 FACT's Quality Standards for Project Implementation |
Development and development work are fluid concepts. People perceive them differently.Similarly, measuring quality or effect of development work is contested as evidence by the
various attempts to capture intervention effects (e.g. MSC, impact mapping, etc). This inevitably prompts the question of quality assurance in development work i.e. are there quality standards that could be adopted to ensure quality project implementation? Challenging though is the task of outlining quality standards in project implementation, it is imperative that a quality standards framework for an organisation is clearly outlined to guide its work.
Quality and accountability deficit has been globally recognised in implementation of
development projects. Hence, FACT like some of its partners like Tearfund (TF), has taken up the challenge of formulating organisational quality standards. FACT ascribes to Tearfund’s values hence its QS are wholly adapted from TF (http://www.tearfund.org/en/about_us/how_we_work/tearfund_quality_standards/).
The need to develop quality standards in development and humanitarian work was broughtto a sharp focus beginning with the Rwanda genocide in 1994 and the manner in which the Indian Ocean Tsunami (Dec.2004) was handled. The quality of aid agencies’ work was criticised. Criticisms have also been raised on development approaches that are “top-down” as well as poor quality of project inputs. Therefore, there is need for greater accountability from NGO’s and more mechanisms to monitor the quality of their work. The Sphere Project (http://www.sphereproject.org/) was the first attempt to set some “quality standards”. Other
initiatives to set standards have included ALNAP - the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (http://www.alnap.org/), HAP - the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (http://hapinternational.org/) and PIA - People in Aid (http://www.peopleinaid.org/).
Tearfund is accredited by HAP for the quality of field work and having systems in place to measure and ensure quality. Therefore, FACT adapted eleven of the twelve QS of Tearfund to its work in Zimbabwe. The 11 QS cover:
 Values
Impartiality & Targeting
Accountability
Technical Quality
Children
Gender
HIV
Conflict
Environment
Sustainability
Advocacy
The QS provide guidelines for FACT’s entire operations to ensure quality, effectiveness and
impact in a value driven, impartial, transparent and accountable way.
Click here to read the full document
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| 2010 Annual Report:Executive Director's Message |
The year 2010 saw the global economies recovering from the 2008-9 global financial meltdown. However, the ripples of the meltdown were still experienced in 2010. Significant number of FACT funding partners maintained same levels of funding with little consideration for funding increase. In this situation, FACT was uniquely privileged to continue with operations with little or no reduction in activities unlike many other organisations that scaled down. This was possible through our faithful partners who share in the organisation’s vision of reaching needy vulnerable people with holistic services to mitigate the impact of their suffering. We thank them sincerely and assure them that their resources made a significant difference in the lives of many people in Zimbabwe.
Politically, the effects of the country’s Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by the three main political parties in 2008 continued to be enjoyed in 2010. The country continued to stabilise with no political interference in programme activities. FACT expanded its operation areas with HIV prevention activities to cover every district. At the same time, FACT strengthened livelihoods interventions in semi-arid districts to improve food security and income for OVC and women in rural communities. Focusing on integrating HIV and AIDS with livelihoods is proving a critical intervention. For instance, in certain rural communities where there is starvation, NGO’s have introduced food-for-work programmes but such programmes exclude some people living with HIV and AIDS as they are frail. Hence, livelihoods interventions provided by FACT remained a major source of food security. |
The FACT Advisory Board was very active providing strategic direction and support to the organization, which enabled management to conduct their duties effectively. The board participated in a joint institutional assessment with staff to identify areas that require improvement and development to ensure organisational stability. Thus the FACT board, as always, has remained a strong pillar in the success and impact of the organization through selfless commitment to the vision of the organization.
Please click this link to read an overview of FACT's activities during the year!
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| FACT participates in the ICCO Alliance Basic Health and HIV and AIDS programme |
From 23 to 25 May 2011, the FACT Executive Director attended a Face-2-face meeting of the Basic Health and HIV&AIDS programme of the ICCO Alliance at Wageningen, Netherlands. The Basic Health and HIV&AIDS programme is implemented through existing partner structures in the South. It focuses on strengthening civil society organisations to ensure that they contribute to the promotion of access to quality basic health care.
The objectives of the meeting were:
a. to be better acquainted with each other and the programmes of partner organisations; |
b. to further explain the overall Basic Health and HIV&AIDS programme in relation to other themes and explicitly outline the programme’s theory of change |
c. to exchange experiences and outcomes of baseline studies; |
d. to outline an agenda for joint lobbying and learning; and |
e. to induct representative partner organisations to the learning community. |
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Key issues discussed at the meeting included Theory of Change (ToC), which is an approach that explicitly surfaces the linkages in programme activities leading to programme goal, outcome mapping (OM), Rights Based Approach (RBA) and working in a programmatic approach.The meeting successfully clarified some unclear aspects of the programme and explored concrete ways of forming partner coalitions. It also shed light regarding the focus of ICCO Alliance funded organisations.
