Lessons Notes

In 2003, the Secretariat commenced the production and publication of Lessons Notes in capacity building and development management as part of its knowledge products and services to strengthen operations and share experiences. The Lessons Notes report on best and replicable or avoidable practices in capacity building and development management. The Notes are contributed by operations staff of the Foundation, beneficiaries of its support and partner institutions, and published periodically by the Knowledge Management and Program Support Department. In 2003, three Notes were produced, which synthesized lessons in project supervision, procurement and the strengthening of the capacity of civil society organizations. The main highlights of the Notes are as follows:

STATNET Member Publishes a Lessons Note with the Foundation

Professor Ben Kiregyera, Member, ACBF STATNET, has published a Lessons Note under the Foundation’s Knowledge Management and Program Support Department. Lessons Notes report on replicable best practices or avoidable mistakes in capacity building and development management for Africa. After years of governmental neglect, national statistical systems across Africa have been grappling with a resurgent demand for quality statistics to facilitate evidence-based policymaking, and the monitoring and evaluation of development interventions. The paper shares with the readership Uganda’s experience in reforming its formerly dysfunctional national statistical system to be able to supply the data required for evidence-based policymaking as well as the monitoring and evaluation of development interventions. Uganda’s experiences would be useful for a host of countries either currently undergoing or contemplating similar reforms of their national statistical systems. Professor Kiregyera is an International Statistical Consultant; and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the new, semi-autonomous Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
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Improving Project Supervision to Strengthen Knowledge in Project Management: The Note on Project Supervision examines, from a knowledge management perspective, the importance of project supervision and monitoring in project performance management. It places the role of supervision in the life cycle of a project, highlights its importance in the success of a project, and analyzes the framework and instruments for effective supervision as well as the knowledge management dimensions in project management.

It concludes that for a development-funding agency, like the Foundation, project supervision should be used beyond its traditional role of project performance monitoring. It should serve more as a knowledge management tool to synthesize lessons of experience as well as identify, collate and share best and replicable practices. For project supervision to serve its knowledge management functions, the Note argues, a Quality of Project Supervision Report should be published regularly and project appraisal reports should contain a section on Lessons Learned in Project Implementation.
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Best-Practice Principles in Procurement: This Lessons Note provides a refresher on procurement practices. It highlights best-practice principles in procurement and encourages lessons learning in the procurement of goods and services during the implementation of projects. The Note touches on some of the salient ground rules for satisfactory procurement, underlines the significance of procurement as a process and a function, and draws attention to existing provisions and principles relating to procurement practices. It elliptically contends that in project management, procurement plays a very significant role in determining the success or failure of a project. Good procurement practice ensures value for money as well as effective and efficient operation of projects. Good procurement practice very importantly strengthens institutional credibility and serves as an index of the quality of project supervision and monitoring. The cost of mis-procurement is extremely high and could, in an extreme case, result in project failure and closure. The Note thus presents elements of best practices in procurement and serves as a quick reference guide that project managers will find invaluable. :: Click here

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Strengthening the Role of Civil Society Organizations in Development – the Capacity Building Challenge: This Note examines the concept, forms, evolution and capacity needs of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). It notes that in the immediate post-independence period in Africa, the growth of CSOs was slow and this only picked up as multi-party democracy began to take root. The scope and scale of their operations vary widely, but nonetheless they have tried to create spaces for their voices and those of marginalized sections of society to be heard on development issues. For effectiveness, the Note posits, CSOs need a great deal of support for institutional capacity building. So far, this support has come from the donor community – a source, which while being helpful constitutes a major challenge to their sustainability. The Note concludes that capacity building support to CSOs should target their programs, governance, management and institutional sustainability, if they are to effectively deliver on their objectives. In this connection, capacity to design and implement their programs, strengthen leadership and its succession, and institutionalize mechanisms for accountability on the part of CSOs to society is very vital. Also needed is a clear policy framework that should guide the emergence of development-oriented CSOs and encourage them to work in partnership with government and the private sector. :: Click here

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STRENGTHENING PARLIAMENT AS AN INSTITUTION - SOME RECOMMENDED PRACTICES: In this Lessons Note, Hon. Prof. Ruth Oniang’o, a member of Parliament in Kenya and Vice Chair of the African Capacity Building Foundation’s Technical Advisory Panel and Network on National Parliaments and Parliamentary Institutions draws on Kenya’s experience to highlight the rapidly expanding role and responsibilities of Parliamentarians in the African democratic setting, and identifies core areas in which capacity of Parliamentarians will need to be strengthened in order to enhance their effectiveness. The Note contends that a Parliamentarian is faced with multiple responsibilities for which he/she will need to be appropriately capacitated to allow for effective and sensible contribution to national development process. To meet modern day parliamentary responsibilities including intellectual challenges facing the Parliamentarian, the Note calls for the establishment of offices for parliamentarians, the provision of research support, especially in the form of a well-established research center, the setting up of an education department for continuous training of Parliamentarians to enhance knowledge of Standing Orders, to develop and strengthen skills for the drafting of bills and motions, and to raise their level of understanding of the procedures in the preparation of parliamentary questions, among others. :: Click here

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MEASURING PERFORMANCE OF INTERVENTIONS IN CAPACITY BUILDING
- A STEPPING STONE THROUGH THE MARSHES: This Note builds on and refines an earlier work by the author, which presented a set of fundamentals in the measurement of performance in capacity building. It adds value to existing knowledge in two areas. First, it defines four processes, which capacity building (it argues) involves, and second it specifies areas in which performance measurement can and, indeed (it contends), should be undertaken. The presentation is consistent with the input-process-output-outcome-impact framework, which underlies plausible performance measures. This framework represents an expansion of the objective, purpose and impact components of a capacity-building intervention, which are central in the measurement of performance. In other words, performance measures that do not capture in a systematic manner the objective, purpose and impact of a given intervention cannot be regarded as complete and plausible. The Note posits that capacity building involves four processes – development, retooling, enhancement, and reform – and performance measurement should be based on a set of five indicators – finance; quantity; relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, ownership and sustainability; results/outcomes; and impact of an intervention.
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