on counting the
numbers. Please refer Project Information Management System (PIMS) used
by CARE Nepal for monitoring formats for different activities.
The NGOs should organize half yearly Participatory Review Meeting (PRM)
with different stakeholders to discuss management and technical issues and
to provide mutual feedback to each other's.
During the review, meeting representatives from VDC, local level line
agencies, project, and District NGO Management Committee should be invited.
The project and the partner should conduct joint evaluation of partnership
activities as well as partnership relationship. The evaluation of the partnership
activities should be done according to the pre-set indicators on proposal. The
partnership relationship should be reviewed according to the criteria
developed to measure the quality of good partnership, the indicators for a
good partnership, which is shown in Annex – 5. Representative from the NGO
Management Committee should be invited during the joint evaluation process.
The project should select few key partners for long term relationship. The
selected partners can be developed to lead different sectors such as NFE,
bee-keeping, family health program etc.
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Selection process for the long-term partners should start only after the NGOs
complete one year of partnership with the project. The following points should be
considered while selecting key partners:
The project should re-assess the capacity of selected NGOs for long-term
partnership by using the same NGO Assessment tools, and Spider Web Tool.
The project and the partner should jointly monitor and evaluate the institutional
strengthening plan for at least once in a year.
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4.1 SELECTION PROCESS for EXTERNAL ORGANIZATIONS
(Related to Option II in the flow chart)
The same NMC can function for local organizations or external support
organization. (See section 3.1.1.3 for detail)
Please refer "Identification and selection of partners for district based NGO"
section for implementation and evaluation steps.
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4.2 SUGGESTED MODALITIES FOR SELECTION OF
EXTERNAL ORGANIZATION
Three options are recommended for the selection of external/professional /support
organizations namely: Open Tender, Close Tender, and Sole sourcing. Projects are
free to choose any options. Project should give clear justification for any one of the
options.
5
Adopted from Partnership Guidelines/Mechi Hills Development Program Phase III/SNV- Nepal
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4.3 DETAILED PROCESS FOR SELECTING EXTERNAL/
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
i) Review the technical part of the proposal using the proposal rating
guidelines. Select few proposals
ii) Select organizations for further review on the financial proposal.
iii) Open financial proposal of these organizations.
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iv) Compare with projects' budget allocations for this component. If
necessary negotiate with top ranking organization decide and sign
contract.
v) If the top ranking organization unwilling to compromise, the organization
which has been ranked second will be invited for negotiation and so on.
In this option, project will facilitate the process of developing a Resources Directory of
Professional/External organizations. The closed tender option could be useful mainly
for the short term assignment and providing technical support for CARE, such as
providing training to the project staff and project partners, conducting evaluation of
the projects, research, preparing case studies etc.
Following process will be taken:
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4.3.3 OPTION III: SOLE-SOURCING
This option will apply to agencies with which CARE has on-going partnership relation.
This option is used to select organizational/individual consultants for short-term
assignments, or when current partnership is renewed. Normally, it is advisable to
use this option only when CARE has adequate understanding of the organization and
is satisfied with their performance level.
Process:
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5. INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING
CARE's Focus
One of the objectives of partnership for the CARE is to build the capacity of its
partners. There are many ways we can define and work on the institutional
strengthening of the organization. CARE will focus its IS of partner on the building
the capacity of human resource and establishment of systems.
Project could support one or all types of institutional support to the selected key
partners. The project can provide institutional support to the partners by the staff
or/and bring external organizations to provide such types of support. The support
may be in the following areas:
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5.4 SOME EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT6
After providing the institutional support, the project and partners should re-assess the
organization's capacity by using same assessment tool after one year.
6
This type of support can not be provided on a regular basis. It should be decided on case by case
basis only if it is justified by the program activities.
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6.1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
6.1.1 ORGANIZATION
However, for the operational level we can differentiate between CBO and NGO
as follows:
CBO:
# Organizations established and managed by the members/users for the
benefit for the members/users.
# All the services produced by the CBOs will be targeted to the
members/users.
# The members work for themselves.
# It can be registered or not registered.
# If it is not registered, it is not necessary to renew every year.
# Not registered organization can not act as a legal body.
NGO:
# Organizations established and managed by the communities/outside
people with the objectives of providing services to communities.
# The members may not be directly benefited by the services produced
by the organization.
# The members may work for others.
# Registered NGOs can function as legal body.
# It should be registered under Society Registration Act – 2034 (Sangh
Sasthan Darta Aain 2034). It should be renewed every year.
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6.1.2 FUNDING
6.1.3 OVERHEAD
Q. What percentage of overhead can be provided?
Where justified, the organization's overhead expenses such as office rent
including site office operation cost, vehicle operation, staff salary, and benefits,
stationery, electricity, water, fuel, communication cost, etc should be included
as part of operation cost, such cost should not normally exceed 25% : 75% of
the overall program cost except for cases where justified separately. The staff
cost is deemed to include staff on the organization's payroll such as project
manager, coordinators, office assistant, accountants, secretary and runner.
However, the salary or allowance of facilitators, motivators, and supervisors
should be treated as part of program cost. The partner organization should
provide at least 5% of total budget as a matching fund. Matching amount
could be in terms of kind, cash, or human resources.
6.1.5 DURATION
Partnership with project cannot exceed the duration of the project. There
should be distinction between long term partnership and short-term partner.
Each project will select few key/leader partners for longer-term duration, which
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focus on capacity building and institutional strengthening component. It is
assumed that this key/leader partners will be coordinating specific activities in
the project area. (Example: Young Star Club, Solu and Local Development
Training Center, Bardibas are key/leader partner in NFE program.)
6.1.6 TRANSPARENCY
For example, where project should or should not inform a partner's field staff about
how much is budgeted for the activities?
Project staff should not inform partner's field staff about their budget. They
should get information from their supervisor or partners officials. Only senior staff
and/or officials of both partner organizations should deal on policy issues.
6.1.7 MONITORING
Q. How are partnership activities monitored?
Regular visits to the partner, and program areas, involving open discussions
with the staff and members, and project participants, would be adequate to
enable project to get a sense of how activities are proceeding.
Joint management meeting at regular interval of time with the key person from
project and partner will be good practice.
Annually a joint review meeting could be organized with key person from
partners, project, and CARE Nepal country office.
Organizing participatory review meeting at program area by involving the
project participants could be done. (Please refer section 3.1.5.1 and 3.1.5.2 for
further details)
6.1.8 PROCUREMENTS
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