From 26 to 28 the Director spent time at Tearfund Netherlands where he conducted interviews regarding the partnership between FACT and Tear Netherlands. He presented the work of FACT particularly focusing on FACT activities’ aligned to MFS2 programme and the SAVE HIV prevention approach.
(Follow link to read the director’s presentation).
The meetings strengthened FACT’s relationship with its Netherlands funding partners namely ICCI and Tear Netherlands.
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| Reflections on Positive Action project journey! Where are we, where did we come from and where are we going? |
On 9 and 10 May 2011, FACT Director, Dr Magezi attended a Positive Action Director’s Forum in Ethiopia. The purpose of the meeting was to plan as well as prepare for the final year of the Positive Action (PA) programme and familiarise Positive Action partner organisations with the new Grant Manager, Interact World Wide.
Positive Action is a name given to a strategic grant awarded by Comic Relief first to Healthlink Worldwide UK (later transferred to Interact Worldwide UK) and 5 African HIV organisations. A strategic grant is a funding model that provides core funding to effective local organisations. The core funding approach was intended to enable organisations to be more effective, efficient, dynamic and innovative, which was in turn expected to bring greater benefits to the poor and disadvantaged people they seek to support.
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Partner members who attended the meeting | >
The 5 African HIV organisations supported under the strategic grant are:
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The FACT Director reported that the contribution of the grant to FACT’s leadership include enhancing organisational stability through leadership capacity strengthening while at programme staff level, it enabled skills development. The Director added that there are clear indicators to support the achievements particularly when FACT compares itself with peer organisations.
One of the challenges of the project identified by FACT is that while institutional grant plays a crucial role in strengthening institutional capacities, such capacity is difficult to measure. As a result, organisations tend to channel greater part of the funds to community activities where there are clear measurable indicators.It was noted that conceptual clarity is imperative to optimally benefit from an institutional grant.
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| FACT bids farewell to former FACT Director Jephias Mundondo |
On Friday 29 April 2011, FACT bid farewell to the outgoing Executive Director, Mr Jephias Mundondo after being at the helm of the organisation for 10 years. The event was attended by peers from other NGOs, various stakeholders and government ministries. Mr Mundondo has been the Executive Director of FACT since 2001 and managed to develop the organisation to greater heights.
Speaker after speaker commended the work done by Mr Mundondo during his tenure as Executive Director. Speaking at the same ceremony, the Founder and Board Chairman of FACT, Dr Foster, thanked the outgoing Director for helping steering the organisation to be one of the most relevant and impactful organisations in mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS. He added that under the leadership of Mr Mundondo, FACT participated in national and global initiatives that contributed to the current country low prevalence of 13,7%. |
Dr Foster added that HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe has declined by approximately 50%. This decline is almost unique in sub-Saharan Africa. Contextualising the discussion to FACT, he cited Plos Medicine, Feb 2011 research article titled A surprising prevention success: Why did the HIV epidemic decline in Zimbabwe?Plos Medicine The research article states that the decline in HIV prevalence may have been greater in Zimbabwe because of high levels of education and marriage. Education helped people understand and accept messages about HIV prevention, while marriage helped people to act on the `be faithful` messages included in prevention campaigns.
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Dr Foster added that HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe has declined by approximately 50%. This decline is almost unique in sub-Saharan Africa. Contextualising the discussion to FACT, he cited Plos Medicine, Feb 2011 research article titled A surprising prevention success: Why did the HIV epidemic decline in Zimbabwe?Plos Medicine The research article states that the decline in HIV prevalence may have been greater in Zimbabwe because of high levels of education and marriage. Education helped people understand and accept messages about HIV prevention, while marriage helped people to act on the `be faithful` messages included in prevention campaigns.
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| Speaking at the ceremony also, the incoming Executive Director, Dr Vhumani Magezi, recounted the achievements of Mr Mundondo and located his discussion within the context of leadership. He described how Mr Mundondo's leadership qualities contributed to the growth and impact of FACT. Dr Magezi pointed out the need for sound leadership of NGOs. He stated that leadership and management in the NGO sector is different from leadership in other sectors. NGOs are vulnerable to the exigencies of donors, the political sensitivities of governments, and the needs and imperatives of the local community. He added that development NGOs are susceptible to the unpredictable demands of an uncertain development environment. The question then is how will NGOs such as FACT find or develop a new generation of managers or leaders who can meet these challenges. Thus, leadership development needs to become a priority issue for FACT in order to maintain and continue building on the foundation laid by Mr Mundondo.
Dr Magezi assured the Board and the people who attended the event that he will strive to preserve the vision of the organisation while continually adapting FACT's work to new local and global challenges to ensure that the needs of communities are effectively met and donor resources are well managed.
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